Artwork

Everett Kindness Rocks!

Welcome to Everett’s Kindness Rock Garden, a community space for kindness rocks! Located at the Tremont Street Community Garden at the corner of Tremont Street and Prescott Street in Everett, MA, this space invites anyone to spread kindness through sharing painted rocks. Anyone is encouraged contribute by taking, sharing, or painting their own rocks.

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The Everett Kindness Rock Garden was installed in May of 2021.

Many thanks to Everett Community Growers for lending their space for this project.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Everett Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

 
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Translations available:

 

español

 

“¡Bienvenido al Jardín de Rocas de Amistad de Everett, un espacio comunitario para rocas de amistad! Ubicado en el Tremont Street Community Garden en la esquina de Tremont Street y Prescott Street en Everett, MA, este espacio invita a cualquiera a difundir la bondad a través de compartir rocas pintadas. Cualquiera está animado a contribuir por tomar, compartir o pintar sus propias rocas.

El Jardín de Rocas de Amistad de Everett se instaló en mayo de 2021.

Muchas gracias a Everett Community Growers por prestar su espacio para este proyecto.

Este programa está financiado en parte por una beca del Consejo Cultural de Everett, una agencia local que cuenta con el apoyo deMass Cultural Council, una agencia estatal.

 

português

 

Bem-vindo ao Jardim de Pedras Carinhosas de Everett, um espaço comunitário para pedras carinhosas! Localizado na Horta Comunitária da Tremont Street, na esquina da Tremont Street e Prescott Street em Everett, MA, este espaço está aberto a qualquer pessoa que queira espalhar mensagens positivas por meio do compartilhamento de pedras pintadas. Todos são encorajados a contribuir pegando, compartilhando ou pintando suas próprias pedras.

O Everett Kindness Rock Garden foi instalado em maio de 2021.

Agradecemos ao Everett Community Growers por emprestar seu espaço para este projeto.

Este programa é apoiado em parte por uma doação do Conselho Cultural de Everett, uma agência local que é apoiada pelo Mass Cultural Council, uma agência estadual.

 

Arabic

 


مرحبًا بكم في حديقة Kindness Rock في Everett ، وهي مساحة مجتمعية للصخور التي تعبر عن اللطف في المعاملة!  تقع هذه المساحة في Tremont Street Community Garden عند زاوية شارع Tremont Street وشارع Prescott Street في Everett ، ماساتشوستس ، وهي تدعو أي شخص لنشر اللطف من خلال  تشجيع أي شخص على المساهمة من خلال أخذ الصخور او المشاركة بصخورهم الخاصة و الرسم عليها. 

تم تركيب Everett Kindness Rock Garden في مايو من عام 2021.

 شكراً جزيلاً لمزارعي Everett Community Growers لإعارة مساحتهم لهذا المشروع.

 يتم دعم هذا البرنامج جزئيًا بمنحة من مجلس إيفريت الثقافي ، وهي وكالة محلية يدعمها المجلس الثقافي بولاية ماساتشوستس، وهو وكالة حكومية.

 

Haitian Creole

 

Byenveni nan Jaden Wòch Jantiyès Everett la, yon espas kominotè pou wòch jantiyès! Sitiye nan Jadin kominotè ki nan kwen Tremont Street ak Prescott Street nan Everett, MA. Espas sa envite nenpòt moun ki gen jantiyès nan pataje wòch ki pentire. Nou ankouraje nenpòt moun kontribye nan pran, pataje, oswa pentire pwòp wòch pa yo.

Pwojè Everett Jaden Roch Jantiyèsn la te etabli nan mwa Me 2021.

Mèsi anpil a Everett Community Growers pou espas yo prete nou pou pwojè sa.

Pwogram sa sipòte an pati pa yon sibvansyon ki soti nan Everett Cultural Council, yon ajans lokal ki te sipòte pa Mass Cultural Council, yon ajans leta.

COVID-19 Memorial Beads Project

 
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Memorial jewelry made from funeral flowers is a common way to remember and honor the memory of someone lost, at least in my own cultural traditions. I’m embarking on a project to make a single bead in memory of each COVID-19 death to memorialize our collective loss here in the US. Each bead is made with red rose petals and has been rolled by hand with care. I have made over 1600 beads so far and plan to keep making as many as I can.

