WE USE EARTH MEDICINE TO HEAL OUR TRAUMA AND RECONNECT TO MOTHER EARTH - TOGETHER!
Greetings from the Earthlodge Founder

Queen Hollins is an elder queer Black Indigenous healer and the Founder and Director of the Earthlodge Center for Transformation (the Earthlodge). Her work centers those who struggle with mental, emotional, and spiritual health issues such as PTSD, abuse, depression, bipolar and anxiety. Earth medicine gently interrupts the trauma and crisis, providing an opening for rebalance and harmony. The Earthlodge specializes in providing safe and sacred space for healing justice work for marginalized communities of diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds, especially BIPOC and / or LGBTQIAS+ community members. Queen and the Earthlodge serve to reconnect our communities with the wisdom, healing and nature based teachings of the Earth influenced by Black Southern indigenous tradition. We engage our communities through education, community building, ceremony, health promotor leadership development and hands-on service. The Earthlodge community has found that meaningfully connecting to the Earth is one of the best ways to ground the mind and soul, and address trauma.

Rooted in Mississippi tradition, Queen came to understand that the legacy of African American indigenous healing practices that she inherited from her grandmother could be adapted to serve urban communities by putting them in direct contact with the earth (land, trees, nature, ocean) and building a relationship with nature. 

Queen’s legacy contribution  is informed by her long held ties with many Black cultural and spiritual organizations throughout the Los Angeles community including South Bay Community Care; Dignity and Power Now; Black Lesbians United (BLU) and United Lesbians of African Heritage (ULOAH); Afrikan Study (ASCAT); Black Gnostics Studies with Dr. Alfred Legon; the Aquarian Spiritual Center; Black Health Equity Collaborative (BHEC); Southern California Black Worker Hub; Solidarity Yaad Farms; Espejos Casa Ceremonial; the African Cultural Center of Long Beach; Baba Dadisi Sanyike, founder of Dembebrah (West African Dance); Women’s Ontario Drum Camp; the Youth Justice Coalition, and my Black liberation and healing justice work in jails, conferences, festivals, detention centers and schools to spread culture, ritual dance, performance, and Earth medicine.

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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.​

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Haydée Adelita Cuza, EdD (pronounced I-day, she/her) is an experienced executive leader, budget/finance strategist, and advisor specializing in race and class conscious organizational strategy and implementation with nonprofit, philanthropic, and government organizations.

​Her experiences being Cuban-American, mixed race, fem queer womyn, child of revolutionaries, mommy, lita, wife, daughter, sister, tia, titi, cousin, doctora, friend, and a grain of sand in our vast universe are fully present in her journey through this life.

In her own words, "I am deeply grateful to be in partnership with a healing-centered, justice-focused, and love-filled community committed to healing and growing through the transformative power of co-creation, stumbling blocks, and celebrations."

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Guadalupe Chavez (Agua Dulce, she/her/they/them), MFT, is an Abolitionist parent, flower alchemist and herbal medicine maker and farmer. She has been studying flower and plant spirit medicine since 2009 as an apprentice to their teacher Queen Hollins and to the earth herself in occupied Tongva land, Los Angeles. Agua Dulce is a fierce believer in healing justice and transformative justice as strategies towards building a world without borders and cages. They spend much of their time as an organizational consultant organizing healers into movement work focused on liberation and justice for LGBTQI+, BIPOC, and economically impoverished communities. Agua Dulce is the Healing Justice Organizer for Justice Teams Network, where she is building out a California statewide Healers Network. Agua Dulce has been invited to train and coach communities across California and the U.S. in implementing Healing Justice principles, practices into their organizational operations and HR systems.

​Agua Dulce is most excited about sharing sacred medicine making and earth based rituals as an essential part of Abolitionist movements. Agua Dulce has a private practice where she weaves together earth-based spiritual rituals and tools, plant medicine, and talk therapy. Visit her at Agua Dulce Healing.

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Meet Our Earth Medicine Anchor Leaders / Healers Network
Our Community of Earth Medicine Healers Continues to Grow.

Aleah: Programming Team, Orchid Moon Astrology, Tarot Reading, and Earthlodge Kids

Cheyenne Cheyblues: Youth and Young Adult Rites of Passage, Programming Team, Project Bloom and Earthlodge Teens

Night Sky-Metzli: Gatekeeper, Holder of Mental Health Limpia

Dr. Tanya Gilbert, Psy.D:
 Holistic Transformation Wellness Coach, Trauma Healer, Master Teacher, Sound Practitioner, Priestess

In Memoriam
Mango Gwen: Earth Steward, Healer, Grants Writer and QTPOC Researcher, and Multidisciplinary International Artists-in-Residence 
mirroredfatality.com

Yardenna "Denna Dean" Aaron: Board Chair and Gatekeeper

Guadalupe Chavez (Agua Dulce): Board Member and Gatekeeper

Maylei Blackwell: Queer writer, activist, and occasional poet. Scholar and author. UCLA Professor. Certified Energy Healer and Spiritual Counselor. Ordained member of the Order of Interbeing. Facilitator of the biweekly QTBIPOC-centered Sangha at the Earthlodge

Luz Elena: Drum Wellness Circle Coordination, Compost Toilet Maintenance Team, and Water Technician

Cynthia Ruffin​: Interim Program Director, Drum Wellness Circle, Liberation Artist, Activist, Writer

Gi Salvatierra: Community Educator, Compost Enthusiast, and Dancer

Ayofemi: Womb Healer and Chinese Medicine Herbalist

Marie: Sacred Circle Keeper and Professor

Kaylyn Wright: Youth and Young Adult Rites of Passage Coordinator,
 Artist, Educator, Program Coordinator & Teaching Artist at the SMILE-ing Boys Project in South Central LA

Tamika Aaron: Operations, Tapping into Wealth and Wellness Coach

Karina Muñiz-Pagán: Gatekeeper, Earth Steward, Drum Wellness Circle, Sanctuary Writing Coach, Storyteller, Healer, and Dancer

Anissa Sukkar: Gatekeeper,
​Event, Team, and Newsletter Coordinator, Ritualist and Ceremonial Artist, Reiki Practitioner, RYT-200 Yoga Instructor
www.thesparklepath.com

Samar S.: Earth Steward, Healer, Grants Writer and QTPOC Researcher, and Multidisciplinary International Artists-in-Residence 
mirroredfatality.com

Kim Tabari​: Earthlodge QTBIPOC-centered Sangha facilitator

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Our Beloved Alumni

Danielle: Earth Steward, Landscaper, Construction, Crystal Medicine

Millo: Earth Steward and Construction Specialist

Delia: Earth Pit Construction, Earth Steward, Massage, Somatics

Scott: Sacred tobacco and herb mixtures, Earth Steward, and MAC Group

Creating a Nu Legacy. All Rights Reserved.