general offerings
🧃 herbal patreon
UPDATE 🐸: The sumistreet herbal patreon ended in February 2023. Check out the herbal meditations from this project.
Do you want to build a relationship with medicinal plants? Through the sumistreet herbal patreon, you’ll receive a new potion (ex. extract, tincture, syrup, body butter, salve, candle) from my apothecary, every month. Each potion is made with safely and responsibly harvested herbs from my neighborhood, local forests, sustainable farmers and herbalists. By working with a specific herb each month, you’ll get to build a relationship with the plant and notice how you respond to its healing abilities. Join me in this monthly ritual.
🤲🏽 conflict transformation + culture change facilitation
As a facilitator, I support groups and organizations build a deeper culture of accountability and repair. A teacher of mine once said that (paraphrasing), ‘folks will spend their whole lives running from a 20 minute conversation that will set them free’. I approach conflict transformation work as supporting groups to find that ‘20 minute conversation’ and tap into our profound ability to change, and sometimes even heal, together. My facilitation practices are rooted in transformative justice principles — i.e. that we can “address harm without causing more harm” (as said by mia mingus). Our work together could like:
🌸practicing giving and receiving feedback
🌸hosting a “how to give an apology” workshop
🌸a conflict transformation process
special offerings
🌶️ cooking through conflict sessions
Cooking is culture work — it shapes our identities, how we gather, and other collective ways of being. It connects us to our ancestry, our memories, and the earth. Cooking is an everyday practice, and perhaps one of the few, where we must drop below our thinking selves and tap into the wisdom of our bodies to do it. I’m fascinated by what it can offer us when we’re in conflict.
My guess is that people have been working shit out in kitchens and over food since forever. While many of us believe conflict is generative, in practice it’s often harder to face our desire to move through it with each other. We avoid it, we secretly delight in passive aggression, and for many of us, we learned early on that conflict was accompanied by violence. I’m curious about how cooking together while in conflict or disagreement can change that.
This is an offering for individuals and small groups who seek a deeper connection and alignment with each other, especially when other methods aren’t working (ex. feedback processes, healing circles, etc). Where we gather shapes the conversations that we are able to have. (Imagine the difference between hanging out with a coworker on your porch, versus at the office or in a Zoom meeting.) What portal could cooking together open up for us when we want change in our relationships, but are struggling to embody something different?
Cooking through Conflict sessions involve cooking together in a home kitchen. The goals for these sessions vary but can include: building community, navigating tension, seeking conflict resolution, and/or finding understanding across deep differences. Each session is customized based on the group’s needs and goals. As facilitator, I bring together my skills of mediation and teaching somatic cooking classes to hold this healing space.
Request a session at sumistreet919@gmail.com. Stay tuned for upcoming cooking through conflict workshops for the general public. This in-person offering is currently on pause due to COVID-19. If interested in Cooking Through Conflict as a digital offering, please reach out.