Master Femme: a journey of self-love and self-reclamation
Weekly on Tuesdays at 7pm EST
from January 16th to February 13th, 2024
from January 16th to February 13th, 2024
What would it mean for Black women and women of color to write our own stories in a world that is constantly telling us we don't even own ourselves?
In this 5-session workshop series we journey through what it means to practice self-love and engage in self-reclamation in the face of systems that want us to shrink, conform, and forget who we are. We will engage in pleasure-centered, spiritually-rooted practices, while being in a community of care. Sessions 1-4 will be content and narrative rich and the fifth session will be a celebration of us and all the love we have cultivated on Galentine's Day 2024!
In this 5-session workshop series we journey through what it means to practice self-love and engage in self-reclamation in the face of systems that want us to shrink, conform, and forget who we are. We will engage in pleasure-centered, spiritually-rooted practices, while being in a community of care. Sessions 1-4 will be content and narrative rich and the fifth session will be a celebration of us and all the love we have cultivated on Galentine's Day 2024!
Meet Your 'Master Femme' Facilitator
Rev. Latishia James (she/they) affectionately known as Rev. Pleasure is a Black queer femme, womanist culture change agent, facilitator of healing spaces for QTBIPOC women + femmes and a writer. A Master of Divinity and Certificate of Sexuality+ Religion graduate from Pacific School of Religion they currently serve as Co-Director for Organizational Development at Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity (SACReD) where they work to make Reproductive Justice a lived reality through liberating religious education and organizing people of faith. Latishia is ordained in The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries and is a healing-centered pleasure coach. Like the true womanist she is, she “loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.”
'Master Femme' Inspiration
I recently had the opportunity to witness Harmonia Rosales' groundbreaking exhibit Master Narrative in which she weaves the stories of mythological creation as told by Renaissance era masters and African cosmology via the Afro-Cuban Lucumí tradition. Toni Morrison defines the “Master Narrative” as “whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority on everybody else.” Through her work Harmonia Rosales problematizes the idea of who gets to tell our stories and what it looks like when we get to own ourselves. In the exhibit she centers the creation story around Eve, placing her in Africa where she rightfully belongs, and surrounding her by the Orisha Yemaya and Oshun.
When I left the exhibit I had one question: "what would it mean for Black women and femmes to write our own scripts and be the center of our own narratives in a world that is always telling us we don't own ourselves?"
Master Femme was born from this place, and a truth that I know firsthand is that to claim yourself you must also love yourself.
When I left the exhibit I had one question: "what would it mean for Black women and femmes to write our own scripts and be the center of our own narratives in a world that is always telling us we don't own ourselves?"
Master Femme was born from this place, and a truth that I know firsthand is that to claim yourself you must also love yourself.
