TOLD & RETOLD

a workshop + zine series that provides space to relearn and creatively explore our relationships to medicine, surroundings, and bodies with guidance from Chinese Medicine.

Collaborators: Li-Lan Hsiang Weiss L.Ac., Alexis McKenney

Framework: Five Paths

This series is framed around the five paths or elements in Chinese culture: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood.

Each element corresponding to certain movements, seasons, organs, and emotions.

The series activates our existing wisdom and stories through reflection, discussions, and collective art-making. Here, we encourage each other to embody the creativity needed for an ever-evolving and unfolding medicine practice.

Medicines are stories, told and retold, invented and reinvented based on deep listening and observation of circumstances and surroundings.

Zines

Illustrative cover of 'fire' zine. A figure extends their arms out in front of them. Swirling lines of fire and smoke emerge from their heart/chest.
fire
Illustrative cover of 'metal' zine. Swirls of mist surround a figure standing upright.
metal

Click each to access digital zines. Physical copies available at a sliding scale cost. Email or DM on instagram to inquire.

Illustrative cover of 'water' zine. An upside down figure floats down. Their body is made up of waves of water.
water
Illustrative cover of 'wood' zine. A figure sits cross-legged. They look up with both their hands in front of their face. The figure's feet morph into branches of trees.
wood
illustrative cover of 'earth' zine. A figure made of stone and scaffolding crouches down. Three soybeans float in their abdomen. Green, stringy sprouts emerge from the beans and swirl across the image.
earth

Workshops & Events

Events & workshops provide space for medicine holders, artists, and community members to share space, knowledge, and stories around cultural medicine practices and creative expression.

Sweet Earth Mural

A mural by Isabel Lu at Dix Park in Raleigh as part of their Mural Activation Project. The mural tells shared stories of this land’s people and their medicine through grains: Job’s Tears, sorghum, and corn silk. These three grains strengthens and sustains communities across African, Indigenous, and Asian cultures.

Thank you to Hadassah Patterson for contributing their knowledge and research to the mural.

Photos courtesy of Jude McDonald

This project is supported by the Snapdragon Fund, NCAAT ASAP SPARK, NQAPIA Good Trouble Mini-Grant, Dix Park, and Raleigh Arts.