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Why Hello, Hello!

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I'm Toi, a community organizer for food, health and economic justice. I'm also an artivist, a healer and a visionary. My commitment to being an organizer and activist for social justice for my community and my on-going passion for and ancestral ties to healing work has led me to pursue a path as an herbalist. As many may know, there aren't many (visible) herbalists of color in the U.S.- especially in Austin, TX.  Medicine today is also not always affordable and is inaccessible and toxic. I'd like to be part of the alternative to our inefficient American medical system.

I started this blog because I get really bored not having much cultural context in the carefully crafted "herbal revolution." C'mon- people of color are responsible for a lot of the botanical knowledge we have today and not many are really saying this. Not many folks who are writing these popular books on herbalism are committed to trying to know more about the true (her)story. I'm interested in knowing more about the healing work of our ancestors and rediscovering, restoring and reclaiming their healing legacy. While it's great to learn about western herbalism- the very eurocentric view is not really my cup o' tea. *pun intended. I am interested in the work of curanderas, medicine women and men, sangomas, inyangas, and other indigenous healers who work with plants and herbs and spiritual/emotional/physical/ and mental health.

As a queer-identified, gender non-conforming herbalist, I am also interested in the ways that two-spirited and gender variant healers have been involved in the healing of their communities throughout generations. It is said that in the past, queer and transgender folks were often healers in their societies. In past research I've found that two-spirited, gender non-conforming people have a long past as healers. (Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Warriors is a good resource.)

Being between genders- neither male or female, or maybe being both, was thought to be a gift in the past, and still is considered sacred in some societies today.
In many "shamanic" traditions, there was the idea that combining the characteristics of both sexes and both genders could connect one to a transcendent spiritual realm. Two-spirited folks were messengers of the Creator, visionaries, dream interpreters, keepers and teachers of spiritual principles, and medicine people. They were called on to do burials, bless unions and births and perform other ceremonies. Because they embodied both Mother Earth and Father Sky and held both a masculine and feminine heart within their souls (two spirits), they were perceived as having twice the power. 

They were thought to be more able to be fair and to be able to see into the hearts of males and females. Since they inhabited both masculine and feminine in one body they were thought to be able to “see” with both the eyes of men and women. This made them mediators and bridges. They were also seen as mediators between two worlds- that of Spirit and the human world, as well as between partners, tribe, and nations. In older world religions, the gods and goddesses in-between genders were viewed as whole-gendered and therefore balanced.

As I do this work I am honoring both my ancestors and my predecessors.  I will document my journey here as I research and practice the oldways and come into my path as a healer.

Here is the vision I am co-creating:

I'm using the knowledge I gain from my community herbalist program to provide much needed healing to communities far under-served by "modern medicine" because of race, gender, sexuality, ability and lack of funds/economic status. I will build with other holistic healers- herbalists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, yoga and movement instructors, and other spiritual healers to assist in the healing of communities of color, the queer community, and low-income communities on all levels- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I will not only assist in healing, but also pass on knowledge through skillshares and freedom schooling so that this wisdom is reclaimed and made accessible to the People. My emphasis once again is on affordable, holistic care for low- income folks, especially those who are of color and also those who are queer/LGBT.

I am asking for love offerings to complete my community herbalist program in order to do much-needed healing work in our community. Please go here for more info.

I'm looking forward to traveling with you on this journey. Stop by from time to time. I will post more of my story soon.

Love, Healing, and Solidarity,

Toi



The Inaccessibility of Modern Western Herbalism

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This is just a quick note after stumbling upon the mention of a new "free herbalism" lecture that will be available in the fall in the midwest. It got me thinking about how the herbalism created by many ancestors of color was free and how far we've moved from that. Healing is something you've got to pay for now. So many people are clamoring to go to traditional chinese medicine, ayurveda, and herbalism programs so they can charge money. So many mainstream healers have gone to other countries to gather ancient knowledge only to come market it back to the descendants of the creators of that knowledge at a premium price. I know that people have to sustain themselves...but seriously? How are these (often new age) healers any different than western medicine practitioners? 

Capitalism traps us all. 

It does not truly allow for the "altruism"...no...compassion necessary for true and effective healing. If we are so worried about paying bills and making ends meet that we turn down a person who is suffering from illness...can we call ourselves true healers? We know how this exchange has gone awry and we see it daily in our broken (no decimated!) health care system. And we especially see how it affects low income folks of color who can no longer afford wellness and don't always have access to prevention (especially if living in toxic towns, food deserts, and/or living high stress, low quality of life situations working 2 and 3 jobs).

When I see the marketing of ancient healing knowledge and the inflated sale of this knowledge, I am *more than disappointed. I am especially disappointed in the way that some people market themselves as radical but are the first to try to charge a sick person living in poverty based on "principle" (the principle that everyone should pay). 

I am disappointed that there aren't more holistic healing programs allowing for scholarships for low income people of color to learn what has been lost to us so that we can, in turn, take it back to our community to heal. It costs thousands of dollars for these programs- and by all means, if people have it they should pay it. I think we all know what demographic can usually make that type of "monetary sacrifice," though. We see this clearly in the number of white holistic healers to holistic healers of color. It becomes more and more apparent that some of these folks would rather keep this knowledge and sell it to low income communities and not necessarily pass it on or have it propagated. 

Hmm...Healers as gatekeepers...

I feel that after the hippies began to appropriate other cultures and their healing modalities in the 60s that much of this knowledge became inaccessible (and inaffordable) as decades passed. Of course, there were also people who came to the US to market these healing modalities, as well. (And many times at a premium price- why not get these affluent westerners to come out of pocket?)

But herbalism...something so rooted in indigenous culture. How is it now more and more expensive to attain this knowledge? How is it becoming less and less accessible to folks of color who need it the most? Not to mention communities like the queer community who also don't have access to western medicine and would benefit from traditional forms of healing--it's just too expensive many times. I appreciate sliding scale, but when are we going to address the fact that we need more people from marginalized communities healing in those same communities. Which means- we need those who have been marginalized to be able to get this information/education. 

That is all- 
for now.


No Herbal Revolution without an Anti-Oppression Framework

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It's true, folks. No matter how radical we may think that holistic healing work is, it's not revolutionary if we continue to oppress others (especially those we are providing healing work to) during this movement. Unless we are earnest with ourselves about power dynamics, our privilege (this could be race, gender, ability, etc.), and our biases, we trap ourselves in in the very patterns that persist in the broken health care system and we severely limit our healing abilities.

What is Anti-oppression?


It's anti-racism, anti-homophobia or anti-heterosexism, anti-sexism, anti-classism, anti-ableism, etc. Basically- it's "anti-bigotry" in all it's forms. Anti-oppressive practice has developed within social work (though its roots are much older and tied to feminist, queer, and black liberation and anti-racist movements).  At first glance, you'll wonder why I'm talking about social work but bear with me. The social work profession's mission is to 'oppose the roots and effects of social oppression'. This doesn't sound too much up our alley. Hang on. According to the International Federation of Social Workers, their mission is 'the liberation of people to enhance well-being'. Well, that sounds kind of familiar. 

The story goes that a group of social work researchers developed anti-oppressive social work due to oppressive practices and  power imbalances between the social worker, client, agency, and the state. This new model for anti-oppressive social work was created in order to 'decontaminate social work from expressions of oppression and bias.' Some in the profession began to move away from 'cultural sensitivity' and toward a more 'active and critical anti-racist and anti-discriminatory perspective' when dealing with cultural diversity.

