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Workshop: Fostering Consent Culture & Healthy Masculinities For All Genders with Richard Wright

4/9/2020

 
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Fostering Consent Culture & Healthy Masculinities For All Genders

May 30, 2020 | 11am-1:30pm PST/ 2pm-4:30pm EST
2.5hr Online Workshop via Zoom Video Conferencing

Register before...
  • the end of Sunday, April 30th to get Earliest Bird pricing- $75
  • the end of Saturday, May 16th to get Early Bird pricing- $100
Full Workshop Price $125
​
Description & About the Facilitator:
Richard M. Wright, MA (he, him, his) is a Jamaican New Yorker who lives in Florida. He received his Masters at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he studied Expressive Arts Therapy. Richard also completed the Healthy Masculinity/ Bystander Intervention training with Men Can Stop Rape. Combining these skill sets, Richard created art-based workshops that foster consent culture and healthy masculinities (of all genders) with movement, drama and play. The interventions develop empathy, integrity, accountability, and a value for our own and each other’s boundaries and humanity. Richard also does speaking engagements that focus on these themes. He is available for consulting on these issues, and brings them into his counseling practice as well. 

In 2017, Richard was published in the very timely,  groundbreaking anthology “Ask: Building Consent Culture,” edited by Kitty Stryker. He also writes self-published pieces that critique current events from an intersectional perspective. As a cisgendered straight man, he strongly believes that it is important for him to be accountable and represent by doing this important culture shifting work towards a paradigm that respects the boundaries and humanity of women, girls, femmes, and everyone else too. 

For this course, Richard will be helping to empower attendees with the tools to foster consent culture and healthy masculinities in their families and communities. It is worthy to note that "masculinity" is not being taught as an identity exclusive to cis-men. We will explore healthy masculinities of all genders. Attendees will leave with these tools, and a fundamental understanding of the systems of oppression that suppress consent culture and healthy masculinity, and how we can rise above that together. 

www.richardmwright.com

To Register: 
Full course fee $125 
Register before...
  • the end of Sunday, April 30th to get Earliest Bird pricing- $75
  • the end of Saturday, May 16th to get Early Bird pricing- $100

Send payment: Venmo: @EriJohnson, CashApp: $EriGJohnson, or Paypal: paypal.me/BirthBruja
To receive the Zoom link, be sure to include your email in the notes!

*There are limited full and partial scholarships available. Email Eri@BirthBruja.com with a short share about of why you want to attend and/or how you will use this information to inform your community offerings. 

How to Support Survivors During Social Distancing

3/21/2020

 
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Social Distancing Can Mean Increased Rates of Domestic & Sexual Violence. 
​This is How you Can Support Survivors. 

Most perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence are people we already know

For some folks, being stuck at home means being stuck in the same space as their perpetrator with little to no options to go elsewhere. (They may not have any safe place to go to, are unable to take family members with them, can’t afford transportation, may fear legal/financial/physical repercussions, etc.)

Sometimes the violence occurred a long time ago. Sometimes the violence is still occurring.

This is what you can do to be of support if there is existing violence:

Identify what level of support you are able to offer and connect them with organizations that can provide the rest.
  • First and foremost, believe them. Keep your judgments to yourself, and don’t ask for more details about the assault.
  • Do not call the cops without the survivor’s permission.
  • Do not pressure the survivor into calling the cops. Many survivors do not want their perpetrator to go to jail and/or feel that police involvement will put them in more danger.
  • Create a code phrase that means “SOS/HELP!” without them needing to say the words.
  • Open your home as a safe space for an extended period of time.
  • Offer your number and be sure to answer their call no matter what.
  • Offer gas money. Pay an Uber/Lyft. Offer transportation.
  • Many perpetrators prefer to keep their violence hidden — offer to regularly stop by to interrupt any violent behavior.
  • Check in frequently via text/video/call to remind them that they are not alone.
  • Offer to watch their children/care for elderly family members.

This is what you can do if a survivor discloses for the first time:
  • First and foremost, believe them, keep your judgments to yourself, and don't ask for more details about the assault.
  • Ask them the question, "What do you need?"
    • If the assault happened recently, some survivors may want to support finding medical attention, a safe place, childcare, etc
    • If the assault happened a while ago but the memories are resurfacing, some survivors may just need you to listen! Without trying to fix anything, to validate their feelings, to be reminded that they are not alone.​
  • If the survivor is seeking support that you aren't able to provide, call your local r*pe crisis center or domestic violence shelter to discover available options.
  • Do not call the cops without the survivor’s permission.
  • Do not pressure the survivor into calling the cops.
    • Many survivors do not want their perpetrator to go to jail and/or feel that police involvement will put them in more danger.

