*September 29th 2019: Power, Presence, and Healing: Black Women Honoring Our Wholeness with Amana Brembry Johnson and Arisika Razak

Power, Presence and Healing: Black Women Honoring Our Wholeness

A Retreat for Self-Identified Black Women of the African Diaspora

with Amana Brembry Johnson and Arisika Razak

East Bay Meditation Center

285 17th Street, Oakland

Sunday, September 29th 2019 9:30AM - 4:30PM

I think our notions of what counts as radical have changed. Self-care . . . healing . . . attention to the body and the spiritual dimension – all of this is . . . a part of radical social justice struggles.

Angela Davis

Black Women have frequently resisted oppressive social norms by coming together to cultivate healing, empowerment, and mutual support. Join our daylong retreat of mindfulness practices, storytelling, ritual movement and wisdom teachings from Buddhist and other spiritual traditions as we affirm our bodies, share our stories, and claim our birthright as sacred beings who are loved and cherished.

Participants are invited to bring a small item to place on the community altar that will be built during the day.

EBMC TEACHERS ARE NOT PAID BY THE CENTER. You are invited to offer a voluntary financial gift to them at the class. The East Bay Meditation Center operates using a generosity-based, gift economics model. This means we charge no set registration fees to attend our events and instead rely on the generous giving of our community. All classes at the Center do come with a financial cost. Class participants are offered an opportunity to make a voluntary gift to EBMC during the registration process or at an event itself. Please note that no one will be turned away for lack of funds. If you would like to explore any EBMC volunteer positions, please send an email expressing your interest to admin@eastbaymeditation.org.

In order to protect the health of community members with environmental illness, please do not wear fragranced products (including natural fragrances) or clothes laundered in fragranced products to EBMC.

East Bay Meditation Center strives to be as accessible as possible. For the safety of our teachers, staff, volunteers and participants, we cannot provide assistance for personal needs such as transferring into and out of chairs, walking, eating, or using the restroom. If you require such assistance, you must bring a personal care assistant with you when you come to any event at EBMC.

Teacher Bios:

Arisika Razak is the former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she was also Director of Diversity. She’s led healing and empowerment workshops for over 30 years and currently serves as a core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center. Arisika contributes regularly to books and journals, writing about diversity, womanism, and the African Sacred Feminine. She has performed nationally and internationally as a spiritual dancer and her film credits include Fire Eyes, a full-length feature film by Somali-born Soraya Mire on female genital cutting, and Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth.

Amana Brembry Johnson has practiced Vipassana Meditation for more than two decades. She is a spiritual teacher, mentor, and embodiment guide whose offerings are rooted in opening access to liberation teachings and practices for diverse communities. As a spiritual mentor, Amana nurtures practitioners who wish to deepen and integrate meditation into daily life. “Meditation and movement are pathways to investigate and reprogram habitual impulses of mind, heart, and body with responses that lead to fulfillment and liberation”. An accomplished visual artist, Amana creates imagery that exposes emotional and spiritual barriers of the heart as gateways into kindness, compassion, and self-love.