Wellness Culture Shift is a Town Hall that literally passes the mic to young people for a raw, critical discussion around how teens can take agency over their own mental health. This Town Hall opens up the floor for young people to connect with one another to shape a wellbeing culture that empowers and heals people of all social, racial, economic and sexual identities. This Town Hall calls on brave young people to engage in conversation that they care about!

Featuring : DJ Young 1

Hosted by: Shihan Ron Van Clief 

Learn the fun of DIY stamps and foam tray prints. We believe that creative risk taking and trying new things is refreshing and invigorating for your state of mind.  Start with this afternoon workshop that guarantees beautiful outcomes.

Workshop lead by Armory Center for the Arts

Join artists, athletes, and activists working together to make mental health a civil right.

Our emcee for the day will be Yesi Ortiz from 97.1 AMP RADIO with Special Guests:

DJ Jada Boo // DJ Lina Bradford // DJ Daisy O’Dell

Syncopated Ladies // Raja Kumari // Los Rakas

GFBF // Las Cafeteras

Ty Dolla $ign // Common

Featured speakers include:

Dr. Astrid Heger // Diego Wallraff // Yashi Brown  // Skipp Townsend //

Matthew Deitsch & Jammal Lemy (Parkland, Florida) // Get Lit Poets

Native Land Acknowledgement & Blessing

WE RISE is ignited with homage to the indigenous tribe of Los Angeles— The Tongva Nation. We gather to pay respect to the original keepers of the City and receive blessings of Tongva youth as the journey to healing our communities commences.

Opening Prayer by Kelly Caballero
Featuring East Los Drum Circle: Raul Garcia, Jaime Reyes, Joel Garcia

Dance Break with Blacka Di Danca

Blacka Di Danca is a choreographer on the international dancehall circuit. Blacka’s talent has led to work with some of the top names in the music industry. He was the choreographer for Major Lazer’s “Lose Yourself” music video and a featured dancer in videos for Rihanna, Drake, Nicky Jam, J Balvin, A$AP Rocky, and Shaggy to name a few. As a live performer, he’s spent years on the concert and festival circuit, making appearances with stars like Skrillex, Diplo, Kiesza and Collie Buddz.

Jump in and get dancing!

What are you setting the intention to let go of? Join us for a mental health informed yoga and meditation session that urges you with every breath you take, to let go of trauma, shame, anger, and all of the blockages that hold you back. No experience necessary. Yoga mats provided.

Lead by:

Hala Khouri, M.A., SEP, E-RYT, “Off the Mat, Into the World” Co-Founder, trauma-informed Yoga instructor

Maytha Alhassen, PhD, Syrian-American Journalist, Poet, Scholar

Join us for a day of play and wellness centered fun with some of the biggest stars in professional sports. Come in gear and get ready to get in the game!

Special Guests: Jay Ajayi, Aja Evans, Ava Bernstine-Mitchell, Dolvett Quince, Shawn Johnson, Andrew East, DaLette Anderson

Partnering with: Athletes in the Making

Powered by 97.1 AMP Radio

As social media continues to illuminate a culture focused on perfectionism we must insist on being selective of messaging we attach our personal identities to. We must choose to love our bodies even when they fall short of our fitness goals, grow hair, change colors, wrinkle, or become less functional than they once were. This is the spirit of unconditional body positivity– and we want everyone filled with it! Join us for a powerful conversation between body image  leaders driving the election of self worth above all self-destructive trends.

In this conversation we explore the ways poverty and inequality impact the collective and individual mental health of communities.What consequences does the collective shoulder when we are left unsupported in our trauma? Let’s talk about it.

Special Guest: Katori Walker, Yesi Ortiz, Dr. Milo Dodson 

Panel Include: Hala Khouri, Aquil Basheer, Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca, Najeeba Syeed 

Spoken word Performance by: Kyland Turner

Symmetric patterns are everywhere in nature and working in patterns that require we think about balance and integrated organization is an age old practice that soothes our mind. Come play with thousands of beautiful bright paper shapes and create a mandala to bring some solitude home.

For too long we have lived in fear, denial, and shame of mental illness being apart of our communities. We have allowed our complacency with dysfunction to dismantle families, relationships, careers and even the very will to live, as if such terrors deserved to ever be normalized. Enough. It is time to stand up for ourselves and for one another. It is time to approach mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and BPD with the same love, bravery, and intention to heal as we approach any other illness. Join us for a critical dialogue addressing the urgent call to destigmatize mental illness and bring awareness to preventative mental health care.

