from the founder’s desk

Justina Kamiel Grayman, PhD is an artist and community psychology PhD who studies practices and processes for designing and building beautiful communities of deep freedom, truth, and connection.  With a BA in Psychology from Stanford University and a PhD in Psychology and Social Intervention from New York University, Justina’s studies have always centered on understanding how we communicate with others to build power, connect, and mobilize. For example, during her final undergraduate year at Stanford, she created a psychology-based magazine creation program for middle schoolers that allowed them to connect to each other by sharing their emotional and community concerns. During her PhD at NYU, she collaborated with over 30 New York City community organizers over four years to study and reflect on the strategies they used to build relationships with and mobilize people. 

Realizing art and movement are communication tools to build power, connect, and mobilize, her original artworks are efforts to mobilize people. Justina’s dance films Woman Versus (2016) and Black Man in America (2018), both of which were recognized by American Dance Festival’s Movies by Movers, explored the mobilization of women and Black men, respectively. For the premiere of Black Man in America, she and her collaborator Vance “Johnny Hobbes” Brown led a celebration of Black men, a magical event where families and friends honored the Black men in their lives through public acknowledgment, dance performances, and conversation. Black Man in America received tremendous community support, raising over $21K for the project from over 400 supporters. While making her own art, Justina started coaching artists and arts professionals in how to design deeply connecting and liberating experiences.  Justina is currently developing Raw Movement, which brings people together to experiment with co-creating spaces of deep connection, home, family, emotional safety through collective (movement) practice.    

Overall, Justina’s work is at the intersection of education, art, psychology, community organizing, and “spirituality”. Her ultimate mission is to collaboratively create / transform entire communities’ institutions with deep, divine connection – particularly using movement, art, and design (and especially in the darkness).  Justina’s creative and organizing practice can be summarized by The Raw Movement Framework, an approach to inquiring about how we co-create spaces of deep connection, home, family, emotional safety. All of Justina’s work is about creating or uncovering deep connection in times of grief, suffering, conflict, and transition.