work with me

areas of knowledge

  • A closup of calendula tea in a brown clay mug. the background is the light green of my Grinch onesie. :)

    Black Wellness Traditions

    Black folks have always known how to work with the Earth for our optimal health, and how plants and nutrition can support us through our ailments, issues, and trauma. My focus is on whole-being wellness, rooted in tradition, nutrition, and Spirit. Rooted in ancestral and Diasporic ways of knowing.

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  • a closeup of tarot cards with nature imagery. The High Priestess, a whale below the moon, two hummingbirds as The Lovers, and 8 crystal shards as the 8 of Wands. a smudge fan sits above the cards. the background is a shiny blue, flowing like water

    Cooperative Economics

    “If you wanna go fast go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.” Our ancestors never worked alone. why should we? The work of starting a business can seem like too much, but with the support of fellows cooperators, we can create better for ourselves. A cooperative ethic, rooted in Black cooperative values and principles, relationship-building and collective vision, will move us forward.

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  • a gaggle of chickens, gathering around a red feeder. They are enjoying breakfast in the sunshine.

    Learning on (Urban) Land

    Rooting in Black land traditions of the Motherland and the Old South, we can recreate abundance in our communities. Growing heirloom African and Afro-Atlantic foods, rematriating native plants, small-scale and low-input gardening are all the ways of our ancestors. Let’s re-engage with the traditions of our people, together.

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Interested in working with me? Click below to schedule a conversation, request consult or a workshop, or talk about booking me for an event. Questions can also be asked through our chokma! contact page. Check back for upcoming events and workshops!

PREVIOUS WORKSHOP:
Black Kitchen Magic

We’ll dive into the foods that feed our ancestors and spirits. Let’s talk about the recipes that nourish our bodies, and the relationships we have built with our plant relatives over centuries. We will learn about plant medicines passed down through our collective lineages, on this continent as well as in the Motherland. We will speak of the ways these plants, edible and otherwise, offer direct connection to our histories and cultures.

Featured at 2022 Black Urban Growers Conference, in Atlanta, GA. Oct 14-16.

For tickets, go to 2022 Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners National Conference Tickets

We will share the different dishes, dressings and workings we can use in these times to strengthen our peoples, clear blockages, and open roads for our collective success.

Plants We will Share About:

  • An Overview of Herbalism Concepts of West and Central Africa

  • Hoodoo Hxstory + Principles

  • Black Kitchen Juju

  • Virtual Plant Walk

Previous WORKSHOP:
Hoodoo Herbalism

Learn about the hxstory of herbalism in the African diaspora, and how it has evolved amongst our peoples for thousands of years. Learn about the herbs and roots of Hoodoo, the pharmacology of rootwork, and the wisdom our ancestors don been had. Discuss philosophies, methods and rituals that inform our understanding of plants, roots, and the spirits of the Land.

4 Saturdays for 4 hours each

Cost: $44.44

Class hosted in Los Angeles, CA. Address provided upon registration

Hybrid Class; Zoom available

Gain a greater understanding of our history, a stronger respect for our power, and a solid foundation of our knowledge.

Topics of Conversation/Points of Learning:

  • What is Herbalism?

  • Overview: Hxstory of African Herbalism

  • Philosophies of African Herbalism

  • Methods of Extraction/Ingestion

  • Ritual Considerations

  • Materia Medica

  • Cautions and Context

credentials

i have been raised part of a long line of black hoodoo ladies who would never call themselves such; churchgoing grannies who keep petitions in their pockets and prayers on their lips. Ladies who knew how to mix and match kitchen cupboard remedies, who kept gardens even when there was no dirt to be seen. who bent the flow of Nature through sheer force of will and blessings. so first I give thanks to God, and to my cigarette smoking, gun-toting grannies, Earlene Hamilton, Daisy Lee Brown, and Lois Bennet, among many.

i also give thanks for 10 years of intensive study and 5 years dedicated experience providing holistic health care to Black and Brown communities across urban and rural environments. i am a former member (and forever friend) to the DC Street Medics, and a founding former member of the Baltimore Street Medic Collective. i have studied and partnered with illustrious herbalists and healers of many traditions, as well as seasoned allopathic medical providers, including practicing doctors, registered nurses, EMTs and WIlderness First Responders. in addition to study, we have been in deep community with Black and Indigenous family across Turtle Island, loving, learning and working within community. we are answering the call that so many fellow workers have heard, to open wider towards community in service of personal calling, and in service of our collective liberation. since 2017 we have offered community health trainings and clinic spaces on partnership with organizations including Mutual Aid DIsaster Relief (MADR), Indigenous 215, the Black Banjo Reclamation Project, and the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI). we continue to work in service of our communities in many ways, including offering free health care and protest safety support regularly and especially during times of civil unrest.


in addition to this heart work, i have spent the last decade as a cooperative business developer, helping Black, Indigenous, Latinx folks and others create successful businesses that put our people first. as a business developer with the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), and with the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED), i have supported our people in gaining the education, skills and resources necessary to build collective solutions to the issues in our communities´. i have supported incredible liberation projects like Black and Brown Workers Cooperative, Catatumbo Cooperative Farm, CLEAN Car Wash Worker Cooperative, and many others. The hard work of building a better world can only be done by us, and we need tools, knowledge, and the confidence that our people´s wisdom is valid and necessary. my business development perspective is rooted in a refusal to separate the mind from the soul, the economic from the Earth-based. economy as a word means ¨management of home¨. it does not mean capitalism. it means managing our Earthly home, our personal homes, and our body-as-home. how do we best use our resources? let´s learn together.

i offer assistance in a number of areas, including:

  • Business Plan Creation

  • Determining Feasibility

  • Steps to Startup

  • Business Ethics: The Triple Bottom Line

  • Cooperatives and Multiownership

  • Organizational Retreats

  • Ethics and Inclusivity

  • Accounting Basics; How to Read a Bank Statement

  • Templates and Walkthroughs, Facilitation and Training

  • Tailored Workshops and Connections

  • and more!

don´t know what a cooperative is? learn more below.

i am with Mama Earth. i sit with the plants, with the waters, with the sunlight, with my ancestors, with myself. i learn from cycles, from history, from love. i’ve read a couple books, and i’ve been guided by even more spirits. i have too many teachers to ever hope to name.

yakoke egbe, my chosen family. yakoke, thank you to my mentors and homies, and everyone who has blessed me. thank you to my Mother, without whom I would not draw breath. thank you to her Mothers, who held me in their wombs before my spirit even knew.

please see our policies and disclaimers before booking a service.
thank you boo!