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The Survivor Nest Project
The Survivor Nest Project offers a transformative healing arts experience for survivors of incest and sexual abuse. Taking place on the North Shore of Massachusetts, survivor artist and energy healer Carla Beatrice invited Portland, OR photographer Debbie Baxter to build a nest together and offer Nesting Experiences to survivors. Collaborating with other amazing creatives and advocates, the wish is to expand the project to bring survivors and supporters of survivors together through several means of creative and healing arts. The public will experience a gallery exhibition of Debbie's photographs, view a documentary, experience sound healing, as well as hear the words of survivors in the fall of 2021. We view this project as a way to explore and celebrate our collective roots & wings, whether we have experienced this specific form of trauma or other traumas that may leave us feeling alone, isolated, or afraid. The life sized nest that we create will hold space for you!
The Project at a Glance
Debbie will be leading the nest building with Carla and some key members of her personal support system as a survivor: a lifelong friend, her 4th grade teacher, and a healer. They will build a nest at a meaningful location in Cape Ann, where Carla felt an inner sense of home and safety. After ceremoniously setting the project's intention and taking the initiatory Nesting photographs, the nest will then be moved to Carla's current home in Beverly, MA. 10 more survivors will be photographed by Debbie in Carla's backyard and undergo Debbie's unique Nesting Experience. At this time the public will also be invited to a sound healing bath between the two days of photography. The project will culminate to the greater public of survivors and supporters with a multimedia gallery exhibition of the nest, the portraits and a process video. The nest will then be available to travel to other select locations.
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photo: Tabitha Robinson-Alden taking photo of a nest at Carla's home for the Inner Nest Project in 2017