VOCAL-NY Art + Storytelling Group

In 2023, Graham MacIndoe and I began facilitating an Art & Storytelling Group at VOCAL-NY's drop-in center in Brooklyn. VOCAL-NY serves people navigating substance use, mental health, housing, and other challenges, empowering community members to advocate for policies that support their dignity, rights, and health. With support from the Sprout Society, the Art & Storytelling group met 25 times in 2023-2024, reaching more than 60 participants who made art combining writing, drawing, collage, and photography. Some of their artwork was displayed at VOCAL-NY's 2024 open house as well as exhibited in the U.K. and at NYU Langone in New York City.

A Local Arts Support grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council helped us continue the Art & Storytelling group in 2025. Dozens of new and longtime VOCAL-NY participants have written about the black-and-white portraits Graham has taken, made drawings and collages, and created artwork filled with honesty, heartbreak, humor, and hope.

We’re especially grateful to all of the participants who shared their stories and opened up about how they think other people or the camera sees them, as well as how they’d like to be seen or view themselves. We’ve continued to exhibit their work, including as part of Gowanus Open Studios in Brooklyn and at the Reform conference in Detroit.

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Photos from a previous art and writing workshop Graham co-facilitated at VOCAL-NY in 2019 are online here, also published in a zine.