CASA ATABEX ACHE

Reclaiming Herstory: Open House Nights @ Casa

Nov 022011

We are personally inviting you to a very special series of Monday nights in November at Casa Atabex Ache, “Reclaiming Herstory: Open House Nights @ Casa.” These nights are an introduction to Casa and our self-healing model bridging spirituality and social justice. This is an invitation to meet the new leadership & Womyn of Color Healing Arts Collective, and also how you can be involved in all the exciting things going on.

Questions such as:

· Why does Casa Atabex Ache exist?

· What is the work we do?

· Why are we only a space for womyn of color?

Will be addressed at these gatherings. In the four nights that we will share together, we will be explaining what Casa Atabex Ache is about. We will share our breakdown of power & oppression as it affects us and our communities, the political stand we take on various issues as well as the necessity for womyn of color to have political unity and the options you have to be involved in our work. For those of you who have heard about Casa and want to know more about the work we do, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the model we operate with, the services we provide to organizations, schools and individuals. This is also a chance for all our wonderful current membership to gain further insight into our work and how their skills and talents contribute and enhance the space. We will be sharing how our self-healing model takes into account mental health, domestic violence, substance abuse, sexual assault, and post traumatic stress. Casa’s signature healing circle and emotional release work as the cornerstone for facing these traumas will be shared. Our passion for self-empowerment, public health, health and wellness as well as an overview of the spiritual component of our work will be explained. And of course, this is a great time for womyn interested in joining our membership to learn about the benefits and perks of working with our space. Feel free to reach out with questions, comments and concerns.

Dates & Time: November 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th, 6:30 – 8:30pm

Location: Casa Atabex Ache – The House of Womyn’s Power
471 East 140th Street, Garden Level
Bronx, NY 10454

Open Invite:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/71322831/Reclaiming-Herstory

November Healing Circle

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Oct 172011

Fall Inipi Sweat Lodge – Saturday, October 8

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Oct 042011

Casa invites you our FALL Inipi “Sweat Lodge” – as we Walk with Spirit!

Goal

Creating an intergenerational people of color sweat lodge for womyn & gender non conforming people of color in casa’s community. To support you in connecting to your higher purpose, build your spirit and tap into your third eye. This sweat lodge will be a blessing, joy and powerful.

LOGISTICS & DATES

Beverly Little Thunder, who is a fierce indigenous Lakota Two Spirit Elder, & Lushanya Echeverria will pour water for this sweat lodge for Casa. It is a treat and pleasure to have this wisdom, energy, humor & fire of this elder that has been a sundancer for over 35 years and pipe carrier. Her daughter Lushanya Echeverria has been a water pourer for the past 10 years and more.

October 8th, 2011 in New Jersey by the highlands natural pool .

180 Snake Den Road

Ringwood NJ 07456

INTENTION

Sweat lodge is for womyn and gender non-conforming people of color only. Start thinking about your intent; what do you need to connect to the earth and womyn/ gender non-conforming people all over the world so they can feel your energy? Think about what you’re committed to. What you care most about and what you need to stay grounded to it during the Fall? What do you want to let go of that is standing in your way?

WHAT TO BRING

The lodge is $26. Includes $10 for the elder travel/time and a $16 requested donation for supplies – for the wood, material, tobacco and other lodge expense. Some give more some less. No one is ever for excluded for $.

Please arrive by 9-10am for the lodge to start. Bring a pillow to sit on cause rocks are coming up. Bring water, fruit & vegetables, food to share as a potluck. Please bring enough food to share with everyone. If you are going in the lodge bring a towel, chancletas, and a change of loose fitting clothes/ wrapper/ bathing suit/ light covering that you will be wearing in the lodge, you can also go in topless & wrap yourself in cloth/wrapper to take off inside Inipi .

For using the land, they ask that people donate labor into the land, such as moving wood, organizing prayer ties, moving blankets, putting blankets on and off the Inipi, etc.

If people want to give a present or donation to Beverly Littlethunder and/ or Lushanya. please put it in a red cloth with tobacco and the offering.

