Gris Gris Lab redefines the concept of magic in contemporary society and examines transformational living, intentional community and creative expression as a powerful means to healing. Gris Gris Lab offers dynamic programming, non traditional healing services, space rental and creative consulting services.
The word Gris Gris (pronounced gree- gree) loosely translates into magic or an amulet that protects and brings luck. A laboratory is a place providing opportunity for experimentation, observation, or practice in a field of study. Gris Gris Lab, originally founded in 2009, was a triplex shotgun style home intentionally centered in the Central City neighborhood in New Orleans by Gia M. Hamilton inspired by her late grandmother’s healing work. Gris Gris Lab is a creative and healing incubator for community. It takes carefully crafted products, practitioners and programs and brings them to community where people seek healing and imagination to solve today's problems.
From its inception, Gris Gris Lab sought to provide an incubator space for creatives launching ideas to solve equity based issues in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina. The Lab, as it was affectionately referred to by locals; intersected four areas of focus: arts and culture, food security, radical education and healing work offering a variety of classes and a robust residency program, micro farm and free healing services for Central City residents. On any given day one might find 5-7 young black men receiving auricular acupuncture treatments for stress reduction in what is known as an “acu-coma”; elder growers in conversation with new and enthusiastic urban farmers discussing soil remediation, or an emerging artist designing a community engaged or social practice project like the Forage Festival or Growing Collards that combined oral history, visual language and culture and organizing work. Gris Gris Lab prioritized understanding the needs of african americans and indigenous communities who are in large part dealing with racialized stress factors on a daily basis- Gris Gris Lab created a refuge and a place for imagination, play and possibility.
In 2020, after carefully reviewing the work of Gris Gris Lab which was self funded and mostly free to the public project; founder, Gia Hamilton thought about the original comments of the community, “There should be a Gris Gris Lab in every community!” and while the Lab was focused on deeply meaningful and connected programming, it became clear that Gris Gris Lab has the potential to impact more communities and to continue to target the african american and POC community by developing Gris Gris Lab kiosks, that allow the lab to develop and sell products, to situate the Labs in existing businesses and locations thereby working the way a holistic health practitioner works, on multiple pain points at the same time. Gris Gris Lab would be able to produce programming in different locations using its healing products and partner with other businesses, institutions and organizations solving some of the intermediary issue of trust within communities of color.
Gris Gris Lab seeks to support the african american community that is disproportionately affected by adverse health outcomes. According to Carolyn Y. Johnson in the Washington Post (November 20, 2019) article “Racial Bias in Medical Treatment”; “When the company replicated the analysis on a national data set of 3.7 million patients, they found that black patients who were ranked by the algorithm as equally in need of extra care as white patients were much sicker. They collectively suffered from 48,772 additional chronic diseases.” But Gris Gris Lab isn’t proposing to take over the healthcare industry, there are far better service providers to do so, but Gris Gris Lab is able to support many of the pre and intermediary steps needed to create and sustain healthy and creative lifestyles. For example, many african americans do not trust the healthcare, education and agriculture industries and for good reasons; many studies have shown the systemic injustices that african americans have faced throughout the 400 years of racialized injustice in america. Gris Gris Lab is created to create trust, community building, knowledge sharing, foster creativity, imagination and true generational healing. “The most recent chapter in the new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week by researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research found the sons of Union Army soldiers who endured grueling conditions as prisoners were more likely to die young than the sons of soldiers who were not prisoners. In other words, it seemed like the stresses of war were getting passed down between generations.” in an article written by Olga Khazan in the Atlantic October 16, 2018. Generational trauma and generational healing seemed to be linked; feeling connected to a place specifically designed to address your unique experiences and needs seems to provide an incubator for cultivating next steps. To further illustrate this point the Psychology of Violence, researchers and authors Monica T. Williams, Destiny M.B. Printz and Ryan C.T. DeLapp argue that “racial discrimination can cause symptoms of trauma, yet few tools for measurement exist. Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS), a new meaure of discriminatory distress measuring anxiety related trauma symptoms.” may help to diagnose and ultimately legitimize the experiences of long term systemic trauma. Gris Gris Lab addresses several issues at once by acknowledging the real and perceived effects of racial trauma and makes suggestions of immediate next steps, like triage, helping an individual or community understand possible next steps; for instance, if a community member finds a Gris Gris Lab kiosk in their neighborhood they may be reminded to breathe, drink alkaline water which may be available, engage in coloring therapy with a funny customized coloring book, pick up a pack of seeds to plant a few microgreens for consumption or contribute to the reparations fund to support another person who has experienced systemic racial trauma.
Gris Gris Lab offers a way to reset, reeducate or radically educate our hardwired responses. . Sociologist Brene Brown captures this universality noting, “The only unique contribution that we will ever make is this world will be born of our creativity. Or as I like to believe, to use our creativity and imagination, even simple ways, is an affirmation of life.” Creativity and Imagination or simply put art and health are connected and seem to have positive correlates, only most of us are unable to engage or have lack of access to engage on a daily basis. This is seen as privilege which we also understand is racialized and then further divided by class. The Connection Between Art, Healing and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature by Heather L. Stuckey, DEd and Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH share, “Although there is evidence that art-based interventions are effective in reducing adverse physiological and psychological outcomes, the extent to which these interventions enhance health status is largely unknown. Our hope is to establish a foundation for continued investigation into this subject and to generate further interest in researching the complexities of engagement with arts and health.” If Gris Gris Lab acts an acupuncture needle then the city of New Orleans is the body and its streets and waterways are the channels that allow the flow or chi to exist; then the Lab can more effectively support the african american and indigenous community through addressing several systems-based issues at once. The Gris Gris Lab kiosk becomes a place where healthy and farm fresh food can be sold by farmers, it is a place where herbalist can share products for stress reduction, artists can create and invite others to make work and dream and programming can include a variety of skill shares while sparking the realm of possibility. Gris Gris Lab members can earn a discount, sponsor someone or pay into a reparations fund that supports youth entrepreneurs and single mothers of african american or indigenous descent who are motivated to create a sustainable income and create generational wealth for their families.
GAMBIT: The Gris Gris Lab
ANTHROPOLOGY WORKS: Anthro in the News
THE NEW ORLEANS TRUMPET: Social Magic Sous Sous
LEPSA FOOD BLOG: NOLA #CFSC2010 | Food Deserts
GRIS GRIS LAB: Sustainable New Orleans Radio/TV
NEO GRIOT: Events at Gris Gris Lab
MODEL VIEW CULTURE: Towards An Afrofuturist Narrative (Oshun, Mariam, Erzulie Dantor, feat. at Gris Gris Lab)
New Orleans Museum of Art: Friday Nights at NOMA: Discussion with artist Diedrick Brackens and Gia Hamilton
Duke University: Dissertation By Fari Nzinga