Ep 10: Immigration & Race w/Angelica Pinna-Perez
Dawn and Dr. Pinna-Perez begin by exploring the psychological impact of our country's current immigration policies on children. The conversation quickly evolves into an exploration of historical violence and traumatization of Black and Brown people. Angelica, a daughter of immigrants who were once undocumented, reveals the complexities of her current relationship with her parents who are both staunch Republicans and Trump supporters. This conversation is raw and impactful.
Note From the Stiletto Revolution #10: Use your privilege and put yourself on the front line.
Resources from this Episode: The Hill article , American Academy of Pediatrics statement , and The New Yorker article
Dr. Angelica Pinna-Perez Bio
Angélica Pinna-Perez Ph.D., LCAT, LICSW, REAT, RDT, is an Associate Professor in the division of Expressive Therapies at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she teaches graduates students arts based and trauma informed mental health counseling. She identifies as a scholar-activist-artist and also works as a clinician, artist and social action activist practicing community based mental health counseling in the greater Boston area. Clinical work includes pro-bono clinical services and running a non-profit which increases access for marginalized and disenfranchised peoples needing quality mental and holistic health services.
She has worked artistically, clinically and in advocacy in the US and abroad with an interest in transnational/transcultural and social justice expressive arts based work in the context of globalization since 2003. Current work centers creativity as a form of knowledge in arts based research which utilizes decoloniality. Scholarly interests are in the application of expressive arts in the service of understanding, reframing, and making meaning of trauma in individual and social contexts. Her work intends to center the voices and activism of marginalized and disenfranchised voices that have limited structural power within the profession and their societies. She uses a multi-method approach to explore the links between expressive arts making processes/creating, transnational/transnational discourses, globalization, and indigeneity to help inform strategies and interventions that can contribute to inclusive and relational arts based practices. She uses frameworks informed by feminist liberation psychology, human rights discourse, decolonial feminism, and social justice to organize her research, teaching, and outreach. Her research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed, within her discipline of Expressive Arts including oppressive social-political structures are internalized and how individual/social transformation can occur when using expressive arts therapy to change psycho-social schemas through the use of testimonios/storytelling.
Follow Dr. Pinna-Perez on IG @angelicapinnaperez and FB @cervitude