Healing In Houston

As a multidisciplinary artist, Samora Pinderhughes uses his creative practice as an abolitionist action to examine pressing sociopolitical issues, working in the tradition of the black surrealists throughout the African Diaspora to synergize sound, image, and word into vehicles for revolution.

Pinderhughes is a composer, pianist, vocalist and filmmaker who was recently awarded a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for his work with The Healing Project, which began in 2014 as an interview-based artistic work examining systemic oppression and articulating paths to individual and communal healing by bringing together the stories of people impacted by structural violence.

In March, Pinderhughes, a Visiting Artist with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, brought The Healing Project to Houston for the first time. Programming included an artist lecture at the University of Houston (March 19) co-presented by the Mitchell Center and the Elizabeth D Rockwell Center for Ethics and Leadership and a concert (March 21) with the additional support of Project Row Houses at the Eldorado Ballroom.

As Pinderhughes frequently works with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated collaborators, performing The Healing Project in Houston is particularly provoking and relevant. “We also work with immigrants who have dealt with the detention system, which obviously is a big issue in Texas,” he explains. “I wanted to show how all the elements of structural violence are connected.”

Whether it’s a film, a performance, an album, or a community project, Pinderhughes says his focus is on honesty in representation. “I think that’s part of why I like changing mediums,” he explains. “I really follow the story. I follow what the story needs and what the information needs that’s coming through the channel . . . it’s also understanding that I am in service of a communication that is larger than me.”