Why am I even talking about all this? That power imbalance exists between herbalists and those who come to them to be healed/ to co-heal. As healers who are very much human, we bring in our assumptions and biases. We can't leave them at the door. They are very much present in our consultations and inform our healing work. We encounter all types of people who have had all types of experiences. If we are going to work with them on a physical, emotional, spiritual and energetic level, it's important that we don't allow our biases to harm this vulnerable person who has come to us for healing or prevention.




According to "Revel and Riot" anti-oppression involves recognizing and deconstructing the systemic, institutional and personal forms of disempowerment used by certain groups over others. By examining things like social structures, group dynamics and patterns of oppression (like racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, etc) we can begin to work towards equalizing the power imbalance in our communities. Through this, we bring each other strength by recognizing the interconnectedness of our struggles while deepening our understanding of our own roles, power and privilege in society, as well as the varied and valuable experiences of others.
More on this here.

What does an anti-oppressive framework look like for holistic healers?


  1. It's acknowledging systemic barriers to health and those communities that are disproportionately affected by them. 
  2. It's continuously checking your privilege and biases and making sure it doesn't inform your treatment of co-healers/clients/patients/customers. 
  3. It's making an effort to understand histories of oppression and acknowledging and accepting cultural differences because denial of these histories and color-blindness are microaggressions and sure signs of privilege. Folks of color rarely have the luxury of waking up and having a day to navigate where they don't have to know what color they are. Many visibly queer folks don't have this privilege either. 


There is a lot of discrimination going on in the health care system based on race, gender, sexuality, immigration status, etc. and it'd be terrific if folks could go in to get holistic health care and not have to worry about racism, sexism, or homophobia/transphobia. I've seen that in holistic care the same issues ring true as with "liberal" and "progressive" cities/communities. People believe that these problems just don't exist. People believe they are far too enlightened and therefore don't need to check their biases or privileges. They've already done the work and aren't capable of discrimination. This is just as dangerous as overt racism, homophobia, or xenophobia, if not more dangerous.















A portrait 

Let me give you a few examples of how all this plays out in holistic health care...


  • The power dynamic is off and clients/co-healers of color or queer clients/co-healers are infantalized or the healer takes on a paternalistic role.
  • Consultations with healers may feel unsafe because of paternalism or assumptions based on racism/homophobia/sexism/ableism,etc.
  • Healers reach out to a certain demographic over another because of racial biases and assumptions. Perhaps they think that a certain community isn't interested in being healthy or in holistic health because of these assumptions.
  • Failure to work with folks who are low income because they "won't" follow a treatment plan or can't show up on time (usually this is due to them working multiple jobs and trying to support a family)

Making the Effort, Committing to Change




Basically, it's up to you to make the effort to examine the ways in which you contribute to the perpetuation of all these "-isms". Do you really want to bring biases and phobias into your healing work? There's no way to be neutral and, despite what many may think, being a healer does not make you immune to socialized bigotry. If you are committed to creating a healthier world, why bring such toxicity into your practice? In healing from these socialized behaviors and your own internalized oppression you are becoming more whole and, in doing that, becoming a much better healer.


There's much more to say but I'll leave you with these resources. Please also remember, in your quest for knowledge of anti-oppression, that it is your own duty to educate yourself. It is not the duty of marginalized communities to teach you. I've written about this here. Please also remember that there is no 'mastering' this work. It is on-going, difficult, and often goes unrewarded from others. But what a gift it is to be conscious, Whole, and not perpetuate cycles of injustice and to join the Revolution!



Resources


Data/Statistics


LGBT Health Care Discrimination
When Health Care isn't caring

National Coalition fior LGBT Health:
All of the Above: LGBT People of Color


Racial Bias in Health care
Reducing racial bias among health care providers
Study on implicit bias among healthcare providers
Beyond misdiagnosis, misunderstanding, and mistrust
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Unnatural Causes- Is Racism making us sick?


Trans/Gender Non-Conforming
http://www.lambdalegal.org/sites/default/files/publications/downloads/whcic-insert_transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-people.pdf
National Transgender Discrimination Survey Report on Health and Health Care

 Immigrants
Fear, Immigration and Discrimination
10 Harmful Misconceptions about Immigration


Anti-Oppression Resources and Exercises
http://organizingforpower.org/anti-oppression-resources-exercises/
http://washingtonpeacecenter.net/node/5056
Tools for Challenging Oppression from Within
Undoing Racism
How Queers are Organizing for Health Care Reform

Being an Ally
Dos and Don'ts of being a Good Ally
10 Ways to be an Ally
6 Rules for Allies
7 Rules for Allies- Paper
Highly Recommended readings from the Anti-Racist Alliance







We are the Sum of our Ancestors, Decolonizing Herbalism and other healing modalities

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"Lo que se hereda no se hurta/ What you inherit you don't/didn't steal. "






This dicho is a lesson for all of us Q/POC struggling with identity and our "place" in this assimilationist nation of neo-colonizers and appropriators. That which is already ours by nature, that which is our inheritance...we can't  be accused of stealing or steal. We don't have to. No-  It's not even about "taking it back" or 'occupying' or 'getting back to x, y, z'. It's already ours. Been ours. Y ni podemos vender. (We can't sell it) Y nadie nos puede robar de nuestr@ herencia.(No one can rob us of our heritage/inheritance). 

Angela Lugo (a Puerto Rican yerbera/ herbalist) says in 'Testimonial for the ancestors': "We are the sum of our ancestors."


The knowledge of our ancestors, our inheritance, can never be taken away from us. Though others may try to eradicate it or even  borrow it and sell back a flawed and incomplete version, we carry in our Spirit all the knowledge amassed over thousands of years by our ancestors. Relearning/rediscovering can seem like an uphill battle when systems are set against us reclaiming our legacies, but it can and is being done. So don't be disheartened. It will take some time to rediscover what took centuries upon centuries and generations upon generations for the colonizers to try to eliminate, assimilate or destroy. Rest be assured that it IS happening and at a faster rate than the actual destruction.



Our queer and POC ancestors have a rich history of being healers. Fact. We had our own systems of healings, our own modalities and our own ways of passing down this knowledge. While some western herbalists will try to tell you that this knowledge no longer exists and has been decimated or only exists in fragments, this is not completely the Truth.








See, here is the issue:

Many mainstream holistic healers start out with these assumptions. As with many other types of "outsider" work intending to create social change in marginalized communities, there's this assumption that these outsiders are going in and blazing this new trail because it either
a) doesn't exist  and the communities need to be taught
or
b) past knowledge or peoples have been romanticized and given a "shout out" but their ways are thought to be either stripped down and incomplete or assumed to be no longer relevant in "our society."

Why is this?

The "dominant culture" finds the old ways illegitimate because it's not written (our People have largely oral traditions and this is not valued) and these ways also don't look familiar. I've seen some western herbalists go in expecting healing systems to look a certain way and if they don't, they are delegitimized and deemed incomplete.

I've seen spirituality stripped away when it is integral to our ancestors' healing. I've seen herbalists assume that "herbalists" don't exist in certain indigenous communities because they don't go by "herbalist" or "shaman" or words (even certain concepts) that were invented by mainstream (white) herbalists and anthropologists.

I've seen herbalists decipher between "practitioners" and just regular old folks who are, you know, "just fiddling around with herbs in their kitchens to heal their families". But there's no difference in our communities. The fact that someone doesn't mass produce herbs or do consultations for pay on a large scale or go around touting their herbal skills from coast to coast does not discredit them. The fact that black and brown herbalists don't flock to societies, groups, or networks of healers and herbalists using titles they don't use themselves (see "shaman" and "herbalist"), doesn't mean that they don't exist.

