KWENTUHAN: A TIME TO HEAL FROM THE STORIES OF OUR SKIN
Register HERE!
Every 1st Saturday of the month from October through December 2020, 9-11:30am via Zoom.
Cost: Free
"Kwentuhan: A time to heal from the stories of our skin" is a transformative learning and healing space to address our participation in anti-blackness through our experiences in colonial mentality as diasporic Filipinxs. Community Well and The Filipino Mental Health Initiative-San Francisco are proud to partner with Filipinx identified wellness practitioners, mental health professionals, educators, and community organizers from throughout the Pacific and Southwest regions of the United States to make this event happen. This offering is for a committed cohort of 30 people who are seeking support in:
Creating space to identify and Name areas of Anti-Blackness and colonial mentality in their lives
Interrupting and reflecting on the way of thinking about negative interpersonal experiences with Black & African American individuals
Developing an understanding of the "4 I's of Racism" and how to apply it to our everyday life
Addressing intergenerational challenges and nuances of holding courageous and transformative conversations; specific to breaking cycles of Anti-Blackness (i.e., social media, avoiding silos)
Transmuting/transforming experiences to support the wholeness of Black humanity through being introduced to individual and collective healing practices. (i.e., in response to harm, divisions within sectors of the community)
COMMITTMENTS + INVITATIONS
1) Learnings will build on each session. We seek participants who can attend all 3 workshops between October to December 2020, however may accommodate for one missed session.
2) This is an interactive, virtual learning community. We seek participants who are comfortable with having their cameras on and are prepared to engage in courageous conversations with facilitators, guest practitioners, and their peers.
3) Topics covered in these sessions have been created with intention and require a level of vulnerability from participants. We invite difficult conversations and feelings of discomfort as a means for transformative dialogue. There are optional gatherings following each session called "Processing Pods" that serve as intimate, extended learning spaces and facilitated by guest practitioners and support team members.
4) Our trauma and healing transcend generations. We invite participants to attend these sessions with an elder they may learn with; however, it is not required.
About The Facilitators
DR. MELISSA-ANN NIEVERA-LOZANO
Melissa-Ann Nievera-Lozano is a professor of Ethnic Studies at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California and the co-editor of the Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader (2018). Born and raised in San Diego to Filipino immigrants, she is a queer-identified Pinay whose practices of storytelling and mothering are inherently political. Her teaching and research draw from womxn-of-color radical thought to address intersectional struggles of anti-blackness, classism, and cisheteropatriarchy impacting her community.
BAMBU
Bambu is a father, Emcee and community organizer. Raised all over the city of Los Angeles, as a young boy he experienced a life that other rappers have glorified, but rarely experienced. As he navigated through a turbulent youth, Bambu turned around the destructive energy that surrounded him and poured it into making music. Bambu has been lauded by his fans and contemporaries for his lyrical storytelling abilities and his prolific writing. Whether fictional or autobiographical, his vividly-detailed narratives are characterized by an honesty that is equal parts brutal, thought-provoking and liberating. Bambu music is not for mere performance - he utilizes his music as a tool for a larger goal - to reach and support youth who face similar issues that he did, and move them to question what goes on in the world with the eventual goal of organizing and activism. Bambu epitomizes the “been-there-done-that” list for a Hip Hop artist, and as part of the leadership for Beatrock Music, uses that experience as a coach for the rest of the artists, helping motivate and guide them into long successful careers.
beatrockmusic.com/collections/bambu | Instagram: @bambudepistola | Facebook: facebook.com/ogbambu | Twitter: BambuDePistola
ANÎ LA'ARNI AYUMA
Anî La'arni Ayuma integrates the ancient healing arts with other somatic/energy healing techniques to promote well-being in her communities. As a queer holistic practitioner, she facilitates spaces that encourage transformational shifts that is conscious of culture and traditional practices and is rooted in spiritual integrity, empowering community members in their self-care, healing and transformation. Ayuma utilizes Spiritual / Intuitive Coaching, Hilot bodywork and energy medicine, mindfulness practice, holistic living, healing by and with nature, conscious parenting, movement, meditation, and other tools to promote a compassionate radical healing that is self sustaining. She is a proud mother and student to her three children, a gifted musician, a wise elder, and a warrior healer.
www.laarniayuma.com | Instagram: @ayuma_mama, @ayumahealingarts | Facebook: facebook.com/AyumaHealingArts
JEANNIE ESTELLA CELESTIAL, PHD
Jeannie Estella Celestial, PhD, is a partner/wife, mother, daughter, and kapwatid. Born on Guam, Chamorro land, with lineages from Cebu and Cavite, Philippines, Jeannie is a settler on Ohlone Territory. She is a clinical psychologist and social-emotional-community artivist who is passionate about holistic well-being. Jeannie volunteers for FMHI-SF and FMHI-Solano and is one of 6 authors of The Filipino Instant Pot Cookbook. #celestialjourneys
(e) celestialphd@gmail.com | Instagram: @jeanniecelestial | Facebook: facebook.com/drcelestial