Join us as we partner with the Communal Reading Circle and kick off our To See and Be Seen series with an evening of collective reading and conversation. Together, we'll examine Black femicide and the stereotypes, biases, and systems that contribute to violence against Black women.

​Bring your text. Bring your questions. Bring your voice. We will not be silent about this.

Location:

Third Ward Blooms

2304 Stuart St, Houston, TX 77004, USA

Part 3:

Join artist Kristi Rangel and the Community Artists’ Collective in celebrating the fifth year of the Witness Series — an artist-lead, nature-centered, and community-driven program that explores the many profound experiences that Communities of Color have in the land of Southeast Texas and along our waterways — by taking part in an artist talk, hands-on artmaking, and performances from Witness Series partners.

Schedule

• 4-4:30 p.m. — Danza Azteca

• 4:30-4:45 p.m. — Welcome

• 4:45-5:45 p.m. — Artist Talk Panel

• 5:45-6:30 p.m. — Art Activities and Partner Tables

• 6:30-7 p.m. — Danza Azteca

NOTE: The first 45 people to request a ticket at the Garden’s ticket window on Saturday, July 25, can attend at no charge. Once all of the complimentary tickets have been claimed on July 25, additional tickets — purchased either in-person or online — will be available for the cost of general admission (or free for Garden members, per the benefits of their membership level).

Non-member ticket price: $12/adult, $8/child/student/senior/military
Member ticket price: Free, per the benefit(s) of membership level

Houston Botanic Garden offers free parking for Summer Saturdays programs.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & PARTNERS

Janice Brown
Tomii Culmer
Brittany Mayfield
Kristi Rangel
Sheila Savannah
Houston Botanic Garden
Itzcoatl Danza Azteca
Latino Outdoors Houston

Join us for a visit to the University Museum at Texas Southern University for an intimate look at their current exhibit Sacred Web: The Artistic Lineage of John T. Biggers. The exhibition explores John T. Biggers' legacy and the generations of artists, educators, students, and cultural leaders influenced by his vision.

​Curated by Dr. Alvia J. Wardlaw, Danielle Burns Wilson, and Seba Raquel Suber, the exhibition features more than thirty artists across multiple generations. The exhibition explores the enduring influence of Biggers' through painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and archival materials.

​As we move through the exhibition, we'll gather for reflection and writing around a central question: How do we move beyond an "event culture" to build lasting, sustainable community? Through the work of John T. Biggers and his collaborators, we'll explore what it means to create spaces, relationships, and legacies that endure.

​Please bring something to write with, something to write on, and comfortable walking shoes. Come ready to look closely, think deeply, and write in conversation with the art and with one another.

Location

University Museum at Texas Southern University

3100 Cleburne St, Houston, TX 77004

Join us for an informal closing reception marking the final days of Hope Is a Discipline.

This gathering offers time to revisit the work, move through the exhibition together, and reflect on the ideas that have shaped the show.

Guests are invited to linger, connect, and spend time in conversation as the exhibition comes to a close.

The Glassell School of Art Houston, TX

Thursday, July 16  •  11 AM - 2 PM

Overview

In this workshop for ages 55 and over, participants use decorative fabric as the base for their own paintings.

In this hands-on mixed media workshop geared toward older adults, participants will use decorative fabric as the base for their own paintings. Participants will learn to stretch and prepare fabric for acrylic paint, then plan a composition that works with the fabric's existing colors and patterns. Drawing on the ways other artists have used this approach in their own practice, participants will create a finished painting where the decorative fabric becomes part of the artwork itself.

No prior experience required. All materials are provided. Refreshments are included and free parking is available in the Glassell garage.

This workshop is part of the Vitality Arts series, presented by the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in partnership with the Community Artists' Collective and its Jubilee Quilt Circle. This program receives generous support from E.A. Michelson Philanthropy.

Location: Glassell School of Art, Second Floor

Tickets Sold Out (Registration at Glassell)

Thu, Jul 16 • 11 AM

We are going virtual for the month of July!

