Workshops
All times are in Pacific Standard Time
Zoom registration is required unless otherwise indicated
*Replay will be available* indicates that the workshop will be recorded and made available for those registered to the summit. This is to accommodate those who are in different time zones or those who have scheduling conflicts. The replay will expire at the end of the summit on Saturday, August 1, 2020 at 9 pm PST and is not downloadable.
Day 1/ July 27: REALIZATION
8 - 9 AM
IG Live
Opening Ceremony
Co-creators of the Womxn of Color Summit, Harpinder Mann and Irene Lo, will lead an Opening Ceremony on IG Live that will include a Tarot pull followed by a meditation.
*Replay will be available*
10 - 11 AM
Unlock the Story of You
As womxn of color, we have so many great stories to share but we are unsure of where or how to begin. In this workshop, learn the secrets to unlocking the story of you with Story Coach, Haylee Thikeo.
Storytelling is one of the most powerful actions we can take as womxn of color to dismantle white supremacy and patriarchy. As such systems are meant to erase, silence and control our inner and external narratives, visualizing ourselves as the protagonist in our own story and showing love to our our journey is quite revolutionary and radical of an act.
*Replay will be available*
2 - 3 PM
Honoring Yourself: Consent and Boundaries Beyond Sex
This workshop delves into how to honor your whole unapologetic self by exploring boundaries and consent beyond sex.
Led by Sydney Rae Chin, Intuitive Sex Educator, Honoring Yourself: Consent and Boundaries Beyond Sex explores what boundaries/consent is like for us, how we can explore boundaries/consent beyond sexual relationships, and what they mean in terms cultivating a healthy relationship with ourselves. This space will be survivor-centered space with a focus on womxn of color's experiences.
5 - 6:30 PM
Beyond Survival: Building Beliefs to Thrive
In this workshop led by Life Coach, Nicole Cruz, participants will learn how to cultivate beliefs that will serve them in moving beyond Survival to Thriving. You will walk away with more clarity on your thriving vision, tools to release what's holding you back, and steps to start developing thriving beliefs.
*Replay will be available*
Day 2/ July 28: DECOLONIZATION
8 - 8:30 AM
IG Live
Meditation for Healing with Self-Compassion and Loving-Kindness
Join Ekta Hattangady, Social Worker and Mindfulness Coach for a 30-minute meditation that draws from Eastern philosophies and Western mindfulness techniques to empower participants to accept their specific situation and experience its impact fully, in order to bring compassion and kindness to their difficulties. The practice begins with oneself and goes towards expanding the compassion circle to all living beings. It is suitable for people of all ethnicities, faiths and belief systems. Consistent practice is known to the improve overall well-being of practitioners.
*Replay will be available*
10 - 11 AM
Breaking Up with Diet Culture... It's Not Us, It's Them
If you’ve been made to feel ashamed for eating your whole life, maybe it’s time you break up with diet culture. If you’ve ever wondered whether your body is good or bad, maybe it’s time you learn about the racist history of diet culture. If you are tired of never feeling as though you are enough, maybe it’s time for you to learn the five quick steps to undo the negative mental conditioning that comes from diet culture.
Join Aisha Nash, Diet Culture Rebel and Yoga Teacher as she explains the history, pseudoscience, and blatant racism that diet culture is built upon, as well as her easy steps to break free from its grasp and develop a healthy relationship with food.
*Replay will be available*
2 - 2:30 PM
Blind Contour: Trust in Process & Body
Join Farah Billah, Contemporary Artist, Poet, for this workshop. Blind Contour is a drawing warm up exercise that trains the hand and eye to work together. As your eye moves along the details of the subject, your hands slowly move along with it as well. The key practice is that you do not look at your paper or lift up your pen during the entire process. We will use this exercise to explore the feelings of expectation, discomfort, disappointment, and hopefully, acceptance. Yes, this is a drawing exercise, but it also a means to discuss and relate this practice to other aspects of our lives. It is an exercise in trusting your intuition and navigating self-imposed expectations.
Materials needed: pen and paper
*Replay will be available*
5 - 7 PM
Intro to Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication
Using a trauma-informed and decolonial lens, this workshop will explore how Non-Violent Communication fits within the context of radical-relational change. Participants will receive a concrete framework to deepen their relationship to conflict and prompts to develop clarity on their own feelings and needs.
