An online reading and somatic practice group working with “My Grandmother’s Hands” by Resmaa Menakem with community interested in anti-racist ancestral healing for white folks. This group is facilitated by Samwise Raridon (Teacher + Facilitator) and Gaia Esensten (Somatic Counselor). Our goal is to do this somatic and emotional learning work so that we may show up more authentically for racial and economic justice. Participants will get to practice the somatic exercise outlined in the book with the support of community. This group meets for 9 Mondays starting September 12th at 7 - 8:30 PM EST (4 - 5:30 PM PST) (with a week off on Halloween).
This group is offered as part of the Ancestral Healing for White Folks Class, and will be structured to include everyone including those who are not participating in the class. We will be reading the book at a healthy pace in order to finish it in 10 weeks. Here is the reading schedule:
Monday September 12th: Introduce ourselves, Community Guidelines and Intention Setting
Monday September 19th: introductions through Chapter 3
Monday September 26th: Chapter 4 - 6
Monday October 3rd: Chapters 7 - 9
Monday October 10th: Chapters 10 - 12
Monday October 17th: Chapters 13 - 15
Monday October 24th: Chapters 16 - 18
Monday October 31st: Off for Halloween
Monday November 7th: Chapters 19 - 21
Monday November 14th: Chapters 22 - Five Opportunities for Healing and Making Room for Growth, Wrap up group and next steps
This group is offered freely with the option of giving a gift for facilitation at the end of the group.
Samwise Raridon (they/them) is a nonbinary trans community herbalist, teacher, folklorist, writer and practitioner of magic. They carry germanic, celtic and lebanense lineages and they live as a descendent of settlers on Ofo, Mesopelia, (Adena, Hopewell), Shawnee, Osage land. It is their life’s work to support other white folks in unlearning white supremacy and to connect to the humanness in ourselves and our lineages.
Gaia Esensten (they/them) is a white, queer, neurodivergent, Jewitch somatic practitioner, ecofeminist scholar & ritualist. They live on the lands of the Coastal Miwok and Southern Pomo peoples in Sebastopol, California with their cat companion named Luna. Their ancestors are Western European fairies and witches, immigrants and colonizers, as well as Eastern European Jewish mystics and refugees. Their offerings are shaped by politicized Somatics, Ecopsychology, Liberation Psychology, Buddhist meditation, feminist, womanist & indigenous movements for collective liberation and practices for reconnecting with their own embodied, ancestral lifeways. They are devoted to being shaped by the Living Earth by swimming in wild water, singing with the birds, ethically foraging plants and fungi, fire-tending and dancing with the ocean and trees. They used to be a professional photographer and now can be found clowning around on dance floors and in song circles. They bring a creative playfulness to the process of healing and believe in the power of healing in circle together as an integral part of collective liberation. You can learn more about their offerings here: www.gaiadreaming.life and on Instagram @gaiadreaminglife.