Self Help Graphics & Art’s (SHG) Youth Committee uses reflections shared during SHG’s Wellness Wednesday sessions as inspiration for a new mural about stories of healing during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Artists and educators, Audacious IAM and Felicia Montes, facilitated the sessions, and Youth Committee members created a music component that accompanies the wheatpaste mural along 1st Street.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders, the overconsumption of social media has made people’s mental health suffer. The Youth Committee wants us to focus on the opposite end of that, on the new hobbies we may have picked up—the walks in our neighborhoods, the exercise routines, anything we’ve created, listened to or moved our bodies with to uplift our spirits. The piece reflects stepping away from the endless scroll of negative news cycles and into activities that bring us joy. Additionally, SHG hosted two additional wellness workshops during May connected to the mural topic.

The Self Help Graphics Youth Committee includes: Fariyan Alam, Jacqueline Aguirre, Citlaly Flores, Sonia Maturano, Sabrina Mendoza, Josiah O’Balles, Elizabeth Simon, Andrea Tupas and Ashley Valle.

Additional funding for the SHG Youth Committee was provided by The California Endowment.

This song was composed and recorded by Andrea Tupas and Fariyan Alam in 2021 as part of the Self Help Graphics Youth Committee.

Inspired by stories shared during Self Help Graphics & Art Wellness Wednesday sessions, the SHG Youth Committee created a collaborative art piece prompting viewers to step back from the endless scroll of negative news cycles and focus on activities that spark joy. The work features a temporary wheat paste mural at SHG, as well as this original musical composition.