A Sweet Space for Growth & Transformation
20 years of study and experience harnessed to support your journey FROM anywhere TO anywhere that Love guides you to go! I am a sweet space for transformation. I transgress gender and transcend the physical. I am Sangodare!
In collaboration with Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs we present Mobile Homecoming Trust Living Library and Archive which exists to sustain the lives of Mobile Homecoming and Black Feminist elders, their care takers and legacy bearers. It grew out of Mobile Homecoming which exists as an intergenerational experiential archive project to amplify generations of Black LGBTQ brilliance. This is the practice space that grows out of that work.
In collaboration with Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs we present Mobile Homecoming Trust Living Library and Archive which exists to sustain the lives of Mobile Homecoming and Black Feminist elders, their care takers and legacy bearers. It grew out of Mobile Homecoming which exists as an intergenerational experiential archive project to amplify generations of Black LGBTQ brilliance. This is the practice space that grows out of that work.
Webinars
- $25
"Is this America?": Survival and Creativity in the Face of Electoral Foolishness
- Jul 3, 2024 at 6:00 PM EDT
Join us for a reflective writing workshop based on the genius and creativity of Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker in order to tap into your own most resourced and revolutionary approach to this time.
- $25
"Survival is Not a Theoretical Problem": Releasing Institutional Harm
- Jan 9, 2024 at 6:00 PM EST
"The university does not intend to love me. The university does not know how to love me. The university, in fact, does not love me. But the universe does."
-APG
This reflective writing workshop is a supportive space for anyone who has been harmed by institutions. We will draw on Audre Lorde's definition of survival and her poetry to guide us. Captions enabled. Everyone who signs up gets the recording.
- $28
"a revolution based on self-respect": dangerous solidarities
- Jan 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM EST
When a television star became a tool for a repressive, economically predatory and socially backwards US regime June Jordan deepened her solidarity within and beyond the nation state. This reflective workshop is for those of us seeking to practice deeper solidarity and is based on June Jordan's poetry during her solidarity voyage to Nicaragua in 1983. Captions enabled & everyone who signs up will get the recording.
- $25
"irreversible as light years traveling to the open eye": witness, world-making, June Jordan, Palestine and South Africa
- Jan 18, 2024 at 6:00 PM EST
In 1978 June Jordan presented "Poem for South African Women" at the United Nations, drawing ancestral energy from protests dating back to 1956. As we now witness South Africa's leadership in speaking out against genocide, this reflective writing workshop is a supportive space for transforming witness into multigenerational solidarity. Captions enabled. Everyone who registers will get the recording.
- $20
"they have already learned to dream of dying": audre lorde and an intergenerational imperative for peace
- Nov 27, 2023 at 6:30 PM EST
As children dig through rubble for their loved ones, and millions all over the world protest for peace, we remember that violence is a teacher. And that colonialism is an education into violence. This is a supportive space to process our role in both the intergenerational impact of violence and the intergenerational imperative for peace. Captions will be enabled. Everyone who registers gets the recording.
- $25
A Century of Breath: Writing Ceremony with/for the Atlantic Right Whale
- Nov 17, 2022 at 6:00 PM EST
This reflective writing workshop, timed to coincide with the birthing season of the North Atlantic Right Whale is a space to honor what we are birthing in the coming season, and how to grow through the scars we may have gained in seasons past. With our presence and our love we are also wishing every whale born this season a century of breath. Live captioned. Everyone who signs up gets the recording.
- $25
A Home Girl?: Audre Lorde, Empire and the Possibility of a Sista President
- Jul 31, 2024 at 6:00 PM EDT
In the wake of the US invasion of Grenada, Audre Lorde wrote "Equal Opportunity" a poem juxtaposing the ascendence of a Black woman to power in the department of defense with the carnage of US imperialism. In this moment where a Black woman is a front-runner as presidential candidate, it's time to turn back to Lorde's nuance and boldness. Captions will be enabled and everyone who signs up will get the recording.
- $25
Already Been Done: Black Feminist Film School, Ancestral Listening and The Color Purple
- Apr 6, 2023 at 6:00 PM EDT
This workshop features Black Feminist Film School co-founder Sangodare Akinwale and uses the dinner table scene in The Color Purple as our gathering place to practice the technology of character development as ancestral reverence. This workshop is for folks working on a film or interested in actively listening for ancestral guidance. Live-captioning enabled. All who register will get access to the recording.
