GRIEVING MAN
Saturday March 21st - Sunday March 22nd 2026
Led by Brian 'Yam' Dwyer, Jordan Lyon, Rainer Baumorr, & Taj O'Brien | Eldered by Collin Brown
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Led by Brian 'Yam' Dwyer, Jordan Lyon, Rainer Baumorr, & Taj O'Brien | Eldered by Collin Brown
- - - - - - - -
"Oh my brother, every problem that has troubled you
has troubled me, also."
- Khalil Gibran
Fellow brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, elders-in-training & the like,
with our hearts open and tender, strong and resilient, we humbly and enthusiastically invite you to an emergent and loving gathering for men called Grieving Man.
WHAT IS IT?
Grieving Man is a friendship-led, land-based, relational and musical healing space. It is a ritual container that welcomes in the multi-faceted expressions of grief, joy, anger, desire, fear, longing (etc.) — emotions that are so often suppressed and stuck in our bodies — to be honored, expressed and, ultimately, transformed in the sacred witness of other men.
- - - - - - - -
"Rituals are the churches without walls, the antidote to our denial. Feeling together can both bring us together and free us."
- Prentis Hemphill (What It Takes To Heal)
WHY IS IT HAPPENING?
As beings socialized as men, most of us were taught at an early age not to show certain emotions. But the truth is, we do feel deeply. We are sensitive beings. We experience loss, love and sorrow. We feel our shames and fears. We are moved by beauty. We hold anger and rage that isn’t inherently destructive, but is a deep cry of the heart. Grieving Man is a space to dive deep into the waters of collective depth, attunement and belonging, together.
Within this container we will explore and expand the edges of what is possible for the transformation and healing of the masculine. We will work to cultivate a community of men that show up, support, and hold each other accountable as we continue to remember and become the men we are meant to be.
This is a place to try things out, unlock our hearts and encourage one another to explore our depths as men. Through us gathering, in presence and emergence, we will cocreate a space together that leans into the collective intelligence of the group for its wisdom and direction. Through land-based practices, emergent ritual, collaborative singing, music, rhythm, nourishing food, embodied movement, and more we will access and express our grief, our joy, our desire, and the many emotional currents that move in our depths but are so often ignored, rejected or shamed in our pre-dominant monoculture.
We do this tender work so that we can show up for ourselves, our families and our communities with more fullness and presence. We do this with the intention of learning how to acknowledge and transform our personal and global grief into something that opens us up to the true preciousness of life—something that is beautiful, generative and nourishing for each of us, our loved ones and the greater web of life of which we are all a part.
- - - - - - -
"Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."
- Martín Prechtel
WHAT CAN I EXPECT?
Expect tears, big laughs, tender heartache and healing touch. Expect to feel things. Expect realness and an encouragement to be vibrant, beautiful, and messy in our aspirations toward wholeness. Expect to be offered a courageous space to loosen your armor, let go of your masks, and break down (see also: break through!) with the essential aid of supportive brotherhood and care.
This invitation is one that asks you to sense into this healing, life-giving culture of the masculine that many of us have not yet experienced, but are longing for. We don’t have the answers—we aren’t experts in this work. We are simply answering the call of our hearts, and inviting others to answer theirs with us.
- - - - - - - -
WHY ONLY MEN? WHY NOT INVITE EVERYONE?
It's no secret that the unchecked, untouched wounding of men has caused (and is causing) the earth great harm. In light of that, it is now our sacred responsibility to gather as men to tend to those wounds with each other. The energy behind a container aimed specifically toward men is in no way intended to be exclusionary. As men, a lot of us need to be doing this deep and tender work with other men, in a container where sacred masculinity is being given a chance to heal itself in the witness of other men. We do this work together in an effort to not continue causing harm and burdening the collective that we have impacted and exhausted for so long.
A lot of men are just beginning their journey into the deep, heart-opening work of grief tending. It is tender work and the container is held to honor and protect that opening into vulnerability.
- - - - - - - - - - -
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "MEN"?
For this specific offering, we invite all those who identify as a man or male, as well as anyone who has been socialized as a man or male anytime in their life. If you've been shaped by, and internalized, the cultural conditioning that is given to men, often in childhood, then this container may be for you.
If you would feel burdened or deeply uncomfortable in the extended presence of a group of men being honest and real about the ways they have experienced and participated in painful patterns of men, then this container may not be the best space. We will be attending to the experiences of men, and those socialized as men, in order to give room for deeper insight and re-patterning.
