My name is Raji Scoggin, I am a UC Davis Alumni who works as an Art Teacher in Woodland
High School. I majored in Art Studio and Psychology. My work is concerned with the concept of
community building, specially in the context of empowering minority populations. Over the
years, my projects have been characterized by a consultative process that involves community
members from my neighborhood (a series of lower-income apartment complexes in South East
Davis.) These projects are primarily focused on shared experiences around the concepts of
migration, cultural genocide, prejudice, among others. In many cases, my medium of choice is
very much the message itself, such as in projects involving adobe bricks, clothing from
neighbors that carry cultural sensitivities, and even in sacred calligraphy. A thread that runs
through these projects is a growing awareness of the inherent values in our Latino and minority
communities; communities that favor the collective over the individual, that acknowledge the
role of spirituality in everyday life, that value conversations of meaning where collective
consultations often occur and where a collective vision is accumulated over time.