Our Ancestors’ Children

26/10/2022

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Noha Arafa (they/she) believes healing is an integral piece of building an equitable and just society. They believe everyone has a fundamental right to health, healing, and rest. They see slowing down and prioritizing self- and collective-care as a brave act of resistance.⁠
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Noha, a co-founder of the Trans Yoga Project, is presenting in our upcoming online course, Transcending Binaries: Yoga, Gender, & Embodiment. Plus, on Tuesday, they are offering a free mini-workshop, Trans 101: Language Matters.⁠
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Want to learn more from Noha and unlearn myths about gender, identity, and more in the context of yoga? Link in bio.⁠
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[Image ID: A dusty blue graphic with white text that reads: “Noha believes healing is an integral piece of building an equitable and just society. They believe everyone has a fundamental right to health, healing, and rest. They see slowing down and prioritizing self- and collective-care as a brave act of resistance.” Below on the left are 2 lines of pink text that read: “Noha Arafa. They/she.” Below is a set of 3 triangles, which are blue, white and pink. On the right is an image of Noha seated with their eyes closed and hands in their lap, wearing a grey shirt and purple yoga pants.]

08/10/2022

I’m so excited to present at this year’s Accessible Yoga Conference Online, which takes place October 14-16. This event, featuring 35 diverse presenters who serve the collective in varied ways, is bringing us together to celebrate the significance of self and community care.

I am participating in a panel alongside my collaborators & , titled Centering the Trans and Non-Binary Community in Yoga. will be hosting!

Often we talk about including historically and currently marginalized and excluded folks in our yoga spaces, but what does it look like to actually center trans and non-binary students, teachers, and community members rather than seeking to include them? In this panel conversation, we’ll explore honest conversation with several yoga teachers who embody and practice this level of centering, and we’ll share thoughts and invitations for allies to do the same.

DETAILS:
- Tiered pricing and scholarships are available.
- Replays will be available for one year following the conference.
- Plus, the Preconference Intensive, Beyond Inclusivity: Making Yoga Truly Accessible, is free!

Learn more and register at the link in my bio!



[Image: Cerulean graphic with the conference logo, which is white and seafoam green text, angled upward, reading, “Moving From Me to We. Accessible Yoga Conference Online. October 14-16, 2022.” At the center is my headshot with curved, transparent white bands behind it.]

07/10/2022

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“Dismantle the binaries that are barriers to experiencing and teaching yoga as a bliss and liberation practice.”

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Transcending Binaries: Yoga, Gender, & Embodiment

Don’t miss this live, online training facilitated by Trans Yoga Project co-founders: Zel Amanzi, Noha Arafa, Rebby Kern, Puja Singh Titchkosky, M Camellia & Daniel Sannito

- November 1, 3, 15, 17
- Tiered pricing & payment plans available
- Partial scholarships applications now open! (Deadline to apply is October 21st).

FREE mini-workshop and info session takes place on October 18.

Link in bio!

[Image: A dusty blue graphic with light blue and pink text displaying the quote from the caption, along with the title and tagline of the online course. Below are teal, light blue, and pink triangles facing up and down. Along the bottom, light blue text reads, “Trans Yoga Project x Accessible Yoga School.”]

17/05/2022

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SEYN Spring Gathering: Yoga and the Roots of Healing Justice - Abolition

"People do abolition every day when they connect to their community, learn how to take accountability, and foster communal responsibility for preventing and responding to harm."
-Reiana Sultan and Micah Herskind campaign

We’ll explore together abolition as a root of healing justice, and what it looks like in practice in our communities, families, and selves including how we share and practice yoga and other healing modalities.

🌷Honor collective and individual liberation with an opening ritual from Peregrine Bermas of

💚Engage with compelling ideas around abolition , accountability, transformative justice, imagining possibility, and yoga with a stellar panel of organizers and healers:
✺Damon A. Williams of , and
✺Noha Arafa, trauma informed yoga facilitator, human rights attorney, of and
✺abolitionist educator, author and artist Benji Hart
✺diasporic artist, yoga facilitator and freedom fighting herbalist Peregrine Bermas of !

🌷Dive deeper and make new connections in the breakout sessions.

💚Integrate and embody with an accessible, relevant yoga practice from yoga facilitator and abolitionist Noha Arafa.

🌷Connect with culturally relevant yoga resources for continued support, and/or plug in to supporting abolitionist organizing if you haven’t already!

Live captioning provided. We won't have ASL interpreters. We will describe appearances and do our best to describe the practices. We’ll have a break between the yoga and the panel. Please let us know within a week of the event if there are any accommodations you require and we'll do our best.

BIPOC break room available throughout the event

Recording and resources doc available to all who register.

Thank you to Crossroads Fund, Healthy Communities Foundation, and the Albert and Anne Mansfield Foundation for support of SEYN's Yoga and the Roots of Healing Justice event series
Link in bio and highlights

24/04/2022

Searching in Serra…

Image ID in captions.

16/02/2022

Khalo.

Blessed to have been loved by you. ♥️

14/12/2021

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The Body Politic is our bookend piece to our Issue 03, SHE/HER. Since wellness (or the marketable idea of it) is so pervasive in our current purview, we wanted to explore the ideas of what wellness really should look like in society today, beyond the branding, shiny photos, cute packaging, and lingo that pervades movement classes and the wellness industry in general. What would safe healing spaces look like? What should they look like? Enter Noha Arafa.

