Sweet Herbal Honey Apothecary
Indigo & Cowrie Freedom Village Project
Honeycomb BiPOC Digital Archive
Sweet Herbs Herbal
Online Shop & Market Vendor
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Sweet Cause Donation Fund
Bees of the Indigo Ancestral Project
The Legacy Bearers
Dreamers-in-Residency Project
Ase' O community Arts & Wellness Education Program
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“Education is the most powerful 'gift' which you can use
to change the world”.
–
Activist and Ancestor Nelson Mandela
Our Roots
Asé O Descendants of Roots & Legacy is an educational initiative under Sweet Herbal Honey Apothecary LLC that promotes the power of community, the arts, wholistic health, and educational liberation. We ground ourselves in the power of expression that breathes life into learning through creative practice and world-building.
As descendants of resilient, communal, and creative ancestors of the diaspora, each person who joins this work with us joins us in carrying the torch of legacy, bridging the sacred wisdom(s) of expression, activism, intergenerational healing, and community bridging.
Our mission is to provide explorative and imaginative learning environments that empower our understanding of the world around us and our role in social change.
We believe that arts and wellness can ignite the spark of creativity, informing space for critical thought that empowers research, reflection, community solution building, world mapping, and the accessibility of creating an equitable world.
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Introduction to Natural Dyeing & Painting Workshop:
"Mural to our Ancestors"
Partnership with Abundant Beginnings Freedom Forest School
Oakland, CA
Introduction to Natural Dyeing & Painting Workshop:
In partnership with Lion Creek Apartments || Teen Creative Camp
Oakland, CA
Our mission is to use creativity to expand minds and unveil new pathways that support individuals learning abilities, creative passions, careers, and potential teaching interests that welcome new ways to use their natural gifts and interest(s). This support in expansion and imagination brings forth the necessary tools that uplift healthy minds, expand hearts, and cultivate a brighter intergenerational future.
Asé O centers the exploration of life through the lens of creative practice that gives participants the nurturing space to explore and practice the research, discovery application, and radical action of using a creative expression for unpacking trauma and intergenerational patterns while embracing new perspectives of healing, personal fulfillment, global liberation, and social change.
This discovery constructs through the lens of the Socio-Ecological Model and Social Change Ecosystem of understanding our part in collective social change.
We fight to make teamwork, the dream work
in and beyond the classroom
We offer teaching, coaching, curriculum development, project coordination, and program development services to our community partners and families.
Through our program projects and community partnerships, we collaborate and provide teaching opportunities to community facilitators to provide learning experiences that uplift radical healing, skill development, and Indigenous sovereignty.
Through our short and long-term projects:
- Youth and Adult workshops
- Healing Arts 1:1 & Group sessions
- Arts Integrative Camps
- K-12 Semester & Year Term classes
-High School Artist Portfolio Development (Art, Beauty & Barber School) with professional readiness support
-Curriculum & Arts Instructional Material Development
-Google Classroom: Social breakdowns for organizations, collectives, educators, and parents & 206 Book List by BIPOC authors
We provide multidisciplinary arts lessons and projects that bridge cultural, historical, and creative connections for new and seasoned BIPOC creatives to introduce their field through teaching and expand their teaching pedagogy.
We cater our learning environments to bridge essential gaps and create accessible long-term strategies and opportunities with BIPOC communities in the U.S. and internationally.
Asé O Foundations
Community Care
Legacy building
Each one, Teach one
Inquiry- based learning
Empowerment
Cultural &Ancestral Awareness
Wholistic Development
Key Areas of Focus
Learning & Understanding
Collaboration & Community
Critical & Creative Thinking
Skill Development
Exploration
Learning
Practice
Expression
Self, Socio, Cultural & Global Awareness
Analyzation & Research
Problem-Solving & Inquiry based learning
Healing Our Lineages
Workshop led by Jaee Sumter | June 15, 2024
- Altar Building - Intuitive Painting & Sound Meditation
- Ancestral Candle lighting - Honoring our Matriarchs: Letters to our Ancestors
Sponsored by Sweet Herbal Honey Apothecary Sweet Cause Donation Fund
Curriculum & Lesson Plan: Arts technique, Cultural Arts & Artivism, Elements of Art, Arts integration, Arts Social Emotional Learning
Programming: Including how to integrate Arts & Wellness into schools.
