How individual healing relates to community care, the power of apologizing and more thoughtful takeaways from our Public Newsroom: How a Community Heals.

By Corli Jay

In a year of pandemic, economic crisis and historic uprisings against racial injustice, community healing has played a quieter, but critical, role. This month’s Public Newsroom discussed City Bureau’s How a Community Heals reporting series, which highlights people and organizations in Chicago that focus on mutual aid and restoration, especially on the South and West sides in the wake of the summer uprisings of 2020. 

Photographer Isiah ThoughtPoet Veney (who photographed several of the profilees) moderated this panel, which featured several community healers from the series.

Panelists spoke on their work, how it impacts their community, why they center healing in their work and why others involved in social change should as well. There were many things to take away from the conversation, but here are five things that we learned.

Healing can interrupt cycles of abuse

People who have been harmed, whether by systems or individuals, need to heal—not just to help themselves, but to prevent them from harming others, panelists said. Cycles of hurt and abuse continue to happen because of the lack of healing within ourselves. 

Jennifer Pagán of #LetUsBreathe Collective (a group of organizers and artists working toward a world without prisons or police) said that to be an abolitionist is to make a commitment to healing.  “People are showing up to movement [spaces] not fully healed, that’ll come out when people are triggered when people are angry,” she said, which can make these conversations more divisive than they need to be. She added that healing helps people to relate to one another with love, grace, compassion and understanding, as opposed to anger and harshness. 

The struggle for necessities makes the healing process harder 

Poverty is concentrated in Black and brown communities by design, said Dorian Sylvain, artist and founder of Mural Moves Chicago, pointing at examples like redlining, the use of racial demographics to determine where lenders would make mortgages. That means people of color are more likely to struggle for basic necessities such as food and housing. Because of the focus on these essential aspects of life, sometimes it’s hard to get to the emotional and psychological traumas that we experience day to day, she said. People are fighting internal demons while also fending off the outside world.

Mah Nu of Casa Al-Fatiha, a musicians’ co-op-turned-refuge for asylum seekers, echoed this sentiment: “Unfortunately, while we’re also struggling to exist just to pay the bills, to pay for medication—we also have to struggle to heal and to continue to fight for liberation.” 

Healing helps to imagine new ways to create change

The process of healing opens us up and “supports us in building capacity,” Pagán explained. When people are able to focus on themselves and not just on the outside forces, it encourages self-growth and sparks unique ideas, moving humanity forward.

After the panel, attendees reflected on discussion questions such as, “What is your vision for liberation in the future?” Natalie Frazier, Documenters Community Coordinator, said that as abolitionists it may be hard to answer these questions because people won’t have the answers for everything, but that is OK.

There is special power to working in a collective

Doing anything with a community is beneficial, panelists said, not only because it allows for people to socialize, but also because it gives individuals a sense of purpose that is bigger than the self. A group may generate or share energy in a way that aids in the healing process, according to Aya-Nikole Cook, who was not at the event but was featured in the How a Community Heals series for her role as owner of Haji Healing Salon.

“The idea of working with community is, in itself, healing,” Sylvain explained, citing examples like mutual-aid efforts, community gardens and even after-school programs. To address the trauma of isolation, Sylvain brought up how the church has filled that void for the Black community for generations, acting as a hub for many events and gatherings. Family is another example, she said, with family game nights, dinners and quality time with one another. 

There is healing power in apologizing 

Mah Nu made a point in recognizing the power of saying sorry—a practice that they said has been very helpful for their own personal healing. When you are able to say you are wrong, you can move forward, work to mend wounds and practice critical communication skills, they said. 

This also shows that healing doesn’t always have to be a grand gesture. Something as simple as apologizing can help build trust with others, build confidence within yourself and act as a step in the entire healing process. 

Want to keep in touch with our panelists and support their work? Check out the links below.

  • Dorian Sylvain

    • Website

    • Sylvain is co-curating an exhibition at the DuSable Museum that showcases panels made during last year’s uprisings. For more information visit the Dusable website. 

    • Mural Moves Chicago / Instagram

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