Honoring Ancestors as Self Care

This workshop is for those who are interested in cultivating, reigniting, and exploring new (and very old) ways to deepen their relationship with the Ancestors. As the wild flames of fascism rise, we could sure use their guidance more than ever, so that we can face our individual and collective moment with support and strength.

During this workshop, we will explore a variety of ways to call and connect to the Ancestors, including sharing our experiences, storytelling, intuition, altar-making, crafting, writing, sound, and movement. You will leave with an item for your Ancestor altar and more clarity and confidence in how you can best start your conversation with the ones who came before us.

Please note Space at this FREE event is limited. After getting a ticket, if you cannot attend for any reason, please contact us so we can make that spot available to another community member!

Facilitated by Given Q. Davis - (he/they) is a queer Black nonbinary trans masc Holy Fire Reiki Master, intuitive energy worker, tarot reader, voice diviner, priestexx, and interdisciplinary artist raised in Richmond, Virginia. He was the weird kid reading about rocks and trying to bend spoons with his mind. In his teens, he began hearing the Ancestors whispering in his ears and thought he was going coo-coo bananas. Given has been a student of meditation, healing, divination, psychic development, ritual work, and spiritual practices for over 20 years.

n this workshop, delve into the purpose of your creativity and dismantle structures that inhibit your creativity from flowing naturally. This is the time to embrace your own rhythm and cadence as an "artist".

Being creative is embedded in our nature as humans. As an creative human, you have your own sense of timing, of vision, of method. These creative patterns are also learned from community, family, culture, and country.

Our society defines "the artist" as a particular thing distinct and separate from society. It fails to help us see the ways in which we are each artists in our everyday life creating beauty in the world around us and making in the most mundane moments. As a result, we can be completely oblivious to our natural creative talents, believing the word "artist" applies to the few who do it professionally. If we identify as "an artist", we can lose track of what feels good in being creative, trying to do what others expect we should do.

To center and honor your own rhythm and cadence as an "artist" can bring you a great sense of flow, of grounding, and improved boundaries with this world. There is something magical that happens when you own who you are and how you flow - outside of any external expectations.

All skill levels are welcome from long-timers, newbies, and everyone in between. All varieties of artists and mediums are welcome too!

Led By Tieara Myers -

Tieara Myers is a teacher, healer, and psychic living in Portland, OR. She has a passion for exploring and unveiling possibilities through the classes and workshops she teaches. She has been studying the healing arts and teaching for over fifteen years in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. She’s found over time that we have the power to shift how we see things in a way that positively affects the well-being of our lives. She loves to help others open their vision, find their center, and step fully into their lives. Learn more about her at https://www.tiearamyers.com

Join us for "Writing Our Resistance", a transformative workshop exploring the power of storytelling as a tool for resilience, care, and resistance. Led by healers Jessica Hua and Marisol Rascon, this event will guide you in crafting your own mythologies of care, embracing quiet organizing, and finding strength in invisibility and the trickster archetype. Together, we’ll reclaim our narratives and create stories that inspire change.

Unblending and Befriending: Creative Practices for Trauma Healing
APANO Open Studios
 8188 SE Division St Portland OR 97206
Friday October 25, 4:30 - 7pm

In this partnership between APANO and Radical Rest, a BIPOC-centered healing justice collective, we will use art and creative expression as a powerful tool to work through triggers and improve our felt sense of calm, hope and groundedness.

Registration for this special offering for Open Studios will be capped at 25. Registering and attending the event is FREE. Open Studios is a BIPOC-only and masks-required space.

General Agenda:

• Introduction to trauma fragmentation

• Creating images for the parts

• Bonus: Working with the parts in an embodied exercise

For folks of color, everyday can be a stressful maze of microaggressions and structural barriers on top of daily life stressors. The constant barrage of chronic stress can take its toll. It contributes to our high rates of chronic illness and early death, especially for Indigenous, Black and Latinx folks. Enough is enough.

We cannot solely wait for institutional or policy changes to improve the experience of our health and wellbeing. Empowering ourselves with scientifically based, trauma-informed practices to build ease, groundedness, rest and insight in our bodies is not only possible, it is easily available to us. Radical Rest and Sankofa Counseling partner to bring some of these practices to our BIPOC community FOR FREE!

In Grounded: Body Based Practices for Regulation and Wellbeing, we will learn simple skills and movement practices to "hack" the nervous system. Some of these practices are ancestral technologies while others are contemporary explorations developed from trauma neuroscience. Led by Radical Rest's Primary Facilitator, T. Aisha Edwards, LMHC, in each hour and a half long lesson, we will do 1-2 practices with a little learning and discussion.