​Sweet Communion Write-Ins are free, writing gatherings that create quiet, communal space for Black women to write independently in the presence of one another. Sessions use the Pomodoro technique to structure uninterrupted writing time.

​There are no prompts, no critique, and no performance expectations. The purpose is to restore trust in one’s inner voice, cultivate discipline, and make space for creativity as a form of healing.

​Ages 16+

Grounded in the understanding, drawn from visionary abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba, that hope is a discipline, this participatory session explores how that commitment shows up in daily life.

Facilitated by the curators, the gathering centers care, accountability, resistance, and the relationships that sustain us. Participants are invited to bring a piece of ephemera that reflects Black hope, joy, family, or community, and to share how it connects to the themes of the exhibition.

Overview

In this workshop for ages 55 and over, participants learn the fundamentals of mixed media painting.

In this hands-on mixed media workshop geared toward older adults, participants will learn the fundamentals of painting through the creation of still life compositions. Participants will examine how artists incorporate fibers into their work to create richly detailed, textured compositions. Building on these techniques, participants will explore functional collage and learn how to enhance their own paintings using fiber-based materials such as fabric and paper.

No prior experience required. All materials are provided. Refreshments are included and free parking is available in the Glassell garage.

This workshop is part of the Vitality Arts series, presented by the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in partnership with the Community Artists' Collective and its Jubilee Quilt Circle. This program receives generous support from E.A. Michelson Philanthropy.

Location: Glassell School of Art, Second Floor

Tickets Sold Out (Registration at Glassell)

Thu, Jul 9 • 11 AM

We are going virtual for the month of July!

​Sweet Communion Write-Ins are free, writing gatherings that create quiet, communal space for Black women to write independently in the presence of one another. Sessions use the Pomodoro technique to structure uninterrupted writing time.

​There are no prompts, no critique, and no performance expectations. The purpose is to restore trust in one’s inner voice, cultivate discipline, and make space for creativity as a form of healing.

​Ages 16+

Listening Session + Artist Conversation

Led by Tay Butler, this program focuses on sound as a way of engaging Black history and imagination. Participants will listen together to selections of Butler’s work, followed by a conversation with co-curator Josie Pickens about process, influence, and the role of sound in storytelling.

This session offers a different entry point into the work and creates space for shared reflection.

We are going virtual for the month of July!

​Sweet Communion Write-Ins are free, writing gatherings that create quiet, communal space for Black women to write independently in the presence of one another. Sessions use the Pomodoro technique to structure uninterrupted writing time.

​There are no prompts, no critique, and no performance expectations. The purpose is to restore trust in one’s inner voice, cultivate discipline, and make space for creativity as a form of healing.

​Ages 16+

Join curators Josie Pickens, Tay Butler and select artists for guided tours of the exhibition, Hope is a Discipline.

These tours offer additional context for the work while highlighting connections across pieces. There will be space for questions and conversation, making this a shared experience of moving through the exhibition together.

feat. Mandy Peyrani

This live performance features Li(sa E.) Harris, whose work brings together voice, movement, and sound to explore healing and Black cultural expression.

Through embodied performance, Harris engages memory and presence, opening space for reflection and release. The piece unfolds in real time, inviting the audience to witness and sit with themes of endurance, transformation, and possibility. 

Learn the basics of relief block printing with this beginner-friendly linocut workshop led by Paloma Mayorga of Milpa Press. Participants are invited to bring a 4x6” drawing or use one of our pre-made designs to carve, ink, and print their own postcards.

No printmaking experience is necessary, all supplies are included. Open to participants 16 years or older. Space is limited to 15 participants.

About the Instructor

Paloma Mayorga is an interdisciplinary botanical artist working across photography, video, performance, installation, painting, and printmaking. Her practice explores ancestral uses of plants while drawing on ecological stories, sensory experiences, and the memory held in landscapes to reflect how reconnecting with plants can help us become mindful in our connections to others, as well as more responsible stewards of the land.

In 2025, Mayorga founded Milpa Press, a mobile print shop homegrown in Austin, Texas. Currently, Paloma acts as the Curator and Exhibitions Coordinator forCoronado printstudio and she serves on the Board ofPrintAustin andDORF. 

