Where do we go from here? | The 2024–2025 CCA@CCA theme asks, "Where do we go from here?" During a time of high conflict in the world around us, how can we come together for discussion, reflection, and growth? How can the CCA Community enact positive change? CCA@CCA maintains an ongoing partnership with For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that centers art as a catalyst for creative civic engagement, discourse, and direct action. Founded in 2016 by CCA alumnus Hank Willis Thomas in collaboration with Eric Gottesman, Michelle Woo, and Wyatt Gallery, For Freedoms works closely with a variety of artists, organizations, and institutions to expand what participation in a democracy looks like and reshape conversations about politics.

This year’s CCA@CCA theme borrows the question Where do we go from here? from For Freedoms' new book. Published in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, For Freedoms: Where Do We Go From Here? marks one of the largest public creative collaborations in American history: a series of over 550 artist billboards created between 2016 and 2023. These billboards emphasize the For Freedoms mission to model how art can urge communities into greater participation and action and foster nuanced discourse.

• 📸 CCA@CCA Symposium: Where do we go from here? | Organized by CCA@CCA
• 📸 Grab This! 2025 Girl Culture Tea Party | Organized by Melinda Luisa de Jesús
• 📸 Mend | Organized by Elisabeth Cobb Hughes
• 📸 Trying to Get Free | Organized by Shylah Hamilton
• 📸 Where do we go from here? A Roundtable Discussion with Manny Yekutiel | Organized by Pia Zaragoza

Organized by CCA@CCA

On March 6, CCA@CCA presented an evening of conversations, activations, and participatory workshops by CCA faculty that explored the 2025 CCA@CCA theme. The symposium began with a moderated panel featuring four CCA faculty members who serve as Creative Activists within their communities: Aaron Gach, Melinda Luisa de Jesús, Janette Kim, and Sara Dean. Their conversation was followed by three parallel hands-on workshops:

• poetry as revolution and resistance: a hay(na)ku workshop, presented by Melinda Luisa de Jesús, Associate Professor, Critical Ethnic Studies Program
• Learn the Ropes of Magical Activism, presented by Aaron Gach, Senior Adjunct, Graduate Fine Arts Program
• Bartertown, presented by Janette Kim, Associate Professor, Architecture Program

The symposium also included an exhibition of large-scale installations by CCA students, including Abby Lawrence (Dual Degree: MA Visual and Critical Studies, MFA Fine Arts), Abed Darwazeh (BFA Interaction Design), Angela Zamora (BFA Animation), Chibuzor Darl-Uzu (MFA Design), Zedekiah Gonsalves Schild (Dual Degree: MA Visual and Critical Studies, MFA Fine Arts), and Yunfei Hua (MA Visual and Critical Studies), Grace Cao (BFA Graphic Design), and Xinling Wang (Alumna of MFA Design).

Alongside these installations were Weathering the Storm, a poster series by students in Isabel Samaras' Studio 2 Concept course; a community partnership presentation by students in Julia Grinkrug's Home Economics and Urban Cultures course; Mend, a community sewing project by Elisabeth Cobb Hughes; and Tools for Building Resiliency, an interactive installation organized by Sara Dean.

View images of the Symposium →

Organized by Melinda Luisa de Jesús, Associate Professor, Critical Ethnic Studies Program

Immediately preceding the CCA@CCA Symposium on March 6th, students from GIRL CULTURE invited members of the CCA Community discuss girl power and the specific challenges facing girls around the world. Reclaiming the idea of the little girls' tea party, the Tea Party showcased student art and research about global girl cultures. Students offered tea, mocktails, snacks, original boardgames, and stimulating conversation to foster learning about girls’ studies and girls' resistance.

View images of the Symposium and Tea Party →

Organized by CCA@CCA Design Fellow Elisabeth Cobb Hughes

From February 5 through March 14, 2025, CCA@CCA Student Fellow Elisabeth Cobb Hughes invited the CCA Community to bring worn clothing to the Novack Gallery to be mended for free.

Elisabeth mended these items within the gallery space each Friday from 11am to 4pm. Students, staff, and faculty could stop by during these hours to drop off their garments, learn mending techniques, and chat about the current state of affairs and what the CCA community can do to enact change. In return for mending their clothing, Elisabeth asked that they write to her about how they can mend climate, government, community, relationships, or the self. Elisabeth offered a related linocut workshop and presented the results of her mending sit-in at the CCA@CCA Symposium on March 6.

"Mending as a tool for fostering connection and collective resistance. Consumption is practically thoughtless, and effortless. The further we are from the means of production, the less significant overconsumption seems. Recent boycotts have challenged Americans to reconsider their dependence on corporations, and in attempts to reclaim agency and resist the exploitative clothing industry, I have begun mending clothes for community members. The clothing will all be returned to the original donor, though the item will be different. Some repairs are invisible, while others are ornamental as well as structural. Considering the desires of the donor shaped my decisions with each piece, and I was surprised to find deepened care for strangers as I handled their clothing. I’ve been doing this work while sitting in the Novack Gallery, where I am almost on display. Visitors express curiosity, unsure if I am simply doing a chore or performance art. By elevating a simple task that has in large measure been forgotten, I foster community through collective resistance. A simple stitch is a step forward, toward a future of remembrance." –Elisabeth Cobb Hughes

Organized by Shylah Hamilton, Chair and Associate Professor, Critical Ethnic Studies Program

From April 3 through April 10, Shylah Hamilton's Critical Ethnic Studies course, "Tryin to get free: Foundations and Futures of Intersectionality," presented a sculptural installation in the Nave that invited introspection, expression, and communal dialogue.

Built in the form of a tree with hand-crafted apples, leaves, and a central mirror, the piece served as a metaphor for human desire and collective transformation. The apples represented what we seek to free ourselves from—internalized doubts, limitations, or societal constraints—while the leaves reflected the hopes we carry for the world and our communities. At the heart of the tree sat a mirror, a symbol of self-confrontation and reflection. It asked participants to face themselves while considering their role in shaping both personal freedom and collective futures. Viewers were encouraged to write their thoughts on the apples and leaves, becoming active contributors to the artwork and, in turn, to each other's liberation.

Organized by CCA@CCA Faculty Coordinator Pia Zaragoza

Manny Yekutiel hosted a roundtable discussion at the Creative Citizens Hub next to the Novack Gallery on January 19th, 2025.

Manny, originally from Los Angeles, earned a B.A. in political science from Williams College. He served as a White House Intern in the Office of Public Engagement and spent 12 months traveling through six countries on a Thomas Watson Fellowship studying LGBT rights movements. Manny returned to the United States as a field organizer for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. He became chief of staff of FWD.us, an immigrant reform advocacy group, for which he was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 in law and policy in 2015. In 2016 Manny built a physical civic gathering space called Manny's, combining a restaurant, bar, coffee shop, political bookstore, and civic events space to increase civic participation. It has served over 55,000 cups of coffee and tea, hosted over 500 civic events for the community, including over 150 local non-profits and 17 of the 2020 democratic presidential candidates. Manny is also the founder of and the executive director of the Civic Joy Fund, a branch of the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization the Civic Space Foundation, which aims to revitalize San Francisco by investing and organizing projects that bring joy to the streets.