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. 

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.

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.

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

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!

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!