You are encouraged to prepare by having a relatively quiet location that can allow you to center your attention. You will need a space on the floor to move around on and blankets, pillows and a yoga mat if you have one.

For more about your guide, Aisha - please see www.radicalrest.org or follow us on ig @radical.rest. You can also learn more about Aisha at www.fullflightwellness.com

For folks of color, everyday can be a stressful maze of microaggressions and structural barriers on top of daily life stressors. The constant barrage of chronic stress can take its toll. It contributes to our high rates of chronic illness and early death, especially for Indigenous, Black and Latinx folks. Enough is enough.

We cannot solely wait for institutional or policy changes to improve the experience of our health and wellbeing. Empowering ourselves with scientifically based, trauma-informed practices to build ease, groundedness, rest and insight in our bodies is not only possible, it is easily available to us. Radical Rest and Sankofa Counseling partner to bring some of these practices to our BIPOC community FOR FREE!

In Grounded: Body Based Practices for Regulation and Wellbeing, we will learn simple skills and movement practices to "hack" the nervous system. Some of these practices are ancestral technologies while others are contemporary explorations developed from trauma neuroscience. Led by Radical Rest's Primary Facilitator, T. Aisha Edwards, LMHC, in each hour and a half long lesson, we will do 1-2 practices with a little learning and discussion.

You are encouraged to prepare by having a relatively quiet location that can allow you to center your attention. You will need a space on the floor to move around on and blankets, pillows and a yoga mat if you have one.

For more about your guide, Aisha - please see www.radicalrest.org or follow us on ig @radical.rest. You can also learn more about Aisha at www.fullflightwellness.com

Please join us for this ritual to metabolize vigilance, rooted in indigenous African spirituality, facilitated by T. Aisha Edwards, LMHC (@full_flight_wellness). Aisha is an intiated Kontomble Diviner and Healer in the Dagara (Burkina Faso) tradition. ALL BIPOC folks are welcome to join. While this practice is rooted in African Indigenous traditions, participants are not required to be of the African Diaspora.

Please bring the following items for an altar -

Images of ancestors (deceased only in photos!!), Ancestral objects (to go home with you), offerings for ancestors (to leave on altar - herbs, food, drinks, coins, etc), Paper to write on, any other nature items for altar that represent earth or water

The Ubuntu Therapy Group is a 5 session closed group series to explore the lived intersection of Queerness, Race and Healing. Each 2 hour session begins with a warm up game or exercise that opens our emergent exploration into Rest, Desire, Care, Power and Boundaries. As a closed 12 person group, we have an intimate space to invite vulnerability and build relationships over the 5 sessions. In each session, we will focus on what does it mean to queer each of these areas, identifying what gets in the way of our authenticity expression and receiving of these qualities. Sessions will consist of somatic and play practices, discussion, journaling and psychodrama (an approach that allows us to therapeutically act out aspects of our world and our lives for transformation).

Thursdays 2 to 4 pm

Sept 14th 2023 - Session one: Queering Rest

Sept 28th 2023 - Session two: Queering Desire

Oct 12th 2023 - Session three: Queering Care

Oct 26ht 2023 - Session four: Queering Power

Nov 9th 2023 - Session five: Queering Boundaries

The Ubuntu Therapy Group is a 5 session closed group series to explore the lived intersection of Queerness, Race and Healing. Each 2 hour session begins with a warm up game or exercise that opens our emergent exploration into Rest, Desire, Care, Power and Boundaries. As a closed 12 person group, we have an intimate space to invite vulnerability and build relationships over the 5 sessions. In each session, we will focus on what does it mean to queer each of these areas, identifying what gets in the way of our authenticity expression and receiving of these qualities. Sessions will consist of somatic and play practices, discussion, journaling and psychodrama (an approach that allows us to therapeutically act out aspects of our world and our lives for transformation).

Thursdays 2 to 4 pm

Sept 14th 2023 - Session one: Queering Rest

Sept 28th 2023 - Session two: Queering Desire

Oct 12th 2023 - Session three: Queering Care

Oct 26ht 2023 - Session four: Queering Power

Nov 9th 2023 - Session five: Queering Boundaries

In October's Ubuntu Wellness Series, T. Aisha Edwards of Radical Rest, supports exploration of the collective Soma. In somatic healing, attention is generally paid to the individual’s experience in their own body. However, as relational creatures, humans share both our wins and our wounds. Our Collective Soma, or collective memory body, also needs expression and healing. Through a group art practice, we will map the Collective Soma, learning as we go about our convergences of power and develop rituals for enlivening and restoring togetherness.