INFO ON INPI SWEAT LODGES

Inipi is the sacred circle honoring the Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Ether with Prayer, Song and Drum. We will have a traditional indigenous Inipi indigenous ceremony commonly called “sweat lodge”. The Inipi is used for purification and cleaning. It is a ceremony of prayer and healing in community practiced for thousands of years. A Inipi reconnects us to the natural rhythms of mother earth & return to the womb. While in the womb we will work our possibilities for the season ask for what we need. We emerge from the sweat lodge pure in mind, body, spirit: reborn

Indigenous peoples celebrate in ceremonies that honors our great ancestor, Atabex (Mother Earth) & Takahsala (Grandfather Sun) as way of offering prayer and gratitude.

MEETING PLACE

We can leave from casa to car pool up to new jersey. Or contact Casa for the physical address

RSVP To reserve your space. Lodge will fit 25 people max

Tel: 718-585-5540

Email: fuerzagoddess@aol.com, carmenatcasa@gmail.com, or toyinatcasa@aol.com

If you have never been a Inipi ceremony before please let us know.

Reflections from the First Healing Circle…I Am Not A Victim, I Am FREE!

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Oct 042011

The smell of agua florida will hit you the minute you walk onto 140th St. It is a sure sign that a healing circle is happening at Casa. There will be a wom(y)n dressed in white throwing water away on the sidewalk, engulfed in the smoke of the sage seeping through the communities windows gently nudging them to wake up and breathe in the fall wind. As you get closer, you can hear the drums pounding the walls of the building inviting everyone to dance in celebration because we are alive. Inside Casa, a community member is cooking up a storm, reminding us that we are hungry: hungry for justice, hungry to forgive, and hungry to heal so we can accept the powerful wom(yn) we are in spite of our past.

Today, I come to let go of fear, to not be afraid, to start over, to stop running, and to forgive myself. I want to let go of letting go, of letting go of abandonment, of fear, and of insecurites.

Tears, screaming voices once lossed, punching pillows, imagining, reclaiming untold stories, sacred bodies, repairing war zones. White fabric dancing, laughter, safe touch, hugs, community and affirmations.

In front of mirrors we are scared to see our new selves. To look into eyes once filled with judgement and blurred perceptions of ourselves. But with holding hands and our breathe we share…

1. What I have to say is worth being heard and I shouldn’t be afraid to say it.

2. You know who you are and who you want to be. That person is beautiful!

3. It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to stay and I don’t have to run.

4. I am good enough and I am loved.

5. I did the best I could.

6. I am successful no matter the outcome.

7. I am not going to be held down.

8. I am not a victim and I am free!

Thank you!

On Sat, Oct 1st 2011, Casa organized its first Fall Healing Circle for the year 2011. We are excited to announce that since our inception in the South Bronx in 1998, we have provided over 1000 community and personal healing circles in NYC and the work is needed more now than ever before. We thank you all for supporting our mission and continuing to do the work in your organizations, families, movements and in your personal lives.

As a result Casa is announcing its new training team this year (Monique De La Oz, Monique Kiera, and Carmen Mojica) and is opening its training in healing circles to young and adult women of color. To get more information please contact casaatabexache@aol.com or call 718-585-5540.

It’s not to late to join the energy of the fall as it has only been with us for 2 weeks. We invite you to build your spirit and ancestral altars, light a candle and breathe because you are exactly where you need to be and this too shall pass.

SAVE THE DATE for UPCOMING CIRCLES every first Saturday of the month. Register Today!

FALL

Nov 5th

Dec 3st

WINTER

Jan 7th

Feb 4th

March 3rd

Transitions are hard and this is the season of change and transformation whether we are ready or not! Come to the healing circle to TO LET GO of what you no longer need, let go of Fear and the past that no longer serves you?

Fall prayer: Casa acknowledges our ancestors who have supported our divine and higher purpose. We walk with them this fall so that women, children and families can tap into their royalty. Our efforts will not go unseen and we will be guided by the winds of change into spiritual awakening. We are one with the universe and as such we have faith that will connect to our higher power and continue to do the goddesses work.

