Art by: Mercy Thokozane Minah (ig @IAmAFreedom). Image description: 13 intergenerational Black people relax, read, eat, giggle, do hair, nap, and frolic on a beach beside a palm tree. There are ASL Interpretation logos. Text says, “FREE ONLINE HEALING & JOY EVENTS EVERY SINGLE DAY. FOR BLACK PEOPLE BY BLACK PEOPLE EXCLUSIVELY. ASL INTERPRETATION OFFERED! WWW.BLACKHEALINGOCTOBER.ORG”
All Black Healing October Events are Free for all Black People. If you have the means and desire to financially support this endeavor, please donate here. But remember, donation or not, you are welcome, wanted, and loved here.
Welcome to Black Healing October
Family!!!!
We love you! Welcome to Reclaim UGLY Presents Black Healing October!
We have collaborated with over 55 diverse Black Healers, Artists, Activists, & Educators to create a magical month full of Black love, Black revelry, Black (he)art, Black vulnerability, Black intimacy, Black healing, and so much Black joy planned just for you!
We have events every single day of the week, sometimes two to three times a day – each one offering something unique and special for Black people of all ages, identities, genders, and sexual orientations. All events will include ASL interpretation by the amazing organization, Pro Bono ASL, and offer automated live captioning.
Family, whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever your experiences are, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE! You are home and you are safe. Join us to connect, heal, grow, scream, wail, cry, laugh, love, learn, imagine, relax, and hopefully fall in deep and sustained love/friendship/familyship with each other. This is a shame free, judgement free, JOY centered, sacred space.
We love you. Let’s Uplift Glorify and Love Ourselves Together – And Create A World Where All Other Black People Can As Well! Thank you SO much for joining us for this gentle, loving, fun, and deeply melanated revolution!!!!!!
Image description: M’kali-Hashiki, a brown-skinned Black woman, smiles at the camera. She has brown & blue chin length curls that cover her left eye, bold red lipstick, an open denim jacket, and a multilevel chain choker.
In this workshop, we will take some time separating the sexual, the sensual, and the erotic so that we can understand the infinite possibilities and potential that lie in the realm of the erotic. You’ll learn breathing techniques that will allow you to access your erotic energy & circulate it, deepening your relationship to Self, and to The Divine. We’ll discuss how these deepened relationships shore us up providing fuel for & rest from the struggle for justice we are engaged in by our very existence. You’ll learn how to expand your energetic container to inhabit all of the space that is yours by your Divine Birthright that we are often prevented from occupying in order to survive White Supremacy & the kyriarchy.
Friday, October 2, 3-5 PM PT
Image description: A collage of words and pictures. Stacia is pictured dancing in the woods with the words “Dancing Mindfulness with Stacia” to the right of her. A pink border outlines the left side of the picture and a pink flower with green leaves is on top of the words.
Dancing Mindfulness allows you to use your movement to achieve a mindful state. Everyone can dance as dance is every move you make. The goal is no judgement of ourselves while we explore movement.
Saturday, October 3, 2-3 PM PT
Artist: Mercy Thokozane Minah
Image Description: 13 Black people of diverse ages and genders lounge on a beach by a palm tree, reading, eating fruit, braiding hair, holding children, napping, laughing, and loving each other. Behind them is a blue sky and ocean. There is an ASL Interpretation logo. The text says, “For Black People By Black People Exclusively. ASL Interpretation by Pro Bono ASL. You Are Loved: Welcome to Black Healing October!!! Opening Ceremony, Saturday 10/3, 4-6 PM PT.
We have a magical evening full of Black love, Black revelry, Black (he)art, and so much Black joy planned for you! There will be song, movement, poetry, ritual, meditation, connection, and a series of Blessings from some amazing Black Faerie Grand Elders! We are so excited to love you and love you good.
Saturday, October 3, 4-6 PM PT
Image description: VanessaSoulXo, a light brown skinned Black woman with long copper curls, a green blouse, floral shorts, and a bright smile, holds a black, red, and yellow Shamanic Drum. She stands in front of a couch and there are flowers besides her.
