Two Spirit Ceremony & Feast

1050 San Pablo Avenue,Albany CA 94706

06 May, 2023

Description

Join us for a day of Two-Spirit community, ceremony, food, and performances This event in collaboration with in collaboration with BAAITS, The Ritual of Myth Making, Bay Area Mexica Queer & Two-Spirit Collective, The Wakan Wiya Two-Spirit Drum, and Weaving Spirits Festival (Co-Sponsor) Produced by Connecting Yaqui California with Circo Zero Outdoor Event - Terrain: grass, mulch, uneven dirt. MASKS are highly encouraged to help protect our vulnerable community members from COVID. Thank you for your cooperation. :: ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS :: Connecting Yaqui California is a pop-up project lead by Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert. Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert (she/her) is a Two-Spirit performance artist of Tzotzil of Simojovel, Yaqui of Sonora, and of Raramuri of Chihuahua heritage. In her career she’s a professional dancer, drag performer/event host, entrepreneur, and filmmaker. She produces LGBTQ+ events as platforms for political, social, and cultural activism. In addition to being a professional dancer, she is a choreographer and dance teacher. She is was a member of The Haus of Towers, former host of Revel - a monthly queer fundraiser at The SF Eagle for The Groundswell Institute, has worked with the Bay Area American Indian Two Spirit Powwow (BAAITS), teaches somatic movement workshops through an Indigenous perspective, was a principal dancer for Redding City Ballet, had the privilege of working with several companies (classical ballet, modern, indigenous contemporary) throughout her dance career internationally, and is the former owner/director of The Dance Zone Studio. She served as the president of the board of directors for Queers United for Intersectional Liberation (QUIL) – a queer non-profit for the LGBTQ community and their allies. Currently she’s co-producing a Queer dance project of her collaborative work called, "Seeds and Sequins"; a dance collaborator of The TRY Project; a Steering Committee member for The Queering Dance Festival, and is a co-producer/writer/actor of The “Chaac + Yum” short-film. BAAITS (Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits) Mission Statement: Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people. The Ritual of Mythmaking: We are queer diasporic seeds of Iximulew (Guatemala). We call upon the sacred healing of Tijax and we give offerings to the sacred fire of Toj. Toj + Tijax (pronounced toh and tee-hash) is our commitment to create a space for healing based on our indigenous Maya cosmology and cultural practices. We are building a botanica for 2STQBIPOC (2 Spirit, trans, queer, Black, indigenous, and people of color) community healing through herbal medicine and other spiritual tools for our collective liberation. In collaboration with other indigenous healers our intention is to offer community healing events, including altar making, limpias, Nawal workshops, and so much more. Toj + Tijax is our offering and invitation to all indigenous people to (re)claim their healing practices. We heal ourselves to transform our communities. Wakan Wiya Two Spirit Drum is our Native American drum founded and led by Indigenous Two Spirit women in the Bay Area. Our drum was gifted to us to support access to drum medicine for our Two Spirit communities, our friends and familia, so that Two Spirit people might return to our Native drum traditions where healing medicine is for all. Our circles will always center Indigenous Two Spirit & Indigequeer TG/GNC LGBQIA+ peoples, and we ask everyone who attends to respectful of this focus. Bay Area Mexica Queer and Two-Spirit Collective: We are a collective of Queer & Two-Spirit danzantes who make our home on the unceded lands of the Ohlone people. We create ceremonial spaces that center our sacred role while dismantling the patriarchal values that exclude indigiqueers from Mexica ceremonial spaces. We come together in an intertribal way to create a community that heals our inner child and Tonantzin, while honoring the ancestors before and after us. Weaving Spirits Festival (Co-Sponsor): We are... Weaving the ways of the past into the loom of the present... Embracing sexuality and our full selves in performance… Creating our own visibility. Weaving Spirits features local and national Native American artists whose offerings range from traditional music to experimental performance and drag. Curated by an intergenerational team of Two-Spirit community leaders, with cultural protocols followed towards the Rahmaytush and other Ohlone peoples of the Bay. Circo Zero makes live performances responding to political crises, while centering queer bodies and ideas. Producing in San Francisco and the broader Bay Area since the mid-1980s, our performances are interdisciplinary and experimental, motivated by anti-racist and decolonial practices. Hennessy is an internationally recognized teacher, performer, and innovator of queer performance. Deeply rooted in dance, LGBTQ, and activist communities, Circo Zero participates in local and global justice movements, functioning as an artistic laboratory of civic engagement.