The fact that you will not find our ancestor's knowledge in books written by them does not discredit their knowledge. The written word is a western value. Folks--not just any folks, the very folks who find themselves with privilege and power on a regular basis-

yes, white folks...

have to stop expecting things to look the way they're used to. That's why there's so much misinformation. Do you really trust a codex or an herbal written by the colonizers who committed genocide? Do you really trust their understanding? Seems like they'd be bad historians

... but maybe that's just me.

What gives anyone the right to deem what is legitimate or not based on their own levels of comfort, methods, and value systems? What gives anyone the right to call a system mere superstition versus a legitimate healing modality? Why does a group of people with power and privilege get to tell other groups of people that their systems are not up to par or that they're incomplete and better luck next lifetime or when they've "fixed it"?

The "western lens" is truly a blindfold a lot of times. Sometimes you just can't compare things. You can't look for commonalities in problematic assimilationist way, legitimizing whatever looks similar to your teachings and what you've learned and discounting all other parts of a system.

Don't assume that all systems from India (ayurveda, yoga,etc.) are the most advanced because the British said so. Don't assume Acupuncture was only done in China. Don't assume Greek medicine and Hippocrates are superior because that's where most timelines start for "western herbalism". African and First Nations medicine gets overlooked a lot because some don't consider it to have much value. Why are their ways considered more "superstitious" or "primitive"?  Maybe their value can't be assessed because it's less accessible to outsiders? Who knows.


All I know is that-
By Ernesto Yerena

We are the sum of our ancestors.
We are their medicine stories and folk remedies. We are their nourishing and medicinal recipes.  We are their dances for the Divine. We are the legacy of their healing circles and nurtured crops. And as long as all this lays forgotten because we are learning the "dominant" history as if our ancestors' did not exist or is not as valuable...we will be incomplete. A fraction of what we could be.

It's time to decolonize holistic health.

Here are some relevant dichos to begin the process:

Lo que viene facil, facil se va

 
(minus the todo los hombres son iguales! smh...)

Lo barato sale caro





So this needs to be said-
This isn't just the work of people of color as this erasure wasn't completely of our doing, either.

Where do we even start?


  • Classes and conferences need to have diversified curriculum, workshops and panels. 
  • Question "authenticity" and "legitimacy" and why it is that certain systems are thought to be more so than others.
  •  Question why certain voices are not present in the oodles of books available and why certain people are permitted to speak for others authoritatively.


Don't folks get tired of hearing only about their own perspective or the same old models? We should all challenge ourselves in this if we consider ourselves to be healers. Ancestral healing is central to our own healing. At the core of this healing is knowing our histories which can be extremely difficult but not impossible.

My healing story...journal entries

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In this entry I divulge more about my healing journey, as I've promised to do in the past, so folks can understand more about why holistic healing, writing, and the existence of this website are important to me.



Wednesday (5/8/13) confession:


I cried on the acupuncture table today. Not because of sorrow or pain...but because I knew that this was the beginning of being healed...cured...when the past 5 years have been full of so many doctors and specialists telling me that I couldn't be. And a few have told me I was dying or would die.


Today I sat down with my co-healer...a black gay traditional chinese medicine (TCM) student and his supervisor Will Morris (of world reknown) came in to evaluate me...he told me right off that he has done research specifically on lupus patients ...over 500. That he's treated/healed many and went on to tell me the treatment plan. And let me tell you why that brought me to tears on the table...rheumatologists, general practitioners, hematologists...none of them know what the hell they are doing when it comes to lupus patients. We are lab rats and guinea pigs...and the majority of us are female-bodied and of color. They give you toxic drugs that suppress your body's natural processes and cause cancer, diabetes, and death in the long run. You sacrifice your whole life for a few decades of diminished pain.

And today, this very man told me in not so many words...that he knows exactly what he's doing. And on top of that, I realize that I am being healed with herbs from the earth after 3 years on god knows what synthetic crap they've pumped into my body ...5 years of non-stop pain.

So I cried tears of joy on that table and my eyes well up even now...thinking about the way my ancestors and Spirit have led me to a wonderful roommate who happens to go to a TCM school...which happens to have a black gay student who happens to be interested in a lot of other healing modalities...who happens to occasionally be supervised by a world-reknowned TCM teacher who happens to have dealt specifically with the disease I knew I was on the path to die of...like so many sisters.

I shed tears for the unnecessary deaths of so many from this disease that doesn't have to be fatal. This must be...has to be... my initiation...onto the Path. My path as a healer. So that is why I live my life the way that I live it - for those who have tried to understand. I don't have much time to spare...and I live this life knowing that it is a gift that was almost taken from me.






Thursday (5/23/13) confession:


I woke up today thinking it was a new day...but much like any other beginning of a new day. I ate...made my tea...chatted with my housemate and then got this urge to go for a run. At first I didn't listen to my intuition...but then...I thought about how my body was feeling that was allowing me to have this urge. It was practically pain free. I quickly threw on my basketball shorts and undershirt and running shoes, stretched, and went for a run. A run in humid weather...with no pain. I felt this release...and I'll tell you why. I was a damn good mid-distance runner and jumper in high school. I won district and made it to regionals in several events. Some friends, after college, used to joke around and call me "trackstar". But ...that was then.

When this illness (systemic lupus) started to take over my body 5 or so years ago, I slowly lost my ability to do two things that I loved that gave me release: dancing and running. When I saw people on the track or on the road running I'd be overwhelmed with depression for hours or even days because my body used to be healthy. It used to do what I wanted it to do. I used to not feel pain all the time. I used to not have palpitations with the slightest bit of exertion. I used to not have this ongoing angry conversation happening between my muscles and joints and cold and wet weather. I didn't used to have constant fatigue on really bad days.

Pain is so tiring. So, so tiring. And people's comments that I "look"ed fine would really weigh on my spirit. Doctor's comments that the pain was only growing pains were so heavy. Was I imagining all this? Was I a hypochondriac? No, I decided...and that was the beginning of my healing journey. After dealing with dismissal of healthcare practitioners, there were still folks who were close to me that were in denial. Though I have been diagnosed 6 times with systemic lupus, it has taken almost 3 years for my mother to acknowledge that I "might" have it and this has been super harmful for me.

I remember the exact month and year I hit rock bottom- December 2010 (NY). I was stressed out with finals in grad school and I was starting to not be able to walk. My best friend insisted that I finally go to the doctor. It wasn't like I hadn't gone to a bajillion in Austin, TX. In 2009 I had a hematologist/oncologist, a cardiologist, and I don't even remember the names of the other specialists. I was tired of giving all my blood to be told ridiculous things like, for instance, that I might have cancer..!! Or they'd give me iron and I'd have to deal with excruciating pain and the doctors wouldn't listen to me when I'd tell them that something was wrong with the dosage. Later I found out that I had thalassemia...which is a disease that folks from the "Mediterranean region", South Asia, and descendants of people from Latin America usually inherit. But, since the doctors thought I'm "just black" and never bothered to ask of my heritage, all they'd test me for was...guess...that's right! Sickle cell anemia, syphilis, HIV/AIDS...!

The school nurse actually listened to me and ran a ton of tests and referred me out to brown doctors who gave me the diagnosis of systemic lupus and thalassemia. If I'd waited around for racist and oblivious doctors in Austin to diagnose me I probably wouldn't have figured any of that out until I was close to kidney failure...like so many others of my sisters (and some brothers).


