Meet the Authors
KENDRA LARA
Kendra is a proud first-generation Black Dominican woman, a mother, and an artist. Born in the Bronx to a working-class, immigrant mother, Kendra’s family relocated to Jamaica Plain and has since called it home.
Before becoming the first person of color to represent District Six on the Boston City Council, Kendra was the Director of Radical Philanthropy at the historic Boston-based organization Resist. Founded by world-renowned activist Noam Chomsky just over 50 years ago, Resist grew — with Lara at the helm — into a leading force for racial and economic justice. Anchored by a socialist vision and a commitment to bring the margins to the center, Kendra uses her head, heart, and hands to push communities and local governments to use their imaginations and the resources at hand to expand beyond the realms of possibility towards liberation.
sól gonzalez-jatar
Sól, of solstice healing, is a nonbinary ethnically-mixed femme earthbody remembering the sensuous experience of being alive, purposeful, and made of land and stars.
They are a Venezuelan-American Certified Healing, Justice and Liberation and Executive Leadership coach, culture worker, transformative justice practitioner, generative systems organizational consultant, strategic planning process facilitator, community astrologer, and lifelong grief and love apprentice. They identify as a culture scientist and believe it is imperative to be iterating with the cultural and systemic ways of being we are longing for in the here and now, with ourselves and our relationships.
Sól contributes their liberatory coaching and astrology practice to individuals and collectives devoting their everyday lives towards their highest possibilities, in the service of collective liberation. They support people in turning towards a sense of embodied liberation, Self-leadership, resourcefulness, interdependence, intergenerational wisdom, and creative power.
Kalia Lydgate
Kalia Lydgate is a strategist and cultural creative building new models that make the old obsolete. Her work focuses on common ground solutions at unlikely intersections. Currently, Kalia is working on projects that weave together technologists, mystics and artists.
Following the 2016 election, Kalia co-founded and led the #LoveArmy, a national pro-democracy campaign to counteract hatred and division in the U.S. by mobilizing its 160,000 members to take action and build values-based communities. Previously, Kalia supported a Hawaii-based nonprofit, the Olohana Foundation, working on climate adaptation and agroforestry projects rooted in indigenous knowledge systems. Kalia began her career in the green jobs movement, initially passing first-in-the-nation green jobs legislation and later co-leading a green jobs program in New Bedford, MA. Kalia is immersed in regenerative land practices, alternative economies, and bioregional organizing in her rural community. She is a mother, kitchen herbalist, printmaker, spoken word artist and dancer.
Nayahra Resende
Nayahra (they/them) is a bodyworker, energy worker, and space holder currently based out of Boston (Massachusett, Wampanoag lands). Their practice is rooted in love and in our personal and collective liberation. They believe that as we find our way back to our bodies, releasing stuck energy, grief, and trauma, we are more resourced and grounded to offer our particular gifts to each other, the Earth, and to our interconnected movements for liberation. Nayahra is licensed as a Massage Therapist and has been trained as a meditation teacher, as a Restorative Justice practitioner, and as an educator in Boston Public Schools.
Dago Driggs
Dago Driggs is a community organizer, solarpunk futurist, and sacred pleasure activist. A convener of sparkly people, they move fluidly between worlds curating spaces of embodied connection. Dago is a perennial student of the Western Esoteric Tradition, always in pursuit of self-mastery and Soul Liberty.
With roots in Rhode Island and Cuba, Dago lives in rural Western Mass. with a magical family: homesteading, loving, and reimagining ways of being in reciprocal relationship with the living world. A "freshwater fish" by nature, Dago stewards the lands and waters of the Pukcommeagon watershed. Whether wild foraging, facilitating, composting, or celebrating, Dago is always in motion—tending soil, spirit, and the wilder edges of cultural regeneration.
ARIEL SAZBO
Ariel is a cosmic midwife of the soul. She holds and guides you over thresholds as you birth new ways of being in yourself and the world. She works at the intersections of sensual somatics, womb-work, sacred sexuality and plant medicine to de-armor physical, emotional, and energetic spaces within yourself so you can live a life in love.
Formally trained as a sexological bodyworker, somatic sex educator, and psychedelic therapist - Ariel weaves together spiritual wisdom and Western approaches, drawing from plant consciousness and trauma-informed nervous system work.