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Follow @milpapress‍ ‍@paloma.mayorga

Hope is a Discipline begins with a question that lingers—what does it mean to keep going, to keep imagining, when the evidence around you suggests otherwise? Hope, here, is not presented as belief, but as a kind of behavior, something learned, repeated, carried. In the thinking of Mariame Kaba, it is a discipline, which is to say, a practice shaped as much by doubt as by faith.

The artists gathered in this exhibition understand that Black life has always existed in this tension between what is and what might be. Their work moves through love and resistance, memory and care, not as separate ideas but as overlapping conditions. There are moments of joy that feel deliberate, almost insistent. There are gestures that hold grief without trying to resolve it. And there are ways of being together—quiet, sometimes provisional—that suggest something like a future, even if it remains unnamed.

To think of hope as discipline is to accept that it does not arrive fully formed. It is built, piece by piece, in relation to others, in relation to the past, in relation to the limits placed on the present. The works in Hope is a Discipline do not argue for hope so much as they show what it looks like to live inside it, imperfectly, and to continue anyway.

Hope Is a Discipline brings together Black artists of all identities whose work confronts the conditions we are living under while reaching toward something more free and whole.

Co-curated by Josie Pickens and Tay Butler, the exhibition centers care, resistance, and imagination as ways we move toward liberation and remain in relationship with one another.

The exhibition takes its title from the work of visionary abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba, who reminds us that hope is not passive—it’s something we choose and build together, especially in the face of ongoing harm.

Featuring work by Li(sa E.) Harris, Lovie Olivia, Josie Pickens, Tay Butler, Mich Stevenson, and Zsavon Butler, the exhibition spans visual art, sound, and performance. The works trace the realities of Black life shaped by surveillance, control, and abandonment, while also holding space for connection, resistance, and the work of becoming.

The exhibition opens with a public reception featuring remarks from the curators and participating artists. Public programming includes a listening session led by Tay Butler and a live performance by Li(sa E.) Harris, along with additional gatherings that invite participants to reflect, remain in relationship with one another, and consider how this work carries into the ways we live and care for each other.

“Hope is work”, says curator Josie Pickens. “It’s something we build in the middle of injustice, not after it. The artists in this exhibition are already living that out—creating ways to care for each other, to stay in relationship, and to imagine beyond the systems built for our demise.”

Hope Is a Discipline is presented at the Community Artists’ Collective, a long-standing space dedicated to Black artists and cultural work in Houston.

From sisters of the yam Writing Society ~

Calling all kids ages 4 to 10 to join our Juneteenth Creative Writing Workshop!

The sisters of the yam Writing Society is partnering with Teacher Yaa and Juneteenth Houston to bring you a FREE creative writing and collage workshop for kids!

Join us for a vibrant, hands-on workshop celebrating Juneteenth through storytelling and collage art! Inspired by Natasha Triplett’s book Juneteenth Is, children ages 4–10 will explore themes of freedom, family, and tradition.

We’ll write our own celebration poems and bring them to life by crafting colorful, textured community collages. Come ready to write, rip, glue, and celebrate!

The workshop is curated for children ages 4-10, but children of all ages are welcome.

Facilitator Bio:

Teacher Yaa is a dedicated teaching artist and cultural liaison specializing in the intersection of African diasporic literature and youth creative writing. Grounded in the rich traditions of Black letters, her workshops guide young people to explore self-expression, honor cultural history, and build narrative confidence. This June, in partnership with Juneteenth Houston and sisters of the yam, she is thrilled to facilitate a sacred space where youth can use the power of the written word to celebrate liberation, discover their unique voices, and write their own futures into existence.

Via Juneteenth Houston -

Join us for a night of joy, remembrance, and honor as we unveil our first Black neighborhood quilt to the deeply moving Juneteenth concert that celebrates the depth of African American musical heritage through classical compositions by living legends, powerful spirituals, and uplifting gospel music and spoken word. Last year we partnered with the @communityartistscollective and the Jubilee Quilters to launch the Black Neighborhood Quilt Project.