Using a trauma-informed and decolonial lens, Meenadchi, Facilitator and Politicized Practitioner will explore in this workshop how Non-Violent Communication fits within the context of radical-relational change. This introductory workshop will provide tools for developing stronger interpersonal communication by divesting from shame-and-blame language and developing clearer awareness of one's own feelings and needs. Workshop agenda will include a blend of instructional and experiential content.
Day 3/ July 29: RECLAMATION
9-10:30 AM
Into The Veil
Into the Veil is an introduction to Espiritismo. Kaitlyn, a first generation Cuban-American Espiritista, psychic medium and tarot reader, teaches a non-denominational, modern approach to Espiritismo (spiritism). Espiritismo is the practice of living in constant communion with your ancestors, spirits and guides. Espiritistas believe in the intercession of the spirits in our daily lives, and that in venerating them we create for ourselves healing and a more fulfilling life. When we nurture a relationship with our ancestors, spirits and guides we unlock our personal magic, our personal relationship with divinity. We discover our history and better understand our callings in this lifetime.
In this workshop, we will learn the fundamental practices of grounding, cleansing and protection. Learn how to identify the ways spirits(s) communicate with you personally. Learn how to build and maintain a boveda (or altar) for your ancestors, guides and spirits. This workshop includes a guided meditation, lecture and plenty of Q&A time - so please bring your questions about ancestors, spirits and mediumship!
*Replay will be available*
12 - 1 PM
Grounding in the Garden
A conversation around growing food in an urban landscape, utilizing principles from permaculture. Learning from plant guides and nature's cycles to heal oneself and their surroundings.
This will be a conversation around growing food in an urban landscape and connecting with nature's cycles and the plant guides that can bring about healing transformation.
Jyoti Solanki-Davie, Registered Massage Therapist and Gardener, will share what she has learned from the permaculture principles over the last decade of trying to grow food. We will talk about how gardening can be a revolutionary act and is so needed in this time of industrial agricultural practices. Starting where you are and looking at what grows near you is a great place to begin learning about medicinal and native plants. If there's interest we can touch on herbal remedies, like teas and infusions. After our conversation we will end with a grounding meditation.
*Replay will be available*
5:30- 6:30 PM
The African Roots of Modern Medicine: Reclaiming our Connection to Wellness
This workshop will explore the African contribution to modern medicine and what it offers to our modern wellness experience.
Physician Hazel Cebrun-Archie will explore in this workshop African contributions to modern medicine and wellness. The goal of this workshop is to discuss the roots of this knowledge and how it has shaped current medical practices. It is also a call to action as we commit to increasing representation and diversity in wellness and create spaces where we all can lay claim to practices and lifestyle that will lead to optimal health.
*Replay will be available*
Day 4/ July 30: CONNECTION
8 - 9 AM
Dipping our Toes into Pelvic Health - How Asana and Pranayama Can Aid in Pelvic Wellness
Nicole Dydasco, Prenatal and Pelvic Floor Yoga Educator, will go over a brief introduction into pelvic floor health and how the physical and breath practice of yoga can help improve pelvic health wellness. The hope is that you will leave with a basic understanding of what your pelvic floor is, 1-2 ways to improve pelvic floor health, and feel empowered to learn more about your pelvic health.
*Replay will be available*
12 - 1 PM
Thriving In Sobriety
This one hour workshop will be a conversational, open and safe space to share honestly about our experiences regarding sobriety from drugs and alcohol. Whether you are "sober-curious," just beginning to question the role drugs and alcohol play in your life, have made past attempts at sobriety/abstinence, or are currently sober and/or in recovery, this space is for you. Led by Bindi Naik, Speaker, Writer, Sobriety Mentor.
*Replay will be available*
6 - 7:30 PM
Shamanic Journey
Using the repetitive sound of drum and rattle, Shamanic Journeys elicit a relaxed state of consciousness that allows us to access hidden or unconscious insights, revelations or answers to our soul's questions.
Led by Shamanic Practitioner, Marilu Shinn, Shamanic Journeys enable us a deeper connection with the realms of nature, spirit and Earth as a sentient, living, breathing being. During a shamanic Journey, we may encounter animal allies or ancestors who want to deliver their wisdom and lend us their guidance.
After a journey you may feel more integrated or have greater clarity about your current path.
What to bring or how to prepare: have a clear intention, ground in your body and bring a pen and journal to record information or revelations received during the journey.
