asian american women and femmes (AAWF) collective
Between January-December 2022, I co-founded, co-coordinated and facilitated the Asian American Women + Femmes (AAWF) Collective, a group of Asian American women and/or femmes dedicated to learning, healing, dreaming and moving boldly toward manifesting our dreams for collective liberation, as the lead teaching artist. AAWF Collective centered the membership of self-identifying Asian American women and/or femmes living in the Greater Sacramento Region between the ages of 18 - 35 years old who are committed or interested in learning more about healing in connection to racial, gender, and social justice. Folks living outside of the Sacramento region were also welcomed to join.
This program was a part of the Asian American Liberation Network.
AAWF Collective offered two programming formats for community members to engage in: Rooted + Rising and Kinship Circle.
Rooted + Rising was a series of monthly drop-in workshops and open learning spaces focused on radical healing, expanding knowledge and strengthening community connections.
R + R sessions developed and taught by me include:
Regrounding in Our Power through Poetry
Honoring the Women + Femmes in Our Lives
Celebrating Queer/Trans Women + Femmes who shaped our movements for liberation
Conversations Over Cold Rice: Transforming Traditions Through Food & Spiritual Practice
I Will Send My Story: Storytelling as Future Ancestors
Kinship Circle was a cohort-style group that centered healing and community building for Asian American women and/or femmes. This group also met monthly. Kinship Circle was formed for those looking to build deeper connections beyond the more casual open workshops of Rooted + Rising. This intimate space centered community healing and participants' collective ownership to create this space. To be a part of this space, participants would have attended 2 previous workshops from our Rooted + Rising programming and were seeking a deeper level of intimacy and accountability in their healing journey.
Participant testimonials
“Finding empowerment talking about the things that we've experienced, turning things that have hurt us into things we reclaim and draw power from has brought me joy through this program.”
“I think I have slowly learned how to prioritize myself. After dissecting my parents' generational trauma and understanding how those traumas have been transferred to me, I have built stronger affirmations for myself that I am worthy and capable of breaking this cycle of harm. Through this program, I went through this unlearning process to undo so many of my internalized and conditioned beliefs the condition that I have to produce something to be worthy, the condition that I am selfish for choosing myself over others, the condition that I am not enough for not fulfilling x,y,z.”
“[I’ve gained] understanding where I come from, where these feelings of imposter syndrome and shame come from, but also being gentle on myself because all that I have accomplished to get to where I am is valid.”