Reframing Black Girlhood as Wisdom

Center Stage uses body scanning, breathwork, play, freestyle movement, and journal prompts to invite your inner Black girl to stand in the limelight. This is great for anyone who resonates with Black girlhood, is grieving Black girlhood, or who wants to revisit experiences that have limited their access to embodying Black girlhood. 

As a scholar in the field of Black Girlhood studies I am always eager to share my tools for building an ongoing connection to girlhood that is not dictated by age or developmental stage. As a student of Blackqueer liberation, I explore this work from a gender expansive perspective that does not limit connections to girlhood based on gender assigned at birth. 

Purposeful Vulnerability

This series undresses what limits our connections with ourselves and those around us. This is a three part journey that lasts 60-90 mins each session. Within Black feminist practice, undressing is a process of practicing vulnerability with the intent of creating conditions for liberation and full presence. Vulnerability has many layers. My expertise specifically focuses on practicing with ourselves, with our communities, at work, and in intimate relationships. 

First, we practice invocation as naming the personal motivations behind choosing to undress. Secondly, we explore raw data that has been tucked away and hidden from the self using guided somatic wandering. Lastly, we’ll use a combination of embodied prompts and reflection to do shadow work. This is applicable to anyone who wants to develop the capacity to be more vulnerable in their everyday life. 

Storytelling Through the Body

Everyone has stories to tell. Black feminist practice emphasizes the need to be honest, raw, and detailed in our storytelling. Such renderings require subversive approaches to take up space, or the use of hybridity to express wholeness. I use these theories to share tools for telling stories without the burden of having to “explain” oneself. 

This workshop is all about embodying the words we tell ourselves about our experiences in order to create movement and release tensions. We’ll use body scans, movement phrases, and body affirming activities to practice what freestyling our stories could look like. Movement storytelling is great for reducing the charge attached to big moments, and for giving new meaning to those stories. 

Practicing Attunement

Learning to become present and listen to what the body has to offer is a tool that can be honed. Knowing what tools work for you is a crucial step toward developing deeper conversations and relationships with the self.  

This workshop explores how the layers of the body collaborate with each other to create meaning. We’ll ground into the earth and explore textures of the body using sound, breath, and visualization. Sonic releases and bilateral movement play can also be incorporated. This workshop is a great option for anyone looking to expand their capacity for flow or wanting to be in deeper touch with more of themselves as they walk through life.

Awareness Beneath Skin and Words

Not only does everyone have a story to tell, but storytelling is an inherent part of humanity. We are always sharing and communicating with each other. It’s in how we speak, move, and act. In a world that privileges specific kinds of articulation, it can be easy to forget that how we tell our stories is part of who we be. 

This workshop uses methods of contraction and release in order to develop self awareness and identify opportunities for building better relationships with those around us. We’ll ground ourselves, breath mindfully, and connect with our inner worlds. Then we’ll go on a guided journey of tapping into the body as a generative portal for unearthing language. The language we collect along the way can be turned into a piece of writing or art. It can also be used as a group brainstorm activity to reveal the depths of how our many communications impact our collaborations.