Staying Power Program – Windcall Institute

Windcall’s Role In This Moment

Radical transformative organizing is needed for the global crisis. We need radical care, connection and love for ourselves, families, folks and planet during this ongoing pandemic and global climate of chaos.

Windcall offers spaces for reflection and practice together in beloved community through our Staying Power program.

SEASONAL PRACTICE SESSIONS:

SUMMER SOLSTICE UP NEXT IN JUNE

Building on Windcall’s 30 years of experience in providing renewal and rejuventation for movement organizers, our seasonal practice sessions invite our alumni, supporters, allies, and friends experience the core principles of our program, together, in beloved community.

PAST STAYING POWER EVENTS

2024

Spring Equinox Practice Session featured Michaela Harrison, an international vocalist and healer whose career is rooted in relaying the transformational power of music and supporting others in accessing the healing energy available in nature through ritual and creative practices. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and a Master’s in Africana Studies. After nearly two decades of calling New Orleans home, Michaela has returned to her native Washington, DC, yet continues to spend time in Brazil, where she has headlined music festivals and performs at various venues and events. She has toured and recorded extensively, co-facilitated and attended numerous workshops and retreats, and is currently engaged in a project called Whale Whispering , a musical collaboration on water, healing and ancestry with humpback whales based in Bahia. www.michaelaharrison.org

2023

Winter Solstice featuring Sara Green

Sara Green (she/her) is a Unitarian Universalist clergyperson, cultural organizer and artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a connector focusing on food and climate justice through embodied strategy, performance and institutional change. For the last decade, she has been working with groups to create organizational cultures based in sustainability, integrity and holistic well-being. As a storyteller, she leads groups to imagine their way forward with inspiring and transformational narratives surrounding organizational vision and mission, and fundraising based on collective memory and cultural practice. She enjoys pottery, gardening and salsa dancing as practices that center and conjure joy.

Autumn Equinox featuring Staying Power trainer Christine Gautreaux

Christine (she/her) is dedicated to the pursuit of play, joy, art & social justice. Christine’s superpowers include connecting people, helping folks manifest their dreams, standing up against injustice and using art to make a difference in the world.

Christine Gautreaux (pronounced gō trō) , MSW holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Social Work and is a professional speaker, coach, author, podcaster and entrepreneur.

Christine is the co-author of Stillpoint: A Caregivers Playbook to find ease and to take a deep breath and reclaim joy and her latest book Women Connected in Wisdom stories and resources rooted in the 8 dimensions of wellness. She believes in the power of body wisdom and somatic play to help heal trauma and live our best lives. Christine coaches professional caregivers, activists and artists to maintain balance and self-care during these intense times we find ourselves living.

Summer Solstice featuring Windcall alum Jihan Gearon ’19

Jihan is an Indigenous feminist, painter, writer, organizer, and leader in Indigenous environmental justice. She is Diné and Nahiłii (Black) and originally comes from the community of Old Sawmill, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. She is Tódích’ií’nii (Bitter Water clan) and her maternal grandfather is Tł’ashchí’í (Red Bottom clan). She is a graduate of Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science in Earth Systems and a focus in Energy Science and Technology. She currently serves on the advisory board of the Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship at The New School. Her work over the past 15 years – particularly with BMWC, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Climate Justice Alliance, and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance – has made her a nationally recognized movement leader in environmental and climate justice, just transition, Indigenous Peoples rights, and indigenous feminism. Jihan was awarded the NDN Changemaker Fellowship in 2020, the Black Women Green Future Award in 2021, and is featured in the recently released book Notable Native People. At the age of thirty-five, Jihan was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. As part of her journey of healing, she turned to painting, creating bold, powerful works that featured the animals, people, and other beings that protected, motivated, and transformed her during her recovery. Her paintings bring her passions in life together, showcasing feminine energy, connections with the natural world, and the future of a healthy planet.

Jihan went to Rancho Gallina for her residency in 2019 as part of Windcall’s first all-Black cohort.

Spring Equinox facilitated by alum and board member Strela Cervas ’16

Strela (she/her) identifies as a mother, Pilipina, LA native, organizer, trainer, wife, daughter, sister, and healer. She provides professional coaching, consulting services, and forest therapy to social justice and environmental justice organizations and leaders. Strela is especially passionate about working with women of color radical organizers to reconnect to their true selves, supporting organizations to center racial equity, and playing among trees. Strela has over 20 years of experience working to advance environmental, economic and racial justice.

Strela is a certified professional coach (trained at Coaching for Transformation at Leadership that Works), a Forest Therapy Guide (trained at the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy), and a mom to a brilliant 16-year-old. She is on the board of the Windcall Institute, a healing justice organization that provides much needed sabbaticals and transformative practices to radical organizers and movement-builders.

Jihan went to the Olympic Peninsula for her residency in 2016 and joined Windcall’s Board in 2019.

2022

SUMMER SOLSTICE PRACTICE featured creative and contemplative facilitation by Beckie Masaki, Windcall Alum 1994, exploring the FIRE of CREATIVITY!

About Beckie: Beckie creates her best contributions to race + gender justice through an interconnected network of intergenerational, diverse leaders in a new era of shared leadership/ shared power. Over 40 years, Beckie has extensive experience providing multilingual, multicultural services to DV, SA and human trafficking survivors + children/youth/families; innovative program development, prevention, community building, policy/institutional advocacy, training/TA, and cultural change.

Beckie is co-founder and Founding ED of Asian Women’s Shelter, San Francisco, CA.; among the first shelters to meet language/cultural needs of Asian survivors of domestic violence/ human trafficking. She also co-founded + staffed a national cultural resource center, API Institute on Gender-Based Violence. She is a Move to End Violence movement maker, from 2009 advisory committee, first cohort, to current co-lead in Mending the Arc project of Resonance Network.

Beckie lives/ works by building the power of the margins, marked by collective power, intersectional collaboration, creativity, and love.

2021

2020

Staying Power Fridays Practice Sessions

Reflection, creative exploration, meditation, wellness planning, movement, and rituals helped us stay connected to nature and the planet/Pachamama during the onset of the pandemic, They took place every Friday from mid-March till May 2020