4th Annual Asian Pacific American Festival of the Arts
Alchemy of Memory

4th Annual Asian Pacific American Festival of the Arts

Alchemy of Memory

May 30th, 2026, 10am - 12pm

“Invisible Boundaries: Healing the Internal Landscape”

by Juliann Wang at 10am - 10:30am 

3314 S Morgan st Chicago - Storefront Gallery

​

​

Alchemy of Memory is a community-centered workshop that explores how personal histories—especially challenging or painful ones—can be honored, transformed, and carried forward with intention.

Rather than focusing solely on what has been lost, the program emphasizes embracing the past, processing lived experiences, and imagining what comes next. Participants are invited to bring an object that symbolizes a difficult or pivotal moment in their lives—such as a business setback, family transition, migration, illness, or personal struggle—and reflect on how that experience shaped who they are today.

Through intimate conversation, guided writing, and shared ritual, community members gather to release emotional burdens that no longer serve them and to reclaim agency, strength, and hope for the future. The workshop functions as a collective space for storytelling, care, renewal, and forward momentum.

​

“Invisible Boundaries: Healing the Internal Landscape”

by Juliann Wang
30 min. Music/Medication opening session for the workshop with acoustic instrumentation.
 

A guided meditation and intention-setting through music and words. Leading a change in pace, perception, and timing to draw intention from our own internal perceptions as a chance to ground and renew. The act of invoking the pace of nature to alter and enhance our current state is central to my work, leading engagements with various communities and spaces to connect with each other and our deep inner well of peace within daily strife and personal challenges to create harmony.

 

_____________________________________________________________________

​​​

About the Facilitator:

​

Sam del Rosario LCSW is originally from the North Side of Chicago, is a product of the Chicago Public Schools, and graduated from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice in 2001 when it was just SSA. He has worked as an Elder Abuse Investigator at Metropolitan Family Services and as a social worker at Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly working with socially isolated seniors. For the last 18 years he has worked as a hospice social worker taking him to all sides of the city and currently works at Unity Hospice where he supports patients and families on the South Side. 

 

Sam is also a graduate of the Second City Writing Program and if he is not too far behind in his clinical documentation, he is a writer who draws from his experiences as a social worker exploring themes of grief and loss, strength and resilience, and sometimes superpowers and laser swords. 

​

Nina Dinh, LSW is a born and raised Marylander currently living in Chicago, IL. She has a diverse educational background in computer science, global studies, and most recently, social work. She has centered her professional career around building resources for communities across an array of social issues. This includes developing a mini grant program for disinvested neighborhoods in Buffalo, assisting in advocacy research for immigrant legal representation in New York, and planning the implementation of a city-wide strategic plan addressing gender-based violence & human trafficking in Chicago. She currently works as an assistant bereavement coordinator for Unity Hospice, providing grief support resources to families across Chicagoland. She is grounded by her creative practices in music and fiber arts, hoping to incorporate these artistic and somatic experiences more directly into her work. Her newest side quests include taking Vietnamese lessons and sewing a quilt.

​

​

​​

​

Follow @OhArtFoundation on Instagram or Join Us for updates and behind-the- scenes previews

​

Inquiries - info@ohartfoundation.org

​

​

​