Dez

Hey there!

I'm Dez, an Oakland-based youth educator, storyteller, poet, experience creator, and artist whose work focuses on personal and collective healing -- the type of restoration that acknowledges, accepts, and brings light to the hidden parts of our deeper selves. I have created group and individual art experiences centered around normalizing ritual, nature, and sensuality in fun and interesting ways that bring about healing by reducing the shame and trauma associated with different aspects of being human.

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My work has been experienced through interactive installations for Guerrilla Science and Eclipse Festival, in a collection of poetry and paintings created at the Nuoren Voiman Liitto writing/art residency in Sysma, Finland, as well as through several collaborations across the Bay Area.  As a youth educator I am passionate about providing safe spaces for young humans to explore identity, self-love, nature, and creativity through art and performance with social-emotional learning (SEL) based curriculum. I have worked with Soul Shoppe, Oakland Leaf, and served on the board of Oakland Youth Aspire as the curriculum director. In addition to being a Gaia Passages Mentor, I work as a cognitive instructor at Axiom Learning.