I was bed ridden A LOT in the winter and the beginning of the spring of 2011. I had a homeopath and an herbalist that worked in tandem to co-heal me emotionally, spiritually and physically and some of those days were the best I've ever felt. But those days would be interspersed with days where my body felt like a cage. I'd wake up wondering if I would be able to move that day. Every morning was a surprise. That's when I began my philosophactivist blog.

Writing has always been a release for me and since I couldn't dance or run as much as I wanted to anymore, I began to write...and write...and write about my own pain. And then I got sick of writing about my pain and the origin of my pain and started to write about the quintessential origin of my community's pain which is psychological, spiritual, emotional, and physical: Oppression.

But...I also realized that my activist work in NY was oppressing me emotionally and physically because I was burning out and not taking care of myself, even though I was really sick. And those NYC subways are no joke...they are not limited-ability or disability friendly! People would shove me to the side and grumble when I was having bad days and could barely walk. I was moving too slow for them, of course.

I remember my 76 year old rheumatologist telling me that I had to stop my "civic duties" and that it was too much for my body. I remember looking him in his eye and saying that it was basically the only thing that made me feel better. It was the only thing that made me forget the pain. I might have even said that it was all I had to live for at that point. Ohhhh sweet delusion! My body put an end to that. I could barely go to class let alone go organize.


For more on my experiences with western medicine and healing
see my blog entry "Discovering our ability to Heal Ourselves after Invisibility, Voicelessness or Confrontation with the Medical Establishment (and in our Lives, in general) 
here.


All this, folks, to give background on why today is so spectacular. After going to acupuncture yesterday and getting a new formula, I feel like running again. I thank the ancestors for bringing such knowledgeable traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in my life after years and years of ignorant , racist, sexist, transphobic/homophobic specialists and practitioners. I get emotional every time I think of how blessed I am to still be here breathing after constant silencing, brushes with death, numerous hospital visits, and inner turmoil. I would say I shouldn't be here...but that's a boldfaced lie. I should. And so should all the beautiful brown womyn who have passed on from this world from this illness unjustly.

Today I ran for me...for them...for my ancestors...for people I haven't met yet or possibly will never meet. I ran with presence. Insight. I did walking meditation in between some sprints. I appreciated this morning for all it revealed to me.

Yesterday's blog where I wrote about oppression and Austin was part of the release. I know it was. It had to be. It's not a coincidence. I let go of something deep when I put that out there. Those weren't just my words...they were an amalgamation of a number of the conversations had within my community and I just put it out there. I'm here in this life as "the messenger", "the bridge", and even "the crossroads" (as one of my close friends and I talk about). I spent my childhood and part of my adolescence holding back pain...holding back my Truth...and as I've gained Voice and more autonomy in this world full of policing and sheeple I know that I can never close my eyes, turn my head, or shut my mouth again.

So, I encourage you to find what it is that brings you joy and release and do it...often! Surround yourself with people who lift you up and that you trust and who don't add toxicity when you are trying to heal. Take care of yourself aaaaand each other (ok, ok I'm just messin' with ya'll...that's Jerry Springer).


Thank you for reading!





The flower above is the honeysuckle. I had the urge to make honeysuckle essence. Well, have for some time. But today it became abundantly clear that it was time. The honeysuckle allows you to "live in the present rather than the past. They say that "it's usually for folks who are unable and unwilling to accept the changes of [his/her/hir] present life, and who expect nothing good to come from the future". Bach remedies also say it's good for "those who have lost a partner, but refuse to part with their belongings or move on to another relationship, even after years have passed. And for those whom the past was better than the present and want desperately to hang on to it. Those who cannot learn from the experiences of the past nor can they integrate those experiences into the present. And those who have regrets about the past and cannot let them go and who replay their missed opportunities and mistakes."


For me, it represents inner joy and peace, courage, strength and connection with our highest self. (Which all comes with releasing the past). Sweet release. It also represents healing together as a community, for me ...as it always grows with hundreds of other blossoms. And I understand that old folklore says it attracts wealth. Today a bee and I slightly battled over its blossoms. I took only a few and left him the bounty.


Reknowned herbalist Paul Bergner talks Systemic Lupus
Reknowned Chinese medicine practitioner Will Morris on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

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Hello community! Co-visionaries!



Guess what! I graduated the community herbalist program this past weekend and we had a wonderful potluck with chocolate infused damiana, kava punch, lavender-orange snow cones, and all kinds of other delicious food. Everyone presented on the projects they've worked hard on over the past 6 months. My presentation was about both the zine "Herbal Freedom School- Freedom Session #1" and blog "Queer Herbalism" that I created. I explained how both intend to address the lack of affordability and inaccessibility of herbal/holistic knowledge. I also explained that they were created to give a broader (and more accurate) perspective of holistic healing, as we are always inundated with eurocentric models and interpretations. 

It seems that the western (european) perspective (of course, not counting eastern healing modalities TCM and Ayurveda) are largely what we have access to in books since other indigenous cultures might not share the same interest and values of the written language and healing traditions tend to be mostly orally passed on.

As I have grown as a medicine-maker over the months in this program I am more and more committed to anti-oppression work within holistic healing. I recently had a post from Queer Herbalism reposted on Decolonizing Yoga that addresses this:
http://www.decolonizingyoga.com/countering-oppression-in-holistic-health/

As I slowly heal myself physically (from systemic lupus- SLE), emotionally (from internal/external oppression), and spiritually, I know that I am most drawn to doing energetic work (using tools such as herbs, flower essences, and ceremony) in marginalized communities that help them to release internalized oppression (racism, homophobia, etc.), get in contact with their inner Self, and become more aligned with nature, Spirit and the ancestors.

I thank each and every one of you who have walked this road with me, made love offerings, and followed my updates.

I still have a long road of paying for the rest of my tuition, though.  So far I have worked 47 hours at a rate of $10/hr. for work exchange and have paid $660 over the past few months. I still need to raise $720.00 (I was not able to continue with the year- long clinical herbalist course due to the demands of my full-time Americorps VISTA job, organizing within the community, and a raise in rent and an increase in medical expenses. 

Total tuition for the community herbalism program is $1850+ $300 for books/supplies= Grand total: $2150. 

Please continue to spread the word to folks to contribute love offerings as I will continue to pay tuition until my balance is paid in full. *you can contribute to love offerings by clicking HERE.


Love, Healing and Solidarity!
Toi



Freedom Session 2 is out!

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Hello Co-Visionaries,

Freedom Session 2, the second zine compilation from the Herbal Freedom Webpage, is hot off the press and ready for your viewing pleasure.