Noha Arafa (they/she), the author of The Body Politic, dives into the problematic world of yoga, healing spaces, and wellness, examining the idea that until everyone experiences the same amount of safety and privilege in health, and society at large, we are all collectively unwell.

Noha is the founder of Our Ancestors' Children, which offers community-based trauma-informed Yoga, and the co-founder of the Trans Yoga Project, which creates affirming spaces for Trans, non-binary, and Q***r people through (re)education, community building, and Yoga classes. They believe that rest, healing, and well-being are human rights. Their healing journey as a survivor and work as a public defender and anti-police activist led them to practice, and then ultimately teach Yoga. They reside in Los Angeles, California on occupied Kizh, Chumash, and Gabrielino/Tongva land.

Noha is currently studying for the California Bar exam and will resume virtual and in person classes in April. Stay in touch with them via Our Ancestors’ Children 𓂀].

Click on the link in our bio to read The Body Politic.

📸: Our Ancestors’ Children 𓂀]
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08/12/2021

This summer I was asked by Torpedo Journal]]’s editor-in-chief to write an essay on the importance of representation & equity in healing and wellness spaces, especially for those of us historically marginalized by dominant culture.

Grateful for everyone who helped me w the writing process Torpedo Journal]] .

Link in bio!

Torpedo Journal]]
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Should wellness be a human right?

In the past few years, the wellness industry has been called to task - never mind the fact that incessant capitalism is woven into all aspects of health, wellbeing, and “self-care”, but what should the wellness industry really look like if it is to benefit everyone and not just the privileged?

In the Spring, we reached out to Noah Arafa (they/she), a neurodivergent, Q***r, non-binary, Egyptian, Yoga teacher, and Human Rights attorney. They are the founder of Our Ancestors' Children, which offers community-based trauma-informed Yoga, and the co-founder of the Trans Yoga Project, which creates affirming spaces for Trans, non-binary, and Q***r people through (re)education, community building, and Yoga classes. They kindly spent a dedicated amount of time writing a Guest Essay for us about the significance of expanding our wellness spaces to include members of society who would benefit from healing the most, but who are not represented in the community itself.

“I was inspired to write ‘The Body Politic’ to highlight the need for representation and equity in healing spaces. To me, this means working to actively dismantle systems of oppression not only in healing spaces, but also in society at large, since there is no wellness when sexism, racism, classism, and ableism exist. None of us are well in a society rooted in greed, exploitation, and domination. None of us are well until all of us are well - until we all have what we need to be safe, survive, and thrive.”

Dive into the link in our bio to read Noha’s impassioned account on wellness as a human right.

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01/12/2021

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⁣Reminder on this that silence still equals death. ⠀
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We lost an entire generation of q***r ppl bc of the Reagan administration’s homophobic violence & their refusal to acknowledge the AIDS crisis. ⠀
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We must honor the LGBTQ activists that dedicated their lives fighting AIDS but we must remember that the fight still isn’t over.
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36 million ppl have died from AIDS worldwide & 1 million ppl continue to die yearly. In some countries, it's the leading cause of death disproportionally impacting marginalized communities who remain stigmatized, underserved, & neglected.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated injustices in healthcare by diverting resources from the fight against AIDS.
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There is still so much to be done. Let’s mourn the dead but fight like hell for the living. ✊🏽

18/11/2021

Childhood trauma can look like struggling with:
• feeling confident
• forming new relationships
• trusting others
• feeling insecure
• self-destructive behavior.
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Image Description: six light pink slides, with of a piece of graphing paper in the center of each slide. There is a red poppy at the bottom left had corner of the slides as well as a text box which reads, . There is text on each slide which read:
Slide 1: Childhood trauma can look like...
Slide 2: struggling with feeling confident
Slide 3: struggling with forming new relationships
Slide 4: struggling with trusting others
Slide 5: struggling with feeling insecure
Slide 6: struggling with self-destructive behavior
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16/11/2021

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We are coming together to hold space for our community on November 20th, Trans Day of Remembrance. Each year, since its founding by Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999, TDOR has been observed to honor the lives of our Trans* siblings taken far too soon.

Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded this day following the murder of Rita Hester, a Black Trans woman in Massachusetts. To this day, there has been no justice for Rita, or for many of our other Trans* siblings stolen through transphobic violence.

The number of lives lost is staggering, and even so, we know that many of those we’ve lost, for a variety of reasons, are not included in these numbers. We gather to honor the lives taken far too soon, we come together to hold space for our grief in community. AND as we hold our grief we also recognize our communities ability to continue thriving.

This year, we’ve seen an attack on trans communities nationwide through over one hundred anti trans pieces of legislation. Globally, transgender people are criminalized in 37 countries.

Yet we continue to show up and live vibrantly; loving, creating, and speaking truth. As we gather to mourn those lost, we also create space to celebrate Trans* life.

Join us on November 20th, 2021 at 4:30p PT // 7:30p ET. We’ll begin with a guided meditation, followed by a reading of names. After the memorial, we’ll stay on to celebrate Trans* art, creativity, and joy with an open mic and art share, kicked off by event host Puja Titchkosky (). All Trans*, non-binary, Two Spirit, GNC, and gender-expansive siblings are invited to share their offerings with us.

This event is FREE and open to all. It will be captioned and held via Zoom.
Please RSVP at the link in our bio!



Image Description in comments.

12/11/2021