RECAP: 6/22 Mental Health Monday with Angelica DeLaCruz & Bianca Shaw of TRIBE Co-Create


OH, HEY. I took a few weeks away from Mental Health Monday to get my own mental health situation together, but I hath returned to The Facebook this week by the grace of Saint Damita Jo, First of Her Name. Ashe.

I shared resources from BEAM, upcoming wellness-flavored events, things bringing me joy in the past week, and had two sisterfriends from el Bronx come through for a delicious conversation about choosing joy in this raggedy moment in history. 

TRIBE Co-Create co-founders Angelica Delacruz and Bianca Shaw joined me to discuss thriving through collaboration and community-based wellness, how therapy has helped them in the war on spiritual ashiness, how prioritizing nutrition and examining their relationships with food has helped them let their souls glow, and what they're doing to get some joy.

Check it out below, and below that, some wellness resources to help you moisturize your spirit.


Before Angelica and Bianca swooped in, I shouted out Tea with Queen & J's fifth Virtual Juneteenth Kickback, which blessed my spirit last week. They convened a few hundred of the homies for some joy and great music and deep, openmouthed laughs. Magic.

Queen & J invited me to share during their Blackness Bonanza, so I read a timely piece about something that makes life worth living: "How I Got Over Myself and Learned to Make Rice"

Listen to their latest episode here: "#257 White Supremacy Is Not A Conspiracy Theory"

I shared Five Things That Brought Me Joy in the Past Week:

One. Playwright Donja Love won The Langston Hughes Award for his gorgeous play, 1 in 2, at Broadway Black's inaugural Antonyo Awards


Two. Anika Noni Rose and Jay Ellis on Coleman Domingo's Bottomless Brunch at Coleman's


Three. The Netflix documentary, Disclosure, about the representations of transgender people in the media. 
 

Four. I fell down a genealogy rabbit hole and managed to extend our family tree back to 1825 thus far. Shoutout to Silas and Mary Analiza Hardy. I started out on Ancestry dot com then discovered that Family Search has the same info, and then some, for $Free.99. Bye, Ancestry.

Five. Sir Gary Chambers of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reading Connie the Horrible into the ground for shopping while citizens commented on the racism of Confederate Shitbag Extraordinaire, Robert E Lee. 


If only I could bottle the joy this brought me.

RESOURCES

Via Eunique Jones Gibson of Because of Them We Can: "If you have a child ages 5-12 and you’re looking for a way to teach them about #BlackWallStreet, I’m making the activity sheets from our Black Wall Street Because of Them We Can Box available for free." 




Considering a homeschool situation this fall? The Homeschool Starter Set Team has you covered. In the offered digitally downloadable set of documents, you can purchase all of the information and document templates you will need to get started on your family's homeschool journey, including a template for the official letter you will need to withdraw them from their current school, a stress-free shortlist of the most popular curriculums and where to find them, and much, much more. Check it out here.

BEAM offers this list of common coping strategies and other tools for greatness at beam.community.


EVENTS

Erika Totten (twitter.com/ToLiveUnchained) hosts Emotional Emancipation Circles for Black folks processing racial stress & trauma every other week on Wednesdays at 7PM EST. 



On Wednesday 6/24, BEAM is offering Heart Space, "a virtual space for Black Liberation & Healing." If you need to "vent, connect, meditate, sing & share," this is the place for you.


AND

On Thursday 6/25, BEAM is hosting "Fatherhood, Mental Health & Masculinity Town Hall," a virtual discussion on the challenges, joys, and opportunities of fatherhood and parenthood:


Register for both BEAM events at beam.community/events.

ABOUT MY GUESTS

Bianca Shaw, TRIBE Co-Create Co-Founder

Bianca Shaw is a queer, Black, femme from the Bronx, NY by way of Antigua. For nearly a decade, Bianca has worked with various fields including mental health, harm reduction, juvenile justice and child welfare advocacy. As a Licensed macro Social Worker, she has dedicated her career to amplifying the voices and power of marginalized communities. As an abolitionist and believer in radical reimagination, she has also led organizations through change processes to address the ways in which non-profits continue to perpetuate oppression and harm on disenfranchised communities or color.

Bianca is dedicated to the healing, capacity building and leadership development of Black, Indigenous, People of Color and QTBIPoC. After recognizing that traditional workspaces caused mental, physical and financial harm for many QTBIPoC, Bianca co-founded TRIBE Co-Create in 2018. TRIBE is a community healing and liberation space. TRIBE’s vision is to create a community that is built on the values of collective wisdom and collective care.

Bianca received her Master of Social Work degree with a focus on Community Organizing, Planning and Development from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in 2016. She is currently training to become a Level three Reiki Practitioner.


Angelica Delacruz, TRIBE Co-Create Co-Founder
Angelica Delacruz, TRIBE Co-Create Co-Founder

Angelica Delacruz is an Afro-Latina, womxnist from the Bronx. Born in the Dominican Republic, she migrated to the Hunts Point community at the age of five. As someone who believes that community building is a form of resistance and care, Angelica's mission is to cultivate joy filled spaces that encourage connection and collaboration. She achieves this by developing and leading programs and events at TRIBE. In the words of Alice Walker, Angelica believes that we should all look closely at the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming of. 

Follow TRIBE Co-Create across Janet Jackson's Internet:

Instagram: @tribe_cocreate
Facebook: tribecocreatebx
Twitter: trobecocreatebx

See you next week!

Let's keep the party going: The Alexander Hardy | GetSomeJoy | Self-Care Check-InThe Extraordinary NegroesThe Colored Boy Store

Comments