WE USE EARTH MEDICINE TO HEAL OUR TRAUMA AND RECONNECT TO MOTHER EARTH - TOGETHER! Greetings from the Earthlodge Founder
Greetings Community,
My name is Queen Hollins and I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Earthlodge Center for Transformation (the Earthlodge). The Earthlodge was stablished in 2004 in my home in Long Beach, CA based on Black Southern Indigenous Healing Practices I learned from my grandmother as a child. The Earthlodge has become a beacon of inspiration and self-healing for womyn, LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, queer), children, gender non conforming communities and cis men who support the rise of the feminine energy on the planet. Through the Earthlodge, these communities have not only healed and transformed individually but the healing has shifted lineages of dysfunction, pain and trauma. The Earthlodge Center for Transformation is a spiritual sanctuary and oasis located in the urban area of Long Beach that provides a safe space for LGBTQI and women of all ages int women, queer and our allies of all races/social/spiritual/economical and cultural backgrounds to identify and heal their trauma, meet and build community with one another, fellowship, have ceremony, tend the earth and herbs, learn about nature based spiritual principles, to have sacred weddings, to have spiritual baby welcoming ceremonies (babyshowers), death rites of passage ceremonies, conduct nature based workshops and more. No one is turned away due to economic circumstances. Thus many of those we serve are people of color, low income and suffering from mental and emotional distress.
Meet our Board of Directors
Our Board Chair, Yardenna "Denna Dean" Aaron has volunteered at the Earthlodge for 9 years. They are a gender non-conforming Black LA native social justice activist who has been actively carrying on the tradition of social justice activisim across communities of color since 1999. Since 2011, they have worked to establish infrastructure for the healing justice work of the Earthlodge and the underserved and/or socially oppressed and often traumatized communities it serves. Politicized by the passing of Prop 209 while on scholarship at Occidental College, they've dedicated much of their life to righting the injustices and imbalances in their communities. They've brought research activism to SCOPE, the Security Officers Union SEIU 1877, co-founded the Here to Stay Visibility Coalition (Black Gay and Here to Stay) and they currently serve as Executive Director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund fighting for the rights of Latinx non union janitors throughout California. They graduated from Occidental College in 2000 and now not only fights for social and economic justice, but now also fights for healing justice to ensure the sustainability of our social justice work through the Earthlodge. They offer sacred drumming in addition to organizational development and fundraising at the Earthlodge.
Guadalupe Rocio Chavez is a queer abolitionist healer, parent, and gardener. She has been active in youth, cultural and social justice movements for 19 years. Guadalupe graduated from Antioch University Los Angeles with a M.A. in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on narrative and liberation psychologies. Her commitment to healing herself and her communities brought her to serve on the Board of Directors of Dignity and Power Now (DPN) at the organization’s inception. She came on as staff in June 2015 as the Director of Programs and in 2017 became the Director of Healing and Wellness. In this role her goal is to lead healing justice work that honors the powerful legacies of resiliency while addressing the traumas that the PIC, white supremacy, and imperialism force onto poor, Black, Latinx, and other Brown communities across Los Angeles County and beyond. She is committed to creating programs that embody Healing Justice and Transformative Justice as strategies towards Abolition.
Lastly, Guadalupe has a private practice where she weaves together earth-based spiritual rituals and tools, plant medicine, and talk therapy.
Iyatunde Oshunade Folayan is an AfroQueer Healer, Writer, Community Builder and Performance Artist. Iyatunde directed the first pilot program for housing Detroit’s homeless women veterans and through a unique collaboration with the award-winning SASHA Center, conducted the first healing and recovery sessions to foreground sexual trauma of women of color in the military. Reaching over 150 women in Los Angeles, Iyatunde set up some of the first county-wide workshops on Black women and mental health entitled “Are You Ok, Sis?” sponsored by Black Women for Wellness and funded by the LA County Department of Mental Health. Iyatunde programmed FAMILY PORTRAIT : the first look at Black LGBTQI family structures and traditions in Southern California for Black Lesbians United. Iyatunde committed herself to the practice of Earth Medicine and healing while training under Queen Hollins at the Earthlodge Center for Transformation where she supports it's growth by writing grants and creating ceremony as a Gatekeeper. Iyatunde has helped to provide Healing Justice and support for formerly incarcerated, women, andLGBTQI+ communities of color.