Join VanessaSoulXo for a shamanic drum journey where she will guide you through this meditative practice as you will explore deep and powerful questions for personal transformation. The questions will require courage, however you will be in a safe and sacred space. This offering will begin with a guided meditation. Vanessa will then speak about this ancient shamanic practice and what having your power animal means in shamanism. Then she will facilitate an interactive conversation about being black right now in America. This will then lead to a shamanic drum journey where you can gain guidance to powerful questions that may arise in conversation. This offering will conclude with a sacred ritual that you can take with you.
Sunday, October 4, 3-4 PM PT
Image description: Photo of African-American women standing behind a microphone in a blue dress behind a microphone on stand getting ready to speak and sing.
Physical distancing does not have to equal social distancing. How do we authentically show up for ourselves and others with compassion and transparency with so much uncertainty surrounding us? You’re invited to come as you are and welcome others with (NO SHADE/NO SHAME) as we intentionally buildup our community and hold space for one another with empathy, human connection, and refreshing dialogue. There will be interactive fun, self- reflection, group sharing, dancing and a musical performance featuring GoodLOVE- a husband and wife duo comprised of Latriece Love-Goodlett & David Goodlett. You’ll also get sneak peaks of the littles wfh with kids. 🙂
Sunday, October 4, 4-6 PM PT
Image description: Photo of Max Pearl, Black man with very short gray hair, smiling, wearing brown glasses with trees in the background.
Self-love and self-compassion are key qualities of a resilient being. These qualities are especially important for us to cultivate, given all of the negative messages in society.
Tuesday, October 6, 6-8 PM PT
Image description: image of Ellenie, an afri indigenous woman wearing a black dressed covered in big yellow flowers. She is filled with joy, dolled up laughing with her head thrown back standing in front of a huge green leaf that is larger than she is.
In this workshop Ellenie Cruz will teach and explain the history of flower essences and demonstrate how they impact the body energetically. You will learn plant listening and how to make and use flowers to alleviate symptoms of anxiety, depression, connect with self, flood your self with positivity and more with the energetic properties of flowers.
Wednesday, October 7, 11 AM – 1 PM PT
Image description: Amber Walker, a lighter brown skinned Black woman wearing a Black hat, shell earrings, and long beads, leans into her hand and smiles softly and sweetly while gazing just beyond the camera’s focus.
Soulutionary was created to support us in a gentle and compassionate way to advocate the importance of self care during the pandemic. It is a highly stressful time for many so it is important to make ourselves aware of keeping our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health intact. Soulutionary is a safe and judgement free space to fellowship, vocalize frustrations, express vulnerability and create healing energy. Soulutionary’s aim is to help gently guide to find solutions and come to a resolution.
Thursday, October 8, 3:30-4:30 PM PT
Image description: Photo of Dr. Brittney M. Cofield-Poole from shoulders up, wearing a black tank top, a sage green head wrap, long brass earrings with white cowrie shells, as well as a black, silver and gold beaded choker necklace.
A gentle and rest-focused mindful movement experience for all levels.
Thursday, October 8, 5-6 PM PT
Image description: A slim black man with an engaging smile leans against a windowsill from inside a room. He is backlit by a sunlit frosted glass window, and dressed in a white Kangol cap, a colorful green and yellow Ghanaian dashiki, and an army green jacket.
This is an interactive workshop to empower attendees with the tools to foster consent culture and healthy masculinities in themselves, their families and communities. We will work on honoring our own boundaries, as well as the boundaries of others.
Friday, October 9, 12 PM – 2 PM PT
Image description: Light Blue poster with words “Wellness Circle: Receive, Revive, Release” surrounded by roses and ferns. The Resting Garden’s Logo is also on poster.
The Wellness Circle is an interactive & restorative session featuring guided meditation, yoga & breakthwork, and let’s paint, sip, & chat.