If you have any questions or concerns about who this gathering is for or how we will cultivate a culture of belonging, safety, and accessibility for those in attendance, please reach out to Jordan at [email protected].
*Also, for those interested in a healing retreat like this but doesn't feel like this would be for them, please feel free to reach out and we can point you in directions of other community offerings that align with other identities and affinity groups.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"We need ritual because it is an expression of the fact that we recognize the difficulty of creating a different and special kind of community. A community that does not have ritual does not exist."
- Malidoma Patrice Somé
LINEAGE OF TEACHERS
The style of grief ritual in this container is informed by - but not a direct descendant of - the teachings and offerings of Malidoma Patrice Somé, Sobonfu Somé, The Dagara People of Burkina Faso, West Africa, Resmaa Menakem, Francis Weller, Joanna Macy, Martín Prechtel, Laurence Cole, Thérèse Charvet, Tere Carranza, Collin Brown, ahlay blakely, and others. We would not be doing this work without each of them being who they are, especially those from the PNW who have stewarded this work for the past years and decades in this Cascadia bio-region. We give thanks and praise to each of them for their ongoing guidance, and recognize that none of what we are offering would be possible without their vital contributions to the world of grief-tending.
has troubled me, also."
- Khalil Gibran
Fellow brothers, fathers, sons, uncles, elders-in-training & the like,
with our hearts open and tender, strong and resilient, we humbly and enthusiastically invite you to an emergent and loving gathering for men called Grieving Man.
WHAT IS IT?
Grieving Man is a friendship-led, land-based, relational and musical healing space. It is a ritual container that welcomes in the multi-faceted expressions of grief, joy, anger, desire, fear, longing (etc.) — emotions that are so often suppressed and stuck in our bodies — to be honored, expressed and, ultimately, transformed in the sacred witness of other men.
- - - - - - - -
"Rituals are the churches without walls, the antidote to our denial. Feeling together can both bring us together and free us."
- Prentis Hemphill (What It Takes To Heal)
WHY IS IT HAPPENING?
As beings socialized as men, most of us were taught at an early age not to show certain emotions. But the truth is, we do feel deeply. We are sensitive beings. We experience loss, love and sorrow. We feel our shames and fears. We are moved by beauty. We hold anger and rage that isn’t inherently destructive, but is a deep cry of the heart. Grieving Man is a space to dive deep into the waters of collective depth, attunement and belonging, together.
Within this container we will explore and expand the edges of what is possible for the transformation and healing of the masculine. We will work to cultivate a community of men that show up, support, and hold each other accountable as we continue to remember and become the men we are meant to be.
This is a place to try things out, unlock our hearts and encourage one another to explore our depths as men. Through us gathering, in presence and emergence, we will cocreate a space together that leans into the collective intelligence of the group for its wisdom and direction. Through land-based practices, emergent ritual, collaborative singing, music, rhythm, nourishing food, embodied movement, and more we will access and express our grief, our joy, our desire, and the many emotional currents that move in our depths but are so often ignored, rejected or shamed in our pre-dominant monoculture.
We do this tender work so that we can show up for ourselves, our families and our communities with more fullness and presence. We do this with the intention of learning how to acknowledge and transform our personal and global grief into something that opens us up to the true preciousness of life—something that is beautiful, generative and nourishing for each of us, our loved ones and the greater web of life of which we are all a part.
- - - - - - -
"Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."
- Martín Prechtel
WHAT CAN I EXPECT?
Expect tears, big laughs, tender heartache and healing touch. Expect to feel things. Expect realness and an encouragement to be vibrant, beautiful, and messy in our aspirations toward wholeness. Expect to be offered a courageous space to loosen your armor, let go of your masks, and break down (see also: break through!) with the essential aid of supportive brotherhood and care.
This invitation is one that asks you to sense into this healing, life-giving culture of the masculine that many of us have not yet experienced, but are longing for. We don’t have the answers—we aren’t experts in this work. We are simply answering the call of our hearts, and inviting others to answer theirs with us.
- - - - - - - -
WHY ONLY MEN? WHY NOT INVITE EVERYONE?