Special Guests: Shanti Das, Yashi Brown, Taboo

+ Spoken Word Poetry Performance by Maceo Paisley

Pre-Event Mix: DJ Anthony Valadez

Thousands of women around the world are rewriting their stories of darkness through radical self-love and healing. On this night we honor and uplift the women, activists, and communities that insist on emotional wellness and healing in the wake of sexual assault. We will feature a reading by grassroots cultural art movement Survivor Love Letter, performances by Natalie Patterson and Mary Lambert, and a panel discussion on healing and dismantling rape culture.  

Pre-Event Mix: Woman.

Reading: Tani Ikeda, Amita Swadhin, Akemi Look & Natasha Mmonatau

Performing: Natalie Patterson & Mary Lambert 

Panel: Dr. Nooshin Valizadeh, Natalie Patterson, Mary Lambert, Anna Cho-Fenley, Bamby Salcedo

Out of Los Angeles County’s 58,000 homeless population, it is estimated that 30% are mentally ill. To put this into perspective– that’s 17,400 people navigating the double-edged nightmare of both physical and mental crisis on some of the coldest streets of LA. This reality is nothing short of a state of emergency and it’s going to take effort from all of us to correct it. Join us for an informative discussion on how to be an advocate for those experiencing houselessness in Los Angeles.

Special Guests: DJ Misha, Skid Robot, Anthony Ruffin, Gabriela Garcia, Rudy Espinoza

This conversation takes a deep dive into the connection between poverty, violence, and oppression as a driving force for community trauma and mental illness. This powerful panel of artists, doctors and activists will explore the mental and emotional toll the prison system takes on incarcerated individuals and loved ones left behind. Our speakers provide real world advice on diverting individuals in a mental crisis with safe language and emergency alternatives.

Performance: Jasiri X + DJ Dazzler

Moderator: Bryonn Bain, Shaka Senghor, Joel Aguilar, Topeka Sam, Melina Abdullah

“Suicide: The Ripple Effect” is a feature length documentary film and MOVEMENT, currently in production, focusing on the devastating effects of suicide and the tremendous positive ripple effects of advocacy, inspiration and hope that are helping millions heal & stay alive. Join us in a conversation with Kevin Hines himself.

The film highlights the journey of Kevin Hines, who at age 19, attempted to take his life by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Today Kevin is a world-renowned mental health advocate, motivational speaker and author who travels the globe spreading a message of hope, recovery and wellness.

The film chronicles Kevin’s personal journey and the ripple effect it has on those who have been impacted by his suicide attempt and his life’s work since.  In addition, the film highlights the stories of individuals and families who are utilizing their personal tragedy to bring hope and healing to others.

Special Guests: Kevin Hines

Spoken Word Performance by Mila Cuda and Marcus James

a discussion on preventing and disempowering suicide…

Approximately one million lives are lost to suicide globally every year and yet, conversations on this non-discriminatory epidemic remain a cultural taboo. Silence and isolation are the allies of suicide that together, we can disempower with conversation and connectivity. It is past time for us to meet suicide with bravery and empathy. It is past time to illuminate hope where defeat has whispered its lies into the darkest corners of the mind. The time is now. We ask that you join us for a night of inspiring connectivity as we destigmatize suicide, one humanizing story at a time.

Spoken Word Performance by Mila Cuda and Marcus James

Special Guests: Kevin Hines, Katie Williams, Virginia Hedrick & Tom MacDonald

What are you setting the intention to let go of? Join us for a mental health informed yoga session that urges you with every breath you take, to let go of trauma, shame, anger, and all of the blockages that hold you back.

Lead by: Jessamyn Stanley & JoAnna Harper

With teens and millennials spending an average of 3.5 hours a day on social media, a conversation addressing online emotional and mental wellbeing is long overdue. Sure you may be able to scroll past nasty comments on your newsfeed without responding– and you might even feel that withholding a “like” from a tasteless meme is justice well served; But how is so much hyper-exposure to a digital world of verbal assault and judgement really playing on your long term mental wellbeing? How do you safeguard your online space and protect your emotional health? Join us for a conversation that digs into it.

Special Guests: Jessamyn Stanley & Lamont A. Compton (aka SUPREME of Wu-Tang)

Spoken Word Performance by Merrick Dozier & Paolina Acuna-Gonzalez

Join us for a night of fierce runway walks, voguing, flashing lights, and music bumping to leg kicks and finger snaps as we unapologetically let our hair down with a night of trans liberation and joy. The underground runway and voguing scene, quiet as kept, has been a cultural staple of safe space and expression within the black and brown LGBTQIA community since the 80’s. In 2013 The Banjee Ball, founded by Purple Crush emerged on the second floor of the Standard Hotel with an unyielding commitment to keeping the culture alive for young queer and trans people in search of a community to call home. Whether you’re an expert in the scene or a newbie, we invite to you catch this vibe live here at We Rise.

Join us for a conversation that addresses the unique issues of wellbeing within the LGBTQIA community. We will discuss the importance of representation and visibility as it relates to mental health while also engaging a critical dialogue elevating the intersection of self-love and acceptance of the entire spectrum of LGBTQIA experiences.