Saturday, October 10, 10 AM – 12 PM PT
Image description: Natasha L. Simpson, a Black femme with purple cat eye frames and lips, sits before an ivory background, looking directly into the camera with a shy smile. She wears a teal headwrap, beaded necklace and black shawl.
A space to journey inward, together, to honor our grief from what (internalized) oppression has taken, and still claim the sweetness of ourselves.
Saturday, October 10, 3-4:30 PM PT
Image description: Flyer with floral accents and picture of Black woman with eyes closed and expression of reflection and serenity. Text above reads: Healing from Momma. Text below reads: A Journey Within Through Creative Writing
We love our Mommas. And, some of us have experienced some of our deepest hurt from our Mommas, too. Sometimes, this reality makes Momma hard to love, and having a relationship with her difficult or nearly impossible. This workshop is a space for telling it like it is, witnessing, healing ourselves, and supporting the healing process of other BIPOC self-identified womxn as we journey towards a deeper relationship with self. We will practice creative writing through “divine improvisation” – trusting our intuition, stream of consciousness, and ultimately the truth of our lived experiences to guide us to manifest the creative medicine that we need to heal. This workshop will include honoring of our ancestors and the land, movement, meditation, and finally an intentionally curated writing experience that is designed to support you in your healing process. Together, we will practice compassionate listening, the offering of affirmations to one another, and speaking our truths out loud without disclaimer as a part of healing our psyches from the onslaught of generational trauma.
Sunday, October 11, 11:11 AM – 1:11 PM PT
Image description: A cool brown skin Black woman with a high ponytail of black and brown twists with a green headband looks at the camera with a slight smile. She wears a yellow V-neck shirt with white polka dots.
I Want My Mama is an interactive search for the black mama in others and ourselves. For those of us that was denied being our true mama selves because we was loving our dark babies our of fear, to us as children being loved out of fear. We will talk it out, write it out, reclaim the love of the black mother in goddess image. We will work on ways to love ourselves, forgive and chose and find the nurturing we need from others.
Tuesday, October 13, 6-7 PM PT
Image description: Black person wearing pink glasses, a warm smile, and a shirt with cupcakes for days
Simple Self-Care for BIPOC Brilliance is a collection of exercises that encourages self-examination and self-evolution through engaging in a series of activities including meditation, group engagement and discussion, and creating best self-projection for future endeavors. The optimum goal is to create a plan for your personal healing, maintaining balance, and to create a vision for sustainable success.
Wednesday, October 14, 1-3 PM PT
Image description: The profile of a Black Queer femme sitting on the earth in front of a large Redwood tree.
Meditation & Relaxation is a workshop led by Dominique Cowling. As we cope with many of the stressors that 2020 has brought and highlighted, this is an opportunity to slow down to soothe the nervous system with gentle movement, mindfulness meditation and breathwork to support your health and wellness. No experience necessary for this introductory workshop.
Friday, October 16, 6-7 PM PT
Image description: woman, smiling, dressed in black shirt and colorful leggings sitting on pink floor, leaning over orange gummy bear. Background is large red, yellow, and pink plastic candy.
This workshop places Black Healing at the center and invites you to get cozy with self and others as we re-remember ancient ways of healing. During our time together we will share already known ways of healing as well as explore healing techniques that we lost during the diaspora. This workshop use existing ancestral knowledge to blend chakra work, chanting, color therapy, meditation, and self-reiki as a way to heal self and others. While colonizers have re-branded these healing techniques and put a price tag on them, they are all very much inherent to and in all of us. Come on, let’s explore and bring all our expertise to the table. The only requirement is to come as you are – just the way the ancestors like it.
Saturday, October 17, 11 AM – 1 PM PT
Image description: A collage of words and pictures. Stacia is pictured dancing in the woods with the words “Dancing Mindfulness with Stacia” to the right of her. A pink border outlines the left side of the picture and a pink flower with green leaves is on top of the words.
Dancing Mindfulness allows you to use your movement to achieve a mindful state. Everyone can dance as dance is every move you make. The goal is no judgement of ourselves while we explore movement.