Table of Contents:

THE INACCESSIBILITY OF MODERN WESTERN HERBALISM.. 6

BASICS. 8

Medicinal Herbs by David Hoffman. 9

Herbal Properties and Actions by Jim McDonald. 13

FLOWER ESSENCES. 19

Writings from blogs by Atava Garcia Swiecicki, from Ancestral Apothecary. 20

Flower Healing Past and Present20

Flower Healing Part 2. 20

Making Flower Essences. 22

Flower Essence Therapy. 24

Administering Flower Essences. 26

        Flower Essences for Healing, Recovery & the 12 Steps. 27

        Flower Essences and Same-Sex Relationships by John R. Stowe. 30

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 33

        The Digestive System.. 34

AYURVEDA. 38

READING THE BODY. 42

         Basics of Muscle Testing. 45

OURSTORY. 50

         Pan-African Indigenous Herbal Medicine Technology Transfer 51

OUR RADICAL HISTORY. 62

         Young Lords: A Reader: Health and Hospitals 63

A LETTER TO CO-VISIONARIES. 82


RESOURCES. 84


You can access it here:
http://issuu.com/toiscott/docs/hfs_vol_2_final/86



Yours in Knowledge,
AGQ

Queering Herbalism Zine/Resource Guide

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Hey, hey,


Queering Herbalism a zine/resource guide with a brown, queer perspective is available for a sneak preview for a limited time. A lot of work went into compiling these 160 pages so please consider supporting future work here:




Co-visionary support



TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Reclamation and Reflections
II. Traditional Indigenous Healing
III.Two-Spirit Healers 

IV. Medicine Making Basics
VI. Flower Essences
VII. Radical Brown Health and Healing
VIII. Brown Resources
XI. Brown Reads
X. POC-Led Classes and Seminars
XI. POC Healers
XII. Queer Reads
XIII.Free Classes and Info

Go here for the full Queering Herbalism guide.

A Much-Needed Return

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It's been 2 months and here I sit reflecting on the last few years of my life that have brought me to heal on the island of Puerto Rico. I've spent much time frequenting the beach- my confidant, my teacher, my altar. There is so much knowledge hidden deep in the warm, fierce waves of the Atlantic off the northeast coast of Puerto Rico where I now reside.



In the first 2 weeks of being here, during my artist residency at Patio Taller, I contracted a (mosquito-born) virus much like the dengue fever, called chikungunya. I was already beginning to feel lonely and having a hard time getting grounded and BOOM! I started getting these immense headaches, then the next day I threw up over and over and over and then the next day was a rash that started on 2 limbs and spread to all 4 and my face.

I questioned the ancestors..."WHY?!"

Already I was trying to adjust to being so far from my created family and then I get this disease with no cure. Luckily at Patio Taller there were a number of herbs and fruit trees that had anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. (Oregano brujo, Oregano chiquito, menta poleo, and limoncillo). The chikungunya's symptoms are arthritic. So yep! I get a double dose of joint pain with having systemic lupus and this virus. Luckily (?) I am already taking pills for joint pain so with my medications and the copious herbs and fruit and coconut water and medicinal mushroom tea,etc. I've been able to have milder symptoms than some folks that have contracted it.

In reflection, having this illness brought me full circle to my love for herbalism and a few steps further on this path as a medicine maker. I've spent the last year struggling economically and with my health and transitioning- a true dark night of the soul or healing crisis. It has truly been a long journey though I feel in many ways it just began when I stepped foot here on this island.

Pre-chikungunya, while being on the grounds of Patio Taller I began connecting with the plants and making teas right away thanks to Michelle (one of co-founders of the space) introducing me to local herbs. Then, within the first week I met a really awesome group of herbalists and healers (accion camandular) and they invited me to table with them at a festival on Calle Loiza in Santurce. I had a good time speaking with folks about Queering Herbalism and the Herbal Freedom School Zines and even sold a few.













After tabling there I decided that Queering Herbalism 2 definitely needs to be bilingual. It will have both Spanish and English articles. I am excited about the themes for this one. Stay tuned for the preview of either a series or the entire guide.

Depende...

I hope to meet Maria Benedetti soon! She is an awesome yerbera/herbalist and activist who has been on the island for decades doing amazing things. I'd love to be more involved with botanicultura and learn more about the plants here on the island. I've been studying up...TRUST. And I've even been making some of the folks in Luquillo and Guaynabo remedies for the chikungunya and other ailments. I would have never thought that I'd be making house calls.

Other than my artist residency, the chikungunya, medicine making and ideas for a new Queering Herbalism and Herbal Freedom School, I have been meeting all types of artists, farmers, travelers, healers, visionaries and all around buena gente.

So- here I am in Puerto Rico- piecing together suppressed histories. Healing myself with mango teas, papaya leaves, lemongrass, oregano brujo, cundeamor/cerasee and other herbs that some have lost faith in or have become disconnected from. I am thankful for herbalists like Maria Benedetti and curandera historians like Aurora Levins Morales who have started the conversation again about our non-european herbal traditions.

Healing justice is something we've got to step up and own if we ever want true freedom. Western medicine...the medical industrial complex...Big Pharma....the food corporations...the 'greenwashing" of the so-called sustainability movement, they are all exploiting us and at times working in conjunction. There are a handful of companies profiting from our demise. And it's just the truth. We need to own our healing. We need to own what happens to our bodies.




                     


I struggled for years and years- economically, with my health, etc. And now here I am, in Puerto Rico thankful to be meeting such awesome people and slowing my life down so I can heal and do what I'm here to do on this journey. I began to feel a bit of guilt as I stood knee deep in the Atlantic looking at the crystal blue, see- through waves. I wondered why everyone couldn't feel this. Just stop being on the grind...and feel this. And I became even more committed to co-creating a space where that is possible. A space where people can stop hustling and just BE and heal in all the ways they need to. Whether that be growing food, building their own home, learning about herbal medicine or birth work, or anti-oppression or their own internalized oppression. I've been talking to so many friends who want to co-create this type of community and I know many already exist or have in the past. I don't know how far off it is from now but I'm going to keep working toward seeing this vision manifest slowly as I heal myself from this virus and this autoimmune disorder.

Please send healing energy and good vibes as I continue to transition and walk this path.

If you have benefited from the compilations and information on this page, please consider supporting those authors and healers who have painstakingly written the information by buying their books or attending their workshops,etc. If you are interested in owning a downloadable version of Queering Herbalism and the Herbal Freedom Schools, you can buy the Warrior-Healer Collection here or the individual zines Herbal Freedom School- Freedom Session volume 1 and Herbal Freedom School- Freedom Session volume 2 are available on the Afro-Genderqueer shop.

Please donate HERE to support me continuing this work. As I've mentioned, I am healing myself of a virus and autoimmune disorder and I, like many of you, am struggling to sustain myself and have a stable living situation. I don't have health insurance and I now write full-time, which works best for me as a genderqueer, brown person on this healing path with chronic illness and limited ability. Holistic medicine and treatment can be expensive and there isn't a lot of access to these services for those of us with less capital, especially in the colony of Puerto Rico. So it's important to support your visionary healers, the majority of us have come to this work through our own healing crises.

I look forward to keeping you posted about my research and writings.

Wishing you all healing and a sense of community and belonging,

AGQ

Queering Herbalism 2 and Herbal Freedom School 3- Coming Soon

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Just a quick note...

I've been working diligently on the content and structure for the next volumes of Queering Herbalism and Herbal Freedom School and I have to say I've been truly motivated and inspired by feedback, my new home and surroundings, and re-emerging interest in the first volume. I hope to have previews available by the first week of December and the new zines online before the new year. Luckily I've just gotten my computer back from the repair depot in awesome condition and that's no longer a barrier. If I could just get my hands on a decent printer/copy machine and ink and toner I would be in the best shape. Til then, copy shops and e-books!

Speaking of best shape...

I have so much gratitude for my friends who have shown an overwhelming amount of support through my illness by sending me wellness packages of herbs and salves and linimients, vitamins, and natural mosquito repellant. I never knew that community care could look like this. A circle of friends as your health insurance? As in, actually ensuring your health. I am so grateful and it has opened my eyes to what our communities are capable of when it comes to supporting each other's well-being, whether that is emotional, psychological, physical, or spiritual. Though many of my friends are struggling we try to find ways to be there for each other in whatever ways we can. And that's what truly matters. A phone call. A care package. An uplifting e-mail. A text to check-in. Even with a handful of friends, this goes a long, long way.

