
A spotlight for community healing with an arts-healing workshop, Narratives of Transformative Love which amplifies the community’s inner-healing by identifying & breaking down internalized oppression to recreate a positive and authentic self-image. Here, art & writing is used to address past wounds/traumas, judgements, negative criticisms, and societal expectations in order to heal and transform our identity to reflect our strengths and develop radical self-love & forgiveness. This work centers around the healing of the QTDBIPoC (Queer, Trans, Disabled, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community members. The workshops aim to empower people by giving them a voice to articulate their true identities in their own words and visions in order to create a personal and institutional change.
This slideshow is of the community sharing their individual work. Since 2017, these workshops have been facilitated in schools, libraries, universities, Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and in organizations in Kenya and India. They were first created in 2013 for the Peace Drum Project at the Cooperative Artists Institute.
Below are the paintings and mural (inspired by community surveys) which are on display at our Mixed Genre Editor Prema Bangera’s solo art exhibition called “the art of becoming: Narratives of Transformative Love.”

18″ x 24,” mixed media
Through a community survey, the artist collected negative judgments that people have heard to showcase all the harsh statements internalized within us that we’re learning to release.

24″ x 24,” mixed media
Through a community survey, the artist collected notes that participants would write to themselves as modes of healing and addressing their wounded self.

5 x 7 feet, mixed media
Through a community survey, the artist collected images, quotes, personal writing and other material while adding in personal elements to create this ensemble that depicts as aspects of the collective healing process for liberation.
The exhibition runs from April 15th to May 21st.
The celebratory reception is on Thursday April 24th at the Harvard Ed Portal’s Crossing Gallery (224 Western Avenue in Boston, MA) where there will be performances of ancestral dance, cultural music, rap, and poetry. For more information and to RSVP if you are in the area, please check out this link.
About the Exhibit:
“What stories have you been told about yourself? Which of those still shape your identity today? This exhibition invites you to rewrite negative self-talk and to express who you are if the world didn’t tell you who to be.
In this interactive arts-healing exhibition, Prema Bangera uses a variety of mixed media to explore internalized oppression, encourage reflection and inspire radical self-love. As an immigrant and survivor of physical, sexual, and domestic violence as well as police brutality, Bangera bares her vulnerabilities to help visitors release past wounds, create self-compassion, and reclaim their unique identity. Her story-driven sculptures, paintings, and installations blend magical realism and vivid colors to create a gallery space for transformation and empowerment.
For more information about the exhibition, visit hrvd.me/arts-prema
This exhibition also showcases struggles of lower caste and Dalit community members during April’s Dalit History Month, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Haiti, and more. Please consider donating to the following organization to provide support for the people struggling under brutal genocide:
and Hope for Haiti
For more information about the Narratives of Transformative Love workshops, please check out: balaforhealing.org