Saturday, October 17, 2-3 PM PT
Image description: Guided meditation and Emotional intelligence Teacher Joshua Young sitting on a rock that is in the middle of a stream. They are wearing MudCloth print pants which is hand-dyed in Africa. They are smiling and seem to be a peace and connected to nature.
This offering invites you to explore how meditation supports becoming emotionally conscientious. We create a foundational practice using meditation techniques designed to have us connect deeper to breathing, and to be aware of the body and its desire to surrender. Next, we move into understanding the impact emotions have on the body, and how our response can shape our experience of them. We finish by exploring some of the most common emotions happiness, anger, sadness, and anxiety. We finally create through this course and within the body, resilience. The sessions offered will be paired; part 1 is about building meditation practice and part 2 is to explore the emotions more deeply.
Sunday, October 18, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM PT
Image description: Image shows a Black non-binary person with brown shoulder length afro hair and hoop earrings. They have a Black velvet belly shirt on, a light green choker and is smiling and looking directly at the camera.
This workshop will teach skills to increase intuition by tapping into stillness. We will confront and heal the things that have worn away at our intuition (anti-blackness, misogynoir, cisheteropatriarchy, body shaming, etc.) through writing, movement and meditation. We will build a practice of increasing our intuition in a way that prioritizes rest, our ancestors and trusting ourselves.
Sunday, October 18, 1:30-3:30 PM PT
Image description: A cool brown skin Black woman with a high ponytail of black and brown twists with a green headband looks at the camera with a slight smile. She wears a yellow V-neck shirt with white polka dots.
I Want My Mama is an interactive search for the black mama in others and ourselves. For those of us that was denied being our true mama selves because we was loving our dark babies our of fear, to us as children being loved out of fear. We will talk it out, write it out, reclaim the love of the black mother in goddess image. We will work on ways to love ourselves, forgive and chose and find the nurturing we need from others.
Tuesday, October 20, 4-5 PM PT
Image description: A dark skinned Black woman with braids in a bun, blue and purple eyeshadow, and purple glossed lips smiles at the camera, wearing a floral yellow shirt.
The outside world is full of complications…it gets even more complicated living and surviving in the hood…my job is to help you cope through it….people may have issues in the outside world, but we got PROBLEMS in the hood…my job is to connect with you to find a solution. For this workshop we will focus on love, and the things each astrology sign should be on the lookout for during these trying times. I will be taking a few volunteers who may wish to go deeper; sharing their process in the sacred safe space of the workshop.
Wednesday, October 21, 4:30-6:30 PM PT
Image description: Ifasina, a black genderqueer fat person, is laying on their stomach in a field facing the camera. They have a smirky smile and a scarf tied around their hair. The backdrop is grass, cars, and an office building.
This space is an opportunity to engage with movement that feeds/cares for your body and soul, small writing reflections that create sustaining messages for your ongoing wellness, and small group shares that allow you to be with other Black folks during these times in ways that are sweet and encouraging. We will spend these session(s) engaged in community care and self care, for a dual approach to sustaining ourselves. Let’s gather together to be in our aliveness in an embodied practice.
UPDATED: Friday, October 23, 3-5 PM PT
Image description: A Black non-binary person with a slight soul patch and blue and black hair wearing a blue silk shirt sits with their eyes closed leaning into their hand in a grassy New Orleans field on the bank of the Mississippi
Dreaming Awake by the Water with Tyrell Blacquemoss is a ceremony of plant medicine and water to learn to dream with ancestors and deepen rest practices. Dreaming Awake is a practice of dreamworking as divination, rest, meditation, routine, manifestation, activism, rooted in African spiritual technology. We do it because we are experiencing battle #fatigue – needing both #rest and #strategy to continue the work of our ancestors or to begin something new. We will experience #movementmeditation, #lullaby and #visualstorytelling. Dreaming Awake The Body as Ceremony Medicine Preparation. A #howto video combined with movement meditation and landscapes, discussion questions on Afam Nation (African American sovereignty) and #spiritualtechnologies for dreaming with #landscapes – geographies, emotional. I will combine movement, reiki, body and voice to create tools to support rest and #dreaming.
