Sonny (Allison) Kennedy is a facilitator and creative organizer living in Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is a creative facilitator with Freedom Lifted, where she works with businesses and organizations looking to center justice and share power in their communities. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and English with a writing emphasis from Kalamazoo College. Through all her work, Sonny brings a lightness to depth and sense of play to artistic experience and social change spaces.

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Sonny co-founded a timely abolitionist creative writing collaborative called Humans Beyond Boxes that operated for several years in and out of prison facilities in Michigan with the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Allison then served as executive director of the nonprofit organization Fire Historical & Cultural Arts Collaborative for over five years. With Fire, she curated the longest running monthly poetry Open Mic in Michigan, and facilitated youth poets across the county to engage in artistic practice and political education through in-school and out-of-school creative workshops based in social and emotional learning. Sonny also served as the interim executive director of the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival where she connected people through the power of poetry through performances, open mics and workshops with poets in Michigan.

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Throughout these experiences, Sonny has been most moved by growing an intentional gratitude practice and then providing gifting services to special, values-aligned clients. She now is pleased to offer creative offerings and gifting through Tangible Shine.

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Their own creative endeavors include: caring for their mother, remixing T-shirts, and writing poetry.