Day 5/ July 31: INSPIRATION
9 - 9:30 AM
IG Live
Guarding Your Light: Practices for Protecting Your Energy
The importance of honoring and guarding our energy is important now more than ever. Through challenging times we often drop our sense of personal boundaries and end up energetically and emotionally compromised. Put yourself and your prana at the center of your day with these quick and simple energetic practices. Together we will work through some low-movement (can be done sitting or standing, some arm mobility included) energy-clearing techniques grounded in the practices of Reiki and Qi-Gong. Next, we will do a short visualization practice and learn how to create an "energy shield" or protective boundary around your energy field. You will leave feeling empowered, guided, and protected. Led by Annisha Lashand, Reiki Practitioner and Meditation Guide.
*Replay will be available for 24 hours*
10 - 11:15 AM
What I Learned at 13: A Personal Reflection & Creative Expression Workshop
Life always makes for the best creative inspiration. In this workshop led by Priyanka Saju, Writer and Speaker, we will explore our personal histories and how we’ve experienced the ‘status quo’ through deep writing and reflection. We will then create poetry that honors our journeys and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. This workshop is a celebration of creative expression and play and no previous writing experience is required.
*Replay will be available*
12:30 - 2 PM
Negotiation Is Not 50/50
Join Siobhán Stergis, Trauma Yoga Teacher, in this embodied practice of relearning how to negotiate our most important relationship --the one we have with ourselves!
Negotiating is daunting and no easy skill. First we must speak up about what we want, then we have to be willing to cut that in half. As we look for resources and platforms, we either meet people who can't help us the way we need or we settle for a subpar relationship. Whatever it takes to keep moving forward, right? Over time we give up crucial needs in the hope to be seen as accommodating or flexible. How has "whatever it takes" been serving you so far?
A hostage negotiator can't settle for 50/50, and we have been held hostage for too long. We have been held hostage by societal norms, poor management, even our own bodies! So how do we use our voice and compromise without giving up our integrity? If you struggle to negotiate like your life depends on it, in business, in love, in life, then this 90-min embodiment workshop is for you. Bring a notebook, lots of pillows/blankets, and your voice!
*Replay will be available*
5 - 6:30 PM
Closing Ceremony
Co-Creators of the Womxn of Color Summit, Harpinder Mann and Irene Lo, will lead a Closing Ceremony that includes meditation, breathwork, and an opportunity for community to come together and share their experiences.
*Replay will be available*
About Our Workshop Facilitators
Ordered by day
Haylee Thikeo (She/Her)
Story Coach
Haylee Thikeo is a storyteller. She has a decade of marketing experience executing digital media campaigns on social, email and web that amplify stories from poc, nbpoc and immigrant communities. She is a Lao American womxn of the Southeast Asian diaspora and is sharing her lived experiences on Don't Say Sorry Podcast, a podcast that aims to normalize taboo conversations about sex, relationships, and intergenerational healing where she is the co-host and co-producer.
Today, Haylee is a Story Coach with a coaching program that support artists and entrepreneurs of color identify the narratives that challenges their success and works with her clients to co-create a brand new personal statement for success.
Sydney Rae Chin (She/Her)
Intuitive Sex Educator
Sydney Rae Chin is a queer Chinese American intuititve sex educator, writer, and content creator based on the East Coast. She holds a degree from Emerson College in Media Arts Production with a minor in African American and Africana Studies. Sydney aims to create and hold space for women as well as femmes of color, especially fellow survivors. She is a proud third generation queer Chinese American woman; these identities inform the type of projects Sydney takes on. Sydney is a proud double bull, a visionary according to Adobe Creative types, and an avid foodie!
Nicole Cruz (She/Her)
Life Coach
Nicole Cruz is a Life Coach, the daughter of Filipino immigrants and a full-time traveler. She supports and empowers 1st & 2nd generation immigrants of color to overcome fear & self-doubt, gain confidence, believe in themselves, and take action towards their dreams. She has been featured in Fast Company and is a TikTok Education Partner. Her mission is to empower people of color to love and liberate themselves so that they can thrive, unapologetically.
Ekta Hattangady (She/Her)
Social Worker, Mindfulness Coach
Ekta Hattangady is a Social Worker with a specialization in aging, dementia and chronic illness. She is also a student and facilitator of Yoga (asana) and meditation. Her newest project is bringing mindfulness practices to non-profit / direct support staff. Ekta grew up in India and Yoga and meditation have always been part of her life. Her personal practice is a combination of asana, Vipassana meditation, journaling and mindful activity. She is passionate about accessibility and inclusivity in wellness spaces. Ekta is currently writing a book on her spiritual path. She is an amateur photographer and loves collecting vinyl.
