Workshops
Cha Studios hosts interactive workshops designed to expand creative practices by introducing artists and community members to unique crafting techniques paired with guided meditation. These gatherings cultivate a peaceful, collaborative environment that supports creative freedom, connection, and collective expression.
The Art of Haitian Sequins/Beadwork
Event Title: The Art of Haitian Beadwork
Date: November 9th, 2025
Location: Baltimore Unity Hall
Attendance: 26 participants
Cha Studios hosts a workshop on the art of Haitian beadwork, offering participants an immersive introduction to the cultural and spiritual lineage of Haitian Vodou. The session explored the history and symbolism of Haitian Vodou flags, highlighting their intricate sequin and beadwork traditions. Attendees learned foundational and advanced techniques for working with sequins, and beads gaining hands-on experience in crafting their own pieces. Through this workshop, Cha Studios provided artists with both cultural context and practical skills, empowering them to incorporate Haitian bead and sequin techniques into their own creative practices.
You Are Not Alone Youth-led Workshop Series
Project Title: Identifying school-related mental health stressors and opportunities for intervention through youth-led participatory research
Dates: September - December 2022
Location: Virtual
Community Partner: HeartSmiles founded by Joni Holifield
Participants: 4 youth leaders and 17 participants
Award/Funding: $10,000 grant awarded by Johns Hopkins Consortium for School-Based Solutions
The main goals of this project were to create a space to allow students to share their perspectives regarding mental health stressors related to school during the COVID-19 pandemic, identify opportunities to address mental health stressors, and position youth leaders as advocates among a larger community audience. During the workshops, students identified a multitude of stressors inside and outside of the school environment that made learning challenging during the height of the pandemic and at the present time. Three major themes arose during the discussions about stressors: school work overload, heightened concern about illness, and a lack of sustained emotional and financial support (i.e., food assistance through electronic benefit transfer cards) provided by their school during the pandemic. Additionally, preliminary results obtained from our post workshop survey indicated that a majority of the students either strongly agreed or agreed that the workshops effectively: summarized student mental health stressors related to COVID-19, identified opportunities to address student mental health stressors related to school, helped bring focus on school mental health to larger community audience, and supported youth leaders to advocate on school mental health.
A total of 17 participants between the ages of 14 and 17 (mean 15.7, SD 1.3) participated in the workshops. A majority of the participants identified as Non-Hispanic (100%) Black (94%). As part of the eligibility criteria, all participants attended high school in Baltimore City. Our team faced a major challenge in implementation when we were unable to obtain IRB approval to facilitate the post-workshop sustainability events. In order to address this issue, we completed a second series of workshops which allowed us to incorporate feedback we received from the first series of workshops to improve the second series and add more engaging activities created by the youth facilitators to the workshops. We were also able to reach more high school students in Baltimore City through referrals from former participants.