Organizational Resources:

Rape Abuse and Incest National Network
RAINN.org | 24/7 hotline: 800-656-HOPE (4673)
National hotline that serves people affected by sexual violence. It automatically routes the caller to the nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center.

Deaf Abused Women’s Network
DeafDAWN.org, 24/7 video phone hotline: 202-559-5366
Legal, medical, system advocacy and survivor support services for Deaf and DeafBlind survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and harassment

FORGE
www.forge-forward.org
Serves transgender, gender nonconforming, and gender non-binary survivors of domestic and sexual violence; provides a referral/has a directory of resources for trans and non-binary individuals.

LGBT National Help Center

www.glbtnationalhelpcenter.org
LGBT national hotline: 888–843-4564
LGBT national youth talk line: 800-246-7743
LGBT national senior hotline: 888-234-7243
Online peer-support chat available on website provides vital peer-support, community connections, and resource information.

Safe and Sound
www.safeandsound.org
Parental support line: 415-441-5437
Resources for survivors of sexual assault with kids and/or who parent. Resources on healthy parenting, child development, discipline, and child safety classes.


If you have trusted orgs and resources in your area, please share below <3. Feel free to share widely and credit Eri Guajardo Johnson/ @BirthBruja.

Special thanks to 
Angelique Geehan for transcribing this material <3.


Community Workshop: Self Love Sanctity | Using Intuition, Intention, and Tarot to Reclaim Our Love for Ourselves with The Tarot Doula

2/16/2020

 
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Self Love Sanctity: Using Intuition, Intention, and Tarot to Reclaim Our Love for Ourselves

March 21, 2020 | 11am-1pm PST/ 2pm-4pm EST

Description:

Self love. Type the words into google and one is immediately met with countless step by step instructions, how to guides, influencer videos, memes, and books on the subject. There is no shortage of advice on how to love yourself. Yet for all the information that exists, self love remains an elusive being, abstract and out of reach for all but an elite few. Self love has been systematically co-opted, corrupted, and commodified to keep the wheels of white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, and the kyriarchy continually churning.

In this workshop we will strip away these harmful artifices, unlearning the messages we have been taught are true. Self love is meant to be a sanctified sanctuary that grows and evolves with us over time. Together we will learn how to use the power of our intuition & intention alongside universal archetypes from Tarot to reclaim what is our collective birthright. There will be space for personal reflection and community discussion. Participants will leave with tools to reclaim & repair self love, a Tarot guide, meditations, and journal questions.


About the Facilitator:
Maureen Buttner (she/her) is a white queer cis femme witch currently living on occupied Ohlone territory in San Francisco. Coming from a background in Social Work & Psychology, she has worked with families, children from infants to five years old, and women for the last decade. A student of tarot since 2011 and a labor & postpartum birthworker since 2015, Maureen’s work lies in the realm of empowering folks of all sorts within their everyday & peak experiences through gentle trauma informed support and soul centered spiritual guidance. The Tarot Doula is a culmination of all Maureen’s skills seeking to doula folks to an empowered, intuitively connected place within themselves. 

Click here to learn more about Maureen and her work

To Register: 
Course fee $50 and takes place live in our online Zoom classroom.

Send payment: Venmo: @EriJohnson or CashApp: $EriGJohnson
To receive the Zoom link, be sure to include your email in the notes!

*There are limited full and partial scholarships available for BIPOC/ Black and/or Indigenous People of Color. Email Eri@BirthBruja.com with a short share about of why you want to attend and/or how you will use this information to inform your community offerings. 

Community Workshop: For Those Who Considered Co-Conspiring (When Allyship is Not Enuf) with king yaa

1/18/2020

 
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For Those Who Considered Co-Conspiring
​(When Allyship is Not Enuf)

August 1, 2020 | 10am-2pm PST/ 1pm-5pm EST
4 Hour ONLINE WORKSHOP

Description:
Move from a place of guilt and shame to really stepping up how you use your body, voice and privileges to enact meaningful structural changes.

This workshop is for for both whites as well as cisgender, heterosexual folx who have a burning desire to take actionable steps as a co-conspirator to disrupt racial and gender injustices and place their privilege at risk to support marginalized groups.


Focus:

  • Unpacking whiteness as a construct so you’re not a racist/homophobe/transphobe
  • Deconstructing allyship - why it is simply not enough
  • Creating strategies to position & use privilege to dismantle white supremacy & to disrupt racial & LGBTQ+ injustices

To Register: 
Course fee: $297

Send Payment: Venmo: @EriJohnson, CashApp: $EriGJohnson, or Paypal: paypal.me/BirthBruja
>>>>Be sure to include your email  and the course title in the notes!<<<<

Once payment is received, you will receive an email confirmation within 24hrs with further information. Email eri@birthbruja.com if you do not receive your confirmation email.