Residents from Houston’s Black communities designed quilt panels/patches that paid homage to those communities. Over the past year these panels have been hand sewn to create a quilt that nearly 100sqft that will be unveiled to the world for the first time on Wednesday, June 3rd from 5:30pm-8:30pm.

In honor of this historic moment, @icoloridellopera a Black - woman founded opera guild here in Houston - will perform an immersive and experiential soul stirring concert that weaves together opera, spirituals, gospel, and classical music.

This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

#blackquiltproject #juneteenthhouston #icoloridellopera #communityartistscollective #19daysofjuneteenth

From Lualo Studios:

As Altar of Care comes to a close, we’re sitting with deep gratitude. 

Altar of Care has been a gathering place, a thank you. Over these weeks, this space has held story, memory, movement, grief, joy, workshops, conversations, shared meals, collective making, and reminders that care is something we practice together.

To everyone who visited, shared stories, carved spoons, joined circles, built alongside us, offered your time, labor, presence, and trus. thank you. Thank you to every collaborator, artist, organizer, community partner, friend, and loved one who helped shape this space. This exhibition was never created alone.

Lualo has always been built through relationship, Altar of Care is a continuation. A reminder that the future we are building is shaped by how we care for one another now.

This exhibition remains dedicated to our friend Rachel Jackson (1987–2025). Your presence continues to move with us.

Exhibit Duration: April 25 – May 23

Join us for one final gathering within Altar of Care—to reflect, celebrate, and hold gratitude together.

Part 2:
The awakening of spring offers a unique opportunity to connect with nature’s healing bounty through a Spring Tea Party. More than just a social gathering, this event is a chance to delve into the world of local medicinal herbs, guided by the knowledge Janice Brown - @girlonthegrow.
Garden fairy tales and garden poetry will be shared, as inspiration for attendees to create their own original works. Come discover why gardens are important intergenerational spaces that are portals to ancestral wisdom. Light bites and herbal tea choices are included.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & PARTNERS

Janice Brown
Tomii Culmer
Kristi Rangel
sisters of the yam HTX
The Edgie Veggie

(In connection to our current exhibition, ALTAR OF CARE)

At UniPro, we firmly believe we can build toward a more just and equitable world. This work begins with how we understand the roots of economic crisis: corruption, neglect and state-sanctioned violence.

Join this educational discussion to learn about the history of Filipino migration and its inextricable tie to the ongoing struggle for genuine land reform in the Philippines.

We will also collect relief supplies to support communities in the Philippines affected by recent disasters.

We are seeking:
1. eye glasses (the frames will be recycled)
2. aquatabs
3. ibuprofen or acetaminophen
4. new underwear (all sizes, all ages accepted)
5. supplements: multivitamin, nutribiotic, or calcium
6. lagundi

Caffenol is a developing agent that is made with coffee and Vitamin C, an environmentally friendly way of developing film at home. This workshop was sparked by personal questions about coffee, photography, sustainability, human rights, and environmental justice. 

This workshop is to cultivate mindfulness of our surroundings through photography, think more about sustainability and to connect everything back to nature and the people who nurture it; from the grain that make up the photo to the beans that wake us up in the morning. 

In partnership with Restorative Houston & The Collective, Lualo Studios invites you into Joy as Ritual — a community circle held within Altar of Care. Altar of Care is a gathering place, a living thank you - holding story, memory, and relationship.

Within this space, Joy as Ritual invites us to practice joy as a way of being with each other. Joy as survival. Joy as adaptation. Joy as a remembering of our wholeness, together.

Held alongside Sulong: Roots in Motion - a bakawan balikbayan–inspired tree where care, migration, and ancestry converge. In many Filipino traditions, trees are sites of offering, where the living and ancestors meet. it guides us to ask: how are we rooting into each other? what are we holding, together? What becomes possible when we move like a mangrove - adaptive, interconnected, and grounded in care?

Alongside this, We Create What Sustains Us - a collective of hand-carved spoons — carries stories of nourishment, reminding us that care lives in the everyday act of feeding and tending to one another.

Because what we practice grows.