Donor Spotlight:
BIG thank you to Michael Bobino, Co-Founder of F&M Publishing LLC in Oakland, CA for donating these phenomenal books! Learn more about F&M below
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F&M Publishing merges Augmented Reality with literature to create fun, educational and interactive ways to experience reading. F&M provides an opportunity for artists to discover and showcase their literary talents. Expanding on their creations through the use of technology.
Social Emotional Learning Through the Arts:
Meditation Lesson | 3rd Grade
World Building Project:
Creative Entrepreneurship & Neighborhood- Community Development
4th Grade | Dream Big Art Camp
The Artivism of Environmental Healing Summer CAMP
The Artivism of Environmental Healing CAMPS
The Activism of Environmental Healing is a one or two-week youth-centered camp that unpacks the multi-purposeful collaborative effort of agricultural practices that foster healing, socio-historical understanding, emotional balance, exploration, water accessibility, creativity, and sovereignty. Through centering the power of land as a form of resilience, resistance, community healing, accessibility, and arts empowerment as social activism, participants will learn sovereign and creative healing practices that promote whole person and social-emotional learning.
The camp includes topics of herbal medicine, crop growing, poem writing, meditation, water projects, murals, nature photography, composting, and more to promote creative education and healthy living. This focus will introduce students to learning the power of ancestral indigenous land and allow them to leave this two-week camp experience with a wholistic understanding of the foundational pathways that produce self-sustainment, community service, teamwork, social liberation, environmental justice, meditation, and skill development through the creative arts.
The Artivism of Environmental Healing Eco-Arts Camp
Two-Week Camp with the Museum of Children's, Art, Oakland, CA - Summer 2024 | 8-11 years old
Week 1: The Healing Power of Water at Leona Heights Park
Week 2: The Power of Our Land at Castlemont Hight School
Camp Developer, Director and Manager
The Artivism of Environmental Healing Eco-Arts Camp
Two-Week Camp with the Museum of Children's, Art, Oakland, CA - Summer 2024 | 8-11 years old
Week 1: The Healing Power of Water at Leona Heights Park
Week 2: The Power of Our Land at Castlemont Hight School Farm
- Guest Facilitators: Donte' Clarke & Alicia Davalos
Camp Focuses & Themes
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Purpose of Community & Urban Gardens
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History of Farming & Neighborhood Effort
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Community Art and Wellness
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What is Economic & Environmental Justice?
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What are Food Swamps & Deserts?
Past Camp Lessons
1. The Magic of Caring for the Land
2. Journal Making & Reflections
3. Agriculture & the Foundations of Soil
4. Documentation: Photography & Reflections
5. Poems to our Ancestors & The Land (mini book)
6. Herbal Medicine 101
7. Morning Water Meditations
8. Bridging the Gap Banners
9. ‘Give Thanks’ Mixed Medium Nature Altar
10. Yes H20! Water Cycle Painting Group Mural Activity
11. Life’s Balance: River Boats
12. Chanting to the River: Nature Instruments
and Singing Exercise
To host AEH at your community location and introduce to you community, please email us!
We would love to work with you to share this precious and vital knowledge with your youth and/or adults. We bring on guest facilitators or work directly with your educators to support students artivism, stewardship exploration!
Instructional Development
We develop Instructional Worksheets, Curriculums, Lessons, Program & Division Implementations, and Camps Programming for families, collectives, healing spaces, organizations and traditional/nontraditional schools. All instructional documents and posters are developed by our director to best support you!
Ase' O Implementation
*Implementing our program into your community, home, and organization.