NonRefundable: All payments are nonrefundable.

​Do you work for a Community Org or an Academic Institution?: 
Check to see if you can use continuing education funding to pay for this workshop!  Email eri@birthbruja.com if you need an invoice.

About the Facilitator:
  king yaa (pronouns: they/them/king!) is a black, genderqueer, queer, masculine of centre being who has birthed three humans. They are a Jamaican, raised in Toronto, Canada and currently occupy space in Cape Town, South Africa. Their work is grounded in and informed by intersectional feminism, anti-oppressive, trauma-informed care, body liberation and sex positive frameworks. king yaa centres their work on the intersections of queer wellness and dignity. Their offerings include gender affirming bodywork, somatic coaching, movement for resiliency, full spectrum birth support, transitioning companion and as well as training intentional health and wellness providers with LGBTQ+ competencies, specializing on queer, trans and non-binary individuals, to create safe and inclusive practices. 

Click here to learn more about king yaa and their work.

Live Workshop: Queering Up Reproductive Spaces with king yaa

1/17/2020

 
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Queering Up Reproductive Spaces

July 18, 2020 | 8am-11am PST/ 11am-2pm EST
July 19, 2020 | 8am-11am PST/ 11am-2pm EST

6 Hour ONLINE WORKSHOP (2 x 3 hr workshops)

Description:
This 2-day workshop will be rooted in the values of intersectional feminism with an explicit critique of the mainstream Reproductive Justice movement. We will be focusing on the voices and needs of queer, trans, and gender diverse people- the most neglected and marginalized in reproductive spaces.

This workshop is more than developing inclusive language.  We will dive into the exclusion, discrimination & victimization often experienced by queer, trans and gender diverse people and how this prevents access to resources and the ability to live self-determined lives without fear, limitation or recrimination.

Part 1: queering within: 
  • Identify inclusionary considerations in reproductive health spaces such as gynecological care, abortion clinics, fertility and other family building support services.

Part 2: queering beyond: 

  • Identify the shortcomings of the mainstream Reproductive Justice movement. 

  • We will be exploring themes such as comprehensive sex education, domestic violence prevention, living wages to support families, sex work, COVID-19 justice, & pregnancy & family holding during incarceration.

To Register: 
Course fee $347 and takes place live in our online Zoom classroom.
>>>Payment plans available until July 11th. Contact eri@birthbruja.com for more details.<<<

Send Payment: Venmo: @EriJohnson, CashApp: $EriGJohnson, or Paypal: paypal.me/BirthBruja
>>>>Be sure to include your email  and the course title in the notes!<<<<

Once payment is received, you will receive an email confirmation within 24hrs with further information. Email eri@birthbruja.com if you do not receive your confirmation email.

NonRefundable: All payments are nonrefundable.

​Do you work for a Community Org or an Academic Institution?: 
Check to see if you can use continuing education funding to pay for this workshop!  Email eri@birthbruja.com if you need an invoice.

Scholarships:
There are limited full and partial scholarships available. To apply, email Eri@BirthBruja.com with a short share about who you are and why you want to attend.

About the Facilitator:
  king yaa (pronouns: they/them/king!) is a black, genderqueer, queer, masculine of centre being who has birthed three humans. They are a Jamaican, raised in Toronto, Canada and currently occupy space in Cape Town, South Africa. Their work is grounded in and informed by intersectional feminism, anti-oppressive, trauma-informed care, body liberation and sex positive frameworks. king yaa centres their work on the intersections of queer wellness and dignity. Their offerings include gender affirming bodywork, somatic coaching, movement for resiliency, full spectrum birth support, transitioning companion and as well as training intentional health and wellness providers with LGBTQ+ competencies, specializing on queer, trans and non-binary individuals, to create safe and inclusive practices. 

Click here to learn more about king yaa and their work.

Birth Bruja Book Club- Winter 2020

12/18/2019

 
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I am excited to announce open registration for the Winter 2020 Birth Bruja Book Club!
This season, we are diving into The Way of Tenderness: Awakening through Race, Sexuality, and Gender, written by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel.

This is one of the most transformative books I've ever read in the intersections of spirituality and social justice. While Zenju writes from a Buddhist perspective, it speaks across traditions and is a very digestible read. Considering that birthwork is a practice of mind, body, heart, & spirit- I knew it would be a powerful aid in our journey of sustainability, healing, & justice.

Two Scholarships Available!
Scholarships include a class pass for all 4 sessions and a free copy of the featured book!

To apply, please send an email to Eri@BirthBruja.com with a line or two about why you want to participate in this season's book club and include your mailing address to which we can send the book if you are chosen!

Recipients will be announced Monday, February 3rd!  THANK YOU to our phenomenally generous community who made this possible <3
About the Book:
What you'll find on the back of the book:
"What does liberation mean when I have incarnated in a particular body, with a particular shape, color, and sex?”

In The Way of Tenderness, Zen priest Zenju Earthlyn Manuel brings Buddhist philosophies of emptiness and appearance to bear on race, sexuality, and gender, using wisdom forged through personal experience and practice to rethink problems of identity and privilege. Manuel brings her own experiences as a lesbian black woman into conversation with Buddhism to square our ultimately empty nature with superficial perspectives of everyday life. Her hard-won insights reveal that dry wisdom alone is not sufficient to heal the wounds of the marginalized; an effective practice must embrace the tenderness found where conventional reality and emptiness intersect. Only warmth and compassion can cure hatred and heal the damage it wreaks within us.
This is a book that will teach us all."

What I have to say about this book (an excerpt):
Why is it that in spiritual spaces we eagerly seek the “one size fits all approach?”  How does ignoring differences enable us to focus on inter-connectivity when, in fact, we are connected through our differences just as we are connected through our similarities? Acknowledging difference in identity enables us to cultivate awareness on the experiences of others- particularly the ways in which people navigate privilege and disadvantage.  It is crucial to spiritual inquiry to acknowledge the ways in which our society has “rendered some lives dispensable and others not.” (p46)  Spiritual practice is a cultivation of connectivity and a valuing of life.  To ignore the suffering of mass groups of people is an act of violence.  Zenju explains that “when explored in Buddhist communities,  [suffering] is treated as a personal issue rather than as a collective injury.” (p47)  This has been my experience as well in Vedic spaces in response to such issues of racism and sexism.  Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word that means the practice of non-violence. A pillar of major religions, it seems contradictory to focus on the overt acts of violence while ignoring the subtle.

Zenju explains “to be “good” people we tend to bypass the messiness of our lives in order to enter the gate of tranquility.” (p48) In other words, to truly acknowledge the pain and suffering in this world and the ways in which they are enabled to continue would require individuals to face the ways in which they contribute to the oppression.  Most people resist this acknowledgement because it seems contrary to the narrative “I am a good person.”  Rather than deal with the struggle and apparent contradiction, people choose avoidance and dismissal.

It is on this note that I will start to close this entry as this describes the overall state of society.  Zenju offers powerful wisdom as she explains how acknowledging the multiplicity of oneness enables us to “have the capacity to see our subjectivity, to see our embodiment as useful to the spiritual path, to see our embodiment as creating meaning for our lives, and to see it as the location of awakening.  To seriously consider the ways in which our spiritual paths are shaped by our multiple identities and subjectivities is the way to tenderness.  To awaken from within our unique embodiment is to awaken collective awareness: spiritual awakening and social activism are one and the same.” (p81)

Spiritual practice awakens us to the interconnectivity of life.  It is from this foundation of connection that we see recognize the injustice of certain lives being valued over others.   Valuing life empowers us to seek personal and collective action to change the systems of oppression that perpetrate collective suffering.  Honoring difference rather than avoiding it is the way to spiritual and societal liberation.

To read my full book review- click here.

Get the Book:
You can purchase the book here (No- it's not Amazon!)

OR you can rent from your local library or try to find it among these following places that offer free audiobooks and Ebooks: 
  • Overdrive (Use the Libby app if reading on mobile)
  • Hoopla Digital
  • Axis360
Meetings & Readings:
All meetings are 11am-1pm PST/ 2pm-4pm EST and will be held via Zoom video conferencing. After registering, you will receive an email with a link and instructions on how to access the meeting.

Saturday, February 15th, 2020:
  • Foreword
  • Not What You Think
Saturday, February 22nd, 2020:
  • Tracking the Footprints of Invisible Monsters
Saturday, February 29th, 2020:
  • Multiplicity in Oneness
Saturday, March 7th, 2020:
  • Body As Nature
  • There Are No Monsters

To Register:
Book Worm Package: $40 ($8 per class, non-refundable)
Drop In: $10 per class, specify which dates you are attending in notes
Send payment via one of the below methods*:
Venmo: @EriJohnson
CashApp: $EriGJohnson

*Be sure to include your email in the notes to receive link to attend meetings!