- $25
Another Education: Audre Lorde and the Writing on the Wall
- Mar 19, 2025 at 6:00 PM EDT
As major academic institutions comply with a fascist agenda to shut down public support for educational institutions and criminalize political dissent, all I can hear in my head are these words: "Another education is waiting. And the teacher will be your heart." This reflective writing workshop inspired by Audre Lorde's "Learning to Write" will be a space to listen for and practice the education to come.
- $20
Black Feminist Becoming: Sand, Solidarity and Practice
- Oct 16, 2023 at 6:30 PM EDT
"I was born a Black woman/ and now/ I am become a Palestinian" -June Jordan
"High/ above this desert/ I am/ becoming/ absorbed" -Audre Lorde "Sahara"
This live reflective writing workshop is for anyone who wants to join me in exploring the connection between the mandate for planetary solidarity & the daily practices that attune us to our highest selves. Captions enabled. Everyone who signs up gets the recording.
- $25
Black Feminist Film School Script Development: Sacred Sites and Objects
- Aug 11, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT
Join us for a live Black Feminist Film School Script Development Workshop. We will focus on listening to space and objects and allowing them to guide a spiritually grounded script development process. The workshop will be 90mins long.
Everyone who signs up gets access to the recording. Captions will be enabled.
- $30
Collage Workshop (by Alexis)
- Sep 30, 2021 at 4:00 PM EDT
Collage-Making Session
Alexis will facilitate us through a process to use collage as dedication and new story setting. She will share the process she used to create the Black Feminist Breathing collages and her non-linear vision boards. It will be recorded for all those who register.
Thursday, September 30th, 4pm-5:30pm EASTERN TIME
- $20
Fierce Love: A Writing Hour in Honor of Ntozake Shange
- Closed
- Oct 18, 2021 at 8:00 PM EDT
I am inviting you to a facilitated writing hour in celebration of Ntozake Shange’s birthday and eternal life. I’ll bring the prompts and some context from my research and my work as literary advisor to the Shange Trust. Bring your pen/machete.
P.S. This session will NOT be recorded.
- $25
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED GENOCIDE TO STOP: A Reflective Writing Workshop on Revolutionary Love
- Feb 12, 2024 at 6:30 PM EST
How do we honor our love in the midst of multiple genocides? How does our practice of love guide us towards revolutionary change? What are we willing to do in the service of our love? This reflective writing workshop is a supportive space to listen to what love is teaching us now, inspired by June Jordan's poetic love ethic. Captions enabled. Everyone who registers gets access to the live session & recording.
- $25
Inviting Love: A Grounding Practice
- Feb 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM EST
This workshop is for LOVEBIRDS aka people actively seeking committed partnership. In this supportive reflective workshop we will explore the practice of inviting love into our lives with intention and abundance. Come ready to engage writing prompts, comradeship and your next joyful move forward on the journey of love.
Includes 1 Additional Product
- $25 or 3 monthly payments of $10
Justified Rage: A Transformative Writing Workshop Inspired by June Jordan
- Jul 6, 2022 at 6:30 PM EDT
Join Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs for a writing workshop inspired by June Jordan. She happens to also have written the best ever rap-battle-insult poems about Clarence and Virginia Thomas.
Closed captions and full transcript will be enabled. Everyone who registers will get the video. A portion of the proceeds go to National Network of Abortion Funds.
- $25
Like Tigerlilies: Lovebirds Intention Setting Workshop
- Oct 3, 2024 at 6:00 PM EDT
Hey flames. You are so beautiful this Fall! This new moon we have a special workshop for Lovebirds, folks who are not currently in a committed romantic partnership but who are inviting partnership into their lives and aligning with the most inspired version of what that could be! Captions enabled and everyone who signed up gets access to the replay!
- $25
Lion Spine Relaxed: A Writing Workshop for Warriors in Need of Rest in Honor of Fannie Lou Hamer
- Oct 6, 2022 at 6:30 PM EDT
In Honor of Fannie Lou Hamer's 105th birthday we honor the warrior at rest. Hamer's mentee June Jordan observed Hamer's "lion spine relaxed" as she found moments of respite in the midst of a violent struggle. Is anyone else besides me struggling to have a real relationship to rest in the midst of urgent action? This reflective writing workshop is for us. Live captions. Everyone who signs up gets the recording.
- $25
Our Labor Has Become More Important Than Our Silence: Writing Workshop for Rogue Intellectuals in honor of Audre Lorde
- Sep 1, 2022 at 6:30 PM EDT
Whether you are a teacher, student, organizer, librarian, artist, or rebel for any cause, back-to-school season is a good time to think and feel critically about your intellectual work and how it lives in community with the guidance of Audre Lorde's analysis of the labor economics of co-optation. Join us for supportive community and reflective writing.
