We first met through a mutual friend and colleague while working on an arts-based research project with caregivers in our community (see Comic Relief project). Community-based work is important to us, and this initial project with caregivers in our community felt like an ebb and flow, or an organic process of working together. There was both intention in the labor that made the project come together, and a feeling of equal and seamless collaboration, especially as we reached the end of the project and curated an art show of the participants' work.

In retrospect, both of us agreed that this collaboration felt unique and new, unlike many projects we had participated in the past. Soon after Jennifer invited Cynthia to join her Drugs & Culture class to host art workshops and create a collective class zine. The ideas kept flowing from there, and we have now held multiple workshops on the UCR campus and academic conferences, and we have many more ideas to expand our cooperative into the future. 

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We envision our cooperative as not quite a “lab” but rather a cutting-edge, collective space for teaching, learning, mentoring, and creating that is grounded in the liberatory pedagogy advocated by Paulo Freire (maybe link to his book or wiki?). The Cooperative enables all of us to be teachers-learners in the pursuit of equitable knowledge generation. Contact us if you have ideas and would like to get involved!