*No one turned away for lack of funds. Email Eri@BirthBruja.com at least two days in advance.

Learn About the Host:
Eri Guajardo Johnson is a bi-racial, trauma-informed birth doula, rape crisis peer counselor, wellness coach, community organizer, and host of the Birth Bruja Podcast.

For over 10 years, Eri has been dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual assault (with an emphasis on serving marginalized populations); has studied indigenous Mexican and Indian healing modalities to learn about mind, body, spirit, & communal wellness, herbalism, and food as medicine; and has taught and organized countless classes and community events centered around the healing and empowerment of women.

Since 2017, Eri has been dedicated to supporting birthing individuals in cultivating empowering, courageous, and meaningful birth experiences. She offers birth consultation services for survivors of trauma as well as one-on-one and group trainings for birthworkers around supporting survivors who birth.

Learn more at www.BirthBruja.com

Birth Bruja Book Club! Fall 2019

8/19/2019

 
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Birth Bruja Book Club:
Fall 2019

I am excited to announce open registration for the Fall 2019 Birth Bruja Book Club!

This season, we are diving into Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth. Edited by Julia Chinyere Oparah & Alicia D. Bonaparte.

"There is a global crisis in maternal health care for black women. In the United States, black women are over three times more likely to perish from pregnancy-related complications than white women; their babies are half as likely to survive the first year. Many black women experience policing, coercion, and disempowerment during pregnancy and childbirth and are disconnected from alternative birthing traditions. This book places black women's voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternity system and foregrounds black women's agency in the emerging birth justice movement. Mixing scholarly, activist, and personal perspectives, the book shows readers how they too can change lives, one birth at a time."

This book is a MUST READ for any and all birthworkers. Birth affirmations and hip squeezes aren’t going to do shit in changing oppressive birth culture unless we pair it with critical thinking and action.

To support this process, I have joined up with Tabitha Thomas, a bi-racial politicized healer & somatic coach to launch the first session of the Birth Bruja Book Club. Starting in September 14th, 2019, we will join with folks across the country to dive into the featured book of this series- Birthing Justice. 

We highly recommend buying the book, borrowing from a friend, or check it out from your local library. If you are unable to acquire the reading via the above methods, email Eri and you will be sent a PDF of the chapters specifically addressed in our meetings.

MEETINGS & READINGS
All meetings are 11am-12:30pm PST/ 2pm-3:30pm EST and will be held via Zoom video conferencing. After registering, you will receive an email with a link and instructions on how to access the meeting.

Saturday, September 14th, 2019
  • A Love Letter to My Daughter: Love as a Political Act by Haile Eshe Cole, p 126
  • The First Cut is the Deepest: A Mother-Daughter Conversation about Birth, Justice, Healing, and Love by Pauline Ann McKenzie-Day and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, p 145
Saturday, September 21st, 2019
  • Regulating Childbirth: Physicians and Granny Midwives in South Carolina by Alicia D. Bonaparte, p 24
  • An Abolitionist Mama Speaks: On Natural Birth & Miscarriage by Viviane Saleh-Hanna, p 46
Saturday, September 28th, 2019
  • Confessions of a Black Pregnant Dad by Syrus Marcus Ware, p63
  • Birthing Sexual Freedom and Healing: A Survivor Mother's Birth Story by Biany Perez, p106
Saturday, October 5th, 2019
  • Beyond Coercion & Malign Neglect: Black Women and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Julia Chinyere Oparah with Black Women Birthing Justice, p 1
  • Birthing Freedom: Black American Midwifery and Liberation Struggles by Ruth Hays, p 166
To Register:
Book Worm Package: $20 ($5 per class, non-refundable)
Drop In: $7 per class, specify which dates you are attending in notes
Send payment via one of the below methods*:
Venmo: @EriJohnson
CashApp: $EriGJohnson

*Be sure to include your email in the notes to receive link to attend meetings!
Learn about the Hosts of the Birth Bruja Book Club:

Read More

Summer 2019 Playlist! Magickal Mujer

7/1/2019

 
Hello Brave Ones,
As many of you know, this summer has brought with it a MASSIVE life transition <3. My partner and I decided to pack up our furbabies and drive across the country to my home state of Michigan! It's been a wild re-grounding as I reacquaint myself with people, places, & plants of my childhood.  With so much transition still in the works, it's been crucial for me to weave pockets of grounding and reverence- thus, I made this 2hr playlist to help me create a container for cleaning, grounding, and sinking into healing work, spiritual practice, creative expression, and/or other inward journeying <3.

Click here to check it out on Spotify!

Happy travels!
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