SHE/ HER

BODYWORKER, DOULA & STUDENT CHIROPRACTOR

Abahole!

Ihotu (“ee-ho-too”) is a reproductive health and racial health equity educator, bodyworker, and womb massage therapist. She is the granddaughter of a traditional chief in Nigeria through the Biafra War, and of Polish-Irish farmers in Minnesota through the Great Depression. Ihotu was raised by a loving single mother, in Section 8 Housing, with a sister with disabilities, and her family motto was “No Mud, No Lotus.”

Ihotu is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of Public Health, and lived in Harlem, New York City, while conducting maternal health research with the United Nations. She became a doula in 2011, and spent a decade traveling and studying Afro-indigenous and global cultural practices for childbirth, ancestral and womb healing.

Now as a doctoral student in chiropractic care, Ihotu studies the physiology of trauma, grief and racial violence in the body. She integrates indigenous, eastern, and western medicines into a specialty practice treating chronic physical and emotional pain, with a focus on the abdomen, pelvis, and low back.

(She does not offer chiropractic, but plans to integrate this care after her licensure and graduation in 2025).

Ihotu is Founder and Director of the Oshun Center for Intercultural Healing, co-founder of the MN Healing Justice Network, and an Evidence Based Birth Research Editor. She offers training in Reproductive Justice Bodywork, sliding scale and health equity practices, and is an appointed member of the MN Maternal Mortality Review Committee. You can follow her online at www.ihotuali.com or @ihotuali.

SHE/THEY

BODYWORKER & ARTIST

Wednesdays and Thursdays

My role as a practitioner is to help each client gain a better sense of their own body through massage and movement. Individualized Sessions help clients identify, relax, and release patterns of trauma, stress, and tension. Malia uses a range of tools including: Fascia unwinding; Supported movement and assisted stretching; Deep tissue massage; Myofascial release; Abdominal massage; Craniosacral holding; Quiet, slow forms of touch that communicate with the body with gentleness and calm; and subtle methods to integrate shifts and changes. Every session is unique, responding to your body’s needs.

Book a session now at : https://oshuncenter.as.me/Malia

Eternal Spring Chi Kung Classes

Eternal Spring Chi Kung is a comprehensive series of 12 movements designed for people of all ages and physical abilities. Eternal Spring Chi Kung exercises strengthen muscles, ligaments, and tendons; develop alignment and balance, and connect mind and body through the breath. It's a workout that will leave you energized and refreshed. The exercises are simple and easy to learn, and can be adjusted to match your current physical ability. There is an emphasis is on slow and steady growth, and developing inner discipline.

Eternal Spring Chi Kung was developed by Tai Chi Grandmaster C.K. Chu. He writes, "Rooted in the fundamentals of Nei Kung and Tai Chi Chuan, it represents a gentle and reliable guide to cultivate chi in the human body. Simply put, chi is the Chinese word used to describe the life force, the same vital energy which links us to all of nature. Chi Kung translates literally as "energy training."" https://ckchutaichi.com/core_curriculum/eternal_spring/

*Sign up at https://www.oshuncenter.com/contact to receive information and updates on Chi Kung classes.

For more information, visit:

Healing Arts – www.kochikara.com

Arts and Education – www.artsbymalia.com

SHE/HER

BODYWORKER, DOULA, & LACTATION CONSULTANT

Mondays

Kaytee Crawford supports individuals and families in pregnancy, birth, and postpartum as a craniosacral therapist for both adults and children, advanced beginner herbalist, a childbirth educator, babywearing educator, birth and postpartum doula, and a Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) offering breastfeeding and chest-feeding support. She uses her training, combined with a wealth of experience parenting four boys, to create personalized care as well as fun, insightful social media content. (Check out her Instagram @doulakaytee!)

Kaytee is passionate about sharing her experiences in pregnancy and as a Black woman and a person living in a larger body in order to create safer, trauma-free experiences for others. She brings these experiences to her work with clients to provide holistic, evidence based, and individualized care.

Kaytee lives on the East Side of St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband and four sons. In her free time she loves to create art.

Kaytee is currently taking appointments for CST for infants and lactation consulting for parents.

SHE/THEY

BODYWORKER & CONSULTANT

Wednesdays

The Founder of Formation Healing Arts, Anna Meyer, is an organizer, holistic healing practitioner, and artist working in local and national LGBTQ and BIPOC communities for over 25 years. Anna focuses on supporting vital connections with ourselves, each other, our natural world, and the systems we all live within.

Anna is skilled in creating, supporting, and holding space for folks to be seen, supported, and resourced with a grounded intersectional harm reduction trauma-informed framework. Anna's healing justice work is grounded and centered with queer, trans, gender non-conforming, two-spirit, people of color, black and indigenous folks and all are welcome.

Anna is the Board of Directors Co-Chair of the MN Healing Justice Network and works with RARE Productions as an Artist, Curator, and Event Manager. Anna was the Co-Founder of the beloved Cafe SouthSide in South Minneapolis. Anna is trained in multiple holistic healing modalities and holds a B.A. cum laude in Women's Studies with an emphasis on Queer & Gender Studies, Photography, and American Indian Studies from the University of MN.

