Meet Phoenix...
Writer, Musician, Teacher, Healer, Transformer, Expressive Arts Facilitator
“The artwork itself becomes a storyteller, revealing memories and narratives that may have remained dormant. In this beautiful and transformative process, expressive arts enable us to access and release stored information, gain insightful 'aha' moments, and trust in the inherent process of creativity."
- Phoenix Song, WHEAT Expressive Arts Instructor
“It's about bridging the personal, societal and the collective. We can go about making change on different levels, and we need change on every level: personal, familial, community, institutional, we need all of that. These days I don't concentrate so much on community organizing or institutional change as I did in my twenties. Instead, these roots and foundations inform my societal lens to help transform the relationships people have with each other by transforming the relationships we have with ourselves.”
- Phoenix Song
PHOENIX'S EXPERIENCE WITH WHEAT...
"There are not that many expressive arts based organizations out there in the world, so when we were introduced to WHEAT whose mission is to use the arts and expressive arts for social transformation, it felt totally aligned,” says Phoenix. “To come into an organization with other instructors whose main focus is using the arts for societal formation. It was a no-brainer. It was very easy.”
“WHEAT and expressive arts use creative tools and processes to help people express themselves.” Phoenix shares with us that our “whole brain is very important” and that our educational institutions prioritize only one side of the brain, the left side. “But we get so much information from the right part of the brain with our creative processes through our bodies.” As an instructor Phoenix is passionate about using expressive arts as a way to contact the wisdom of the body through the act of creating”
WHEAT is actively creating opportunities to let Indigenous voices lead, from ‘simple things as playlists of music, encouraging songs from their traditions, to changing up the activities with healing rituals of Indigenous tradition and practices.” Phoenix shares with us what it was like as an instructor to co-create with an “active kind of humility, we’re not going to continue this model of forcing a dominant Western paradigm.” This is something Phoenix values greatly.
“It’s great to have a learning institution where we’re able to ask hard questions and really listen to all the voices in the room. As a teacher, I get to be a student too. We are all there learning and unlearning together.”
WHAT DOES EXPRESSIVE ARTS MEANT TO YOU?
Phoenix brings with them a history of social justice, activism and community organizing. They say that now, through expressive arts, “It's about bridging the personal, societal and the collective” says Phoenix, “we need change on every level: personal, familial, community, institutional, but now I don't concentrate so much on institutional change, instead, I take my roots from there.” Expressive arts can help transform the relationships people have with each other by transforming the relationships we have with ourselves.” -
Expressive arts allow for the emergence of a story. “As I engage in drawing, I might uncover hidden feelings and perceptions that show up on the paper. It’s wild to witness a figure or image emerge and communicate something I wasn't consciously aware of before dipping my hand into the creative process, and when I incorporate movement with the drawing, I might become aware of emotions too.” Expressive arts is a way to give voice to the things ‘we can’t talk our way through like unconscious bias and pre-verbal trauma.”
“Expressive Arts has the opportunity for us to creatively come up with solutions by trusting the wisdom of our bodies and the creative process, the act of creation, to see what wants to come through. Having more time dedicated to the arts, to music, to these other ways is going to help us discover the creative solutions we haven't been able to find yet.”
Phoenix'S ANCESTRAL STORY
Phoenix’ ancestral story has been a journey of identity. They were born Korean American, adopted to a white single mother stationed in Korea who was working abroad as a secretary for the US embassy. “For the first 12 years of my life I was in international schools, so when we moved to a horse farm in rural southern Illinois in a very white area, it was a wake up call for me.”
“It was a really hard transition. I was a teenager. I was definitely gender non conforming and not out to myself yet and I grew up in a very religious household.” While in college they experienced an ‘aha’ moment, understanding that they are queer, Asian, and “full of rage” about how unjust the world is. That’s how they became a community organizer working with youth and for living wage campaigns. “And I realized, like, I may be good at this job, but I am so angry all the time, and I don't really want to live my life like this so I went to India, and I was there for many years working on multiple healing modalities.”
After many years of healing through spiritual and body practices, they went back to Korea to rediscover their roots. “My identity journey has been a really big fuel for healing, because I've had so much internal conflict, and then my body started to show the brunt of all of this warring with nerve pain and damage to the point that I was in a wheelchair.” Their identity journey led to not wanting to be in this body, or in this identity. “But that body pain got me back in my body, kicking and screaming.” It was at that point they did a three year expressive arts program. They found a ‘home’ for their body and decided to re inhabit it. That was the beginning of another really deep phase of healing.
It’s been 15 years now for Phoenix, helping people free their voices, speak their truth, sound their truth, and sing their truth. “I learn through life experiences. For me the best learning is experiential. Life is the best university. How do you heal? How do you get the support, the resources, the right people, the teachers you need along the way to assist in the evolution? And then how do you share that with others? I’ve been lucky in this life with all the tools and support coming at the right time. There’s a great quote by Lao Tzu: “When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready. . .the teacher will disappear.”
