Join the Studio Museum in Harlem in commemorating Juneteenth with reflection, celebration, and a call to action. As many in our communities remain unfree, we take this day to fellowship, process, and explore creative ways to build a freer world for ourselves and our neighbors.

The day kicks off with healing movement and sound-based workshops with Tara Aura, followed by in-gallery curator discussions, an intergenerational participatory discussion led by TeAna Taylor and Stanley “Jamel” Bellamy of Releasing Aging People in Prisons, and a panel discussion with longtime Studio Museum collaborators Artistic Noise exploring creative advocacy for incarcerated populations. The day closes with a performance on the Stoop by Harlem-based pianist Warner Meadows and special guests.

11:30 am - 12:30 p.m.
Healing Sound Bath with Tara Aura, Roof Terrace

Tara Aura will lead participants in a sound bath and reflection session. Participants are welcome to attend one or both experiences.

RSVP Required.


12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Movement Workshop with Tara Aura, Roof Terrace

This somatic workshop with Tara Aura encourages us to commemorate our ancestors and move through the ways trauma, memory, and joy live in the body. 

RSVP Required.



2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Curator Gallery Talks

Join Studio Museum curators for a series of in-gallery discussions illuminating the role of the artist in building a freer world.

RSVP Not Required.



2:00 - 3:15 p.m.
Releasing Aging People in Prisons (RAPP) Intergenerational workshop facilitated by RAPP Associate Director TeAna Taylor, Stoop

This intergenerational workshop aims to deepen our understanding of advocacy for system-impacted elders, and how incarceration reverberates across generations.

RSVP Required.



3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Artistic Noise/SMH Access partnership panel moderated by Access and Community Programs Manager at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Madison Smith, Stoop

This panel discussion highlights the Studio Museum in Harlem’s years-long collaboration with Artistic Noise, a Harlem-based organization centering creative and therapeutic support for system-impacted youth. Madison Smith will be in conversation with Artistic Noise Alumna Samantha Cortez, Briana Evans, and Joseph Goodwin.

RSVP Required.



6:00 - 7:15 p.m.
Warner Meadows + Band TBD, Stoop

Closing out the evening, Harlem-based musician Warner Meadows and special guests offer a soaring musical dedication to ancestors old and new.

RSVP Required.

Tara Purnell aka Tara Aura is an interdisciplinary artist and wellness consultant dedicated to collective care and liberation. She grew up in Washington, DC, immersed in academic rigor, music and faith-based communities, learning best practices in social impact at an early age. She earned degrees from Penn and American University before diving into New York City start-up culture and then became a certified yoga teacher in 2014. Tara combines her family’s rich legacy in jazz, arts education and community building with over 10,000 hours of mindfulness, musicianship and wellness practices. She was awarded with a 2024–2025 Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities and earned a 2025 artist's residency at The (original) Kennedy Center after a trailblazing tenure as Wellness Director at Eaton DC. Now in addition to making art, she produces transformative private experiences and public programs for prominent cultural institutions, social clubs and non-profits, universities and faith-based organizations through her agency BLIND SEED.



Madison Smith is an artist, poet, and independent programmer exploring ideas of intimacy, autobiography, and collective care. Since 2017, she has worked to shape spaces that support creativity and interpersonal transformation. As Access and Community Programs Manager at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Smith designs programs and partnerships that allow individuals to learn and grow in the neighborhoods they call home.



Samantha Cortez is a mixed-media artist of Puerto Rican and Nicaraguan-descent, born in East Harlem in 1999 and currently based in the Bronx. She started her work with Artistic Noise as a member of their Art & Entrepreneurship cohort in 2017, and is now a Teaching Artist for their Art & Care drop-in program and the Manager of their Alumni Artist in Residence program. Her artwork has been shown at Pace Gallery, AHL Foundation, Midtown Community Justice Center, and more. She is also currently the Center for Art and Advocacy’s first ever Youth Fellow.



Briana Evans was a youth participant at Artistic Noise from 2015 through 2021. She is currently working as a Teaching Assistant with the NYC Department of Education. Briana attended Hunter College, and received her Bachelors Degree there. Currently she is in the process of applying for her Masters Degree in School Counseling and is engaged with two daughters.



Joseph “SHAVUO” Goodwin is an artist and rapper born and raised in the Bronx. He joined Artistic Noise in 2018 as a member of their Art & Entrepreneurship program which he is now a Teaching Artist for. Additionally, SHAVUO is a current Alumni Artist in Residence and has been for a number of years. Joe’s love for the city he’s grown up in runs deep with rich culture and history. Using the power of his work, he aims to reach and move people by finding ways to relate to their experience without having to say a word, solely through imagery. SHAVUO’s artwork has been exhibited at a variety of spaces, including AHL Foundation, Loisada Gallery, and more.



Warner Meadows is a pianist, interdisciplinary artist, improviser, composer and educator from Harlem, New York. His diverse practice spans sound, sculpture, and score, exploring afrodiasporic cultural retention and the dynamics of black interiority. He started playing piano as a young child and cites it as the nucleus of creativity for the majority of his artistic explorations. Meadows graduated this spring from Brooklyn College with an MFA in Sonic Arts. Recent performances and exhibitions include “Sequential Disclosure” at UnionDocs in Ridgewood, New York (2025); “Recomposition” with Daniel Simmons at WSA in Manhattan, New York (2025); “Artistry in Conversation” with Maliyamungu Muhande at Lot-EK in Manhattan, New York (2025); and “Harlem welcomes Cuba” at the Schomburg Center for research in Black Culture (2024) in Harlem, New York.

Artistic Noise builds community with system-impacted young people to enhance lives through the empowering and therapeutic potential of art making.

Since 2001, we have created art in collaboration with thousands of young people who are incarcerated, on probation, in foster care, or otherwise impacted by the juvenile court system. Through visual arts, therapeutic, and entrepreneurship-based programs, participants give voice to their experiences, build community through collaborative projects and explore a variety of valuable life skills in the process.

Artistic Noise programming creates safe and brave spaces where court-involved and system-involved young people can be seen, heard, and supported on their path to adulthood. We believe the practice of art making offers opportunities for young people and communities to transform and to grow. In particular, Artistic Noise helps young people share their individual stories to the public and advocate for themselves across their various communities.

Though people affected by the juvenile court system have a great deal to say they often have very few opportunities to be heard or seen by the public. There can be very few healthy opportunities to assume responsibility and demonstrate leadership, to experience personal accomplishments, grow professionally, or develop their creative voices. At Artistic Noise, we believe it is a healing experience for our artists to tell their own stories rather than relying on others to tell their stories for them.

"I personally am in love with Artistic Noise...this is an intimate space where everybody gets to be in community and I'm so honored to be part of this community." – Jordan Casteel