april@pineappleswithpurpose.com

I am a multidisciplinary artist and arts practitioner.

I help individuals and communities explore their creative potential starting with their lived experiences.

I have worked with diverse populations across diverse settings.

PINEAPPLES WITH PURPOSE

"Pineapples with Purpose" transforms traditional clinical practice into traveling immersive art containers that merge studio art with social practice where communities can effloresce, breaking free from the constraints of racial trauma, and blooming into a collective journey of healing and empowerment one pineapple at a time. Dedicated to stigma reduction and mental health literacy, we welcome lived experiences, uncovering the cradle of our history, the core of our actions, and the crown of our community. Like the red heart, a term used to describe the inflorescence of the pineapple, my work is a love letter sparking social commentary for a more just, equitable, and anti-racist mental health landscape inspired by people and their heART.

Image Descriptions: ‘Planted Crowns’ 2023 In-Person workshop in collaboration with Alternate Roots. Participants are in action creating collage response art to topics of truth-telling, racial healing, and transformation.

Partners: Alternate Roots

Date: August 10, 2023

Image Descriptions: Community Mental Health Installation. Facilitated mental health literacy utilizing the narratives and artwork of inpatient and outpatient members seeking counseling and support. Installation was open to the public.

Partners: Psych Hospital

Date: May 2022

Image Descriptions: Identifying third spaces as an entry point to connect with community around topic of mental health, symbolism, and historical trauma in geographical locations that have been impacted by racial terror.

Partners: Robyn Gipson

Date: October 7th, 2023

Image Descriptions: Facilitator considered symbolism and installation as ways to engage in art as a social practice. Community members shared stories exploring identity in relation to everyday objects.

Partners: Community Healing Day/ Dr. Huberta Jackson Lowman

Date: October 7th, 2019

Image Descriptions: a movement to encourage individuals to Make Room for Your Crown. Artist takes a close look at symbolism as a means to reach audiences cross-culturally on an unconscious level using the cultural iconography of the pineapple to reduce mental health stigma

Partners: Pineapple with Purpose

Date: Ongoing

Image Descriptions: Participants discovered ways to reclaim and honor individual and collective stories using collage and art method kintsugi. Finding beauty in brokenness was the guiding theme.

Partners: Pulmer Monroe Teen Center/ TBI Association

Date: Summer 2018-2019