Aisha Nash (She/Her)
Diet Culture Rebel, Yoga Teacher
Aisha is a diet culture rebel. She has spent the majority of her life on one diet after another, until one fateful morning she woke up and said enough is enough. Aisha studied Biology at University in the hopes of curing illnesses, but quickly realised that it was for nought, as there is much more money to be made in treating diseases than curing them.
She is a classically-trained pastry chef and certified Yoga teacher that spends her time off trying to help people break up with the cultural hierarchy that is sold by the diet industry. Her one hope is for all humans is to realise that they deserve better than a life filled with shame for eating food.
Farah Billah (She/Her)
Contemporary Artist, Poet
Farah Billah is a contemporary artist & poet from Sacramento, CA.
She paints, draws & writes because the world is a strange place & she was given hands. Her work is heavily influenced by surrealism, the outrage of the planet, womanhood, the festivity of both Bangladesh & New Orleans, & the very personal violence of it all. Her work is a quiet attempt at honesty. (also blah blah something about survival). Current work includes sculpture, plaster casting her face, shari fabric work, performance and video, linework, & a whole lot of chrysanthemums.
Farah is currently scraping out the inside of her brain (& pursuing her MFA in painting & drawing) in New Orleans, LA.
Meenadchi (They/Them)
Facilitator, Politicized Practitioner
Meenadchi (they/them) has worked for over 10 years in trauma services and crisis stabilization. Meenadchi’s NVC practice began in 2002, and it quickly became a natural fit to weave these magical tools for self-compassion and accountability into Meenadchi’s daily work. Meenadchi's NVC practice lays the groundwork for a somatic and intersectional approach to communication, incorporating tools to divest from shame and to deepen interdependent vulnerability. In December 2018, Meenadchi was invited to become Co-Conspirator Press’s inaugural author with the workbook Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication. Craniosacral therapy, family constellations, and bachata are additional modalities that Meenadchi incorporates into the work.
Kaitlyn Watsabaugh (She/Her, They/Them)
Espiritista, Psychic Medium, Tarot Reader
Kaitlyn is an Espiritista, psychic medium and tarot reader. Through espiritismo, Kaitlyn connects women, femmes, non-binary and LGBTQIA+ folks with their ancestors, spirits and guides. Kaitlyn is a queer, Latinx witch, mother and partner. She resides in East LA.
Jyoti Solanki-Davie (She/Her)
Registered Massage Therapist, Gardener
Jyoti Solanki-Davie (she/her) has many roles, a mother, a teacher, a healer and forever a student. Her work consists of Massage Therapy and teaching Yoga, running her clinic from her home. A self proclaimed “anatomy nerd”, she loves to talk about fascia and the wonder of the human body. She is also an avid gardener with aspirations of building an edible perennial garden, she enjoys spending time in nature, learning from her cycles. Spending her days raising her toddler, knitting and working with fibre, she enjoys bringing yoga off the mat and into the mundane.
Hazel Cebrun-Archie (She/Her)
Physician
Dr. Hazel Cebrun-Archie is a physician trained in both emergency and integrative medicine. She believes that good health depends on balance, communication and a partnership between health care practitioners and their clients/patients. Her work acknowledges that there is a disconnect between the great strides that are being made in the fields of health and medicine and the application of these principles in the lives of everyday people. Her goal is to help close that gap and make wellness as practical and accessible to as many people as possible.
In addition to being a board certified physician, she is also trained in breathwork and yoga.
Nicole Dydasco (She/Her)
Yoga Therapist
@Nicolekiana1, nicolekianayoga.com
Nicole has always been passionate about advocating for those with little or no voice. Her previous work was a blend of her first love in veterinary medicine and a newer passion in wellness. After the birth of her son, the scales soon shifted to the latter.
It became clear to her then that her mission would be cultivating a safe space for other folx to embark on an empowered pelvic health path that she herself had worked so hard to find. Nicole has since shifted the focus of her teachings to incorporate a deeper emphasis on pelvic and pre/postnatal wellness especially in the BIPOC community. She wholeheartedly believes that in order to feel empowered in advocating for our own pelvic health, the space needs to be safe and individuals need to feel seen and heard. Nicole is passionate about yoga being a way of life, and applies this sense of service, care, and respect to all of her offerings.
