Qaadira Allen

Qaadira will further organize The Sankofa Circle. The Sankofa Circle is a transformative art-based workshop series for adult women living with the after-effects of childhood sexual trauma. Each workshop session invites dialogue around some of the common themes of trauma, such as: trust, honoring the feminine, body image, self-awareness, boundaries, identity, power an control. Qaadira's project will enter it's second phase, which involves coordinating a six month training program to teach other individuals how to organize and facilitate a five session Sankofa Circle in their own communities.

Qaadira will facilitate a pilot 11-week arts workshop, the Sankofa Circle, in Philadelphia for adult mothers who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. This project was created out of her own journey as a woman of color healing from childhood incest and her growing sense of the impact of this cyclical pattern of intergenerational sexual abuse on her family. Qaadira is creating this workshop to help others realize the healing aspect of art and how it can be used to nurture and empower themselves. Based on this pilot project, she will develop a curriculum to share with others interested in starting up similar Sankofa Circles elsewhere.