The Healing Project was conceived in 2014, when artist and activist Samora Pinderhughes set out to interrogate systemic oppression and articulate paths to individual and communal healing by bringing together the stories of people impacted by structural violence.

At the time, Pinderhughes was studying with mentor Anna Deavere Smith, who invited him to make an interview-based artistic work for her Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University. What began as a small experiment of 10 interviews in Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco, expanded into a six year process of recording testimonials from over 100 intergenerational voices across 15 U.S. states. These conversations reflect the complex realities of trauma in our narrators’ communities while highlighting methods of care that help them survive, recover, and flourish. They serve as the thematic and sonic backbone of The Healing Project’s work.

After completing the interviews, Pinderhughes expanded The Healing Project’s community by inviting world-class artists to create musical and visual meditations responding to the interviews’ central themes. A first set of works from this collective of artists, including a full-length album, short films, museum exhibition, and live concert, premiered internationally in 2022-2023, at institutions including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Carnegie Hall. In 2023, we launched The Healing Project Workshop, a program that sustains partnership with members of our original interview cohort through artistic and advocacy-oriented projects.

Throughout The Healing Project’s evolution, a diverse advisory board—which includes renowned artists, sociologists, nonprofit leaders, lawyers, community organizers, and currently and formerly incarcerated people—has guided our growth. Today, The Healing Project provides a searing examination of structural violence in the United States and amplifies our narrators’ powerful stories to illuminate a different way forward. The Healing Project is a palpably empathetic endeavor, uniting those who have been silenced with storytellers to create deeply affecting art and inspire action rooted in connectivity, compassion, and beauty.