Bindi Naik (She/Her)
Speaker, Writer
Bindi is a mother, reader, closet writer, seeker and a person who has been sober from alcohol since March 2018. She has been involved in the sober community since first beginning her journey to sobriety in September, 2017. Through her personal experiences and her work with other sober men and women, she has studied many paths of sobriety, and believes the best methodology is the one that best supports your sobriety goals and enriches your life beyond your expectations.
She feels sharing our stories is one of the greatest gifts we give to ourselves and to our people, and is passionate about creating space to do that.
Marilu Shinn (She/Her)
Shamanic Practitioner
Marilu Shinn has held a private practice as a Shamanic Practitioner since 2012. Her formal training includes the Four Winds Society of Shamanic Studies & the Mount Madonna Institute of Yoga, as well as an ongoing apprenticeship with the Qero Medicine people of Peru. Her own healing journey of intergenerational trauma brought her to embody the Ancient Wisdom Traditions of Peru & to share the Medicine & Beauty of this Lineage as a path towards empowerment & embodied living. Her mission & passion are to reconnect people with their Authentic Selves, to awaken their somatic awareness through ritual, energy medicine and other shamanic practices & to reconnect them with their innate sacred wisdom as the foundations for leading fulfilling, whole lives.
Annisha Lashand (She/Her)
Reiki Practitioner, Poet
Annisha is an Indian-Canadian Reiki practitioner, meditation guide, and intuitive writer born from a lineage of healers. She was shown the practice of Zen meditation at the young age of six and was taught Reiki at the age of ten. Annisha runs a nomadic heart-space called Gather by Light, which holds mindfulness-based, group wellness gatherings. As a writer and poet, she finds deep inspiration in the space between breaths, nature's moody cycles, and the spirit that brought you here.
Priyanka Saju (She/Her)
Writer, Speaker
Priyanka Saju is a Toronto-based writer, speaker, and follower of creative impulses. She embraces writing as a medium to give voice to her unresolved feelings as she navigates the middle places of cross-cultural upbringing, the pursuit of success, and the nature of womxnhood, self-acceptance, and resilience. Priyanka does this while approaching these topics with the type of humour and humility that can only be gained by tripping face-first into growth.
Siobhán Stergis (She/Her/They)
Trauma Yoga Teacher
Siobhán (she/her/they) is a Trauma Yoga teacher from Long Island, NY, who's initial life path was in the sciences of tech and data. A lifelong athlete, she followed her love of movement into better understanding the science of trauma, Vagal Theory, and the energetic body. Currently, the majority of her group classes are in the style of Yin yoga.
Harpinder Mann (She/Her)
Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Community Builder
Harpinder Mann (she/her) is a Sikh-Buddhist Punjabi-American yoga and meditation teacher currently living in New Orleans. She is actively working to decolonize wellness by creating community and providing real accessibility to her ancestral practices for BIPOC. She has over 700 hours of yogic training within the traditions of Raja, Vinyasa, and Kundalini Yoga from the Ananda Sangha Center in New Delhi, India, Stretch Yoga in Brisbane, Australia and from Swaha Yoga in New Orleans. Without her teachers, ancestors, and womxn before her, none of this would be possible.
Yoga is a spiritual practice for Harpinder - one that takes her back to her True Self without the noise of the ego and society. This practice gave her the freedom and power to be seen and live authentically. To know that there is nothing wrong with her. It has healed parts of her Self she never even realized needed tending to.
She strongly believes part of that journey is to reclaim our heritage, cultures, and re-center ourselves in our lives. This summit is one way to center BIWOC through celebration, storytelling, and community.
Ireno Lo (She/Her)
Asana Facilitator
Irene Lo (she/her) is a Taiwanese-Canadian Asana Facilitator and forever yoga student. Her mission is to teach in honour of the lineage of Krishnamacharya while showing up for herself and community. She has 200 hours of yogic training with the Lila School of Vinyasa.
After balancing a day job in corporate and non-profit communications with teaching asana yoga on the side, Irene is currently taking a yoga sabbatical. On the next chapter of her journey, she will be continuing her yogic studies and connecting with her ancestors as part of her decolonization work.
Creativity is an act of bravery in a capitalist society that values profit over self care and rest. Through the spiritual practice of yoga, Irene knows self care is our birth right because she has not only found the inner space to cultivate compassion for herself and all living things, but has found the courage to show up -wrinkles and warts and all. She hopes the summit inspires and uplifts community by cheering on the creative joy of WOC living their dharma.