Скачать или смотреть Beauty as Resistance: Art and Story as Healing Forces in Displacement

This webinar explores how storytelling, music, and art in displacement serve as acts of resistance, healing, and collective empowerment. From Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi, to colored neighborhoods in Colombia, this conversation highlights artistic practices reshaping individual well-being, community narratives, and policy discourse.

Speakers
Michael Spicher, Ph.D., is a philosopher and strategic aesthetics consultant who helps people and organizations integrate beauty into culture, design, and decision-making. With over 20 years of experience, he brings deep insight into how aesthetic values shape flourishing, having spoken at global events on design, fashion, and intentional space. Based in Boston, he teaches at several area universities and also directs the Aesthetics Research Lab.

Francisco Alcala Torreslanda is Co-Founder and Executive Director of HOME Storytellers. He has a background in corporate leadership and documentary storytelling. HOME Storytellers partners with refugees and marginalized communities to create hope-driven films and campaigns. Their new film, “We Name Ourselves,” explores how art becomes survival, restoring dignity, connection, and hope in the harshest conditions.

Juan Pablo Franco Jiménez, Blumont’s Country Director in Colombia, leads programs improving humanitarian assistance, self-reliance, durable solutions, and integration for migrants and internally displaced persons. Previously with Colombia’s government for seven years, he is an Industrial Engineer, Political Scientist, and holds a Summa Cum Laude master’s in Public Affairs from Sciences Po.
Facilitator

Stephanie Acker, co-founder of Home Ground Lab, is a policy and communications practitioner whose work has centered on ‘home’ and has held roles with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, UNICEF, and the European University Institute. She has a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.