Attending to Joy: Cultivating Liberation & Resilience in Community

Philo, Ca September 1st - 4th, 2023

Attending to Joy: Cultivating Liberation & Resilience in Community 2023

2023/09/01 16:00:00

— Early Bird Price Ends July 1st —-

Rejuvenate, re-divine, and connect with Queer family in nature for three nights and four days in the pristine beauty of Mendocino. Nestled between coastal redwoods and oak chaparral on unceded Pomo land, River’s Bend Retreat Center is a refuge for rest, play, and building community.

Gathering in Queer community means healing particular wounds, freeing ourselves and each other, and creating both comfort and love, and a chance to grow into who we have always been//already are. This retreat is an opportunity to gather in all your Queerness within the warm glow of embodiment, yoga, meditation, nature, mindfulness, and play. Connect on a soul level.

Dive deep into the Yogic & Buddhist tradition with Asana (physical Yoga postures), meditation, pranayama, mantra, stories, and discussion. No Yoga experience necessary. Lucid Dawn will teach Hatha Flow and gentle Yoga in a radically inclusive way. Her teaching emphasizes therapeutics, alignment, and injury prevention, and celebrates the seasons, celestial movements and life in all of its contours.

Rev. Liên Shutt will offer meditation and Dharma teachings in the Zen tradition and an inclusive and anti-oppression ethos. Sabrina Davidson will be offering art therapy. Dr. Annie Malcolm will be offering a creative writing workshop in which participants tie learnings from the retreat to their greater queer experience and practice ethnography—acute attention to the ordinary intimacies and intensities of everyday life.

We will be on 10 acres of land and have ample time to swim or lounge by the Navarro River, explore nearby beaches, and explore the hiking trails into the redwoods.

We will be nourished with exquisite farm-to-table meals by renowned chef Redwood Hill, who brings together mindfulness and indulgence as meals becomes cites for exploring color, texture, nostalgia, and belonging.

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This retreat is for folks who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Gender non-confirming, Asexual, Two Spirit AND our allies. Our intention is to welcome and celebrate folks 18+ in age from all experiences, religions, abilities, immigration statuses, sizes, and sexual orientations. Our intention is to co-create a space that is pro-Black, pro-Immigrant, pro-Queer, and pro-Trans. We will co-create community agreements to embody these intentions.