SEAD Project

Sea change is our youth leadership development program that aims to grow creative leaders at the intersection of arts and advocacy. In february and march of 2023, we hosted an entirely remote sea change lab cohort. We had a cohort of 10 individuals from all over the country. Their artistry ran the gamut from dancing, to poetry, visual art, including painting, illustration, and photography, and sewing. The session employed 9 different teaching artists, each bringing a unique perspective to the group. At the end of the session, we celebrated the group with their final Project recital and each cohort member was successfully matched with a professional mentor from their heritage background.

Sea roots amplifies our southeast asian languages and cultures. The program continues the importance of carrying the stories and grounding ourselves in our histories and identity. Sead is one of the few organizations around that offer affordable and accessible hmong, khmer, lao and vietnamese language classes to anyone, anywhere, creating the necessary space for learning and bridging our communities rooted in our storytelling. Our language and cultural workshops happen twice a year for eight weeks, with beginners' class in the fall and advanced class in the spring. We were able to teach hmong, khmer, and viet in the fall of 2022, and all four language courses, including lao, in the spring of 2023. We had over 50 students between the two courses, and worked with 7 community teachers. Each session ended with an online final Project recital that celebrated the students' new skills and knowledge. We were also able to host a hmong weaving, or paj ntaub, with local artist mandora young. Finally, we worked with the eastside corridor of st. paul to put together a history and art supply from our southeast asian diaspora community. The event was called solidarity street gallery. And while we ultimately didn't participate in the fair, we did the preparations for our display and activities.

Planting seads storytelling gathers and amplifies stories and space for southeast asian narratives to thrive, mobilize and heal through conversations, publications, and tools. We launched the initial preparation work for our elder storytelling Project, "knowing our joy." We worked with several community partners to recruit storytelling participants, which would gather for the storytelling workshops in the summer. We also created pages that incorporated southeast asian folktales, sketches and characters as part of our coloring book that was widely shared with community members during community outreach and events.

Community organizing: coming out of the pandemic, Sead continued to expand our community organizing work to strategize and address the issues that are impacting our community. We worked towards deeper engagement and empowerment through survey, advocacy and outreach. Sead was contracted by the minneapolis health department to share accurate imformationand promote covid-19 vaccine access to our southeast asian community. In the summer of 2022, we held various events, including a wellness fair, handing out test kits at various outreach connections. We were able to host our second annual mid-autumn film night featuring 14 new short films from our southeasr asian community. During the film night, we also partnered with the black nurses coalition to offer free covid-19 vaccines in the parting lot outside the open eye theater. In 2023, we began working on surveywork for our new brave harbors program. We launched the first iteration of our community survey in april with the intention of learning where our community stands on various political and social issues, and what resources or program offerings they would like to see us offer in relation to said issues. Soon is part of Sead's creative lab, where we explore the intersection of culturally-centered design and just storytelling. Soon is both a creative shop and studio, where we craft literary and visual storytelling for social good. By utilizing our cultural assets our communities hold, our soon shop incorporates the beauty of southeast asian heritages as cultural goods that tell stories and spark imagination. Soon has been a creative solution towards sustainable support of our critical work. Through our soon storytelling services, we worked with another local bipoc organization to create their marketing copy and branding assets as well as develop their strategic mission, vision, and values. This year wasa also a year where we revamped our soon shop with a business plan that includes a marketing plan, new products ideation, and connection to other local artists and businesses.