Live-captioned. Everyone who registers gets the recording.
- $28
Power is Spoken: Audre Lorde at the Edge of Purpose
- Jan 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM EST
Did you know Audre Lorde had her own answer to the "I Have a Dream" speech? Years before she spoke at the March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights, Audre wrote of a depth of change that goes beyond any nation, monument or even species. As we prepare for the collision of MLK Jr. Day and the inauguration of a fascist, this workshop is a supportive space to reflect on what our commitment to change can teach us.
- $26
That Terror that Keeps Me Brave: Solstice Writing Workshop in Honor of Audre Lorde
- Dec 22, 2024 at 6:00 PM EST
In this workshop we will write in the generative darkness of the northern hemisphere's winter solstice and also in the darkness of our own fears of the unknown, our own intergenerational accountability. Guided by Audre Lorde's poem "Solstice," we will support each other in looking the changes we want to make as the world turns over. Captions will be enabled. Everyone who signs up will get the recording.
- $25
The Character of Fire: Writing After the End of the World
- Feb 29, 2024 at 6:00 PM EST
"Fire can kill but without it we will die." M. Jacqui Alexander
This reflective writing session is about the element of fire in our lives as people both committed to changing the world and devastated by the desperation of self-immolation and the firebombing of whole communities. We can cultivate our own relationship to the fire of transformation.
Captions enabled. Everyone who registers gets the recording.
- $20
The Difference Between Poetry and Rhetoric: Audre Lorde and Using Your Power
- Nov 6, 2023 at 6:30 PM EST
Audre Lorde practiced a life and death poetics after reading the news every day. When the gap between our awareness of global crisis and our power to impact global politics seems so wide. Join us for a reflective writing workshop and tune into your power to act. This workshop is for anyone excited to immerse in the legacy of Black feminist bravery. Captions enabled. Everyone who registers gets the recording.
- $20
The Scale of Breathing: Oceanic Writing Workshop
- Jul 24, 2021 at 4:00 PM EDT
- $25
Transcend: Reclaiming Our Power
- Feb 25, 2024 at 11:00 AM EST
Join us to be a part of a Transcend Practice space this Sunday Feb, 25th (11-12:30pm). I (Sangodare) will be in conversation with those in attendance about how our desires can source the freedom and liberation we need at this time. The conversation will be facilitated by Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs. We are re-membering that our desires are Holy.
(Everyone who registers gets the recording. Captions enabled.)
- $29
Unconquerable Dust: Pauli Murray and Black Trans Divinity
- Mar 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM EDT
This reflective writing workshop is a testament to Black Queer and Trans Divinity inspired by saint Pauli Murray's poem "Unconquerable Dust." Pauli Murray, one of the first people recorded self-advocating for hormone replacement therapy in the 1930s is a spiritual leader, civil rights warrior and black feminist ancestor who we call on proudly in this time to teach us the meaning of freedom.
- $20
a perfect daughter/ who was not me: audre lorde's intergenerational insights
- Oct 2, 2023 at 6:30 PM EDT
Inspired by Audre Lorde's poem "From the House of Yemanja" this reflective writing workshop is for anyone of any gender who is navigating the gulf between parental expectation and reality. Honoring Audre Lorde as a theorist of mothering and a rebel daughter we will make space for the complexity of our origins, our love and our infinite possible selves. Captions enabled. Everyone who registers gets the recording.
- $25
and before that it was my father: reclaiming our own names (in honor of June Jordan)
- Feb 5, 2024 at 6:30 PM EST
In her famous "Poem About My Rights"June Jordan talks about her father as an oppressed person who also taught her oppression at home. This reflective writing workshop is a supportive space to examine how we learned to comply with oppression at home and how our intergenerational healing work can support our solidarity towards liberation. Captions will be enabled. Everyone who signs up gets the recording.
- $26
the heart of now: audre lorde and practicing transformation
- Jan 2, 2025 at 6:00 PM EST
Audre Lorde had a one word theory of change. In this reflective writing workshop we will look at the changes that are calling us at the scales of our daily lives, our communities and our planet and set practical intentions that honor our callings. We will be guided by Audre Lorde's poem "Stations." Captions will be enabled and everyone who signs up will get the recording.