Anna is a light-skinned mixed race (white, mexican, and native), non-binary disabled queer who lives, loves, and works on Dakota land in South Minneapolis and beyond. Book an appointment with her at Formation Healing Arts

THEY/THEM

BODYWORKER & HERBALIST

Tuesdays

rowan offers a soft and grounded space for biodynamic craniosacral therapy, herbal consultations, cupping, foot wash and massage, platicas (deep listening/heart conversations), flower essence consultations and holistic health coaching. rowan also offers sessions in English and Spanish.

rowan is an indigenous mixed, Xicanx/SWANA, queer, trans, non-binary, neurodivergent, disabled community herbalist & bodyworker, facilitator, mixed media art/puppetry, full spectrum support companion and humxn dandelion puff. Living in Mnisota Makoce.

Their healing work focuses on transition, connection, laughter and liberation. Rooted in healing justice praxis. When not working, they are off listening to and smiling with the elements and ancestors around us, growing food/medicine or chilling with their animal and humxn friends. Sometimes a mushroom or a beet, in rest + play.

SHE/HER

BODYWORKER & TATTOO ARTIST

Thursdays and Saturdays

Paula Valenzuela is a dedicated body worker with a Thai massage certification and continuous learner of healing with art and human to human connection. She has lived with the Fibromyalgia for most of her adult life and learned that Thai massage is the best type of bodywork for chronic pain. She made it her mission to help others heal and in this she finds healing for herself too.

She possesses a unique ability of easily connecting with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. She is a creative person that channels her ability to make art from nothing, and listening to the body's need to heal. Paula recognizes the universal need for acceptance, compassion and emotional healing. She hopes to help you bring a deeper connection to yourself and your biological capability to heal.

HE/HIM

BODYWORKER & ACU STUDENT

Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays

Contact: presbran@gmail.com

Since a young age, Preston has enjoyed helping others. He has found massage to be a great way to get people back into their bodies. It’s so easy to feel disconnected and to worry about the past while stressing about the future. Preston sees massage as an opportunity to become present with yourself, including your body, mind and spirit and to be able to check in with yourself and recalibrate. He enjoys giving relaxation/energetic massages where the person feels at ease. This includes energy work, craniosacral massage, and hands off techniques. He believes that massage can help on anyone’s health journey.

He knows that many individuals suffer from pain and he sees massage as a great tool to curb it as well. He also enjoys doing deeper massage work, including myofascial release, trigger point therapy and deep tissue when needed.

Preston is currently in school for acupuncture. He has been incorporating his knowledge about Traditional Chinese Medicine into his practice. He likes working with the meridians of the body and acupressure points within session. Acupressure can be very effective. Each massage is custom fit for the person and their needs during session.

Preston also enjoys connecting with the client via dialog before and after session, if the client desires to see in what exact ways he can assist in healing. This can include compassionate listening/talking or pulling cards for clarification or simple breathing exercises.

Preston is a queer, gay, black male who understands the need for a safe and healing space for all. He has his BA in Sociology and Political Science and seeks to know more about himself and others each day.

He sees it as a way to help people to live deeper within their bodies, to be present in the moment.

SHE/THEY

MOVEMENT-AS-LIFE-PRACTICE

Alanna is an award-winning dancer and choreographer, trauma-informed educator, and compassionate arts and cultural and community leader. She directs a small arts and cultural organization, I A.M. Arts, presenting critical dance performance for the general public; wholistic arts educational programs for BIPOC healers and early career dancers of colour; and community arts programs to support mid-career women entrepreneurs and BIPOC creatives. Alanna’s birth card is a 6 of clubs–the Messenger card of Higher Purpose with a Queen of Hearts planetary ruling card. She is a ¼ Pure Generator with a defined Sacral Authority.

A daughter of a Tobagonian Mom and a Grenadian Dad, her early life was shaped by the Afro Caribbean culture of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NYC. Relocating to Minnesota upon graduating from The Juilliard School in 2007 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance, Alanna’s background in contemporary dance has allowed her to work with some of the world’s finest choreographers and study with some of the world’s most brilliant teachers; and yet, after a 21 years, she realized that she paid a high cost for that elite training and experience. Sacrificing slow and deep listening for a results-oriented and product-centered culture; self and communal care for the good of the program/institution/movement-aesthetic/choreographic work; and submitting to top-down leaderships models instead of communal responsibility and consent created a distrust of herself for the sake of the Voice in the front of the room.

Alanna has found liberation in her life through movement-as-life-practice, which is an integrated, sensual and harmonious life, activated through ritual, self and collective care, and ancestral responsibility. An Ifá/Òrìṣà devotee, she is a humanist, pan-africanist, and follower of indigenous ways and animist technologies.

Alanna offers an embodied, hands-on, equity-driven, therapeutic voyage for BIPOC healers that is inquisitive about how contemporary and traditional dances/movement signatures, somatic healing, breathwork, postural restoration, and the observation of our body-mind states can be grounded in justice. Black Light research is a praxis and methodology she stewards through embodied practice and performance. This practice especially supports people, like her, who navigate chronic pain and physical discomfort.

Roots and Wings LLC also offers top tier arts and cultural program management, events coordination, and coaching to independent creatives/artists and groups. This brings together 16 years of Alanna’s experience, helping people connect more deeply to their missions and better serve their communities.

For partnership in performance, education, and/or community development initiatives: visit: www.iamartss.com

To work with Alanna directly: www.iamartss.com/booking

For support in arts & cultural program management and events coordination: https://www.iamartss.com/rootsandwings