 


I can't wait for ya'll to see the new volumes. They are natural next editions, reflecting a deepening and asking you all to journey deeper into plant medicine and the wisdom of black and brown ancestors. We will be walking further away from "modern western herbalism" as there are enough texts concerning this and we will be deepening our connection to healing practices, spirituality, and cultural and historical context, and the stories behind different traditions' relationship to plants. And yes, more information about queer healers and queerness and healing.

Queering Herbalism 2

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Hello and Happy Solstice!


Queering Herbalism 2 is available for Pre-order

This second volume reflects a deepening and asks you all to journey deeper into plant medicine and the wisdom of black and brown ancestors. We walk farther away from "modern western herbalism" and deepen our connection to healing practices, spirituality, and cultural and historical context, and the stories behind different traditions' relationship to plants. We also unapologetically honor women healers and our queer predecessors and trans*cestors by acknowledging and reclaiming their legacies through learning more about queer and trans* healers, queerness and healing.  And we honor the importance of healing ourselves and get a better understanding of internalized oppression and internalized trauma and learn herbs that support us with our depression, anxiety and trauma.


In this volume there are sections dedicated to:


-Understanding Health and Healing and healing history


- Understanding and partnering with plants
(plant history and biology, ancestral plant traditions, exercises/suggestions for connecting with plants, plant and tree stories)


-Traditional indigenous healing
(in West Africa and the diaspora, New Zealand and the Philippines)


-Ceremony and ritual
(4 sacred medicines, baths, temezcal, creating sacred space)


- Two-spirit healers/queer/ and trans*cestors
(pre-modern Asian and Pacific Islands, Africa, and a critique of colonialism and the western gaze)


-Women healers, healing and resistance
(history of women healers/shamans, Mexican women reclaiming indigenous ceremony for wellness and body autonomy, a profile on a partera, birthwork in the black community, and a call to indigenous women and two-spirit people to be accountable and do the work of decolonization)


-Medicine making


-Healing ourselves from historical trauma and internalized oppression
(with remedies/recipes for anxiety,depression and trauma)

This is the first edition and there are nearly 200 pages.
*Contents may vary slightly after final edit.


**PRE-ORDER today .PDF ebooks available 12/26. You must send your email address!
*limited edition printed copies sent 12/28. (only 25 available) Message me to purchase a printed copy. (additional shipping costs).

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Happy Autumn!

The seasons have been flying by. I returned from Puerto Rico this spring, spent the summer in Austin and now I am unexpectedly on the East Coast. As I've been transitioning in PR, TX, and the DC/MD/VA area, so has Queering Herbalism 2. What started out as one volume and 200 pages has now become 5 volumes with a total of 505 pages. As I've struggled with health and housing and food insecurity, I've managed to keep writing and compiling slowly, but surely. Back in December my computer died, which set me back some months as I wasn't in the financial position to buy a new one. I kept at it, though and a very generous transwoman donated an old laptop to me. The ancestors have definitely been at my side saying "Keep walking."

So, as the months have gone by, I've found each section/volume getting richer and richer. Namely, the Ceremony and Ritual chapter and the Women* Healers, Healing and Resistance chapter. I was able to take a step back and really think about the perspectives being represented (or not represented)  and really "go in". In the Ceremony and Ritual chapter went in on many aspects of different ceremonies and the histories and cosmologies informing them, plants' rightful place in these ceremonies and had a little discourse on gender/sexuality and ceremony.

In the Women* healers, healing, and resistance section/volume I was able to spend more time with the questions of...who is a woman healer? what is a healer? And what stories are not being told when we speak of women* healers? This allowed me to add more articles about transwomen and their place as healers in our history and though I was not able to find what I wished I could have on gender non-conforming femme and feminine healers, I was able to write about how this perspective is largely absent in the current literature and literature of the past. You know, our history is oral and this colonized way of legitimizing written history is an issue anyway. But ,where does that leave those of us searching for our predecessors, lineages and legacies?

Well, we are definitely in a new and exciting time where we have to sit down together in living rooms and at kitchen tables and compare notes over meals about who we were and who we are becoming. The next Queering Herbalism is an encyclopedia of 5 volumes that is a window from the past into the present and future. I can't wait to share the completed versions with you later this month. Though I'm working double shifts tirelessly at my day/night job, I am even more committed to getting this completed. Please support by pre-ordering your copies which will be in e-version for now. Also, if you have any printing hookups, please let me know. This will make the reading more accessible to those who are not able to access ebooks or read ebooks online. I'm thinking of doing some audio for some of the sections but that is a few months out, at the least.

Thank you to all who have supported Queering Herbalism 2 and to those who have pre-ordered and waited patiently for the book to come out. I know these volumes are worth the wait. You will receive a special thanks consisting of the full encyclopedia.

Healing and Justice,

AGQ

Spring and Solar Return

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Happy Spring!



Yesterday I celebrated another solar return (birthday) and I'm feeling super reflective. I've been thinking about these Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia volumes and all the work that has gone into researching and compiling them over the past year and a half. I've been thinking about how much more expansive I've wanted them to be. You know, the information has always been about black and brown liberation, liberatory healing and the reclamation of our healing histories. It's always been about including suppressed histories and beginning/continuing a conversation about the healing legacy of queer, trans and gender non-conforming folks and honoring the place of spirituality and ceremony in our medicine making of many different varieties. The special edition on Africa and the African Diaspora confronts anti-blackness in the current  (modern western) "herbal revolution" by providing a closer look at African (and it's diaspora's) spirituality, medicine, and healing traditions. I am excited to start working on a more in depth Pan-African healing volume with an anti-colonial focus. And, the special edition of the Women*, feminine healing energy and resistance volume honors the feminine healing energy, women organizers and healers and there's so much more I wanted to include but needed to pare down into two parts! As the volumes expanded I knew that there needed to be another medium for all the seeds that were emerging to be planted. This year I hope to do more knowledge shares and collaborations with this information.






Osain- West African (Yoruba Ifa) spirit of Plants and herbal medicine


It's been a long road. I've been going through a lot of "health stuff/trials" this past year. I've struggled with having life-sustaining medication denied, not having insurance, not being able to afford obamacare and not qualifying for medicaid and patching together sliding scale medical assistance and self-pay treatments. I've had a really intense (short-lived) 80 hour a week organizing job. I've had my body react to the winter conditions and a lot of the toxins here in the D.C. area. Suffering from environmental illness (as Aurora Levins Morales calls Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) is no joke. Having a life-threatening autoimmune disorder and no health insurance really takes up a lot of time, space and energy. Every month I've struggled with not knowing if I can get a refill, afford a refill or a doctor's visit to get a refill. I've wondered if I'm going to deal with a paternalistic doctor and I've lamented that I don't have enough to pay for holistic practitioners- acupuncturists and naturopaths or herbalists. A lot of my healing has come from my own inner knowing and lots of research about the plants, herbs, medicinal mushrooms, vitamins, etc. that are accessible and affordable to me. I also have been able to reach out here and there to friends who are holistic practitioners.

