Hi, this is Najee Brown and I’m just so excited about this weekend we had three Incredible days at Green Acre Bahá’í Center of Learning doing the SeaCHANGE conference.

I just can’t begin to say how excited and how proud and like over the moon I am of what I experienced this weekend—people just opening up and being vulnerable and showing their humanity like never before, simply because they felt like they were in a safe space.

“Honestly I came here just wanting to create art, just being open-minded, not really knowing what to expect, and I came out with so much more than I could have ever hoped for. So that was something that was really beautiful about this experience and I just hope to do this again someday.”

“If I could describe this weekend in one word it would be ‘replenished,’ ‘potential,’ ‘invigorating,’ ’transformational’.”

“There were so many elements of how we were able to weave the creativity and the gifts of the artists, and the musicians, and the dancers here, and then seeing how the young and the old and people from so many identities and backgrounds came together. It’s so rare to be in that space, so it really exceeded my expectations.”

“One of the greatest parts of this gift, the little bit that I’ve been able to be here, was the diversity of the people, of different ages and different backgrounds, but the warmth—the warmth that was felt here the minute and I walked in the door, and the motivation behind the themes to help one another.”

“The only thing I can do is just sing, but art is more than that—you know, just singing—it’s everything.”

“I saw the dance instructors that were going to be leading workshops and I was really looking forward to, as a disabled person, some of the benefits and knowledge those people would bring to me through SeaCHANGE conference and I got that.”

“What feeds me is the heart and the spirit and even the body, and this weekend was this gorgeous collaboration between all of those elements: not just the mind, but the heart, and the spirit, and the body—and that is medicine.”

“I learned that I don’t have to be out here alone anymore, and I don’t have to hide who I am anymore.”

“Seeing folks interact with some of the artwork that was on the wall, particularly a piece called ‘Unbound’ by Arya Badiyan, which was about hair, and it was about hair filling the space of this picture—and it’s a beautiful, beautiful painting—but I got to see four different women respond to that in such a deep and visceral way. It obviously meant so much more than just the hair—it was about freedom.”