It's no secret that the unchecked, untouched wounding of men has caused (and is causing) the earth great harm. In light of that, it is now our sacred responsibility to gather as men to tend to those wounds with each other. The energy behind a container aimed specifically toward men is in no way intended to be exclusionary. As men, a lot of us need to be doing this deep and tender work with other men, in a container where sacred masculinity is being given a chance to heal itself in the witness of other men. We do this work together in an effort to not continue causing harm and burdening the collective that we have impacted and exhausted for so long.
A lot of men are just beginning their journey into the deep, heart-opening work of grief tending. It is tender work and the container is held to honor and protect that opening into vulnerability.
- - - - - - - - - - -
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "MEN"?
For this specific offering, we invite all those who identify as a man or male, as well as anyone who has been socialized as a man or male anytime in their life. If you've been shaped by, and internalized, the cultural conditioning that is given to men, often in childhood, then this container may be for you.
If you would feel burdened or deeply uncomfortable in the extended presence of a group of men being honest and real about the ways they have experienced and participated in painful patterns of men, then this container may not be the best space. We will be attending to the experiences of men, and those socialized as men, in order to give room for deeper insight and re-patterning.
If you have any questions or concerns about who this gathering is for or how we will cultivate a culture of belonging, safety, and accessibility for those in attendance, please reach out to Jordan at [email protected].
*Also, for those interested in a healing retreat like this but doesn't feel like this would be for them, please feel free to reach out and we can point you in directions of other community offerings that align with other identities and affinity groups.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"We need ritual because it is an expression of the fact that we recognize the difficulty of creating a different and special kind of community. A community that does not have ritual does not exist."
- Malidoma Patrice Somé
LINEAGE OF TEACHERS
The style of grief ritual in this container is informed by - but not a direct descendant of - the teachings and offerings of Malidoma Patrice Somé, Sobonfu Somé, The Dagara People of Burkina Faso, West Africa, Resmaa Menakem, Francis Weller, Joanna Macy, Martín Prechtel, Laurence Cole, Thérèse Charvet, Tere Carranza, Collin Brown, ahlay blakely, and others. We would not be doing this work without each of them being who they are, especially those from the PNW who have stewarded this work for the past years and decades in this Cascadia bio-region. We give thanks and praise to each of them for their ongoing guidance, and recognize that none of what we are offering would be possible without their vital contributions to the world of grief-tending.
Location
Deep Waters
2710 N Interstate Ave, N Knott St 2nd level, Portland, OR 97227
2710 N Interstate Ave, N Knott St 2nd level, Portland, OR 97227
Date & Time
March 21st 10am - March 22nd 5pm
our team of facilitators
This offering comes from the hearts, minds and souls of Brian 'Yam' Dwyer, Jordan Lyon, Taj O'Brien, and Rainer Baumorr and is eldered by Collin Brown.
BRIAN 'YAM' DWYER
Brian is a community song leader, music weaver, rhythm bringer and student of emergent ritual space. He knows music to be a living line of connection and communication to our ancestors, the wider cosmos and our more-than-human kin. Brian has been a student of music, rhythm and improvisational singing for over 30 years, has been studying ritual, transformative men's work and ceremonial spaces for 7 years, and has been holding grief-tending space with other men and community members in the Cascadia Bio-region since 2022.
He currently resides on the unceded ancestral lands of the Lummi, Nooksack and other Coast Salish peoples (otherwise known as Bellingham, WA), where he is a dedicated friend, villager, co-parent and father of an 11-year-old child.
Brian is a community song leader, music weaver, rhythm bringer and student of emergent ritual space. He knows music to be a living line of connection and communication to our ancestors, the wider cosmos and our more-than-human kin. Brian has been a student of music, rhythm and improvisational singing for over 30 years, has been studying ritual, transformative men's work and ceremonial spaces for 7 years, and has been holding grief-tending space with other men and community members in the Cascadia Bio-region since 2022.
He currently resides on the unceded ancestral lands of the Lummi, Nooksack and other Coast Salish peoples (otherwise known as Bellingham, WA), where he is a dedicated friend, villager, co-parent and father of an 11-year-old child.
JORDAN LYON
Jordan is a grief tender, ritualist, and chef. His work and life strives to cultivate relationships, communities, and cultures of healing, transformation, and reconnection with this living world and her natural rhythms and spirit. He shares his love of food and nourishing others by tending the hearth. He cocreates prayerful rituals to honor cycles of life, death, and rebirth in each of our journeys to heal, love, and express our gifts in the world. He tends to individual and collective grief as our deepest teacher and guide in this time of the Great Unraveling and Great Turning.
