Mills College Black History Month 2023, The Office of Spiritual & Religious Life, and CasaTiaLuna@Mills present . . .

“Roots of Faith:" An Offering of Sacred Song and Movement. The Living Links Between African and African American Spiritual Traditions, featuring Awon Ohun Omnira (Voices of Freedom), of Oakland’s Omnira Institute.

Sat Feb 11: 9:30am Check-In & Refreshments | 10am Program Start

Registration Required: https://casatialuna.eventbrite.com

Join Awon Ohun Omnira (Voices of Freedom) for this two-part special circle/ceremonia of ancestral reverence. Led by AOO musical/artistic director Tobaji Stewart, the 9-member crew will sing “Oro Egun,” ancient chants for the ancestors drawn from the Yoruba tradition of Africa/Cuba that is accompanied by sacred Bata drums. Oro Egun will be followed by a demonstration of the Ring Shout, an African American cultural expression that was common throughout the South until the 1950s. Awon Ohun Omnira’s presentation of the Ring Shout is modeled after the McIntosh County Shouters, who currently reside near Savannah, Ga., and who have upheld the cultural/spiritual practice continually since the 1800s.

Our Roots of Faith event is the first of 3 circles in the series produced by Casa Tia Luna, Roots of Resilience: Ensuring Strong Health and Spiritual Nourishment in a Rapidly Changing Climate and Society.

Roots of Resilience: Ensuring Strong Health and Spiritual Nourishment in a Rapidly Changing Climate and Society: African Americans, Afro-Indigenous, Indigenous peoples -- all those who suffered enslavement, removal, genocide and land loss at the hands of european colonization on Turtle Island (aka the Americas) survived because of their strong faith and powerful healing tradition. We celebrate this survival, and share medicinal healing practices in the past, present and what we need in the future to continue to THRIVE and SURVIVE in a rapidly changing climate and society. Three Saturdays in the month of February, March and April we will present informative, engaging and interactive workshops that explore this topic and various tools for:

navigating and thriving in our holistic health (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual)
ancestor communication and acknowledgement
grounding/balancing our connection with Mother Earth, the elements and other sentient beings and more will be highlighted.

This is a gathering of family. Art, Movement, Dance, Song, Altar building, and storytelling will be the web we weave like Anansi the Spider and SpiderWoman to secure our surviv-ability and legacy for future generations. This series is hosted by:

Michele Elizabeth Lee, Wadastick Publishing

Author of Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing

Artist, Educator, Curator, Historian

Mama Davina D. Estrella Ramey

Founder Water and Honey Community Well and Incense Gurl

Doula, Herbalist, Traditional artist and performer, Counselor, Educator

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Registration: Please Note, this circle will be a hybrid circle with a limited number of in-person seats along with Zoom participation as well. Please indicate your choice during registration. Please see registration page for further details: https://casatialuna.eventbrite.com

For Mills College at Northeastern University Community: Thanks to cosponsorship by Mills College at Northeastern University, Mills Community Tickets are available for free IF YOU REGISTER WITH YOUR CURRENT NORTHEASTERN EMAIL ADDRESS to receive your zoom link.

For our off-campus community: This circle featuring Maestra Michele Elizabeth Lee is offered via donation-based registration. Please see registration page for further details, including suggested donation and barter/trade/trueque options.

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CasaTiaLuna@Mills is a BIPOC centered student organization dedicated to exploring in non-appropriative ways the many forms of non-western ancestral knowledge about healing practices, or medicina, from our own traditions, families, and ancestry. Together, we will co-create spaces for knowledge-sharing circles with teachers/maestras from the broader BIPOC community where we can teach, learn, discuss and practice various wellness lifeways that are a part of our lineages and cultures/culturas. We hope to encourage each other in our personal journeys in such areas as herbal medicine.

Casa Tía Luna (CTL) is an Indigenous ancestral healing space founded by Indigenous women in 2020 for where medicine carriers/ practitioners are invited to make their offerings available for our BIPOC communities here in the Bay Area. If you are interested in workshops or trainings for your organization or community, or if you have any questions about Casa Tia Luna, please contact us at tialuna415@gmail.com.

Black History Month 365 happens throughout the year as a part of Mills College Heritage Programming, with a special focus in February on Black History Month. BHM23 is organized by the planning committee of students, faculty and staff, headed by the Black Action Forum (BAF). Several campus organizations join BAF in developing our programming, including the Black Students Collective (BSC); Black MBA Students Association; CasaTiaLuna@Mills; the Ethnic Studies Program in the Department of Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies; the Black Faculty and Staff Association; Alumnae of Color; the Office of Spiritual & Religious Life, and The School of Education.

Mills College at Northeastern University currently occupies unceded Ohlone Territory on the village site of Huichin. For learn more about Huichin and restorative actions including paying shuumi (gift) to those whose land we occupy, please visit https://SogoreaTe-landtrust.org.

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