Suga' from Bundle of Sticks: Black Queer Identity, Gender Freedom, and Healing Through Art
Art Heals All Wounds
05/07/26
•63m
About
Comments
Transcript
Featured In
Suga' with Bundle of Sticks: Black Queer Identity, Gender Freedom, and Healing Through Art
I'm so glad to welcome back Dazié Grego-Sykes and Derrick Miller-Handley of Bundle of Sticks Art Collective for a conversation about their upcoming performance ritual, Suga'. This art collective has spent over 25 years exploring the intersection of Blackness and queerness through performance art, visual art, and community building — and their newest work may be their most personal yet.
Suga' is an immersive performance ritual in which Derrick steps into the performer role for the first time in over 20 years, using art as a vehicle for gender identity exploration, radical self-acceptance, and spiritual healing. We talk about what it means to exist outside of society's containers, the power of Black ancestry as a spiritual resource, and why embracing your authentic self is an act of liberation.
If you're in the Bay Area, Suga' runs May 29–31 at Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland. Find tickets by searching Suga' on Eventbrite.
Topics Covered:
- [0:47] Introducing Bundle of Sticks Art Collective
- [4:19] The intersection of Blackness, queerness, visual art, and performance
- [6:00] Trust, safety, and creative collaboration
- [10:13] What is Suga' — and why call it a ritual?
- [13:47] The many meanings of the word "Suga'"
- [16:53] "Suga' in your tank" — reclaiming a slur as a source of power
- [22:03] The immersive space: artifacts, ancestry, and performance
- [26:17] The tension — and natural harmony — between Blackness and queerness
- [31:08] Gender identity, legibility, and refusing society's containers
- [37:59] How Suga' came to be and why now
- [54:44] Why this work matters in today's political and social climate
- [59:32] Tickets and show details
Previous Episode
Do You Want to Die Not Knowing? One Artist's Leap Into Art as Service and Healing
Have you ever had someone ask you a question that completely changed the direction of your life? In this episode, I talk with commission artist Shawn B. Standley, whose wife asked him exactly that kind of question — and it launched him into a new chapter as a full-time artist dedicated to healing and community service.
Shawn's journey is anything but a straight line — from aerospace engineering student to carpenter, Navy veteran, restaurant manager, and Alaskan wilderness dweller — before finally committing to his true calling: creating deeply personal commission art that captures people's stories, memories, and life transitions.
Now based in Conway, Arkansas, Shawn is partnering with wellness organizations, end-of-life doulas, and medical institutions to bring the healing power of art to people navigating major life changes. He also oversees the urban farming and community garden program at the Faulkner County Library — proof that art and service can take many forms.
In this episode we cover:
- (1:42) How Shawn's father discouraged him from pursuing art as a career — and how he found his way back
- (11:51) Dropping out of aerospace engineering school and the winding road that followed
- (13:17) Moving to Whidbey Island and finding his first real artistic community and mentor
- (16:03) Going to art school at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle — and why he left
- (18:11) How Alaska got under his skin and changed everything
- (22:07) The question his wife Shell asked that became the turning point of his artistic life
- (23:54) Discovering the profound emotional power of commission art and creating work that tells someone's personal story
- (24:40) Why Conway, Arkansas — and what surprised him about building an art practice there
- (28:45) Finding his why through the Artist Inc. fellowship and the Artists in Business mentorship program
- (32:15) Partnering with end-of-life doulas, the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences wellness program, and the Arkansas Wellness Network
- (37:55) His vision for combining art and healing as a full-time practice
Connect with Shawn: Website: shawnbstudios.com Social media: @shawnbstudios
Connect with me: arthealsallwoundspodcast.com | Substack
Music by Ketsa and Lobo Loco
Next Episode
What if you could paint your deepest emotions — without anyone judging whether the painting is beautiful, and without needing to analyze what it means? In this episode, I talk with Bahar Amanzadeh, an intuitive painting guide whose trauma-informed workshops create a safe, somatic space for emotional healing through art.
Bahar explains how intuitive painting differs from art therapy, why healing happens in the body before it happens in the mind, and how community and creativity can help us find rootedness even in the most turbulent times. As a member of the Iranian diaspora, she also shares how this practice helps her and her community process grief, displacement, and the ongoing trauma of war.
Whether you're an artist or have never picked up a paintbrush, I think this episode will change the way you think about creativity, emotional expression, and healing.
In this episode:
- What an intuitive painting guide does — and how it differs from art therapy
- How somatic, body-based art practices support trauma healing
- Why the inner critic shows up in creative work — and how to work with it
- The role of community in emotional healing
- How Persian poetry, music, and culture help Bahar stay rooted during crisis
- Finding belonging and identity as part of the Iranian diaspora
Timestamped Highlights
- 0:12 — I introduce the show and share a personal story about anger, shame, and the need for nonjudgmental emotional expression
- 2:21 — Bahar's background: from dentist to intuitive painting guide, and her training with Kris Sydell
- 3:55 — What is an intuitive painting guide? Bahar explains the role and the process
- 5:28 — How intuitive painting differs from art therapy
- 8:32 — How Bahar found her way to intuitive painting as a single mom, immigrant, and sensitive soul
- 13:05 — The inner critic: why it always shows up and how facilitators help participants work with it
- 16:22 — A recent workshop in the Oakland Hills redwoods: painting, poetry, movement, and the theme of rootedness
- 21:30 — The elephant in the room: being part of the Iranian diaspora during a time of war and violence
- 24:12 — Finding rootedness through Persian and Sufi poetry, music, and ancestry
- 28:52 — How transformation happens incrementally — and why healing is never all or nothing
- 33:38 — Why Bahar named her practice "Painting the River" — and what that metaphor means for healing
- 38:43 — How to find Bahar: paintingtheriver.com and Instagram @artforhealing7
Resources & Links
- Bahar Amanzadeh's website: paintingtheriver.com
- Instagram: @artforhealing7
- Learn more about the show: arthealsallwoundspodcast.com
- Follow me on Substack for updates
Music by Ketsa, Lobo Loco, and Barbara Higbie.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted