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Craft and Create: Stories Our Hands Remember

A Community Mural Workshop Exploring Latine Culture, Memory, & Resistance

This workshop, presented by artist AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez, explores murals as a form of storytelling and resistance in Latin America and Latine communities in the United States, highlighting how mural-making is used to reflect histories, traditions, relationships, and lived experiences. Participants will explore memory, identity, culture, and belonging through collaborative art-making.

Using traced hands as a canvas, participants will create symbolic artworks reflecting the people, traditions, struggles, joys, and stories that have shaped them. Together, these individual pieces will become a collective mural celebrating the many stories we carry. No art experience necessary.

AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez is an IndoLatinx mujerista, artist, and public educator originally from Venezuela. Her work centers on healing, justice, and collective liberation. As the creator of the Interlocking Justice methodology, AnaYelsi invites individuals and communities into deeper relationship with themselves and one another—supporting them in naming harm, restoring connection, and building just, sustainable ways of being together.

She is also a self-taught visual artist based in Washington, D.C., whose paintings explore the intersections of justice, liberation, mental health, and identity. Known for her bold use of vibrant color, AnaYelsi uses both abstract and figurative forms to express a deep commitment to personal and collective healing—where color becomes a tool of resistance, reflection, and empowerment.

Through her practice, AVS Consulting, and as founder of the Interlocking Justice Institute, AnaYelsi accompanies people across sectors—including schools, nonprofits, faith spaces, and businesses—as they seek to align their values with their actions. Her approach is heart-centered and collaborative, rooted in the belief that transformation is possible when care, accountability, and community lead the way.

AnaYelsi is also the founder of En Conjunto, a collective that nurtures People of Color working at the intersection of justice and spirituality. The collective offers space for connection, shared wisdom, and mutual support—reminding those who often labor alone that they are not alone at all.