About Us
Mission
Our mission is to promote & uplift the inner-healing of current & generational wounds experienced by the under-resourced QTDBIPoC (Queer, Trans, Disabled, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community members through innovative Arts practices rooted in ancestral traditions & radical divine love. The word “bala” means “strength” and “welcome” in a South Indian language/dialect called Tulu, which varies in pronunciations. We are recalling the strength and welcoming nature of our ancestors.
BALA is for healing. Our values are rooted in reclaiming and restoring our power, and radically loving ourselves & our community.
BIPoC Ancestral Love as Arts (BALA) is fiscally sponsored by For Black Girls Inc.
We offer five Arts practices:
Narratives of Transformative Love: an arts-healing workshop to reclaim one’s identity
Prema Nalikke: Tribal Yogic Dance Mediation [translates to “divine-love dance” in Tulu]
Chandre~Kamala Decolonized / Indigenized Yoga [translates to “moon-lotus” in Tulu]
BALA Publications of BIPoC artists in mixed-genre work in an online journal
Specialized Community Workshops: co-created workshops where we cater to both what the community wants & what is possible by us
History
The long-standing workshop Narratives of Transformative Love first took place in Jamaica Plain in partnership with the Cooperative Artists Institute with their Peace Drum Project programming at the African-American Mastery Artists in Residence Program Gallery in 2013 where it was brought to numerous local youth. Since its inception, it had been brought to local libraries and at the Summer Teacher Institute in Boston University for BPS teachers as a teaching tool for their students, Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and globally at arts organizations called Kibera Kids Club in Kenya and Bodhi Tree School in India. This program launched the need for arts-healing workshops umbrellaed under our newly established organization BALA in 2023. And we are now an official 510(c)3 organization since 2025.
Past and Current Partnerships
Cooperative Artists Institute,
Boston Center for Youth and Families (BCYF),
Boston Public Schools,
Boston Public Libraries,
Boston University,
Boston Teachers Union,
Teacher Summer Institute,
Massachusetts Poetry Festival,
Peabody Essex Museum,
Asian American Resource Workshop,
Democratic Socialists of America,
Midway Journal,
Dreamcatcher Initiative Inc.,
Boston Kroc Center,
Sociedad Latina,
Countryside Community Center in India,
The Bodhi Tree School in India,
Kibera Kids Club in Kenya
and more
Meet the Team
Founder & Executive Director
Prema G. Bangera (she / they)
Prema G. Bangera (pronounced “pray-ma ben-gay-ra”), who is ethnically South Indian (from Tulu Nadu) of lower caste, born in Mumbai, and partially raised on the unceded land of the Wampanoag and Massachusett people (so-called Boston), is a multidisciplinary artist, a disruptor, a community organizer, a cultural worker, a somatic arts & yogic practitioner, an entrepreneur, editor, and an educator.
Bangera was the founder and executive director of a grassroots nonprofit organization, Teen Voices Emerging, which carried on the legacy of the 25-year-old nationally established youth magazine called Teen Voices.
She has 15+ years of experience working in the community with a trauma informed lens. She was selected by the Boston Women’s Fund as part of the cohort for their 2022 Women of Color Leadership Circle in partnership with the Boston Foundation. Bangera is a member of the Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship with the Arts & Business Council and a proud board member of For Black Girls Inc.
BALA was founded as a way to utilize the personal healing journey to create innovative arts healing practices through ancestral roots, and remind others that the personal is political. As we have evolved, so too has this work, and it has taken time to arrive at this point. - it is a reminder that we can accept ourselves as we are now and let the love flow inwards.
And we believe in the power of healing our own selves. As the revolutionary poet June Jordan once said, referencing our BIPoC beings and hearts, "We are the ones we are waiting for."
For more information about Prema Bangera, visit: www.premabangera.com
Contact us
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