I still dream of nationwide networks of POC healers who ARE each other's insurance and practitioners. A loving exchange network practicing affordable preventative holistic medicine and lifting up each other's healing work. I know these informal networks exist and it takes some digging to find them locally or regionally.  I dream of being a part of these sacred healing villages like Harriet's Apothecary provides every season in Brooklyn and other locations. Or the free clinic Ola's herb shop in Pittsburgh provides monthly. Or similar healing circles and events in Oakland. It's crucial that we keep supporting these spaces in whatever ways we can. Ola's is in danger of closing and is raising funds here.

So what's next for Queering Herbalism/ Queering Healing? Well, my health has become my primary focus for 2016 so while I'm navigating that, I'll  also be finishing editing these volumes. I'm hoping to publish them this Spring and I've already got the special editions up on my Etsy page along with new editions of Queering Herbalism and the Herbal Freedom School volumes. I thank you all for your patience and understanding.  I promise to continue putting my all into these volumes and to be a conduit for the compilation of this important healing wisdom. I'm committed to finding different mediums to share the information as well. This month I'll be at the Harriet's Apothecary Spring Edition and in June I'll be at the Philly Trans Health Conference sharing about QTPOC Healing Histories.



June 9-11, 2016


If (physically) able, I plan to make it to the west coast and to a few more places here on the east coast and even Puerto Rico again. Send me a message if you'd like me to share with your community (whether it be a community center, gathering, conference, college, or other institution) on this journey.

Healing, Justice and Joy,


Toi

Partnering with Plants zine

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Well hello again,

I've just finished up the first edition of my new Partnering with Plants zine. It's available at the Afro-Genderqueer online store (etsy) and at Harriet's Apothecary Spring Edition next week.


Here's a description:


Description: This resource guide centers black and brown ancestral healing histories and focuses on the ways our ancestors built relationships with and partnered w/ plants through various ceremonies, rituals and medicine making. There are plenty of reductionist “this plant for this illness” texts that we see so often so I have tried not to replicate those texts, although some articles on medicine making basics can be found within the guide. In addition to non-european healing histories you will find articles about creating sacred space and suggestions on how to begin/continue partnering with plants in various ways. There are essays on plants and their role in spiritual baths and baños/sahumados de vapor. After medicine making articles a final section about healing ourselves and each other is included. In this section you'll find articles that address internalized and historical trauma and remedies for stress, anxiety and depression.


** Limited amount of printed copies available at the Liberatory Medicine Making: Partnering with Plants for Inner Peace and Liberation knowledge-share and during Harriet's Apothecary Spring Edition 2016


Also, I've got the 2nd Edition of the Africa and African Diaspora Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia Special Edition.

Description: This volume was written to center black healing histories, simultaneously challenging the prevalent anti-blackness in "modern western herbalism" and "holistic healing" by directly talking about the colonization of Africa, traditional medicinal healing in Africa and its Diaspora, black Trans and queer healers healing and transforming our many different communities in various ways, and birthwork and midwifery in the black community. The volume includes articles on ceremony, ritual and medicine making and a final section about healing ourselves and each other that addresses internalized and historical trauma and contains remedies for stress, anxiety and depression and an elixir for the heart.

I'm hoping to get the Ceremony, Ritual and Medicine Making volume of the Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia completed late May. I'll be back in Puerto Rico again for a couple weeks and I can't wait to be in the mountains and on the beach and with the trees and plants that healed me not so long ago.


Liberatory Medicine, QTPOC Healing Histories, and Online Knowledge Shares

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May has been a busy month. I returned from a few weeks in Puerto Rico building with some amazing co-visionaries: Maria Reinat-Pumarejo (Colectivo Ile- Africa en mi piel, Africa en mi ser), a phenomenal organizer and Raul Quinones Rosado(C-Integral), a liberation psychologist. Both do anti-racist trainings with PISAB and also facilitate Latino Challenges Toward Racial Justice workshops. We talked about anti-racism, liberation, colonialism in PR, decolonization, psychology, organizing, health and healing, and so much more. So needed and nourishing! I also got to spend some time with brilliant herbalist, organizer, and author Maria Benedetti of Botanicultura(FINALLY!) We ate and sang and she discussed her new novel, Dolores y Milagros. I also went to Finca FlamboyanT, a queer land project in Sabana Grande. It is a sanctuary, artist retreat and home with so many fruit trees and medicinal plants. Speaking of retreat- I stayed with Michelle of the Nietas de Nonoin Patio Taller- another amazing artist retreat  space (and space for youth organizing and so much other amazing work) with a beautiful herb garden and fruit trees. Hers is located in Carolina. We shared such insightful conversation about community, organizing, art, herbs, you name it. I also hung out with some created family members who really helped me out when I was living in PR last year. Without them I would not have survived. En serio. I restocked my zines and added some new ones at La Chiwinha, a fair trade ecotienda in Rio Piedras. And last but not least, I revisited Casa Mucaro high in the mountains of Las Marias. This communal land houses musicians, puppeteers, and artists of many persuasions. I stayed there in 2014 and was able to really focus on the Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia and I did a talk for the Sistah Vegan Conference (organized by genius, diversity strategist, scholar and critical theorist Dr. Breeze Harper) "The Vegan Praxis of Black Lives Matter" entitled Transvisibility, Survival and Solidarity which was part of a joint talk “ALL Black Lives Matter: Exposing and Dismantling Transphobia and Heteronormativity in Mainstream Black ‘Conscious’.


Yes! My trip ...no...journey...was as inspiring as it sounds. I am so grateful for the amazing people in my life who are doing such tremendous work. My heart was so full. I was so nourished during my journey this month.

When I returned I began working on two new zines and I put together the Liberatory Medicine Collectionwhich contains the 4 second edition volumes of your decolonial herbal favorites: Queering Herbalism 1, Herbal Freedom School 1 and 2, and the new Partnering with Plants guide. Through this Sunday 5/29 the collection which has a $40 value is $25.

You can purchase here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/281840666/liberatory-medicine-collection

Partnering with Plants is also only $5 through Sunday 5/29. Use the code: PWP2016. <3
https://www.etsy.com/listing/290061139/partnering-with-plants


You can email me at queeringherbalism@gmail.com for sliding scale discounts on the collection or to barter/trade medicine, knowledge, techy skills, etc, etc...I really need help designing flyers, websites and online courses and on making audio and video courses more accessible to those with different abilities.

In June I will be at the Philly Trans Health Conference sharing on QTPOC healing historiesand your purchases will partially go toward making that happen.

So what's this about online knowledge shares? Well, after much ado and some folks asking to be my "students" I decided to finally put together a little something online to see how it goes. A couple prototypes if you will. I won't reveal too much yet but I will say that one accompanies the Partnering with Plants guide and will be 4-6 weeks long and is a mini-program of sorts, while the other online knowledge share is a longer course- a full 3 month program- that explores all the volumes of the Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia. Ok. Cats out the bag. Hold me accountable to rolling these out this summer. Send me some messages and emails letting me know of your interest so I know all this hard work is going to resonate with some of you out there.

Well- I guess that's "it" for now. Be on the lookout this month for the mini-program/online knowledge share. I'm working on the flyer as we "speak". The registration page will be up soon.

Healing and Justice,


Toi

The School of Liberatory Medicine's Online Summer Herbal Freedom School Program begins July 1st

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Hello! Happy Summer Solstice! 

In these first weeks of summer the School of Liberatory Medicine is opening it's doors.
In just a few weeks the Herbal Freedom School online program will begin.

Check out the Welcome video here.