Here is a video that explains more about the project:

I’ll be hosting videoconference sessions, where anyone who has lost someone will be welcome to tell me about their loved one while I work the clay and form the beads, infusing the spirit of our conversation into the materials.

 
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If you would like to tell me about your lost loved one while I work the clay and form the beads, drop your email here and I’ll be in touch with when the next session will be.

Also, feel free to leave memories or stories about your loved one in the comments below so I can read them aloud while I work. I’d be honored to get to know something about them.

If you would like to sponsor the making of a bead or support the continuation of this project please donate so that I can keep working.

If you make beads like this with flower petals and would like to assist in this project, please contact me. Many hands make light work.

Healing Hands

 
Project as of 5/2/2020

Project as of 5/2/2020

 

We’ve all been working on keeping our hands clean, and thinking about how much disease and germs they can carry has been at the front of all of our minds. Here we all are, viewing our hands with suspicion, demonizing this part of our bodies. Don’t touch your face. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Don’t touch anything. Don’t shake hands with anyone. Don’t reach out.

But I’m a henna artist. I work with hands as the nature of my work: holding them, drawing on them, and connecting—both physically and emotionally—with my clients. Hands connect us. Shaking hands is often the very first thing we do when we meet someone new. We use hands to hug one another, dry each other’s tears, give a high five, feed our children, toss a ball back and forth. We use our hands to create: playing piano, crocheting, drawing, sculpting, dancing, or acting. We use our hands to communicate: waving hello, gesturing when we’re speaking, while communicating in sign language, writing a love note, typing an email. And when we’re reaching out to someone, calling for help, or to get someone’s attention, or even to pet a cat or dog, what we use first are our hands. 

With all this talk of the Coronavirus, there’s been a lot of emphasis placed on social distancing, canceling everything, staying home, and not connecting with one another. And many of us are anxious, lonely, isolated, and struggling. As an artist I have a unique capability to help. The nature of what I do brings joy, provokes thought, instills hope, and inspires action. And even though we have to keep our distance from one another, I’m working on an art project to help us combat our isolation and uncertainty. 

I invite you to take a piece of paper, trace your hand, and inside your hand write a message of encouragement on it. Something to help someone else keep going. If you feel like it, go ahead and put your name and location on it too. And then scan it and send it to me. I’ll print every hand and message I receive, cut them out, and make a giant interlocking paper chain of all of our hands and all our encouragement. 

Our hands are not just vessels to carry germs and make ourselves and others sick, but they are vital, powerful parts of ourselves that we use to connect, create, communicate, and console. And I may not be able to physically reach out and hold yours, but if you send me a tracing of it, I can. And I can connect it to all the others I receive. Because email still doesn’t carry germs.

Here is a video that explains more about the project:

Participate and upload your own submissions: https://forms.gle/6tkrgAUZuDvp8tKQ9 People are already having a hard time with this all the closures, disruption...

Submission Directions:

  • Trace around your hand on a sheet of paper. Feel free to use any 8.5x11 sheet, or download a worksheet here.

  • Inside your hand shape, draw or write words of encouragement to share and decorate it.

  • Add your name and city, if desired. I'd love to see where all these hands are coming from!

  • Scan and send your contribution via the Google Form

  • Share your submissions and join the conversation using #healinghandsart and join the Healing Hands group online

  • Donate if you can to offset the cost of supplies and help keep me able to print all your artwork

Tips:

  • As much as I hate saying this, be sure to keep inside the lines, I’ll be cutting all of these out after I print them.

  • These will be printed on a range of skin-tone color paper, so keep that in mind with your design.

  • Please upload PDFs only.

  • I’ll be printing on 8.5x11 sheets.

  • Connect with Henna Inspired for updates on this project.

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Did you know I'm supporting this Healing Hands project entirely on my own? This means I'll be unable to print any more submissions once my printer ink runs out. Please donate if you're able to support the continuation of this project.
Your contributions will go directly to paper, ink, and my continued efforts on future projects just like this one. Any amount of support you're able to give is greatly appreciated, even if it's only $1. Thanks in advance ❤️

 

Need help scanning?

If you have a smartphone, you have a scanner! You can use a free app like CamScanner to scan a photo to a PDF. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you have scan capability built in through the Notes app. Simply open a new note, select the camera icon, and then select “Scan to Documents.” Once you have your scanned PDF, feel free to email it directly to hennainspiredinfo@gmail.com if you have further trouble uploading your submission via the form.