- $25
“Make Love Powerful”: Loveships Intention Setting Workshop
- Oct 2, 2024 at 6:00 PM EDT
Drawing on June Jordan’s love philosophy we are excited to share one of our favorite resilience strategies with our community of Loveships: creating the world together! Join us for a new moon intention-setting workshop in the company of other visionary Loveships!💜
- $25
“in case you ever tried to reach me and i couldn’t hear you”: audre lorde, june jordan and the phone call that never happened
- Aug 29, 2024 at 6:00 PM EDT
This reflective writing workshop draws on a Black feminist tragedy. In the midst of the early 1980s Israeli invasion of Lebanon Audre Lorde and June Jordan, two chosen sisters on the same side of the solidarity movement with Palestine, lost each other forever. This workshop will draw on writing from each poet to guide us in this time when the crises we face require us to make our love more resilient than ever.
Courses
- $20 or 4 monthly payments of $5
100 Days: Support and Accountability
- $150
Black Feminist Breathing Chorus Winter 2020-2021
WELCOME to the Black Feminist Breathing Meditation Chorus. For 21 days in 2014 we chanted together all over the world. It led to a retreat, art exhibition and now the Black Feminist Breathing Oracle Deck. This REBOOT is an encouragement to our communities to #keepbreathing.
- $50
Deep Rescue: Toni Cade Bambara Immersion
Every year I celebrate Toni Cade Bambara's birthday as a high holy Black Feminist holiday. This year preparing this immersion meant reading and rereading my favorite Bambara short story "Madame Bai and the Taking of Stone Mountain" where a Korean elder "warrior-healer" comes to Atlanta in the midst of the 1979 wave of abductions and murders of Black children to train a cadre of people of color to fight against wh...
- $175 or 4 monthly payments of $50
Inner Child Summer School
It has been five-hundred and sixty-one days since I hugged my mother. I miss her and I miss the version of me that she brings with her. To bridge the gap last year I dove deep into my mama's childhood photos of me, and in particular into what I am retroactively calling a series of portraits of my relationship with nature. And what I found was forgotten wisdom that my child self wanted to teach me again. What ...
- $200
Intro Black Feminist Film Development (Reboot 2024)
In this phase of the filmmaking process we journey together with your film idea or a draft of your script using ancestral and community accountable tools to develop it further. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional the Black Feminist Film school approach has been a tool to enhance, enliven and inspire creators in all forms and stages of practice/career.
- $1,000
Love is Lifeforce Daily Practice
This is a 5 day immersion in the influences and reprecussions of June Jordan's 1977 declaration that "love is lifeforce" in her talk "The Creative Spirit." This is an opportunity for you to cultivate a one on one relationship with this text which will be the foundation of everything we do during this semester-long experience.
- $200
Repetition is Sacred: Practicing Seven Generations
You are here because you are ready to embrace the full support of your ancestors. And that means learning from what they embraced, what they avoided, what they longed for and what they denied. Honoring the generations before us and after us is a practice. We do it every day. Embark on a creative practice of ancestral listening with Alexis's daily love and support.
- $50
Sculpted Impulse: An Ntozake Shange Immersion
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, literary advisor to the Shange Trust, created a portal into the life and work of Ntozake Shange beyond For Colored Girls for a special Africana Studies class at Barnard College in 2020. She has adapted this portal for anyone interested in Shange's approaches to breathing, ritual, sisterhood and more.
- $150 or 3 monthly payments of $55
Stardust and Salt: Daily Creative Practice
This 10-day series is designed to support you in creating a daily practice that opens up infinite possibility but that also STICKS in the context of your changing life. For 10 days you will wake up to Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs opening up your sky reading you a poem and offering you some nourishing reflections and questions from her unpublished series of "sky study" meditation poems. In the afternoon you w...
- $100 or 4 monthly payments of $30
Sustaining Sweetness: A Practice for Loveships
This is a practice for LOVESHIPS. You can do these exercises anytime as partners to access supportive tools as you create intentional practices for the multiple forms of intimacy you are prioritizing in your lives together! All loveships are welcome to participate in this asynchronous course.
Includes 1 Additional Product
- $150 or 4 monthly payments of $50
The God of Every Day: A Week of Practice
"There are many names for god. The name I use is EVERY DAY." This course builds on Alexis Pauline Gumbs's work on daily practice with a series of poems, activities and meditations she created from her early study of the divine Akan language of (some of) her ancestors. These activities are for anyone who wants to cultivate or reactivate sacred supportive practices for their own lives.
- Waitlist
Three Tries: Ancestor Accountable Writing
Based on seven version of a story my grandfather told me, this 7-part course is designed to support you in getting in touch with your own approach to writing in honor of and in collaboration with your ancestors.
- $200 or 3 monthly payments of $75
Transcend: Winter Study 2024
- 43 left
This is preparation for in-person spring practice including invite only "Sunday" Service. It culminates with a practitioner only kick-off to our Transcend SPRING PRACTICE (Feb along with Audre Lorde's 90th birthday year celebration). The Winter Study is a self-guided study facilitated by Sangodare that includes audio & video that are informational & discursive and others that invite engagement & facilitate practice.
- $50
Until Everybody's Free: Fannie Lou Hamer Immersion
Fannie Lou Hamer nurtured Black dignity, divinity and community building in the face of an electoral system shaped by and obedient to white supremacy. She confronted political corruption directly, built alternatives, addressed the basic needs of her people, built a broad and effective base of support and mentored and inspired generations. Now on her 103rd birthday, we need the specificity of her legacy as much as...
- $200 or 5 monthly payments of $50
Wrapped in Ocean: Undrowned in Practice
"What is the scale of breathing? You put your hand on your individual chest as it rises and falters all day. But is that the scale of breathing? You share air and chemical exchange with everyone in the room, everyone you pass by today. Is the scale of breathing within one species? All animals participate in this exchange of release for continued life. But not without the plants. The plants in their inverse proces...
Black Feminist Film School
Black Feminist Film School draws from Black feminist legacies to engage filmmaking as a tool for expanded awareness - filmmaking as spiritual practice. In this practice space our multiple perspectives and levels of experience/eldership are a benefit to us all. From introductory content to advanced content we explore the 5 primary areas of filmmaking - Development (Scriptwriting), Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production and Distribution (Screening). We are also planning two virtual production intensives where we do a production entirely within Black feminist context (in our remote locations).
Ready? Spiritual Practice that resonates & reflects YOU!
Structured by what Queer Black Feminism has to teach us, I have created practice spaces for Growth and Transformation.
Mobile Homecoming Trust
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD
I'm Sista Docta Alexis, a Queer Black troublemaker and Black Feminist love evangelist! Sangodare is my primary collaborator. I'm excited for people to get a chance to access generations of love on their own timeline through this practice space.
I have been teaching poetry, creative writing, media literacy and film studies for over 24 years including work with The International Black Youth Summit, Duke University and the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.
I have been teaching poetry, creative writing, media literacy and film studies for over 24 years including work with The International Black Youth Summit, Duke University and the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.
Sangodare (J.R. Wallace, MDiv)
I'm Olorisa Sangodare Akinwale. Together Alexis and I draw from our individual and combined skills, gifts and talents. This is the platform we have built for our individual and joint offerings via Mobile Homecoming Trust Living Library and Archive!
I have been creating film, media and music for over 23 years. I have been teaching film and media for over eight years including a teaching residency in the Film Department at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
I have been creating film, media and music for over 23 years. I have been teaching film and media for over eight years including a teaching residency in the Film Department at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
Imagine being uplifted by QPOC congregation
We find healing catharsis and clarity in queer collective spiritual practice; from the resonance of reflection to glimpses inside the mystical.
The many shoulders we stand on have provided us the gift of being grounded in spiritual traditions that used to exclude us as QPOC/LGBTQIA+/SGL spirit beings. Now, we are reclaiming our rightful places as spiritual leaders.
The many shoulders we stand on have provided us the gift of being grounded in spiritual traditions that used to exclude us as QPOC/LGBTQIA+/SGL spirit beings. Now, we are reclaiming our rightful places as spiritual leaders.
Practice With Us
Watch the Sermons
You can watch the sermons from our monthly services at Northstar Church of the Arts in Durham and other offerings
HERE!
Enjoy the services and DIY self-guided discovery and spiritual practice prompts.
HERE!
Enjoy the services and DIY self-guided discovery and spiritual practice prompts.
Join a Practice Group
We are 100% committed to Love, to Growth & Transformation. Sign up to be part of a co-hort that is taking an intentional journey.
NOW!
21 Day Black Feminist Breathing Chorus!
A collective Meditation Practice.
NOW!
21 Day Black Feminist Breathing Chorus!
A collective Meditation Practice.
Sponsor a practice
Our first meditation chorus cohort so loved the 21 Day practice that they requested options to sponsor a practice. If you would like to sponsor the 21 Day Black Feminist Breathing Meditation Chorus use the link below.