Calling all artists and activists! Enter a portal to the world as we dream it. Whether you're seeking new ways to express yourself, craving creative tools to connect with your community, or yearning to experience firsthand how beauty creates justice, this program helps us reimagine our creative practices as acts of care and resistance. From the clothes we wear to the architecture that surrounds us, aesthetics—the way we perceive and create meaning through beauty and art—are a powerful tool for healing, justice, and liberation. 

Structured around themes like memory, care, ritual, embodiment, and imagination, and through case studies spotlighting artists like Lauren Halsey and Ana Mendieta, hands-on exercises, and practical examples, Patrisse Cullors empowers participants to use creativity to challenge oppressive systems, nurture connection, and build sustainable futures.

Joining Patrisse in conversation is advocate and PUSH The Next Generation founder, Ashley Jackson. 

Patrisse Cullors is the co-author of The New York Times bestseller When They Call You a Terrorist and an educator, artist, and abolitionist from Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart and has been on the frontlines of the abolitionist movement with Black Lives Matter, Justice LA, Dignity and Power Now, and Reform LA Jails. Also the founder of The Center For Art and Abolition, Cullors has popularized the term “Abolitionist Aesthetics” to challenge artists to aestheticize abolition.

Her current Skirball exhibition, Wishes Made Material runs through February 28, 2027.

Ashley L. Jackson is the founder of PUSH The Next Generation, an organization dedicated to cultivating moral imagination in emerging leaders. Rooted in civic repair, coalition building, and human dignity, her advocacy ranges from leading a food justice campaign with PETA to championing survivors with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Her storytelling extends that commitment. A writer (A Different World, Netflix) and producer, Ashley is a graduate of Spelman College and USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program. Through Rainbow Child Productions, she is developing a documentary on the life and legacy of her father, Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., alongside other projects centering on social change. Ashley is an inaugural EXODUS Leadership Forum Fellow under Van Jones and a 2026 Beerman Fellow for Peace and Justice.