How do your ancestors understand “the thinning of the veil between the worlds” that marks this time of year? Was there a name for this time in their languages? Are your ancestors from the northern or southern hemisphere? How might that shape their relationship with autumn months?
“The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes amounts to certainty; thenew therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.” – Hannah Arendt
What’s been giving you life this season?
What new questions are making themselves known to you?
What examples of resilience (resistance or rebellion) that came before us strengthen your resolve in this moment?
What are you fighting for?
How are you fighting?
What miracles are you or would you like to steward, embody and/or co-create?
BIOS
Johanna Holden is an Ashkenazi and Irish trans lesbian born and raised in beautiful occupied Huichin (Berkeley, CA). After moving to the Pacific Northwest to study activist theatre and puppetry, she returned to the Bay Area in June of 2014, throwing herself into antiracist organizing, plant studies, and being a cat mama. These days, you can find her writing grants at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center (where she also facilitates the monthly Trans Women and Trans Femmes’ Support Circle), studying herbalism at Ancestral Apothecary, and building rich and resilient community with her friends and loved ones. Follow her at @riverdyke and visit her online at thewaterwitch.com, where she offers sliding scale ritual planning services for folks navigating life’s transitions.
Kris Malone Grossman is a mother and writer. She earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and is a PhD student in Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She has taught creative writing at Hofstra University, and she is currently a work on a novel about sex, art, and California. Her essays have been anthologized in Dirt is Good for You and The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change, and have recently appeared in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies. In 2017 her work was sponsored by 100 Days Action, a calendar of activist and artistic strategy. She makes her home with her husband and three sons in the Bay Area.
Grace Diehl is passionate about working for social justice across sectors and concocting radical strategy. With a deep foundation in conservation and philanthropy, she schemes for collective liberation by building bridges between change-makers. Grace is also a writer. Look out for her upcoming novel Yuppie White Girl Treason in print and podcast form!
Specialties: Team Dynamics, Strategic Planning, Grant Writing & Administration, Editing, Native Plant Production, Conservation Ecology, Figure Painting
Kelsey Meave Crean Gustafson is a white, cis, artist, survivor and student of the intuition, living on unceded Ohlone land known as occupied Huichin or Berkeley, California. Kelsey is committed to creating spaces for trauma survivors to connect to their bodies and to co-create embodied cultures of consent, justice and pleasure. After spending the last ten years teaching and practicing what is known as yoga here in the west, Kelsey is now saying no to teaching yoga as an extractive practice and is committed to deconstructing toxic power dynamics and creating possibilities for our collective healing. As a part of discovering what is hers to carry, Kelsey is excited to be learning how to sing in Gaelic and nourish her ancestors through music and art practice. Kelsey holds groups for embodied and creative trauma healing in the East Bay. You can find out more about her offerings at KelseyGustafson.com.
Drawing by Grace Diehl in collaboration with Nicole Gervacio!