What:
This is a weekend retreat to practice and celebrate the technology of black feminist breathing. We will use breathing, mantras and poetry rooted in short wise sayings from black feminist teachers and writers as a resource for mindfulness, sustainability and connection to legacy and purpose. This retreat builds on a successful national (plus Canada) Black Feminist Breathing Tour through which Sista Docta Time Traveller Space Cadet visited schools and community centers around North America. It also builds on 5 years of retreats by Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind in North Carolina and South Carolina. We are excited to bring this energy to Magnolia Mississippi. We will be gathering about 21 participants (including facilitators) for a weekend full of LOVE!
Who: This retreat is for black-identified people who breathe or who want to breathe and who would cherish a space to breath in the queer affirming, gender transforming, loving and abundant context of black feminist legacy and practice! We are especially excited for people who live and work in the deep south and people with roots in the deep south who are breathing elsewhere to participate in the reality of what it means to breathe in the legacy of freedom and struggle in this geographic area.
Where: The retreat will take place at the Flowering Lotus Retreat Center founded by a visionary black woman named Dolores Watson in Magnolia, Mississippi. We will be using their meditation hall and two of their large houses for our retreat. They will also be providing us with vegetarian meals prepared by a gourmet chef for the duration of the retreat. There are directions to the retreat center here: http://www.floweringlotusmeditation.org/directions.html
Magnolia, Mississipi is 90 minutes away from Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. We are intending that the majority of attendees will be within driving distance from Magnolia (6 hours or less), but there will be ONE shuttle with 10 spaces for people who fly in between 10am and 1pm on Friday, July 4th and who fly out on Sunday July 6th between 4pm-9pm.
When: The retreat will take place starting at 3pm on Friday July 4th and ending at 12pm on Sunday July, 6th. Please plan to attend the entire retreat.
How:
The retreat costs
$500 per participant and includes housing, all meals, and world-renowned facilitation and transportation from the airport for a limited number of participants. The organizers are working hard to secure scholarships from aligned organizations and donors. We are also able to work with you if you are interested in being funded by your workplace, school or organization to attend or if a loved one wants to make a tax-deductible donation in order for you to attend. In order to reserve a spot fill out the application above and deposit $175. The $175 deposit is non-refundable UNLESS the retreat is full by the time you register or you do not meet the criteria to participate and register by mistake (see "who" above). Full scholarship recipients will also
have their deposits refunded by the retreat date. Partial scholarships recipients will not have their deposits refunded.
Make your deposit here:
Flowering Lotus also has a 30 minute work meditation policy which means that each participant will (mindfully) do something for 30 minutes that supports the functioning of the center...like washing dishes. You will not miss any retreat programming during this time.
Why? You tell us! To apply to attend this life-changing and love-filled event please let us know a little bit about your vision and your needs here (this is also where you can apply for full and partial scholarships!):
Cosponsor this life-giving event:
If you or your organization want to be listed as a co-sponsor of this event and have your work publicized as part of what makes it beautiful and worthwhile for black feminist visionaries to BREATHE you can offer a donation of $50 or more here:
If you want to be a retreat partner and either send members of your organization to the retreat or fund scholarships for other participants you can offer a donation of $500 or more here:
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