Where We Come From:

Writing Your Ethnoautobiography

Where We Come From: Writing Your Ethnoautobiography

with Ella deCastro Baron, G. Ravyn Stanfield, and Anya Pearson

We have to co-create a better, fuller story of who we are. When we speak or write the stories of how our ancestors were harmed or harmed others, we clear the way for justice in the present. When we tell the truth about the past, we move towards the possibility for healing and repair.

Ancestry gives us heritage: “traditions and practices that inform how we move through the world.” Who are our ancestors of blood, love, and spirit? This circle will facilitate and explore our ethnoautobiographies** through place, ancestry, body, seasons, and story.

Embodied and community-activated stories not only redirect from damaging neural pathways, they promote neurogenesis: our brain cells can pave new, anti-racist and truly restorative paths as we dare to practice. As we decolonize and re-indigenize core values that de-center and dis-engage with dominant culture (white supremacy, patriarchy, settler colonialism, capitalism) we create a more inclusive one. We become “radically present” and better care-givers of each other and the planet.

WHEN and WHERE:

This collaboration contains two parts:

We will gather on Zoom for six live, co-creative meetings (with recordings for those who cannot attend live). A final celebration, will happen on the Tuesday after our last meeting.

Discord will be used to build community, share, explore ideas and engage with each other. (Discord will not be required for critique or hierarchical feedback).

MEETING DATES AND TIMES:  

Six bi-weekly Tuesdays, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. PST/8:00-10:00pm EST

9/24, 10/1, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, 12/3, (Final Celebration: 12/10)

Each bi-weekly meeting will focus on:

*9/24: Embodied place

*10/1: Body

*10/15: Seasons

*10/29: Story

*11/12 Ancestry 

*12/3: Justice and Repair

*Final Celebration: 12/10

PLEASE NOTE:

We are dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices and empowering stories that truly reflect the diversity of our world. To uplift those most impacted by dominant culture, this course will prioritize folx identifying as BIPOC with the goal of holding a safe space.

There is a short application process for this collaboration. Click here to apply. 

ACCESS:

We are dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices and empowering stories that truly reflect the diversity of our world. To uplift those most impacted by dominant culture, this course will prioritize folx identifying as BIPOC with the goal of holding a safe space.

COST:

$500-600 (sliding scale)

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Suggested Cost:

To create intentional space and support for BIPOC attendees, we ask that you pay in light of your financial privileges and with a JEDI spirit (!) Here are a few guidelines:

$550-$600 – you have reliable sources of food, shelter, and transportation; are employed or financially secure; have regular access to healthcare and savings; can spend recreationally at your discretion (e.g. enjoy a concert, new clothes, a great meal). Paying the full amount also means you are able to support a BIPOC with limited resources who would like to join this course.

$500-$550– you have debt that sometimes compromises stability with food, shelter, and/or transportation; are employed; have some access to healthcare and savings; can spend recreationally.

Below $500 (please contact us) – you are under- or unemployed and/or for other reasons (e.g. healthcare, shelter expenses), you have very limited resources.

There is a short application process for this collaboration.

Meet the Team

  • G. Ravyn Stanfield

    Ravyn (she/they) is a healer of body, mind and spirit; an inventive author and international educator; dedicated to liberating the sacred leadership abilities and super powers within each of us. She provides counseling, acupuncture and herbal medicine in Portland, Oregon with a focus on helping people survive cancer, chronic pain and traumatic experiences while fulfilling their commitment to being embodied during these interesting times. She uses her background in the realms of social justice, Taoist, Chinese and other traditional medicines, Jungian psychology, environmental activism, earth based spirituality, creative writing and theatre arts to coax more of the extraordinary into the world through the cracks in Western civilization.

  • Ella de Castro Baron

    Ella deCastro Baron (she/siya/we) is a second generation Filipina American born raised on Coastal Miwok lands (Vallejo, California). She is a VONA alum, holds an MFA, and teaches English and Creative Writing at San Diego City College and U Mass. Ella's first book of creative nonfiction is, Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment, and she’s published in Nonwhite and Woman, (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Epidemic, Anomaly, and The Rumpus. Her next nonlinear book, Subo and Baon: a Memoir in Bites, is coming in Fall 2024. As a woman of color who lives with chronic dis-ease, Ella honors sensations, dreams, story, dance, and decolonial truth-telling so we can ‘re-member our long body.’ She conspires with art-ivists to produce workshops and kapwa (deep interconnection) gatherings that stir love and justice via writing, art, joy, grief-tending, movement, food (yes!) and community. She lives and loves on Kumeyaay territory (San Diego, CA) with her husband and interracial family. Her favorite pronoun is We.

    Find Ella online at: www.elladecastrobaron.com, IG: @elladbaron, Facebook: Ella deCastro Baron, Writer

  • Anya Pearson

    Anya Pearson (she/her/we) is an award-winning playwright, poet, screenwriter, producer, actress, and activist. A ‘21-22 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, she is currently finishing her debut collection of poetry, writing a novel, three pilots, a feature, launching a BIPOC-owned wearable activism clothing label, and constantly plotting, planning, devising, creating, imagining, and revising visions of a better, more just world. Her plays include: THE MEASURE OF INNOCENCE (The Kilroys List, Drammy Award, Finalist: Oregon Book Award), MADE TO DANCE IN BURNING BUILDINGS (Showcase: Joe’s Pub, NYC; STT, Portland, OR), THE KILLING FIELDS (2018 Orphic Commission; Valdez Theatre Conference; Seven Devils New Play Foundry; Great Plains Theatre Conference), WITHOUT A FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR (PCS Commission, Seven Devils, JAW, Great Plains), THREE LOVE SONGS (Play at Home Initiative, PCS). A spoonie. A survivor. A single mother. A body alive with multiple nexuses of marginalized identity and sediments of trauma, Anya is passionate about helping others find their voice through the transformational power of story.

    Find her online www.anyapearson.com & www.urbanhaikuclothing.com

    IG: @iamanyapearson & IG: urbanhaikuclothing

Testimonials from Participants

  • “The Ethnoautobiography collaboration is so many things—grounding + restorative, generative + supportive. Always, it is a safe, inclusive space in which to explore our stories. I met many kindred writers/artists in this space. Long after the class has ended, they continue to support my writing practice.”

    Michelle DeLiso

  • “The journey of Ethnoautobiography led by Anya, Ella, and Ravyn, took me to places I never would have reached on my own. I felt held and nourished by the entire process which also never shied away from helping me to push through barriers of doubt, avoidance, and self-blame which can so easily get in the way of my creative process. I made writing that felt like truth, and friends that feel like home. The course literally changed my life, and I have felt immeasurably richer for it every single day.”

    Alexis Macnab

  • “The skillful guidance and sacred space that was curated by Anya, Ravyn, and Ella has had lasting impact upon my life. I learned what it is to be deeply felt and figuratively held by others.”

    Kimberly Kaminski