Family Storytelling Workshop By Natalia Nakazawa

Artist Workshop: Family Storytelling

Sunday, August 17, 2025 | TBD

Join us for a storytelling experience rooted in myth, imagination, and family legacy. We'll read the ancient Japanese tale of Urashima Taro, a story dating back to the 8th century about a fisherman whose life is forever changed after meeting a magical princess in the form of a turtle. Inspired by this myth, families will have the chance to imagine themselves as a 10,000-year-old yokai, the minogame, a mystical being who has witnessed centuries of human experience.

Intergenerational Storytelling:

Reflect on the wisdom passed down through generationWhat is something you learned from your ancestors?How has that knowledge shaped who you are today?What is your vision for a sustainable future?What do you hope to pass on to your children?

Art-Making: Collagraph Printing:

Together, we’ll create collagraph prints of woven patterns on Tyvek, merging ancestral memory with tactile expression.

About Natalia Nakazawa:

Natalia Nakazawa (b. 1982, Charlotte, NC) is a Queens-based interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work spans painting, textiles, and social practice. As a child of Latin American (Uruguayan) and Asian (Japanese American, Yonsei) diasporas, she draws on complex cultural legacies to explore identity, migration, and storytelling. Through collaborative, community-driven projects, Nakazawa blurs the boundaries between education, activism, and art, inviting collective participation. Her jacquard textiles incorporate images from open-access museum collections, often highlighting historical moments of cultural exchange. These works serve as tactile archives; places to critically engage with memory.

About the Fellowship:

The Socrates Annual Fellowship and exhibition reflects Socrates’ founding commitment to artistic experimentation and excellence, while also nurturing artists’ careers. Artists are selected through an open call and receive financial support, access to Socrates’ outdoor studios and technical support, and inclusion in a Park-wide exhibition. Since 2001, 279 artists have participated with many subsequently receiving further commissions for public art projects. The Socrates Annual Fellowship & Exhibition is one of the Park’s longest running programs and is an important training ground for early career artists to gain experience creating art in the public realm.

This year’s Fellowship will respond to the theme “Up/rooted,” which explores the complexities of uprooting species for long-term sustainability and resilience. The term “uprooted” evokes the tension between dislocation and resilience. “Up” signifies the act of lifting away, while “root” refers to the hidden systems below the ground—anchoring life and absorbing essential nutrients. This duality invites us to reflect on the implications of relocation and adaptation, exploring how when done thoughtfully it can foster new growth and understanding. In what ways can we foster regeneration while acknowledging and mitigating the losses within our ecological and social landscapes? How might we navigate the delicate balance between ecological preservation and community needs to create a more resilient future?