Affirmation: I know I am never alone for Spirit is always in and around me wherever I am, I know that everything I experience in life is for my highest good, I open my heart wide to receive the unconditional love of Spirit, I allow the unconditional love of Spirit to flow through me in every situation, My love of myself grows stronger, I find wisdom from my past and healing in my present, I trust my inner wisdom to guide me perfectly on my journey through life, I love my life and I love myself exactly as I am, I lovingly use my intuition for my highest good The path before me is always lit by the bright light of my intuition I trust my intuition and become more wise with every passing day, I deeply, completely and lovingly accept myself exactly as I am I allow Spirit to be a co-pilot in my life, I am in tune with my true purpose, passion, and path in life I am divinely protected and guided.

More Info on Body Ecology

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Sep 192011

Body Ecology:: Creativity and Transformation Residency

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Sep 192011

About the Residency

Body Ecology:: Creativity and Transformation Residency is a cultural arts direct action intensive for artists, performers, organizers and educators who are ready to use cultural arts for direct action in their communities. Participants will engage reproductive justice, environmental justice and spiritual activism, cultural organizing, dance, theatre performance and creative writing as tools for activism and personal transformation. The residency features public performances at Casa Atabex Ache and the Harriet Tubman Memorial statue in Harlem. The residency concludes with a benefit performance supporting Casa Atabex Ache and Project Zanzibar (an international cultural arts residency organized by Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative). The course is offered on a sliding scale rate of 20-40 dollar per session with discounts for those who purchase the entire course at one time.

Biography

Lead Facilitator: Hailing from Houston, TX, Ebony Noelle Golden is a cultural worker, conceptual performance artist, Cave Canem Fellow and creative director of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC. Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative is a cultural arts direct action group that inspires, enlivens and incites justice and transformation of individuals and communities through creativity, cultural arts and radical expressiveness. As creative director, Ebony leads and supports progressive change and artistic projects in Texas, the southeast, and east coast, primarily. Her work spans creative, academic and community organizing spheres and is rooted in a transformative praxis she developed called Cultural Arts Direct Action.

A 2009 Pushcart Poetry Prize nominee, Ebony has taught, published and performed widely. Her work has been supported by a variety of organizations including: New York University, Alternate Roots, We Shall Overcome Fund, Fund for Southern Communities, Soul Mountain Poetry Center, The Highlander Center for Research and Education, Cave Canem Foundation, North Carolina Humanities Council, State of the Nation and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Ebony’s current bodies of creative writing and conceptual performance work include: ”speculation”/ radical acts for reproductive justice and “again, the watercarriers.” Ebony earned degrees from New York University (M.A.-Performance Studies), American University (M.F.A.-Poetry) and Texas A & M University (B.A.-English/Poetry). Please request a CV/artist resume for further credentials and information by visiting bettysdaughterarts.com.

Assistant Facilitator: Consistently redefining what it means to be a ‘Jersey Girl,’ director, educator, performer and writer Kelly Thomas was born and raised in the Garden State. A New York City resident for the past 5 years, Kelly has studied directing and acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is currently completing her Bachelor’s degree in Educational Theatre at NYU’s Steinhardt School with a minor in Africana Studies. As a citizen*artist and student of the global classroom, Kelly’s studies in theatre for liberation, the Black Atlantic, education policy, feminist theory, holistic health and hip-hop have taken her around the US and across the continents to the most nontraditional of settings.

About Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaobrative, LLC

Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative, LLC is a cultural arts direct action group that inspires, enlivens, and incites justice and transformation of individuals and communities through creativity, cultural arts and radical expressiveness.

Our Vision

Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative envisions and works for a world where cultural and artistic practice envelops and sustains wellness and justice movements for individuals and communities.

Link to online payment-

http://bodyecology.eventbrite.com/?ref=etckt

Fall Greetings & Happenings @ Casa!

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Sep 192011

This Fall, Casa invites you to build your spirit and ancestral altars, light a candle and breathe because you are exactly where you need to be and this too shall pass.

Casa acknowledges our ancestors who have supported our divine and higher purpose. We walk with them this fall so that women, children and families can tap into their royalty. Our efforts will not go unseen and we will be guided by the winds of change into spiritual awakening. We are one with the universe and as such we have faith that will connect to our higher
power and continue to do the goddesses work.

To celebrate the fall season, we are kicking off with some events that will ground us in spirit powerfully. Check back as we are still revamping our website.

Click on the flyers below for more information: