Beloveds,
This journey began when the words leaped from the page and onto the screen to become the award winning short film series, “Conversations with my Conscience”. The success of this project would not have been possible without your support, screening and sharing of the short films. I am deeply grateful to everyone! You have given me the courage to continue this journey in the art of storytelling.
I am creating a new series, Moonbeams & Holy Water. Moonbeams & Holy Water is a web series that conspires to capture the look of love through the eyes of women of color. The episodes will be written and directed by women. Each episode is created from a letter submitted by women whose story could no longer be trapped beneath her tongue. It is important to tell these stories. These are the breath and memory of lovers, family and friendships.
Right now, I am working with some lovely people to bring you the first episode and some amazing and engaging social media contest!

Plenary seesion and workshop!

Through collaborative exchange between artists and citizens of Philadelphia, U.S. and Medellín, Colombia, 75º West/75º Oeste activates conversation about the impact of globalized free trade. By trading small objects and big ideas between these two cities which both sit on the 75th degree west longitudinal line, the project asks: What is ours to give? What is ours to keep? What do we truly value? And how we can protect what we value when living in a global society?

Received award for youth advocacy with the Do Remember Me Project and th Yram Collective.

Writing workshops for dual enrollment students a media content creators.

April 15th and 22nd also

Artist Talk with Sanni Crespina-flore on activim and advocacy through art and media.

It was sometime in the fall of 2014, the students had settled into the routine of school and after-school programing when I received a call from Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing of Loki Films. these Emmy Award winning filmmakers had chosen The Do Remember Me Project to be the subject of their next project for the Sundance Institute and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

They made several journeys to Philadelphia, soldiered through lack of heat in buildings, picking up students, rough weather conditions and providing meals to create an amazing visual journey across the global.

I am truly honored and deeply grateful by the outpouring of compassion and abundant blessings that have resulted from the making of this film.

News and links to the film:

http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment/2066929-155/sundance-aims-to-provoke-global-discussion

http://www.upworthy.com/a-boy-in-america-explains-to-a-girl-on-the-other-side-of-the-globe-how-racism-feels

http://www.movetophilly.com/detropia-filmmakers-shine-light-on-philly-kids-in-new-documentary/

https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/116915456

I began this journey as an artist living in that space where the pen caresses the page discovering every peak and valley of my own personal landscape, my humanity. The words I have chosen to express woundedness, a joy, an imperfection are transformed into a motion beyond heartache and hard lessons, cultural divide and economic status to actively participating in social change. It is always my desire that the viewer may find healing for an aching soul, be encourage to move mountains or simply and lovingly encourage a new song to be sung. The poems and short stories traveled in sound and painted themselves on film. I am translating deeply personal emotions into evocative cinema.
My body of work demonstrates my commitment to being sharply critical of social ideologies and the development of one’s identity against this backdrop. The intimate dance of one’s cultural and environmental influences and that innate desire to be more than the sum of those influences. The natural progression of one’s self courageously and actively advocating for that self.
My spirit is awakened by the alchemy of combining poetic verse, scripted footage, statistical data, archived footage, creative commons database and interviews to create a visual interpretation to dispel myths of hopelessness, media stereotypes and cultural differences to delve deeper and find a common ground.
I have been the recipient of the Leeway Foundation grant, City of Philadelphia Activity grant, Mind Media Independence- Philadelphia Stories 7 grant, MoFilm/AT&T grant have received awards for my work with Philly DoGooder Hackathon and honorariums from the Asian Arts Initiative and Sisters in Harmony. I have also had the honor of an artist residency in Budapest, Hungary.
My current body of work is a series of workshops designed to use media for social change with youth and women. The programs have been shared with youth and women in Philadelphia (YesPhilly, Inc., Community College of Philadelphia, Arcadia University, Department of Recreation and Philadelphia Youth Media Collaboration) New York (Brooklyn Children’s Museum, New Design High School, Dr. Myrah Green of City College of New York and MDG5.com) and Nigeria(The Public Art Project and UR4Africa Project). The object of the workshops is to connect youth in Philadelphia with global partners to work together to create art that represents their needs and desires to effectively advocate for change.

I am honored and grateful for this year's partnership with the Public Art Project in Nigeria and the The Brooklun Children's Museum for the Do Remember Me Project. Please follow uson Facebook at http://www.facekbook.com/DoRememberMe to see what this year's first cycle project will be and what we will be screening on March 22, 2014!

Please check out the article on Sannii at:

africatv1.com/Dawala/sannii-crespina-flores-artiste-extraordinaire/

 "Absent of the love a young soul desires... they begin longing for... searching... often ending at the edge of the abyss. Many young men of color have been re-invented, re-defined. Becoming men to soon. The value of love measured in self-destruction, loss of innocence: no longer playing with or imaging racecars and rodeos. This new form of love founded in abandonment and being embraced by beguiling smiles and abusive hands. These young men become soldiers. A -war not their own, tiny hands become weapons, pounding out their love in the flesh of a mirrored reflection hoping to find their fathers, uncles and brothers in this embrace. " Excerpt from "Do Remember Me" Script©2007.

Based on the short film ‘Do Remember Me’, a series of workshops evolved that was designed to use art as a social advocacy tool and creating a voice of activism for young men in Philadelphia, Tanzania, Nigeria and Uganda. The workshops utilize technology to connect youth via SKYPE to invoke positive dialogue between the youth to dispel myths of hopelessness, media stereo types and cultural differences to delve deeper and find common ground, experiences and work toward actively supporting one another, encouraging activism and advocacy for issues such as peer violence, absence of leaders and heroes, and many other pressing issues. Drawing upon poetic verse, scripted footage, statistical data, archived footage, creative commons database and interviews with men who are artist, activist and community leaders, the youth create a personal statement about an issue they feel needs to be brought to light and focus on creating a visual message that will promote change and inspire others. This message is then posted to a social media site to be shared with others. This broadens the conversation and interactions among the youth. It oft times becomes viral and this infectious form of positive communication begins to break the barriers of myths and stereo types and allows a new voice to immerge. This new voice becomes a vibration of sound and images that reflect a need and promises an opportunity to have change manifest.
The workshops are also filmed and selected scenes are added to the film ‘Do Remember Me’ creating a new form of independent media with each of the bi-monthly workshops. It allows the film to continue to be relevant and current concerning the needs of this often over looked community of young men facing issues and experiences that will shape and mold their futures and ultimately those around them. By providing a positive and constructive method of social presence and the tools to actively work toward advocating their rights to journey beyond heartache and hard lessons, cultural divide and economic status to participating in social change which was conspired in a safe and nurturing environment to inspiring others to accomplish these same small victories. These small victories combined will become one large victory in empowering young men.

 In working with women and youth, I began to see a pattern of grace and compassion that transcended the struggles and hardships in their journey. I wanted to capture this emerging beauty and reflect it in life castings of these courageous beings. I began a series of life castings of individuals and added layers of materials; paint, glass, sand, stone and fabric. It allowed me the honor of expressing through art the beauty and grace of those cast and create a three dimensional work of art that memorialized the moment of struggle and triumph.
Lifecasting is the ancient artform of molding materials traditionally used for healing to capture the human form. Recorded history reminds us that people have sought to reproduce, collect, preserve and display the details and expressions of the human body in order to capture a lasting memory. The ancient Egyptians created life casts as a means of transport to the next world. Today, this form of casting is still used to heal broken bones and allow for the internal healing process of the body. I capture people’s journeyat the moment of struggle, survival, faith and the moment of victory. To be a witness through art to the grace that is mustered from deep within, having no idea where this strength, and courage will come from but incorporating it into the very fabric of their being. I sometimes use photographs of seraphic and inspired moments and place their photographs on the lifecastings, layering them in sand, paint, glass and fabric. Each piece is an individual reflection of the one's journey to grace and compassion while under fire from life's lessons in adversity, challenges and moments of darkness and light. Unlike a photograph or painting, this scuplture is a constant reminder of strength and courage to continue to be beautful and contribute phenomenally to life in a three-dimensional form that can be touched; fingers running over the texture and curves of a moment when the body and soul converged to radiate grace. A moment when small hands can find the soft spots, beauty marks left by time and circumstance that curve the spine, create the curl of a lip at the onset of a smile and the story told of this moment of adversity and victory.

I create artworks that reflect the beauty of the soul, capture our evolution and transformation as beings of grace, compassion and mirror the strength we hold. It is this strength that impacts our families and communities. I want to use my artistry to pay hommage to the many people who triumph daily and remind them of their gift to the families and communities they tirelessly serve.This project is designed to give the people involved a little soul to keep, while the world is sipping at their souls each moment, they will have a reminder of their grace and compassion, a part of their story recorded, a moment captured of their legacy to this life. A source of inspiration at moments when the cup is dry and they need to be reminded of their inner beauty.

It is this beautiful place within the heart that must be nurished and cherished. It is sacred.

" I expect the world to shift out of orbit with the work she (Sannii Crespina-flores) is doing with this project." Marcus G. Williams, III, founder of T.E.A.C.H.-K.I.D.S.

 "The world will be forever changed by what this project (Do Remember Me) is doing." Dr. Kathleen Walls, author of The Greatest Soul Journey

"It (Do Remember Me) is a multi-cultural, social justice film...a powerful project." Dr. Doreen Loury, Arcadia University, Assistant Professor of Sociolgy/ Anthropology and Africana Studies