 

Malden Reads: Influential Books

In November 2019, Alzayer was commissioned by Malden Reads to build a participatory traveling public art piece centered on reading. Participants were invited to write on an old book page the title and author of a book that has been influential to them and add it to the giant book sculpture, which will gradually collect a collage of book titles residents find to be influential. Malden Reads: Influential Books premiered on December 7, 2019 at Malden Reads’ Holiday Pop-Up Bookstore event and will appear at future Malden Reads Events.

Caged Ducklings

Prints available

In the early morning hours of August 2, 2019, Alzayer made a public statement regarding US policy to separate children from their parents at the southern border with an adaptation to the famous “Make Way for Ducklings” statue in the Public Garden.

Here is her statement regarding the piece:

The Mallards are an iconic immigrant family in Boston. In the book, they moved here for a better life, they were looking for a place to stay. And if that were to happen during this climate today, this would be their fate. And since the statue of them is absolutely so beloved, it’s a powerful metaphor about who we get upset about caging and who we don’t.

Holding those mylar blankets was really what made it real for me. They may provide warmth, but they do so in the coldest way possible. The thing that’s comforting about being wrapped in a blanket is the weight of it, along with the warmth. And there is absolutely no weight to those things. And they’re loud. The crinkling sound they make is almost deafening when you’re wrapped up in one. You can’t think over the sound of it. And when I thought of children, ripped away from their parents, and given only this, it’s a lot to take in. It almost feels that these specific materials are used on purpose, to provide warmth yet without comfort.

The ducklings seem small and delicate, but the cages were enormous. And holding those materials in my hands really made me think even more about the wrongness of what we’re allowing to happen in our name, and with our taxpayer dollars at these so-called migrant detention centers. I prefer to call them concentration camps, because that’s what they are.

I went by early Friday morning and saw that my installation had already been removed. And I think it’s interesting that the ducks can wear Easter bonnets, Red Sox hats, and Pats jerseys, but when it comes to what their real fate might be in this country as immigrants, it’s erased pretty quickly rather than opening up a conversation about that. And I think it speaks volumes about how quickly we can free someone who is caged when we think it’s important to do so.

Press

Featured in the book Ducks on Parade! edited by Nancy Schön

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bostons-duckling-statues-put-in-cages-to-protest-migrant-detention-centers/

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2019/08/02/make-way-for-ducklings-statue-cages

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2019/08/02/local-artist-cages-make-way-for-ducklings-statue-to-protest-child-detention-centers

https://www.jewishboston.com/make-way-for-ducklings-sculpture-briefly-embodies-political-statement/

https://www.wcvb.com/article/cages-placed-around-make-way-for-ducklings-statue-in-boston-public-garden-to-protest-detention-centers/28592902

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/08/02/boston-common-ducklings-cages/

https://whdh.com/news/local-artist-cages-make-way-for-ducklings-statue-to-protest-migrant-detention-centers/

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/455975-boston-artist-adds-cages-to-duck-statues-in-immigration-protest

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2019/08/ducks-in-detention.html

https://gregcookland.com/wonderland/2019/08/07/duckling-protest/

https://everettindependent.com/2019/08/15/i-had-to-say-it-alzayer-brings-attention-to-border-situation-using-ducklings/

http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/nancy-schon-sculptures-still-make-headlines/

Dedham Bunny Project

In 2018, Alzayer was chosen to decorate a 5-foot fiberglass rabbit sculpture as a fundraiser project for the Mother Brook Arts & Community Center in Dedham, MA. Alzayer named the piece “Penelope” and documented Penelope’s transformation on social media. “Penelope” was auctioned at MBACC’s annual fall fundraiser, and now resides in a private collection in Dedham, MA.

Wishing Wall for Everett

What’s your wish for Everett?

That’s a question Alzayer started asking residents with her traveling participatory piece “Wishing Wall for Everett.” Participants are invited to choose a colorful strip of fabric, make a wish, write their wish on the fabric, dip their fabric strip in the magical wishing well, and tie it on the wall so it can dry, setting the wish free to come true.

Traveling since July 2018, “Wishing Wall for Everett” has been collecting residents’ hopes and dreams, and it has slowly been filling up.

“Wishing Wall for Everett” is a traveling piece that makes appearances at various public city events throughout the year. Contact Alzayer if you’d like to see this piece at your next event.