Series Workshop Retreat Performance

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Sponsoring Partners

Funding from the Eno River Fellowship Foundation supports the Our Bodies, Our Stories series in February and March 2024 for Triangle/Triad area participants to attend for free.

We are thankful to the Eno River Fellowship Foundation for generously supporting this evolving vision from the Flipping Cancer Project to renew focus on lived experiences of patients, caregivers, and health workers in our communities, in artful and interconnected ways.

We are graciously hosted by Rev. Jim Lewis, Minister of Pastoral Care at ERUUF and the Pastoral Care Associates.

We are also lucky to partner with community-driven nonprofits including the Resource Center for Women in Ministry in the South, alongside programs in area hospitals and medical education initiatives.

Facilitators

Marie Garlock, PhD (she/they), program facilitator for the series — Dr. Garlock is an artist-scholar, community-based researcher, and professional development/CME educator, whose research includes oral history, critical ethnography, and arts advocacy work (Performing Cancer Cultures: Activating for Healthcare and Environmental Justice). Marie co-leads story, dance/movement, public ritual, and artful community-building programs with people facing illness, injury, and injustice who join to imagine more just, spirited, and healthy worlds for us all.

Marie is thankful to communities of practice and legacies of loved ones for ongoing collaborations around advanced cancer and life-threatening illness experiences:

(a) Marie’s best friend/mama, and beloved community advocate Barbara Garlock’s experiences with stage IV metastatic breast cancer for 7 years

(b) Caregiving for multiple mentors with advanced cancers and family members with life-threatening illnesses as a young adult and new parent

(c) Collaborating in advocacy coalitions with communities in NC dealing with cancers and other health harms while exposed to coal ash waste and environmental racism (ACT Against Coal Ash, The Lilies Project); and with patient advocacy networks nationwide for people affected by healthcare coverage gaps and efforts for equitable healthcare quality (Breast Cancer Action, Poor People’s Campaign + USA Patient Network).

Stacy Grove, M.Div. (she/her), sound healing musician for the series — Rev. Grove is an interfaith chaplain and sound healing musician who has extensive experience collaborating with patients, caregivers, and multi-disciplinary healthcare providers in hospital settings, palliative care, pastoral care leadership, disaster relief, and hospice care settings. In local and global partnerships, Rev. Stacy is devoted to supporting our abilities to shift lineages of violence and displacement with reparative cultural action and interfaith collaboration.

Prior partnerships

Similar workshops and community-based performances, tailored to each partnership, have been hosted at:

• Hospital and Healthcare Settings — UNC Hospitals, Duke Cancer Center, Atrium Health / Levine Cancer Institute THINK (Treating Health Inequities with New Knowledge), Lineberger Cancer Center + Mountain AHEC (Coping with Cancer Pain Symposium), NC Clinical Pastoral Education Association, NC DHHS Office of Health Equity and Breast Cancer Action

• Universities — Residencies with Florida State University, UNC at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, University of Calgary Health Humanities, Louisiana State University, Florida International University / Miami Beach Urban Studios, North Park University Chicago, PSi at Leeds University

• Community-Based Organizations — Retreats for patients, caregivers, and health workers culminating with a public performance or creative installation co-shaped with participants