Ariel is obsessed with the art of relational intimacy and loves supporting individuals and couples in cultivating the skills and capacities necessary for experiencing ecstatic connection. She values pleasure and expanded states of consciousness as potent medicine with transformative potential.
Ariel currently offers 1:1 & couples sessions, as well as retreats, workshops, & ceremonies in Santa Monica, California and facilitates plant medicine retreats in Peru. Check out Divine Union for Lovers
GibrAn Rivera
Gibrán Rivera is an internationally renowned Master Facilitator. He is a teacher, guide and coach who works to develop self-sovereignty within individuals so that they can activate powerful leadership networks.
Gibrán helps us build the skills we need in these times defined by VUCA. Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. He is the originator of the Evolutionary Leadership Workshop. Host of the Better Men Project. And other programs that support our growth, transformation and collaborative alignment. His work brings close attention to dynamics of power, equity, and inclusion. He has designed and facilitated some of the most prestigious fellowships in the country. And he specializes in the transformational offsite retreat.
The best place to interact with Gibrán’s work is through Future Ancestors, his Substack Newsletter.
ZUHAIR NASH
Zuhair Nash (he/him) is a marriage officiant and aspiring writer originally from New York City. He currently resides in Miami, Florida.
ERIN COATES-CONNOR
Erin is sex-positive nature lover, plant enthusiast, and dog mama. Her passion is fostering sexually liberated cultures. She brings the rigor of a scientist, experimenting and finding methods that work for people to find safety and power in their intimate experiences. Aspiring to be your friendly neighborhood polyamory coach, Erin brings joy, patience, care, and queer magic
RAHI CHUN
Rahi combines his training and experience as a CA state-certified Somatic Sex Educator/Sexological Bodyworker, Certified TRE Provider, NeuroAffective Touch Practitioner, Life Coach with an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology, with certifications in Family Constellations Therapy, DeArmouring Arts, Chi Nei Tsang & Karsai Nei Tsang, and STREAM (Scar Tissue Remediation and Management) in his facilitation of Somatic Sexual Wholeness.
His expertise in Genital Dearmouring - releasing unintegrated emotions and past traumatic experiences from the tissues and fascia of the genitalia leading to discomfort, pain and numbness - draws upon Taoist, Tantric, Psychosomatic and Pleasure disciplines.
He loves holding space for couples seeking to deepen intimacy and connection via the Divine Union For Lovers online course and in-person retreats, trainings and VIP experiences.
KAY ZEISS
kay zeiss is a queer & nonbinary somatic therapist. They are from Chicagoland & enjoy storytelling through the lens of ecology & ancestry. When kay isn't writing, they can be found singing to waterways, climbing trees, cooking with friends, dancing, or napping in a hammock with their cats Frenchy & Gramps. kay’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Salamander, Peculiar Journal, Lavender Review & Broken Spells Zine. They received their MFA in poetry at UNC in Greensboro & currently live in Durham, NC.
MawuLisa Thomas-Adeyemo
MawuLisa flows through life as a southern born, community based trauma healing midwife, somatic bodyworker, song weaver, lover of nature & Spirit and lifelong student of the Healing Arts. Her practice is inspired by the healing & embodiment technologies of generative somatics, Strozzi Institute, Ayurveda, Earth-based Wisdom Traditions, the Divine Feminine and the healing gifts generously bestowed to her by her Ancestors. MawuLisa is devoted to healing the embodied impacts of capitalism, racialized trauma, gender oppression & sexual violence while cultivating centered presence and erotic vitality for herself and other liberation warriors and politicized healers. She is an active lead teacher, bodyworker and embodiment trainer with BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity) and currently finds passion & pleasure in her ongoing study & practice of somatic healing, mentoring & developing other somatic practitioners, stewarding land, redistributing stolen wealth, singing in choirs, facilitating grief rituals, decolonizing Love, and bringing heaven to earth as an Orisha Diviner & Priestess.
Danielle coates-connor
Vision in times of crisis is how change happens. This is why I work with story, and support others to do the same. At the center of my creative practice, we are developing authentic voice; stripping away conditioning, discovering truth and desire, being brave. Working within our proximity, affecting the people we know personally, staying creatively buoyant - these are the right kinds of influences for this moment of human potential and chaos.
