In My Fluffy Pajamas

Welcome to the website home of In My Fluffy Pajamas, a multi-iteration participatory community art project that centers the voices of immigrants, women of color, and other historically marginalized people. The project includes small community workshops, interactive engagement at events/fairs/festivals, and public art exhibits. Led by social practice artist Badri Valian and writer-artist-researcher Kathryn Vercillo, this project assists participants in verbalizing and visualizing their experiences of immigration, displacement, relocation, resilience and belonging within and across communities for healing, cross-cultural exchange and empowerment.

Project Background

When Badri immigrated to the United States from Iran over a decade ago she had to leave many beloved things behind. This project is inspired by her memory of having to leave behind her favorite fluffy pajamas because they would not fit in the two suitcases she was allowed and she couldn’t not afford to add additional luggage. This symbolizes the broader theme of loss and adaptation that many immigrants face.

When Badri and Kathryn met in 2023, Kathryn was very touched by this story. Kathryn is the descendent of Jewish Holocaust survivors on her mother’s side and Italian immigrants who came through Ellis Island 4-5 generations ago on her father’s side. Badri was intrigued by Kathryn’s experiences as an American and Kathryn was inspired to get in touch with those roots of intergenerational immigration.

The two female artists had the idea of offering an art project that would allow other immigrants to engage tangibly with expressing their experiences of loss, change, and adaptation. Both artists have healed through creativity and they are passionate about creating opportunities that allow others to do the same. This sparked the design of the In My Fluffy Pajamas workshops, which provide a space for participants to transform their experiences into verbal and visual narratives through a process that minimizes re-triggering or trauma and maximizes connection and growth.

The workshops combine co-storytelling, textile art, photography, mapmaking, drawing, and sensory recall to evoke memories of childhood, hometowns, and experiences of relocation. Each participant creates their own unique work of visual art to add to the archive of collective voices. Each piece is original and yet common themes emerge beautifully as threads throughout the collection.

The workshops began in Fall 2023 and have had several iterations since including “In My Fluffy Pajamas: From Silk Road to San Francisco.” The works created by the participants are added to the collective archive which is then displayed for public exhibit in prominent places throughout California. The artists have recently developed an iteration of the project that takes the essence of the workshops and transforms it for interactive engagement in large public gatherings such as at festivals. The first example of this is “In My Fluffy Pajamas: Hungry Ghost Festival.”

Goals and Objectives (Hopes and Dreams!) of In My Fluffy Pajamas

Every time that we engage with participants in this project, we are humbled, honored and moved by the power of our own experiences and the ability to witness the experiences of others. Our goals started out modest and continue to grow with each new iteration of the project. They include:

• Holding space for immigrants, women of color, LGBTQ+ and other historically marginalized individuals to express their experiences and heal through the transformative power of art and storytelling.

• Celebrating the unique journey of each individual while also offering an opportunity for deep connection and cross-cultural exchange through the powerful visualization of so many similar stories

• Centering and amplifying often-less-heard voices through public exhibits with the goals of validating participants experiences and challenging the power dynamics that limit inclusion and diversity

• We believe that the benefits of this project begin small, with each individual who has an empowering experience as a participant, and ripple out in ever bigger ways to magnify the voices of the historically-suppressed and shift influence to marginalized communities.

• We aim to weave together a new social fabric, workshop by workshop, exhibit by exhibit, that truly honors many voices/experiences/needs/hopes/dreams/truths.

About the Artists

Badri Valian is a social practitioner and visual artist who uses her experiences healing through creativity to inspire others to do the same. In the past five years, her work has been shown in museums, galleries, and public art spaces across California and internationally. Critical examples include her collaboration with Japanese flamenco artist Mizuho Sato shown atop Salesforce Tower, San Francisco, for Women’s History Month, her “A Cup of Tea” installation raising awareness about Iran’s political situation at the Shibori Museum in Kyoto, and the interactive “Pink Window” project helping participants process childhood memories. In recent years, her work has received awards from the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Mozaik Philanthropy, Daughters of the American Revolution, and others. She has grown her work through residencies at Santa Fe Art Institute. Learn more about Badri here.