Full Implementation includes 80 pages of exercises, lessons, videos, resources, and practices we use within our program. Our program supports you in incorporating Health & Wellness into any classroom, organization, home, or alternative learning environment.
Our Program Implementation was developed by our Program Founder & Director, Janae' "Jaee" Sumter.
All examples are active samples derived from Janae's six years of teaching arts integration with K-12 and adults in the U.S. and Internationally. Jaee has worked in learning sectors that include Charter, International, Boarding Public Schools, Shelters, Service Centers, Museums, Galleries, universities, Afterschool programs, Athletic Clubs, Gardens, Forest Freedom Schools, etc... Schools, Charter five years Jaee teaching experiences.
Community Facilitators:
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We support new and interested artists in teaching through instructional coaching. We help you build and construct the necessary skills in your educational development within and beyond the classroom. This development includes community and time management, educating through the lens of your craft, curriculum building, lesson planning, teaching pedagogy,, etc...
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We hire a guest facilitator of all creative fields to facilitators community sessions and workshops. We welcome disciplines: Poets, comedians, visual artists, dancers, chefs, musicians, yoga & dance, public speakers, safe sex educators, herbalists, wellness practitioners, farmers, etc...
How?
Schools, Businesses, Nontraditional Learning & Organizations:
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We support schools, organizations, alternative schools and centers with curriculum development and supporting their teachers in building upon their professional development and team building.
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We support organizations through professional development workshops where we use arts and wellness activities for team building. such as meditation, reflection, arts integration, social emotional learning through the arts.
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We support our partnerships and collaborators through introducing our program to shelters, forest schools, service centers, alternative learning environments, youth and adults' organizations.
Ase' O Curriculum
includes
- Mini Curriculums
1. 1st & 2nd Grade - Arts and English for Second language learners
2. Social justice
3. Arts Intergration
4. Social Emotional Learning Through The Arts
5. Arts Techniques / Elements of Art
6. Community Arts
- 208 books from BIPOC authors
Includes themes and book list
- Printable Art worksheets
- Student Showcases
with Run of Show examples
- Access to Google Classroom
-social breakdowns
- Student examples
- Syllabus samples and student artist studies
- Arts-literacy based homework
- Lesson for Adult Arts workshops
Community Framework:
Honoring Our Narratives
208 community-oriented books by POC authors for youth & adults
Book Themes:
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Experimenting Visually
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Exploring Poetry & Creative Writing
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Understanding History
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Remembering the Honoring: Times & Story tell Gifted by Our Ancestors & Elders Legacy
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Caring for LGTBQIA & Gender Identity
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Reclaiming Culture & Identity
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Being Mindful with our Practices and Skills
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Food for the Soul
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Centering Multicultural Traditions
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Fighting for Justice & Equality
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Healing Community
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Moving through and with Grief & Loss
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Living joyously in our hair
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Honoring the land: Herbalism & Farming
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Embodying our Ancestors & Community Land
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Self-love is Community Love
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Celebrating Diversity
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Aligning with our Dreams
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Teaching Sex Education, Consent & Body Safety
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Supporting Trauma Healing & Mental Health
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Moving towards Financial Independence & Wealth
Interactive Installation: Community Mural & solutions Wall// Black Healing Summit in partnership with Community Interventions, Bakersfield, CA, February 2024
Coaching
Arts Instructional Coach & Certified Creativity Coach ‘21
Jaee’s creativity coaching centers on the personal and professional challenges that creative-based educators, artists, and entrepreneurs face. With in-depth experiences of moving through these liberatory pathways, Jaee uses their coaching to deprogram the starving artist narrative and uplift the power of creativity and arts integration whole person learning as pathways towards liberation and intergenerational bridging. Jaee also supports individuals with envisioning creative and practical approaches to personal challenges.
Jaee supports creators by working 1:1 with you to:
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Explore creative self-marketing techniques (beyond socials)
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Generate creative business and project proposals
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Develop business cards, websites, portfolios, CVs/Resumes, and bios
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Build creative programming (exhibitions, art shows, comm. circles, events)
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Create multiple creative streams of income based on your creative field.
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Develop arts teaching K-12 and adult curriculums (arts integration, social and emotional learning, community arts & artivism, traditional art techniques).
K-12 & Community learning curriculums fall under traditional and nontraditional environments such as public, charter, private, international, boarding, community, shelters, arts and service-based centers, exhibitions, and community spaces. Through their creativity coaching, they work with creatives and creative-based organizations in all artistic disciplines.
Jaee utilizes creative techniques and methods to support clients in overcoming obstacles, manifesting aligned personal and professional goals and building upon skills and practices that foster sustainable creative lifestyles. Their Arts Integration instructional coaching support schools, arts organizations, and early or seasoned/independent or in-school arts instructors. For early and seasoned arts educators (in all creative disciplines), Jaee supports the successful development of their teaching pedagogy through classroom management, social-emotional learning (SEL), arts integration, and lesson/curriculum development that aligns with the discipline and teaching environment.
Arts Integrated Approaches include:
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Arts and Literacy
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Art and Foreign Language (English second learners)
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Arts: Environmental + Healing Justice
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Arts and Cultural Preservation
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Arts & Teaching Portfolio Building
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Creative Archiving/Storytelling
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Ancestral Demystification through Arts
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Arts and Entrepreneurship
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Arts & Stress Management/Mindfulness
These approaches are actualized and achieved through developing arts-integrated curriculums and programs, creating enriching experiences for young people and adults (community service, camps, field trips), and introducing social-emotional learning as an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning.
Meet Our Community Educators
Janae’ “Jaee” Sumter (they/them) is a New Orleans native with a rich background in Visual Art, Arts Integration Education, Inquiry-based movement, Community Organizing, Event Planning, Life Coaching, Ancestral Crop Growing, Energy Healing, and Creative Entrepreneurship.
Jaee has worked with many communities of color within the U.S. and overseas. Their holistic practice manifests through extensive creative healing modalities that initiate integrative awareness. These modalities support through unpacking frameworks of global integration, equability, sustainability, and accessibility. Jaee received their Bachelor of Art from Spelman College in Studio Art and their Master of Art in Integrated Practices from Pratt Institute in community art and healing justice. Their multidisciplinary practice uses collective storytelling and creative healing approaches as an educational tool for community empowerment, socio-emotional understanding, identity awareness, ancestral connection, liberation, and intergenerational healing with and for communities of color.
These approaches actualize through visual assemblages, movement, herbal medicine, community art activations, arts integration education, ancestral public altars, ritual practice, coaching, creative-based community fundraising, and trauma release work as a pathway for addressing the complexity of systemic oppression.
Jaee has eight years' experience in creative community organizing and five years of teaching all age levels in traditional and non-traditional educational environments. Jaee is the foundering owner of Sweet Herbal Honey Apothecary LLC and the Asé O Community Arts Program.
Jaee Sumter (Mx. Jaee)
they/them
Founding Director
Creative Field:
- Arts Integration Educator
- Arts Instructional & Creativity Coach
Multi-Disciplinary Folk Artist
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Teaching Focuses:
Arts Technique, Ancestral, Cultural Arts, Artivism,
Garden Landscaping, SEL, Creative Entrepreneurship,
High School Portfolio, Student Showcase Curator, Arts Herbal Medicine or Adult Movement & Meditation Workshops,
Administrative:
Curriculum & Lesson Development
Camp Development & Management
Designer - Arts Instructional Materials
Years of Teaching: 6
Years of Art: 10+
Years of Organizing: 9
Ages: All
Janae' "Jaee" Sumter
Multi-Disciplinary Practice:
Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Community Installations, Movement, Creative Entrepreneur, Ancestral Altars, Reiki Energy Practitioner, Digital Marketing. Photography, Nutrition, Agriculture, Ancestors & Altars, English Foreign Language, SEL, Arts Integration, Creative Writing, Natural Dyeing and Herbs, Nature Mediation Art and more...
