“Without community, there is no liberation.” - Audre Lorde
Dear community,
However you are choosing to engage in the uprising to defend Black Indigenous lives and defund the police in the movements to abolish all forms of state-sanctioned brutality - remember that this has been the work of lifetimes, that these are changes that happen on the outside and the inside - and pace yourself.
In that spirit, we’re excited to invite our fellow Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous , People of Color (QTBIPOC) to our healing justice meditation offerings. These will be by-donation spaces, that happen monthly on the second Sunday of the month, beginning Sunday August 9th from 6:30-7:15pm. You’ll need to register in advance here.
We will make time to be in the spaciousness of our breath, and to ask what our heart wants. We will thank the land and its stewards.
If you are not a QTBIPOC, please continue to plug into spaces to unpack internalized anti-Blackness and transphobia over time, and without shame. If you can’t find a space that resonates with you, consider starting one with your loved ones. This is how we move with integrity and compassion. We are strong, protected, connected and loved. We need each other. We are all still learning. And so it is.
QTBIPOC Meditation
Meditation for Queer and Trans People of Color is a group meditation on Sunday nights, beginning August 9th, led by and for queer and trans people of color. Our time together will be spent in 5-10 minute meditations, sharing readings by rotating queer and trans authors of color, and sharing our reflections, struggles, and strategies for both self and community care. This group is for queer, transgender, and non-binary people of color only space in which to find stillness, solitude, and community during a time when our lives (and particularly the lives of Black and indigenous people) are more overtly in the crosshairs of violence from multiple fronts.
The meditation practice will incorporate space for people to share their struggles and their strategies for self-care and community care, and will facilitate relationship building among people seeking to define “healing” and “wellness” in a context in which true safety is not attainable. The space will use a politic of radical love as a guiding force, and incorporate spiritual teachings from Buddhism, other religious traditions, and QTBIPOC artivists both living and dead.
Radical Love is amplified in community. Witnessing one another process, transform, emerge is a gift that we nourish and encourage. Where separation and isolation compound traumas, particularly those of oppression and disempowerment, connection and recognition serve to liberate us individually & collectively.