He embraces a role as a “culture doula”—one who hospices the dying of cultures based on separateness, extraction, and domination to help birth ones of regeneration, reciprocity, and right relationship. He lives in community on the healing grounds of Sacred Groves, tending to the land, elders, and community there with deep humility, gratitude, and love. Learn more at jordanlyon.com.
Jordan is a grief tender, ritualist, and chef. His work and life strives to cultivate relationships, communities, and cultures of healing, transformation, and reconnection with this living world and her natural rhythms and spirit. He shares his love of food and nourishing others by tending the hearth. He cocreates prayerful rituals to honor cycles of life, death, and rebirth in each of our journeys to heal, love, and express our gifts in the world. He tends to individual and collective grief as our deepest teacher and guide in this time of the Great Unraveling and Great Turning.
He embraces a role as a “culture doula”—one who hospices the dying of cultures based on separateness, extraction, and domination to help birth ones of regeneration, reciprocity, and right relationship. He lives in community on the healing grounds of Sacred Groves, tending to the land, elders, and community there with deep humility, gratitude, and love. Learn more at jordanlyon.com.
TAJ O'BRIEN
Taj is a community leader and educator who works with youth and adults, centering through song, story, and ritual. Since trekking through the Himalayas over twenty years ago, being fed in ancient villages while immersed in the arts of Yoga and Meditation, Taj has been a committed student of Sanatana Dharma and Indigenous Wisdom. He has embraced Waldorf education for over a decade, currently serving as the lead teacher of Heartsong Living Arts’ middle-grade program, and loves to share transformative health practices with people of all ages. In recent years, he has become a facilitator of Men’s Work, tending to village remembrance, ancestral grief, and spirit-guided human development, where he feels the magical leadership of love sharing in realms of somatic connection and devotional song.
He is a grateful beneficiary of many great teachers and mentors, belonging to the Tribe of the Sacred Heart and guided by the internal, eternal Guru. A child of the Cascadia bioregion, Taj honors his Celtic and Métis ancestry, and Salish, Chinook, Klickitat, and Yakama peoples where, with his beautiful fiancée Mana Rose, he resides along the Columbia Gorge on the outskirts of White Salmon, WA.
Taj is a community leader and educator who works with youth and adults, centering through song, story, and ritual. Since trekking through the Himalayas over twenty years ago, being fed in ancient villages while immersed in the arts of Yoga and Meditation, Taj has been a committed student of Sanatana Dharma and Indigenous Wisdom. He has embraced Waldorf education for over a decade, currently serving as the lead teacher of Heartsong Living Arts’ middle-grade program, and loves to share transformative health practices with people of all ages. In recent years, he has become a facilitator of Men’s Work, tending to village remembrance, ancestral grief, and spirit-guided human development, where he feels the magical leadership of love sharing in realms of somatic connection and devotional song.
He is a grateful beneficiary of many great teachers and mentors, belonging to the Tribe of the Sacred Heart and guided by the internal, eternal Guru. A child of the Cascadia bioregion, Taj honors his Celtic and Métis ancestry, and Salish, Chinook, Klickitat, and Yakama peoples where, with his beautiful fiancée Mana Rose, he resides along the Columbia Gorge on the outskirts of White Salmon, WA.
RAINER BAUMORR
Rainer is a bardic storyteller and healing arts practitioner. These two vocations have developed alongside one another since his early 20’s.
His study of somatic therapies began in Ventura, California in 2009. He’s an active bodyworker and incorporates trauma-healing into his one-on-one coaching practice as he completes certification with Somatic Experiencing International.
During his study of singing and music composition at Portland State University, his formal study of music soon became woven with an avid exploration of myth. In 2022 he helped co-found The School of Mythopoetics and began his bardic practice, bringing story, song, and poetry to his local area and abroad. He took over as the head of The School of Mythopoetics in 2025.
Amidst these formal studies and professional endeavors, tended by many guides, teachers, and mentors, walking alongside many cherished collaborators, Rainer has followed a thread. That thread seems to weave in and out of something that is often stamped with the label “men’s work.” Over the course of 17 years of study and practice in the healing arts, grieving, singing, and learning to be with men in a heartful and beautiful way is the most healing form of “men’s work“ this man has experienced.
