
HYBRID: Black Womxn/Women and Aging: Health, Healing, Wholeness and Harmony 1 – The Journey
Sunday, August 10th
10AM – 2PM PT (Time Zone Converter)
With Arisika Razak, Rosetta Saunders, Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John, and Afefe Oke’
Open to self-identified womxn/women, 55 years and older who are members of the Afrikan Diaspora, including biracial, mixed heritage, and white adopted
Closed Captioning Provided on Zoom
The center is fragrance-free and wheelchair accessible
N95/KN95 masks required
Calling all Black womxn/women, 55 years and older. It’s time to celebrate our precious body-minds, and honor the wisdom that we’ve harvested over the decades. We’re coming together to share our stories, honor our struggles, and claim ourselves as strong, whole, vulnerable and resilient. We’ll use music, the breath, writing, drumming, meditation, and gentle, mindful movement, to evoke our connections to nature, community, and Spirit – and we’ll culminate in a celebration of Black Womxn Elders.
Bring an object for the altar that reflects your connection to this topic as well as something that reflects ancestral healing lineages. We’ll break bread together, please bring food to share (in-person) and show (online).
Register for Part Two – Black Womxn/Women and Aging: Health, Healing, Wholeness and Harmony II: Nurturing here.
Public Transportation/Parking:
– We strongly encourage public transportation/biking/walking since parking in the neighborhood is limited.
– EBMC is 4-5 blocks from 19th Street Bart (about a 7 minute walk).
– EBMC has bike parking inside the center.
– Meter parking is free on Sunday, and enforced Monday-Saturday 8am-6pm.
– There are also garages on Harrison at 15th and on Harrison between 17th and 19th. If you are planning to drive, please allow extra time for parking.
Cost
The teachings are regarded as priceless. So they are offered without a fee. You are invited to support the teachings and our efforts by contributing voluntary donations (the practice of “Dana”) for the expenses of the meditation center and the support of the teachers.
The ticket prices are listed as different tiers with suggested donations based on income ranges. For those who wish to give more, you may choose an “add-on” to your ticket. For those unable to give, there is an option for that.
Note that all financial gifts received here go directly to EBMC, and we invite you to give separately to our teachers, using the information below.
Other ways to give:
To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, you may do so via Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation or our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana 100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds.
Please also consider giving a financial gift to our teachers as well, who do not receive a salary for their work, and give their teachings freely to all.
All dana will go to Rosetta Saunders and will be equally divided among the teachers:
CashApp: $RosettaSaunders
Venmo: @Rosetta-Saunders
PayPal: @rosettasaunders1
For in-person participation:
For those wishing to practice in person, space will be limited to 60 people to allow ample space for social distancing. Participants will be asked to wear N95 or KN95 face masks. (N95 face masks will be available at EBMC.) Please note: The teacher may be unmasked while teaching.
To attend in person, you need to be completely free of fragranced body and clothing products — more information and a list of fragrance free products, including those that are especially good for people of color, appears on our website: https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/
East Bay Meditation Center is a scent free / fragrance free space and is wheelchair accessible.
Universal Access Requests on Zoom to help with sound and video quality. If possible…
1. When speaking, introduce your name, pronouns, and (optionally) a brief physical description of yourself.
2. If using virtual backgrounds, please use static, simple, high-contrast backgrounds.
3. Please keep your camera still while your camera is on.
4. Please repeat your name when you speak to help those with visual impairment.
5. The host/volunteer will attempt to read any comments that appear in the chat out loud.
6. Please strive for clear audio and mute when you are not speaking. Phone access is also available.
7. If you have unmet access needs, please send a message to the volunteer or host in the chat. If the chat is not accessible to you, please offer them briefly in one minute or less via voice. Please do not send access requests directly to other participants.
Teachers

Arisika Razak, MPH, EBMC Core teacher, is the former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Previously a nurse-midwife, her teachings incorporate diverse spiritual traditions, women’s health and healing, multicultural feminisms, queer theory, and diversity theory. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioner Program, the Mindfulness Teacher Certification Program, and the Embodied Social Justice Certificate Program. Arisika has led national and international healing workshops and ritual celebrations for women as well as embodied spiritual workshops for people of all genders for over forty years. She has contributed to many books and publications and continues to present at online and in-person conferences on the subjects of African wisdom traditions, Buddhism and womanism, and embodied spiritual traditions. She has co-facilitated workshops with Marlene Jones at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and regularly leads workshops at EBMC.

Rosetta Saunders is a retired educator and historian with over 20 years teaching “People of Colors History” in the United States. Currently a core facilitator for Deep Time Liberation, Ancestral Healing retreats, Rosetta’s passion for West African and Afro-Cuban drumming has primarily been a source for individual and collective healing. She aligns herself with her ancestral lineage through Earth based practices. She was introduced to the Buddha/Dharma in 2002 and completed a two-year Dharmacharya program with Venerable Pannavati and Pannadipa receiving Confirmation of Ordination and recently completed the Braided Wisdom Leadership training program and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction certification program.

Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John is the author of the new revised edition of Detox Your Heart – Meditations For Emotional Trauma published by Wisdom Books in 2017. They are co/author of the award-winning book Eight Step Recovery – Using The Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction. They are also a TEDx speaker and are the author and editor of 11 books including their award-winning novel Borrowed Body. They are the curator of Teachings in Uncertain Times, an online retreat by Teachers of Color for Tricycle Magazine February 2017. A founding facilitator of Dr Gabor Mate’s Compassionate Inquiry, they are a leading African Canadian voice in the field of Mindfulness for Emotional Trauma and Addiction. Vimalasara is a senior teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Community. And one of the founders of Freedom Together, a mindfulness accredited course by the Global Majority for the Global Majority.

Ginitta Glass, widely known as Afefe Oke’, has called the Bay Area home for over 30 years. In 2000, she retired from The City and County of San Francisco as the only Black female electrician in the Traffic Signal Shop with 22 years of service. A dedicated spiritual leader, she has served as a priest in the Yoruba Tradition for 23 years. Her commitment to compassionate care is evident in her 30 years of training in Hospice and palliative care which has included a two year training from Zen Hospice in San Francisco CA. Currently, Afefe Oke’ has been a volunteer for Humane Prison Hospice for two years, where she facilitates palliative care peer support training for incarcerated individuals. As a graduate of EBMC’s 2023 STL program, she has shared Dharma wisdom at EBMC’s Maha and BIPOC sangha gatherings. And she was also invited to give a Day Long offering at Green Gulch Farm in 2023. She has recently been inspired to initiate a Black Doula Collective and has provided death and dying support for the past 20 years. For over two decades, Afefe Oke’ has traveled extensively, deepening her meditation practice and gathering insights she generously shares. At 67 years old, she is a proud grandmother to two amazing beings and a loving mama to two dogs and one cat. A percussionist for over 40 years, Afefe Oke’ incorporates gospel music, chanting, and various instruments into ceremonial settings, enriching her diverse contributions to her community.
Afefe Oke’ is a Yoruba name which translates to “the wind that comes from the mountains”.


