I've been gone for a minute...
well. soon.
2025 has been a doozy. I'm guessing this isn’t news to anyone. I, like you no doubt, have been overcome with rage, despair, hopelessness, confusion, and fear. finding joy often felt shameful when there are kidnappings in our streets daily, condoning child rape, dehumanizing trans* folx, techbro-created psychological manipulation, and U.S. funded genocides - not to mention people (some whom I care for deeply) who STILL fail to name violence caused by Israel. like, how?
And yet - I know we must go on.
So I have been resting, healing, grieving, & learning. Admittedly, I've also been beating myself up many a time for not hosting any NAKED gatherings this year. a dear friend reminded me that even if I never host another NAKED gathering, the ones I did were impactful and made a difference. (thank you Aarati).
but I am gearing up. I'm connecting with healers and honoring my own journey of healing self and communities. I am learning more about the connections between our individual nervous systems and their connections to nature. we are OF this earth, not ON this earth. (thank you Bayo Akomolafe from must-see documentary The Eternal Song). Atoning for past harms I have caused continues - including acknowledging my own “performative atonement” while at ALF-PA and other spaces. I finally feel in my bones and spirit - that interrogating for anti-Blackness, ableism, ageism, classism, is only one small part. I am also learning to embrace all sides of me - both colonized and colonizer, victim and perpetrator. (I have Thich Nhat Hanh’s Poem: Please Call Me By My True Names to thank for illuminating this bittersweet truth.) I am really working at leading from love and compassion, rather than responding quickly from a place of anger, ignorance, or entitlement. (I have Tara Brach’s Radical Compassion talk to thank. Love her and listen daily.) I am slowing down and reading more than I think I have before - outside of mandatory readings for school - which, let’s be real, I didn’t really do. I have my dear friend Sana to thank for inviting me to her monthly Book Thugs ‘n Harmony where we read/discuss women of color authors. Oh - and Substack of course. SO many brilliant and inspiring folks sharing their truths, ideas, dreams.
all this to say. SHE READY! (cue our fave Tiffany Haddish).
NAKED gatherings will happen in 2026.
NAKED gatherings will happen in 2026.
NAKED gatherings will happen in 2026.
(if you say it three times it will come true Ala Beetlejuice or Bloody Mary. Only this won’t seal your mouth shut or kill you.)
Be on the lookout for the details. I will need everyone’s good juju to bring it to fruition in 2026. But it’s the Year of the Fire Horse, come Feb 2026 - a time of passionate, dynamic energy that fuels change, innovation, and courage. So I’ll take that as a sign that the time is right to help folx reclaim their S.E.L.F (sexually embodied life force).