Who knew teaching your child to deep breathe could be this fun? Join us for a mid-morning special reading of mindful children’s storybooks with a few of LA’s most beloved entertainers and activists. Show your child how to calm their busy bodies and minds while picking up a few tips to use yourself.

Select readings include:
Visiting Feelings
Sitting Still Like a Frog
Good Morning Yoga
A Handful of Quiet: Happiness in Four Pebbles
Moody Cow Meditates

This is your opportunity to make beautiful screenprint posters with some of the pros from Self Help Graphics. Choose one of our uplifting messages and play with stacking designs so you leave with a one of a kind composition that carries words of wellbeing!

Strong Island chronicles the arc of a family across history, geography and tragedy – from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow South to the promise of New York City; from the presumed safety of middle class suburbs, to the maelstrom of an unexpected, violent death. It is the story of the Ford family: Barbara Dunmore, William Ford and their three children and how their lives were shaped by the enduring shadow of race in America. A deeply intimate and meditative film, Strong Island asks what one can do when the grief of loss is entwined with historical injustice, and how one grapples with the complicity of silence, which can bind a family in an imitation of life, and a nation with a false sense of justice.

YANCE FORD | Director, Producer

Yance Ford is a Sundance Institute Fellow, a Creative Capital Grantee and featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. A graduate of Hamilton College and the Production Workshop at Third World Newsreel, he is a former series producer of the PBS anthology series POV.  The Root 100 recently named Ford among the most influential African Americans of 2017 and in December the International Documentary Association will present him with their Emerging Filmmaker Award.

Get lost adding color to big wandering curves, organic patterns and weaving shapes. One of our onsite artists will be painting huge zentangle designs and you can make them your own by adding the color schemes that bring you calm and joy.

Who knew teaching your child to deep breathe could be this fun? Join us for a mid-morning special reading of mindful children’s storybooks with a few of LA’s most beloved entertainers and activists. Show your child how to calm their busy bodies and minds while picking up a few tips to use yourself.

Select readings include:
Visiting Feelings
Sitting Still Like a Frog
Good Morning Yoga
A Handful of Quiet: Happiness in Four Pebbles
Moody Cow Meditates

If we had known the truth about being an adult when we were kids we probably wouldn’t have wished so hard for it to happen, amma right? College exams seem to be every. Single. Week. The rules of dating have changed– and you’re still not sure what that even means. Everyone on your social media feed seems to be living a life of luxury with their perfect lovers and perfect bodies on exotic beaches, and you can barely figure out how to schedule a dentist appointment.. *deep exhale* It gets better. It really does. In the meantime, join us for a mental wellness crash course on surviving those first few years of adulting.

Special guests include: Kiara Williams, Whitney Bell, Jazmine Williams

Spoken Word Performance by Kiyah Gentle

Since the beginning of time civilizations have relied on art and expression to heal and enrich the lives of their communities.Today, the call for medicinal creativity is more urgent and valuable than ever as we examine antidotes for mental illness stigma and the dissolvement of the Prison Pipeline system. Join this powerful conversation of artists from all walks of life that are bravely nurturing the mental health of themselves and communities through the arts.  

Special Guests: Shamell Bell, Fabian Debora, Madame Gandhi, Jackson Browne and Amir Whitaker

Spoken word Performance by Benet Benton

Need a place to put all of your self-affirmations & gratitude lists? Learn how to create a simple fold book made of special paper and  let it be become your little labyrinth of self love!

Bring a friend to play with watercolor and experiment with the beauty of a medium that is so integral to our wellbeing.

Join us for a yoga and meditation session that urges you with every breath you take, to let go of trauma, shame, anger, and all of the blockages that hold you back. No experience necessary. Yoga mats provided.

Lead by: Green Tree Yoga

“Heaven Is a Traffic Jam On The 405 is the title of a short documentary about Alper directed by Frank Stiefel. The film recently earned a nomination for Best Short from the IDA Awards, and won audience and jury awards at both the Full Frame Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival. It opens with Alper contentedly biding time in bumper-to-bumper congestion.

Special Guest: Frank Stiefel, Filmmaker & Mindy Alper, Artist

Join us for a dance workshop by the Jabbawockeez.

Join us for a yoga and meditation session that urges you with every breath you take, to let go of trauma, shame, anger, and all of the blockages that hold you back. No experience necessary. Yoga mats provided.

Lead by : Millana Snow – Meditation and Reiki healer

Who knew teaching your child to deep breathe could be this fun? Join us for a mid-morning special reading of mindful children’s storybooks with a few of LA’s most beloved entertainers and activists. Show your child how to calm their busy bodies and minds while picking up a few tips to use yourself.

Select readings include:
Visiting Feelings
Sitting Still Like a Frog
Good Morning Yoga
A Handful of Quiet: Happiness in Four Pebbles
Moody Cow Meditates

We will be hosting special programming for veterans and their families.

Special performances by Skylar Grey, Jackson Browne, Michael Chiklis and The Americans

Compassionate ARTS in partnership with Posts for Peace and Justice Project facilitate community discussions about how we can come together in our communities. On Veterans Day, this workshop is an opportunity to get creative painting mini poles and talk about resources and inspiration specific to the mental health for those who have served.

Join rapper YG and Scott Budnick for a thought provoking conversation on prioritizing mental health in the wake of trauma. With combined years of systemic community trauma and the survival of his own near death experience, YG provides a critical, honest perspective on the social and personal battles of facing the wounds we can’t see.

The drum journey will allow the participants to take all that they experienced from We Rise & find their voice and become inspired & motivated to go out into the communities and help make the necessary changes by blazing a more inclusive & integrated pathway to healing.

Lead by Steven Angel – President of Drumming for Your Life Institute

Panel Discussion:  Healing Veterans Trauma Through the Arts

Performance: The Collective Memory Project

A Conversation on Veterans Mental Health and Wellness

Join Self Help Graphics & Art for an exciting evening of printmaking, music and creativity!

Since the beginning of time words have embodied the brilliance of fire. Containing the potential to both build and destroy, heal or harm, burn or cleanse. Words have lead both the charges of enslavement and liberation–self-love and self-destruction. Our very tongues are conductors for the most powerful medicine gifted upon mankind…when prescribed with love. Join us for an evening of performance and inspiration by the most talented word wizards and lingual architects of our time as we build a world with mental wellness in its foundation.

Hosted by: Shihan Ron Van Clief

Performances by:

Alyesha Wise, Poet

Matthew Cuban, Poet

The Get Lit Poets

Monique Mitchell, Poet 

Join us for a meditation session that urges you with every breath you take, to let go of trauma, shame, anger, and all of the blockages that hold you back. No experience necessary.

Lead by: Jessica Graham

Join Self Help Graphics & Art for an exciting afternoon of printmaking, music and creativity!

Join us for Family Night at WE RISE!

Activities include:

• Pizza dinner in the Art Lab (served from 5-6 pm)
• Gallery Tour & Youthink Workshop
• Spoken Word w/ Get Lit
• Radical Joy Dance w/ Shamell Bell

Join us for Family Night at WE RISE!

Activities include:

• Pizza dinner in the Art Lab (served from 5-6 pm
• Gallery Tour & Youthink Workshop
• Spoken Word w/ Get Lit
• Radical Joy Dance w/ Shamell Bell

Join us for Family Night at WE RISE!

Activities include:

• Pizza dinner in the Art Lab (first come first served so get here early!)
• Gallery Tour & Youthink Workshop
• Spoken Word w/ Get Lit
• Radical Joy Dance w/ Shamell Bell

Featuring performances by Boogie, Tommy The Clown, the T-Squad, and DJ Lil Buddha

You made it through an entire YEAR of studying 7 different subjects, harsh exams, your “real” first job, endless chores, hours of bus rides, break ups, make ups, and early wake ups. It wasn’t easy, but you did it! Now it’s time to celebrate and reflect on how far you’ve come!  Connect with other teens from all around the city for a night of dance, snacks, art, and music. Here’s to the start of an awesome summer!

In its current grip of over 21 million lives in the U.S., addiction knows no race, age, economic class, or social boundaries. It’s a slow, hypnotizing, and lethal killer and one that has generational impact. It is on us to educate, destigmatize, and heal the crisis.  Join Dr.Drew, Danny Trejo, and Dr. Hurley for a thought provoking conversation that explores the complexities of drug addiction and power of recovery.

Join us for a screening of the transcendent, Oscar-nominated documentary, HEROIN(E). A story of compassion and hope around the opioid crisis in Huntington, West Virginia.

Join us for an immersive We Rise experience.

Bring the whole family!  The We Rise Experience starts with an inspirational tour of our world class gallery followed by an art making session, spoken word poetry workshop and a Radical Dance workshop designed to empower. We’ll have programming for younger kids in our Art Lab so there’s something for everyone! This is a unique opportunity designed to affirm that we all deserve access to mental wellbeing.

Radical Dance will be from 11AM-12PM and 2PM-3PM- don’t miss it!

Space is limited so sign up today!

We Rise has sparked a movement. It’s time for us to take the inspiration born here and pay it forward into our work and our lives. Come have a special guided tour of this incredible gallery, enjoy refreshments and celebrate the launch of the next phase of the Why We Rise movement. This is just the beginning of our efforts to make mental health a civil right.

For more information go to werise.la.