QSN created 50 at-home spa kits for Queer and Trans people in Los Angeles. Spa kit items were sourced from local queer small businesses. Supported by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health “We Rise” initiative. Leo Alas and Spa Embassy (Carol Zou and Carrie Schneider) collaborated on “The Every Body Spa” during the month of May 2021.This project approaches healing from the perspective that traditional forms of healing, like psychiatry and gender-segregated spas, have been inaccessible and violent to queer and BIPOC bodies, and that art and somatic methods can provide a way of refashioning queer modes of healing. The project is open to queer-identified individuals and centers trans and BIPOC individuals in the co-creation of new rituals for grief, care, and healing.
The project consists of three parts:
- Locally sourced care packages distributed to queer and trans BIPOC individuals across LA County as selected through coordination with community partners
- Online focus group with queer identified individuals to discuss healing rituals, healing methods, and to solicit input for care packages.
- Online workshop with queer identified individuals to collectively build a vision of a genderqueer spa/healing space by using the digital platform gather.town
