#137 Maria Elena Ferrer-Harrington "Artist and Consultant"

Maria Elena Ferrer-Harrington is the Executive Director of Humanamente — a diversity and inclusion consulting organization, Chair of the Athena Network New York — a psychosocial support network in the area of social services, health, and specifically in mental health, for immigrants experiencing psychological challenges related to the migratory process, a board member of the Family of Woodstock — a network of individuals whose mission is to provide confidential and fully accessible crisis intervention, information, prevention, and support services to address the needs of individuals and families, and a socially engaged artist.Maria Elena has successfully facilitated migration-related workshops since 2004. As a member of the global Athena Network Association, Maria Elena has presented her work with immigrants at the network’s annual Migration and Mental Health congress in London, Rome, Berlin and Brussels. She introduced the concept of migratory mourning nationally in 2012, and has since led migratory-mourning panel discussions at several conferences.She is a member of the Arts Mid-Hudson Advisory Board, and has been recently appointed by Kingston’s Mayor, Steve Noble, to the City Arts Commission. Maria Elena’s drawings and paintings were recently exhibited at the Muroff–Kotler Visual Arts Gallery at the State University of New York at Ulster awarding her the opportunity to show her artwork at highly regarded Plaza Gallery of the State University of New York in Albany in 2019. She juried the Cornell Creative Arts Center’s very first exhibition, "We’re All Humans," and inaugurated The DRAW’s new studio at the Energy Square with her art installation, "Masking Identities: Rebuilding Deterritorialized Cultural Memories," a deep dive into the complexity of the migrant’s narrative and experience. Both art shows are open to the public through October 2020.Today she shares her own experience as a migrant, what migratory mourning is, the complexities of migration, rebirthing and of course ART!Today's show was engineered by Manuel Blas of La Dosis Perfecta.Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected] me a voicemail with your thoughts or a few words about who inspires you! (845) 481-3429** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IThttp://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcastITUNES | SPOTIFY | STITCHERITUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-want-what-she-has/id1451648361?mt=2SPOTIFY:https://open.spotify.com/show/77pmJwS2q9vTywz7Uhiyff?si=G2eYCjLjT3KltgdfA6XXCASTITCHER: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/she-wants/i-want-what-she-has?refid=stpr’Follow:INSTAGRAM * https://www.instagram.com/iwantwhatshehaspodcast/FACEBOOK * https://www.facebook.com/iwantwhatshehaspodcastTWITTER * https://twitter.com/wantwhatshehas