Our collective

Chetna Mehta (she/They)

CREATIVE DIRECTION
Ohlone Land (Berkeley, CA)

Chetna is a granddaughter of Indian and South African diasporas. Their training, education and experiences span social sciences, counseling psychology, yoga philosophy and practice from a liberation-oriented perspective, cultural exchange, media and entertainment, leadership and mentorship, somatics, expressive healing arts and cultivating peaceful circles. She connects disruptors, educators and changemakers to the wealth and wisdom of our creative embodied alchemy.

Chetna is a full-time employee.

Jess Gutierrez (she/they)

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Ohlone, Muwekma, Tamien Nation Land (San Jose, CA)

Jess is an educator, artist/designer, arts curator, and community connector. Jess believes everyone should have access to create and express through art. She actively seeks ways that she can engage people in meaningful creative expression and build bridges across communities through active engagement, curation, workshops, and collaborations with other local creatives.

She emphasizes holding space and providing opportunities for BBIPOC artists, LGBTQ+ artists, and any other folks of marginalized identities that are historically under-resourced, underrepresented, and not welcome to be their full selves in institutionalized spaces.

Jess is a part-time contractor.

Lakshmi nair
(she/her)

WRITING & EDUCATION
Arapahoe, Sioux, Cheyenne, Ute Land (Denver, CO)

Lakshmi has been teaching yoga for 20 years in the lands of the Nuché, Tsisistas, and Hinono’ei peoples known colonially as Denver, CO. She’s been offering a yoga immersion/teacher training program for BIPOC since 2014 and in 2018, she co-founded Satya Yoga Cooperative, a yoga co-op by and for BIPOC healing.

Lakshmi is a project-based contributor.

Maisha Aza (She/they)

WRITING
Muskogee Land (Atlanta, GA)

Maisha MSW, CMT, founder of Black Girl Tantra, LLC is a fat, black, queer Tantric Shaman, and Intuitive. Maisha holds the door open and the mirror up for black indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) who have been marginalized and unaccepted within their own communities, families, and society.

They help people access their sexual power for healing psycho-sexual and spiritual wounds as a result of interpersonal, cultural, religious and ancestral trauma.  Centering women, queer, trans and non-binary folx, Maisha helps people grow their self-intimacy, self-trust, and body autonomy through erotically embodied practices.

Maisha is a project-based contributor.

Leena Sharma Seth (She/Her)

ADVISING & WRITING
Anishinabewaki, Haudenosaunee, Attiwonderonk and Mississauga + Land (Ontario, Canada)

Leena is a settler who is cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, and a child of hindu, panjabi, and brahmin immigrants from India. As the Founder of Mending the Chasm, a boutique consultancy focusing on advancing equity, inclusion justice, and belonging, Leena brings a set of lived and intersectional experiences to her work as a facilitator, strategist, conflict transformation expert, inclusion advisor, and inclusive process designer.

Leena is a project-based contributor.

Adesina Brown (they/them)

EDITING
Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla + Land (Portland, OR)

Adesina is a biracial Black Trinidadian and white, queer, non-binary author and editor who centers QTPOC in all their work. Their poetry has been previously featured in Giving Room, Plants & Poetry, Minola Review, and more. “Where the Rain Cannot Reach” is their debut novel, published with Atmosphere Press.

To find more of their work, visit their website.

Adesina is a project-based contributor.

Michelle Castor (she/they)

FACILITATION
Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Stl’pulmsh/Cowlitz and Clackamas + (Portland, OR)

Michelle is a mixed latinx queer femme of color and a portal doula. They work with folks navigating the portal-like experiences of grief & loss, fertility/TTC, and the postpartum. Michelle’s offerings include 1:1 and group space holding, somatic care, intuitive coaching, and herbal remedios to help hold a gentle and steady chrysalis for those going through their “goo eras.” Learn more about their work at aguasangrehealing.com, and find her on IG @aguasangrehealing

Michelle is facilitating the grief circles this season in The River.