Watch whenever you want; Questions will be taken October 22-October 24
Image description: Guided meditation and Emotional intelligence Teacher Joshua Young sitting on a rock that is in the middle of a stream. They are wearing MudCloth print pants which is hand-dyed in Africa. They are smiling and seem to be a peace and connected to nature.
This offering invites you to explore how meditation supports becoming emotionally conscientious. We create a foundational practice using meditation techniques designed to have us connect deeper to breathing, and to be aware of the body and its desire to surrender. Next, we move into understanding the impact emotions have on the body, and how our response can shape our experience of them. We finish by exploring some of the most common emotions happiness, anger, sadness, and anxiety. We finally create through this course and within the body, resilience. The sessions offered will be paired; part 1 is about building meditation practice and part 2 is to explore the emotions more deeply.
Sunday, October 25, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM PT
Image description: A photo of Dara smiling, standing on a wooden bridge with a forest behind her, and wearing a white shirt with a yellow flower behind her right ear.
Explore your mind, body, and spirit as you progress through three of the eight limbs of yoga: pranayama, asana, and dhyana. Pranayama is the “regulation of life force energy” or, more simply stated, breath work. This will be explained and practiced at the beginning of class, giving you new, highly accessible tools to regulate your energy. The majority of class will include an all-level vinyasa flow that will emphasis mindfulness and strength. There will be a two-part, guided visualization meditation that will leave you feeling empowered, grateful, and refreshed. My intention is to keep you deeply attached to your inhales and exhales allowing your breath to move and heal your body.
Sunday, October 25, 2-3:30 PM PT
Image description: Seated inside of neon hibiscus flowers, your Black Indigenous Rest Doulas, Onika Reigns and Windafire joyfully conspire to bring sleep / rest / dreams to Black, Indigenous people. Onika is smiling as Windafire whispers in her ear.
Black Dream Escape will offer a collective rest session. Using original music, meditations, storytelling, and breathwork that centers Black and Indigenous experience. We will guide participants into a rested state. Time will be given afterwards to asses, reflect and offer feedback about how to develop a personal Rest Practice.
Sunday, October 25, 4:30-6:30 PM PT
Image description: A nonbinary Black womxn facing the camera head on.
In this workshop we’ll cover the core principles of NVC and explore what it means to have NVC consciousness while looking at how to use NVC in ways that are culturally responsive and appropriate for Black folks. Participants will have the chance to have Q & A with the facilitator, reflect personally on how NVC can best serve them, and practice with each other Theater of the Oppressed style. We’ll also be incorporating tools like meditation, visualization, and somatic practices that compliment the development of NVC consciousness.
Monday, October 26, 12-5 PM PT (with a 1-hour break from 2-3 PM PT)
Image description: A brown-skinned woman with short curly black hair wears bright red with a black triangle necklace, head thrown back in laughter, against a blue and white sky background.
Self Promise-keeping: through sound bath, breath work, and writing/journaling, we are able to access the parts of us patiently awaiting creative expression. Uncovering and naming the broken promises we’ve made to ourselves is the beginning of healing and recommitment to our individual thriving. Lay the groundwork to welcome your best self back home to your body.
Tuesday, October 27, 4:30-6:00 PM PT
Image description: A cool brown skin Black woman with a high ponytail of black and brown twists with a green headband looks at the camera with a slight smile. She wears a yellow V-neck shirt with white polka dots.
I Want My Mama is an interactive search for the black mama in others and ourselves. For those of us that was denied being our true mama selves because we was loving our dark babies our of fear, to us as children being loved out of fear. We will talk it out, write it out, reclaim the love of the black mother in goddess image. We will work on ways to love ourselves, forgive and chose and find the nurturing we need from others.
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All Black Healing October Events are Free for all Black People. If you have the means and desire to financially support this endeavor, please donate here. But remember, donation or not, you are welcome, wanted, and loved here.