The program will last 5 weeks from July 1, 2016- August 5, 2016.
Registration closes on July 8th and there are a limited number of seats.
The first 10 to sign up by July 1st will get $20 off (email queeringherbalism [at]gmail[dot]com for the discount code).
If you pre-paid for Queering Herbalism 2 (now the 4 volume Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia) email me for your discount code.

*Sliding scale is available, message me at queeringherbalism [at] gmail [dot] com to know more about this option. There are a limited amount of seats.
*If you don't have the means, please message me, there are a limited number of seats available to those who don't have the funds to participate.

Register at: https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Qhy

Register for Lesson 1 only at: https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9QXJ Lesson 1 begins July 8th.

See you on your first day of Herbal Freedom School!



Support the Herbal Freedom School Program

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     Support the Herbal Freedom School Program


Help co-create an anti-racist, decolonial space where we can share our histories and ancestral knowledge while centering indigenous, black, brown, queer, two-spirit, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming communities.



Contribute monthly and you'll
help us to create:

- More video (class videos, interviews, and vlogs)
- Podcasts
- Live and pre-recorded knowledge shares  
- Programming on a more navigable platform
- Zines using material discussed in the program

In return, you'll get access to:

- Private posts about what's happening behind the scenes and upcoming knowledge shares,
- Video clips of interviews and exercises from the program
- Monthly e-zines 
- Access to the zine and video library and

- Seats in the Herbal Freedom School program


Find out more about the School:



A Note on "learning" at the Herbal Freedom School

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People from so many different backgrounds and awareness of healing knowledge come to the Herbal Freedom School and it can be a challenge to provide a space that engages everyone and has material that resonates with every single person 100% of the time. In fact, it's not possible. I stressed a lot about this in the Summer Session. I wanted this space to be everything for everyone all the time! After all, people paid to have this! I quickly found out how implausible (or maybe just misguided) this kind of thinking was. In a conversation with a fellow queer brown person and educator doing healing work I reflected on the School of Liberation Healing and Medicine (née School of Liberatory Medicine- lulz) and the Herbal Freedom School and what exactly it is we're trying to do here. Largely, because my friend brought up that some students were lamenting over the fact that there wasn't more medicine making.

At the Herbal Freedom School people are on a journey and there's a specific process or path. People really have to come to terms with the first few lessons before we get to the medicine making. I know many are always so keen to just begin making medicine and work with the physiological healing aspects but there's so much to unpack and unlearn- especially the ways we relate to our medicine, the energy we unconsciously put into our medicine, and our disconnect from our ancestral healing histories, medicine, knowledge and ways of being. But, people are so quick to want to know how to make a tincture or a salve, etc. I get it. They want something practical for right now. Though, that's not what the School of Liberation Healing and Medicine is about. Medicine making is a part later in our 12 week journey. (Or 6-week if you join during the 2nd part of the session.) Though you'll find aspects of it interweaved throughout because from the beginning we are partnering with plants by sitting and dreaming with them. There are many workshops out there with amazing folks and many books as well where folks can learn how to make oils, tinctures, salves and remedies. People have plenty of access to that information - and many times for free.

In the Herbal Freedom School we set a foundation defining terms like liberation, health and healing and liberatory medicine for ourselves and we sit with what anti-racist, decolonial healing looks like. We discuss the impact of colonization on our healing histories and medicine and these are the first steps in the journey of connecting back to our ancestors and our own medicine. Then we are able to move on to achieving a more in depth understanding of medicine and how the ceremony and rituals and spirituality of our ancestors is inseparable from the terms "medicine" and "healing". In the final part of our journey we are ready to strategize about our healing which brings us full circle to the first lesson in which participants are asked what they need to feel liberated, what they need to release in their lives and to begin healing.

It's understandable that different parts of the journey speak more loudly to different folks. We are all at different places on our path. The point is- in the Herbal Freedom School program there is a method and the journey that we take is not linear. It may seem so on the surface, but folks can quickly determine for themselves that it's not.

Folks can take this program over and over and it can be different every time because they are peeling back layer after layer and different parts resonate and they connect differently with the material each time. Also, the material is influenced and shaped by those in the program- the interactions and conversation in the discussion boards and the live online class sessions.
I tell folks in the beginning- this program is what you make of it. You can go really deep with it or you can go with the motions and put little effort in, only doing the minimal. While I'm somewhat a guide on the journey, I don't hold your hand or smack it with a ruler like some belligerent teacher if you don't "do the work." Only you can be the captain on the journey. It's your choice to connect or not and there's no shaming or guilt around what you are able to do. Rest assured- something will resonate if you come into the program with an openness, few expectations, and the will to connect with the medicine of our legacies.

The Winter Session will begin January 13th and we're taking applications through November 15th to be in the program. Once accepted enroll by November 28th. Now, this is Part 2 of the program and you can join in January even if you haven't been part of the Fall Session (Part 1). This is an experiment so we'll see how this goes. (See above discussion for why!)

You can enroll for Part 1 after November 21st and you'll have access to the material such as video and audio, readings, etc. but there won't be any live components or feedback on your reflections. It'll be self-paced and the online material will only be available through 12/26/16.
Apply and enroll early folks because there are a very limited number of seats.

Apply Here for Winter Session 2017: https://goo.gl/forms/9HMcdLAkmyhE9qoX2




Join the Herbal Freedom School Fall Session

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Hello folks!

Herbal Freedom School Fall Session will be offered again from November 29th- December 29th.
There's no application necessary for this session and it's self-paced through the last week of December with on-going enrollment.

Were you in the program for the very first Summer Session? You're invited to continue deepening on your liberatory medicine journey by taking the Fall Session for 50% off. Those who've been in the program before will see more exercises, new readings, and a few new videos.
Email herbalfreedomschool@gmail.com for details.

Interested in one of the limited partial scholarships available? Email for info.
Register by 11/30 and get $15 off. Email for code.
Register soon, there are only 15 seats available.

Register here:
https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9QXJ

Support my journey to study ancestral medicine of the Afro-Caribbean/ QTPOC Land Project

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Hello Fam! Hello communities!


Exciting news. I’m going to be studying ancestral medicine of the Afro-Caribbean and helping with a QTPOC land project in Puerto Rico from January –March 2017. While there I’ll continue to develop and design the School of Liberation Healing and Medicine and its Herbal Freedom School and Queering Herbalism/Queering Healing programs. In hopes of your support, until January 1st I will be selling 3 discounted collections of writings and compilations.


Warrior Healer Collection- (3 books/zines) Queering Herbalism 3rd edition, Herbal Freedom School volumes 1 and 2 (2nd edition) - $20  (save $10)


Liberatory Medicine Collection- (5 books) QH, HFS 1&2, Partnering with Plants, Liberatory Medicine Making/Liberatory Sustainability $35  (save $15)


Ultimate Liberation Healing collection- (7 books) QH, Queering Herbalism Encyclopedia Special Editions (Africa and African Diasporic edition, Women* Healers Feminine Healing Energy and Resistance), PWP, HFS 1&2, Liberatory Sustainability $65  (save $40)



Get them for yourself, gift them to others and stock up before January 1st.

And if you’ve already got these books,  you can still support by:

1) being a monthly sustainer of this work through Patreon at patreon.com/liberationhealing

OR

2) Donating through Paypal to the email queeringherbalism [at] gmail.com or at Square Cash.  


With your support I will be able to continue study and collaboration with elder and herbalist María Benedetti and other amazing folks doing healing work and provide support throughout my stay at the QTPOC land project Finca Flamboyánt.



Will you help me further this ancestral vision?



Liberation, Healing and Joy,

Toi
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