Quarantine Self-Care Series
Fresh Breaths: Portrait of Sabrina

The Quarantine Self-Care Series is a multimedia project that highlights
the ways people of color are navigating the nuances of self-care, survival, and new normals as a result of COVID-19 via interview, installation, photos, and video.

This Portrait & IG Live was made in partnership with The Harvard Ed Portal. Find out more about their offerings at edportal.harvard.edu

SABRINA DORSAINVIL is an artist, designer and illustrator.

When asked the question “How have you been caring for yourself?” she responded: “The idea of caring for myself sometimes feels like a wild notion. I’d classify myself as someone who has struggled with making space for pause, rest and tenderness with myself. This has been the case prior to the pandemic and for as long as I can remember. I do recall a recent moment where my priorities shifted. I think back to around this time last year. I was navigating recovery from a surgery tied to years of previously undiagnosed pain, a jarring end to a close friendship and a persistent relationship to anxiety and childhood trauma. With all of that weight on my body I took an artistic plunge, overcame a fear and painted my “first” mural (as an adult). It may seem simple but there was something so needed about that project. It seemed to have snuck up on me but I haven’t looked back since. I’m so grateful for that opportunity, my collaborators and for every single person who has seen it and smiled. 

Much of my artwork work is about celebrating humans and giving space to our range of emotions, differences, similarities, context and possibilities. However, I spend much of my days navigating local government as a designer trying to inspire delight, creativity and strides toward justice. I like many others hold space for the tireless struggle, effort and entanglements surrounding some of the toughest parts of our human condition. Covid-19 put pressure on our already fragile fractured ways of working. Simultaneously, we’re reminded that we need to remind people that Black Lives Matter. It stings me to my core. As a child of Haitian immigrants growing up in the shadows of the American dream it stings quite deeply. History is painfully illuminating when you look closely. Our present attempts to hide so much that reality checks start bursting through the cracks. 

So for self care I want to shout out to therapists, especially queer poc therapists holding space for people like myself. I want to thank the public surfaces I’ve adorned with paint this past year (and the people who made them possible). I’ve gotten lost in those pieces for hours and they’ve carried me toward fresh breaths. I want to thank my partner and our dog for being beside me everyday. Lastly with a body so wound up in feeling so deeply I’ve had the pleasure of learning to roller skate and skateboard during this time. Skating has been a source of comfort, movement and determination. To have determination that is not tied to my work or my value as an artist or designer is what I am grateful for. This determination centers around being me and feeling with my whole body. I’m learning what care for myself can look like during this time.”