Community Engagement
Sally Ramirez enjoys partnering with people who are marginalized so that they can speak and record their own personal truths.
Her practices are steeped in ethnographic rituals in which she places people at the center of her work so that they move and guide the artistic process forward. The first step of the process is to immerse herself in their environment and gather information about their experiences through oral stories, videos and/or photographs. She then creates a safe space for individuals to transmit their truths through art. Sally has collaborated with Dream Act Oklahoma, Living Arts, and Jose Torres Tama’s Taco Truck Theater in order to create art that is a vehicle for social change.
From 2014-2017, she co-founded a summer arts camp called Inside-OUT and taught an abstract painting course to students from low-income communities. During their time together, they created abstract shower curtains. The children utilized the curtains as painted abstract journal entries of their feelings by breaking away from class when they felt necessary to access and release the complexities of trauma in a non-verbal state.
In 2017, she collaborated with Dream Act Oklahoma and Living Arts to create a two month workshop called Videos Without Borders. In this workshop, participants who are undocumented and/or close allies, had the opportunity to speak their truth through video diaries.
In 2016 she collaborated with the Living Arts in their multi-disciplinary exhibition highlighting the state of homelessness in Tulsa. She collected stories from individuals who experienced homelessness and then collaborated with artists in order to create a 10 minute performance called “The Things She Carried”. The performance told Wakayla’s story of how she felt discrimination because of the types of bags that she carried in wealthier neighborhoods. The performance debuted in "7 Stories, 7 Doorways".
From 2015-2017 she wrote and performed with the Tulsa ensemble, Taco Truck Theater/ Teatro Sin Fronteras. Created and led by Jose Tores Tama, through performance art, individuals who are undocumented and close allies explored the anti-immigrant hysteria in the USA and lingering legacy of white supremacy against bodies of color. https://torrestama.com/index.html
Two students during Inside-OUT summer arts camp utilizing the Safe Space during class time.
"The Things She Carried" starring Aqueela Ali and Sally Ramirez.
