Happy solstice | A June note ☀️

June 21 • view this email in your browser • unsubscribe
 

Nourishment

won’t you celebrate with me
— Lucille Clifton
 

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
 

Lucille Clifton, “won't you celebrate with me” from Book of Light. Copyright © 1993 by Lucille Clifton. Listen to a reading of this poem by the author on the Poetry Foundation website.

What we’re learning: Decolonizing relationships between & among women

Thanks to all who attended our spring course with Sherri Mitchell–Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, in support of a new learning center at the Land Peace Foundation. For those who couldn’t attend, a few teachings that we’re still thinking about:

• Our emotional distress about climate and ecological crisis is a sign of something being righted within us—an expression of life rising up and calling out, “give me your hand and come with me.” We have an obligation to grieve right now, to move the grief through us and make space for arising. This is a time that requires deep rooting.

• According to Sherri’s research, we have been living in the distortion of patriarchy since at least 3000 BCE, when women’s bodies were first commodified and erasure of empowering female symbols began. Colonization was the vehicle that carried patriarchy into every corner of the world, with capitalism as its financier.

• Patriarchy has distorted the duality of life and the “mitewilin” or space in-between, which is the space of possibility. The opportunity at hand is integration of the sacred energies, reclaiming the feminine and non-binary dimensions, alongside the masculine.

Project updates

• 🌳 Upcoming course: In-person climate wayfinding immersive at the Omega Institute
  
  Thanks to everyone who applied for the first cohort of our upcoming wayfinding course, to be held virtually in collaboration with Terra.do! We’re thrilled to announce a first in-person Climate Wayfinding experience, to be held this September at the Omega Institute in New York’s Hudson Valley.
  
  No course fee; scholarships available for travel/housing.
  
  Learn more + apply →
   

• 🎉 This spring, we were honored to welcome our new teammate, Wawa Gatheru, who is working with us as a narrative fellow 
  
  Wawa is an environmental justice advocate and storyteller. She is a proud first-generation American of Kenyan descent and the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist. Wawa is currently completing an MSc in nature, society, and environmental governance at Oxford, where she is a Rhodes Scholar, and is an avid pop culture enthusiast.
   

• 🗒 We’d love your thoughts on this newsletter
  
  If you’ve enjoyed seeing it in your inbox each month, we’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on what you’d like to see more of in the next year:
  
  Tell us what you think →
   

Until next time,