aboutgratitude

I am a white, queer Tamalpa Teacher Training Graduate and Licensed Master of Social Worker currently living on Canarsie land (Brooklyn, NY).

I earned a Masters of Social Work at the University of Connecticut (Tunxis) while studying with the Tamalpa Institute’s Professional Training program (Tuxnis). The trauma- informed use of the PsychoKinetic Imaging Process effectively allowed me to move into the person I am today. Coming from an intersectional, anti-racist feminist lens, I draw similarities among Expressive Arts Therapy, CBT, and narrative therapies.

I lived on Lisjan Ohlone land (Oakland, CA) for eight years where I initiated the Performance Primers at Periwinkle Palace. I took classes with Kathleen Hermsdorf, Abby Crain and Margit Galanter. I performed with Hope Mohr, Margit Galantar, and Melinda Ring. I shared my performance art at LevySalon, SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts, Klanghaus, and Salta. My work was published by Two Plum Press, Unmother Magazine, and Oatmeal Magazine; and I was featured in New Life Quarterly. I was an Emerging Arts Professional and I received a BA on Mohican Wabanaki land at Bennington College (Bennington, VT) where I studied dance and choreography.

I was born and raised in the Nipmuck woods of Hampton, CT. I am honored to have presented a Creative Placemaking workshop at the True Colors Conference, which I attended as a young person.

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I am so grateful for the constellations of changemakers working together across time and space:

To my parents, for their activism. To their parents- Nadja and Elig for your artistry, Dooley for mediating labor disputes and Barclay for providing for your future generations. To their parents for migrating, and to all the thousands of ancestors who have brought me to be here. To my aunties and uncles and my extended family of friends both given and chosen. To my brothers, for nurturing me as a child and ensuring I continue to play. To Hilary and Alex and David. To Catie, Alyssa, Adam, Jesse, Jesse, Chelsea, Derrick, Amelia, Evan, Shasta, Robyn, Jenn, Kieran, Yana, Coleen, Felicity. To Ethan, Holly, Kelly, Andrew, Dana, Faith, Jonah and Suzanne.

To janelle monae and wizard apprentice. To Demetrie Broxton and Chinchin Hsu and Jaamil Olawale Kosoko and Tommy DeFranz. To Ursula and Teo, and Tao. To Corey, Ainsley, Tyler, Shereen, Caitlin, Alley, and Jamie. Hannah Ayasse, Chibueze Crouch, and Gizeh. Hannah Waselweski. Tarin Griggs, Kim Ip, peekaboo, Bhumi Patel, Europa, Jose Abad, Gabriel Christian, Zulfikar Bhutto, Tara Marsden (& Oatmeal magazine for originally printing Tender Membrane in their Coldmeal issue).

To Hope Mohr, Cherie Hill, Karla Quintero, Gerad Cassel, yayaoi Kambara, Margit Galanter, Abby Crain, Kathleen Hermsdorf, Peter Pleyer. To Beatrice Thomas for getting my values aligned with my actions. To octavia butler, bell hooks, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Huey Newton. I kneel in deep gratitude to you.

To all my teachers: Tiana, Suki, and Shannon for supporting me through high school. Dana, Susan, Terry for your education in college. Anna, Daria, Rosario, Joy, Dohee, Natan from Tamalpa. To Dayna Snell, Maura Wallin, and Shavonne Dash. To Cindy, Sukmani, Regina, Ann Garran, Anne Foley, Martiza, Gio, Caitlin, Ellen, Rebecca, Bizrat.

To the earth and the animals and space. Thank you, thank you from the base of my feet for your lessons radiating up inside me through my spine and arms into the space around us. Thank you