Rainer lives in Cascadia with members of his chosen family and has enjoyed wiling away the hours over the fall and winter months watching TV shows, movies, and playing the most recent games in the Legend of Zelda series.
Rainer is a bardic storyteller and healing arts practitioner. These two vocations have developed alongside one another since his early 20’s.
His study of somatic therapies began in Ventura, California in 2009. He’s an active bodyworker and incorporates trauma-healing into his one-on-one coaching practice as he completes certification with Somatic Experiencing International.
During his study of singing and music composition at Portland State University, his formal study of music soon became woven with an avid exploration of myth. In 2022 he helped co-found The School of Mythopoetics and began his bardic practice, bringing story, song, and poetry to his local area and abroad. He took over as the head of The School of Mythopoetics in 2025.
Amidst these formal studies and professional endeavors, tended by many guides, teachers, and mentors, walking alongside many cherished collaborators, Rainer has followed a thread. That thread seems to weave in and out of something that is often stamped with the label “men’s work.” Over the course of 17 years of study and practice in the healing arts, grieving, singing, and learning to be with men in a heartful and beautiful way is the most healing form of “men’s work“ this man has experienced.
Rainer lives in Cascadia with members of his chosen family and has enjoyed wiling away the hours over the fall and winter months watching TV shows, movies, and playing the most recent games in the Legend of Zelda series.
Our elder Team
Collin brown
Collin Brown is a seeker, healer, teacher, personal coach, and a wilderness guide with the School of Lost Borders. He has delved deeply into the mysteries of eros, love, death, and embodiment. As the director of the Body Electric School for fifteen years, he developed curricula using breath, massage, and eros to help people feel more alive in their bodies. He has explored the healing potential of entheogens (plant medicine) for 25 years.
He continues to find depth, curiosity and compassion while working with people through the landscapes of their minds and bodies. He is drawn to the work of initiation as a life-long adventure that allows us to be fully expressed at all stages of our living and dying. Collin has lived on the edge of the Salish Sea for 23 years in Port Townsend, WA, and has a 28 year-old daughter named Molly who lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
He continues to find depth, curiosity and compassion while working with people through the landscapes of their minds and bodies. He is drawn to the work of initiation as a life-long adventure that allows us to be fully expressed at all stages of our living and dying. Collin has lived on the edge of the Salish Sea for 23 years in Port Townsend, WA, and has a 28 year-old daughter named Molly who lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
SCHEDULE
This Grieving Man offering is a 2-day gathering taking place over the weekend of the Spring Equinox. We're asking men to arrive between 9:15am-9:45am on Saturday. We will start our circle promptly at 10am. We will have an early afternoon lunch break around 1/2pm. We will meet back in the afternoon and then go in to a Dagara Grief Ritual that evening before a big feast to close out our day. We will close around 10pm. On Sunday, we will gather back together at 10am for another day of ritual, song, story sharing, and tending to our hearts and grief before closing at 5pm.
ACCOMMODATIONS AND FOOD
This is a non-residential retreat. All attendees will be in charge of finding their own lodging Saturday night.
On top of that, we ask that attendees bring their own lunches and contributions to our snack table. We expect attendees also to have a nourishing breakfast before they arrive as well. Saturday night's post-ritual dinner will be provided by the team.
RECIPROCITY
The cost of this event should not be a barrier to your feeling the call. Making this experience accessible to as many men as possible is important to us. That being said, the cost of this ritual exists so that the land, facilitators and organizers may be resourced. We offer scholarships to create as much flexibility in our pricing to meet the needs of all who are interested in showing up for this work.
We also have scholarships available for those who are feeling the call to join Grieving Man but are feeling financial scarcity in their life. We prioritize offering scholarships to People of The Global Majority and working-class, cash poor families. For further inquiry please contact Jordan at [email protected].
Refund Policy: Partial refunds of 50% are available up to 14 days prior to the event date. After this period, refunds are no longer available. This policy helps to hold us all accountable and creates some protection for the facilitators and organizers. We ask that you notify as soon as possible if you are no longer able to attend.
Grieving Man donates 5% of net revenue towards building infrastructure for healthy water access for the Dagara Tribes of Burkina Faso, West Africa in reciprocity for the ripples of communal grief work Sobonfu + Malidoma Somé brought to the west in the 80's + 90's as an antidote to colonialism.
