Witches and Warriors Retreat

The Witches & Warriors Retreat is a program for BIPOC poets and movement workers to learn, write, and dream together.

In 2022, I was working harder than I ever had before. Movements for justice and liberation were in turmoil inside the overlapping pressures of the global pandemic and the racial uprisings. I worked with many organizations to move through pain, confusion,  conflict, and disillusionment into clarity, confidence, connection and alignment. 

That work - though incredibly rewarding -- took a toll on me at a time when I was feeling the pressure of caregiving for aging parents, children struggling inside the pandemic, and close family reckoning with long-COVID.  

If you know me - you know I am a creative soul-- writing songs, poetry, telling stories, imagining worlds. But I was struggling to tap into that part of me - a part of me that is critical to my ability to sustain myself, and create containers of hope and possibility for others. The Witches & Warriors retreat re-ignited the dwindling embers inside me. 

Bringing together the radical creativity of poets with the audacity and expertise of activists, this biennial retreat gathers poets and activists/organizers from across the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions of Turtle Island. Activities include workshops, discussions, writing sessions with faculty, rest and play time, and a public reading. Fellows are asked to take what they learn at the retreat back to their communities through a public event or project, seeding new ideas for creative movement-building throughout our region.

This free retreat provides both nourishment and fire for those on the front lines of the multiple crises we face right now. And it’s deeply needed in this moment when organizers are stretched thin and poets and artists are looking for ways they can more effectively use their art to help create change. 

In 2022, I was privileged to sit at the knee (literally -- see pic) of Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Cynthia Dewi Oka.  I sat in a yurt with the other fellows, swam in the watering hole. These amazing poets guided me through  the haze, back into myself. 

If we cannot tap into our imagination and creativity, we will never be able to see our way out of the cruelties around us.  We need poets to remember what has been lost, to reveal what is unseen, and to conjure what must be. 

This year, renowned movement poets Danez Smith and Jamaica Osorio will mentor the participants and share their work and experiences. Brew & Forge is dedicated to keeping this retreat free, despite the rising costs of, well, everything. I just turned 50 -  to help me celebrate  - will you join me in supporting this powerful event?