The Ubuntu Therapy Group is a 5 session closed group series to explore the lived intersection of Queerness, Race and Healing. Each 2 hour session begins with a warm up game or exercise that opens our emergent exploration into Rest, Desire, Care, Power and Boundaries. As a closed 12 person group, we have an intimate space to invite vulnerability and build relationships over the 5 sessions. In each session, we will focus on what does it mean to queer each of these areas, identifying what gets in the way of our authenticity expression and receiving of these qualities. Sessions will consist of somatic and play practices, discussion, journaling and psychodrama (an approach that allows us to therapeutically act out aspects of our world and our lives for transformation).

Thursdays 2 to 4 pm

Sept 14th 2023 - Session one: Queering Rest

Sept 28th 2023 - Session two: Queering Desire

Oct 12th 2023 - Session three: Queering Care

Oct 26ht 2023 - Session four: Queering Power

Nov 9th 2023 - Session five: Queering Boundaries

The Ubuntu Therapy Group is a 5 session closed group series to explore the lived intersection of Queerness, Race and Healing. Each 2 hour session begins with a warm up game or exercise that opens our emergent exploration into Rest, Desire, Care, Power and Boundaries. As a closed 12 person group, we have an intimate space to invite vulnerability and build relationships over the 5 sessions. In each session, we will focus on what does it mean to queer each of these areas, identifying what gets in the way of our authenticity expression and receiving of these qualities. Sessions will consist of somatic and play practices, discussion, journaling and psychodrama (an approach that allows us to therapeutically act out aspects of our world and our lives for transformation).

Thursdays 2 to 4 pm

Sept 14th 2023 - Session one: Queering Rest

Sept 28th 2023 - Session two: Queering Desire

Oct 12th 2023 - Session three: Queering Care

Oct 26ht 2023 - Session four: Queering Power

Nov 9th 2023 - Session five: Queering Boundaries

The Ubuntu Therapy Group is a 5 session closed group series to explore the lived intersection of Queerness, Race and Healing. Each 2 hour session begins with a warm up game or exercise that opens our emergent exploration into Rest, Desire, Care, Power and Boundaries. As a closed 12 person group, we have an intimate space to invite vulnerability and build relationships over the 5 sessions. In each session, we will focus on what does it mean to queer each of these areas, identifying what gets in the way of our authenticity expression and receiving of these qualities. Sessions will consist of somatic and play practices, discussion, journaling and psychodrama (an approach that allows us to therapeutically act out aspects of our world and our lives for transformation).

Thursdays 2 to 4 pm

Sept 14th 2023 - Session one: Queering Rest

Sept 28th 2023 - Session two: Queering Desire

Oct 12th 2023 - Session three: Queering Care

Oct 26ht 2023 - Session four: Queering Power

Nov 9th 2023 - Session five: Queering Boundaries

In August’s Ubuntu Wellness Series, T. Aisha Edwards of Radical Rest, supports exploration of the collective Soma. In somatic healing, attention is generally paid to the individual’s experience in their own body. However, as relational creatures, humans share both our wins and our wounds. Our Collective Soma, or collective memory body, also needs expression and healing. Through a group art practice, we will map the Collective Soma, learning as we go about our convergences of power and develop rituals for enlivening and restoring togetherness.

Wed Aug 30th 5 to 7:30. Location on registration.

In the July Ubuntu Wellness Series, hosted by Black and Beyond the Binary Collective in partnership with Radical Rest, we explore a community within. Through somatic practices, we explore the idea that our body might be a location for many lineages and if we can tap into those lineages, those relationships, we may never be alone again.

The experience of physical, emotional and collective violence is a daily occurrence for marginalized bodies. And yet, we are expected to turn the other check or be gracious in our victimization for our continued survival. FUCK THAT!!! The toll of immobilized rage amplifies our mortality rates, undermines our mental health and most importantly, perpetuates a collusion with our oppressors.

In this workshop, we go explore expressing rage in the contained and safe environment of a Rage Room, a place where you get to destroy things without consequences. We learn why anger is important to our wellbeing and ways to both stop suppressing it AND survive in a world that provides little room for our anger. And mostly, we get to break shit!!

*PLEASE wear pants and closed toed shoes to this event*. Those without the correct attire will not be able to participate. Safety gear and breaking materials will be provided. Carpooling for this event is available.

Please join us for this BIPOC ONLY healing justice event facilitated by BIPOC facilitators, T. Aisha Edwards, LMHC (@full_flight_wellness) and Tiran Sahar, Counselor Associate.

www.radicalrest.org

@radical.rest

Registration Coming Soon!

Registration Coming Soon!