The sliding scale framework used here is based on a model developed by Siena Tenisci of Northwest Grief Tending, designed to make programs more accessible and support economic justice.
We also what to acknowledge our teachers and those on our Integrity Council, especially ahlay blakely and Holly Truhlar, for their advisement and words in offering these rituals in right relationship—specifically in how we honor the lineages of this work, how we handle money, and how we navigate conflict. Our language around tithing and refund accountability reflect learnings and are direct words written from these cultural lineage carriers, especialy ahlay, in doing this collective healing "soul work" in integrity.
This Grieving Man offering is a 2-day gathering taking place over the weekend of the Spring Equinox. We're asking men to arrive between 9:15am-9:45am on Saturday. We will start our circle promptly at 10am. We will have an early afternoon lunch break around 1/2pm. We will meet back in the afternoon and then go in to a Dagara Grief Ritual that evening before a big feast to close out our day. We will close around 10pm. On Sunday, we will gather back together at 10am for another day of ritual, song, story sharing, and tending to our hearts and grief before closing at 5pm.
ACCOMMODATIONS AND FOOD
This is a non-residential retreat. All attendees will be in charge of finding their own lodging Saturday night.
On top of that, we ask that attendees bring their own lunches and contributions to our snack table. We expect attendees also to have a nourishing breakfast before they arrive as well. Saturday night's post-ritual dinner will be provided by the team.
RECIPROCITY
The cost of this event should not be a barrier to your feeling the call. Making this experience accessible to as many men as possible is important to us. That being said, the cost of this ritual exists so that the land, facilitators and organizers may be resourced. We offer scholarships to create as much flexibility in our pricing to meet the needs of all who are interested in showing up for this work.
- Supporting Tier: $450
This tier supports your community by allowing more need-based and BIPOC scholarships to be offered. Additionally, it helps cover the holistic costs of running this retreat by supporting fair wages for the facilitators and greater program accessibility through sliding scale options. Please select this tier if you are able to comfortably meet all of your basic needs and have the means to contribute towards greater economic and racial justice in this way. For more transparency about our budget and how it supports an allocated a percentage of reciprocity towards our elders, our Integrity Council of Women, and the Dagara Empowerment Water Project, please reach out to Jordan at [email protected]. Thank you for supporting this work! - Sustaining Tier (General Admission): $325
This tier covers the full costs of running this retreat by supporting fair wages for the facilitators and greater program accessibility through sliding scale options. Please register at this tier if you are able to comfortably meet all of your basic needs. If you have the means to contribute more towards greater economic and racial justice by enabling more need-based and BIPOC scholarships to be offered, please consider registering at the Supporting Tier above. Thank you for your support. - Supported Tier: $200
This tier falls short of covering the costs of running this retreat, but does offer some financial reciprocity towards this work. As a guide, this tier may be right for you if you stress about meeting your basic needs (food, housing, etc.) but still regularly achieve them. If you are able to comfortably meet your needs, please register at the Sustaining or Supporting Tiers above, which covers the full costs of running our retreat.
We also have scholarships available for those who are feeling the call to join Grieving Man but are feeling financial scarcity in their life. We prioritize offering scholarships to People of The Global Majority and working-class, cash poor families. For further inquiry please contact Jordan at [email protected].
Refund Policy: Partial refunds of 50% are available up to 14 days prior to the event date. After this period, refunds are no longer available. This policy helps to hold us all accountable and creates some protection for the facilitators and organizers. We ask that you notify as soon as possible if you are no longer able to attend.
Grieving Man donates 5% of net revenue towards building infrastructure for healthy water access for the Dagara Tribes of Burkina Faso, West Africa in reciprocity for the ripples of communal grief work Sobonfu + Malidoma Somé brought to the west in the 80's + 90's as an antidote to colonialism.
The sliding scale framework used here is based on a model developed by Siena Tenisci of Northwest Grief Tending, designed to make programs more accessible and support economic justice.
We also what to acknowledge our teachers and those on our Integrity Council, especially ahlay blakely and Holly Truhlar, for their advisement and words in offering these rituals in right relationship—specifically in how we honor the lineages of this work, how we handle money, and how we navigate conflict. Our language around tithing and refund accountability reflect learnings and are direct words written from these cultural lineage carriers, especialy ahlay, in doing this collective healing "soul work" in integrity.