I am the founder and creative director at Infinite Growth, a design firm for change-makers. My leadership framework, Holistic Vision, has supported innovators around the world to make values-aligned decisions and conjure impossible solutions. I am a storyteller and communications strategist with experience in social change initiatives for climate justice, immigrant rights, racial equity, global women's empowerment, and civic engagement. My creative work spans mediums, from internationally award-winning documentary film, photography and writing to podcasts and immersive video installation.
Anna-maria d’cruz
Anna-Maria D’Cruz, Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary care practitioner, facilitator, and creative. A trained clinical psychologist, Anna-Maria grounds her practice in the principles of healing justice. She supports individuals and collectives in radically transforming their relationships with themselves, each other, and the world around them to build more expansive, just and sustainable futures. Anna-Maria believes sovereignty over our creative bodies is a human need, and is critical in order to vision and manifest these new worlds. See her offerings.
Linnea Reyes-LaMon
Linnea Reyes-LaMon is a Black American artist from southern California, now based in New York City. Having received a B.S. in Mathematics and B.A. in Global Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, and a M.A.T. in Mathematics from Bard College, Reyes-LaMon creates books and visual art exploring several themes. She has taken courses at Carnegie Mellon University, Berklee College of Music, Rhode Island School of Design and the Center for Book Arts to advance her artistic practice. Starting her creative career as a drummer, she performed in The Oral History of Female Drummers by Tom Tom Magazine at MoMA PS 1, Brooklyn Museum, and The Knockdown Center. Her studies of mathematics and love for geometry have heavily influenced her approach to both music and visual art. She has created music-inspired visual patterns and works highlighting mathematical concepts related to her lessons as a high school geometry teacher. Since becoming a parent during the pandemic, Reyes-LaMon has explored themes of playfulness, queerness and motherhood using digital illustration and collage. Currently, Reyes-LaMon is tapping into a childhood pleasure of bookmaking as she creates zines about her personal growth, binds sketchbooks and journals, and intersects creative practices with her artist's books. Website
andrea atkinson
Andrea Atkinson is queer Latine facilitator, coach, and collaborative governance designer working at the intersection of our environment and liberation from oppressive systems. Andrea’s global experience extends from the US, to Haiti, to Bolivia and beyond. She has facilitated diverse constituents - always centering the leadership of grassroots, BIPOC community members - in leadership and policy development and other action around racial, social, economic and environmental issues facing communities at the local and global scale.
Lawrence Barriner II
lawrence barriner ii (he/him) is Black, queer, spiritual, and always learning. He is the son of a pastor and a teacher, was raised in the US South, and has lived on occupied Pawtucket and Massachusett lands since 2007(ish). He most values love/justice, community, and transformation. His paid work includes facilitation, coaching, training, and consulting for social, environmental, and land justice movements and organizations. His unpaid work includes (r)evolutionary uncling, community-focused healing, and creating post-patriarchal futures. He is working towards a world that includes liberation for and right relationship between all beings. He shares writing via his newsletter (lqb2weekly.substack.com) and his blog (lqb2.co/blog). He also is a lover of awful puns (lqb2puns.tumblr.com) and is a founding stewarding member of the Movement Retreat Center (AKA Bent Birch).
Sister sadada jackson
i am a student of embodied liberatory practices: i live in my body and vacation in my mind. i am black nipmuc of irish decent. i am an embodied liberation teacher. i work with individuals and groups who do the work of healing and educating. the aim of my work is to resouce and guide embodied liberation in our relationships and our structures. i believe that a love-based relationship with all of our bodies is essential to all liberation. i approach my work as a guide, supporting and resourcing the developing and deepening of embodied love-based ways of being. i use movement, yoga, breath, rituals, and ceremony in partnership with the earth elements when i work with individuals and groups.
in my work, i maintain a clear and generative heart and mindset. i rely on the partnership my labor and the labor of those i work with inform our time together. i am deeply committed to care, access, love, spaciousness, and the liberation for all beings- unseen and seen. my commitments are rooted in my black and indigenous identities and traditions. for over 20 years I have been a practitioner of contemplative practices in buddhist and yoga traditions. i have been a fire keeper in the mayan tradition for over 15 years. and for the last 3 years i have been a student and a practitioner of celtic earth based and divine masculine and feminine practices. WEBSITE