el arkin (they/them) is a student in healing our relationship to place, publics, and purpose through collaborative connection. el identifies as an interdisciplinary artist/educator/chef/clown/host who reassembles meanings through non-linear, place-based sensory awareness and pedagogies. They dabble in many realms including relational therapy through food, public art conversations, public play, landscaping, citizen science, and urban ecology. They are interested in the roots of connection to place and our bodies as a site of un-doing dominant generational narratives, land ownership, and racisms. They are driven by embodiment practices, liberation, radical dharma, meals with friends, and queer dance floor spaces.
el is currently pursuing their Masters of Art Education in Public Practice at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They completed their undergrad in Environmental Design (honors) at the University of British Columbia (May of 2016). They are also a co-founding member of frida&frank (2017-2019), an urban catalyst group bringing pop-up ping pong to public spaces in Vancouver, BC. From 2020-2022 they worked as a landscaper and garden designer with Oak Mountain Gardens learning about and planting California native plants throughout the Bay Area. They have also catered events, hosted parties, performed drag, and other shenanigans.
VALUES: Work with not for. anti-capitalist; we can’t live sustainably on this planet with capitalism. period. anti-racist; we can’t work together without recognizing the impacts of race and systemic racism. decolonization; means land back and embodying a deeply relational worldview.
el’s work/knowledge is informed both by thought and action leaders/communities (specifically Black and Indigenous femmes and queer visionaries) who have been doing this work for generations as well as with their friends, teachers, and experiences learning through people just by being alive everyday. Spending time with the more than human world has also shaped this knowledge.
writers currently shaping el: bell hooks, adrienne maree brown, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Audre Lorde, Paulo Freire, Mariame Kaba, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Octavia Butler, NK Jemisin…
“Openness. It's a concept that I often contemplate on a regular basis. Sometimes I catch myself in a paradox of sorts, where when I think I have everything figured out, but I really know nothing at all. Anything can lead to everything, and chance reigns supreme. People, characters, stories; all glimpses and illusions which we build upon our own inner schema. A fabric which has been woven out of our experiences." -el, 2016
~ virgo sun - virgo moon - cancer rising - libra mercury - libra mars - leo venus ~
~~~mycelium~~~
have an idea? need someone to chat it out over a meal with? wanna host an event? wanna pay me to do something?
let’s connect ~ ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