The Ayni Healing Collective at Kota Alliance invites you to our Community Potluck Dinners for 2024 (Winter - Spring: March, April, May, June).

We join together each third Wednesday a month around a certain celebratory theme - this month we will celebrate Womxn + Femme Icons past and present for National Women's History Month.

We will share in a potluck dinner (we will bring the main dish and non-alcoholic refreshments), so feel free to bring a snack, chips, a non-alcoholic drink, side or desert (if you are able).

Our potluck space is a multigenerational space for community-building and connection that also centers young adults, especially folks in transition from homelessness, and our local BIPOC and QTBIPOC community members.

Join us for time together where we will open with practices for rest and relaxation and close each evening with a community ritual celebrating the theme of the month and ourselves.

EQUITY COMMITMENT: The Ayni Healing Collective is an inclusive and affirming space that honors all of our beautiful differences and respects all genders, sexualities, abilities and ethnicities. Come as you are in your full self and bring your own commitment to be respectful and honoring of each other's differences.

AGENDA: Loose and moveable based on the rhythm and flow of each gathering...

6:00 PM: Meet us at the Kota Alliance building (43 St. Nicholas Place, NY, NY) and connect with fellow community members while we share snacks and non-alcoholic beverages together and get settled in the space.

6:30 PM: Rotating facilitation by local BIPOC/QTBIPOC healers of practices for rest and relaxation to ground us in the space and equip us with tools for relaxation we can take out into the world. Following we will share in conversation or host a guest who will give us an offering related to our monthly theme.

7:00 PM: Our shared potluck meal-time will begin after some words of gratitude and reflections on our monthly theme for celebration.

7:45PM: Closing Ritual (outside in our patio space when the weather allows) that connects us to practices and rituals from a variety of ancestral lineages of wisdom and spiritual traditions. May include music, drumming or some other sound-based practice. Stay after to help us clean the community space if you have the time and capacity.

OUR GUIDES + CO-COORDINATORS OF AYNI HEALING COLLECTIVE:

DeenaLynn Dockery-Collins:

DeenaLynn is a Graduate of The New York College of Health Professions Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine; Acupuncturist, Herbalist, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Reiki Master/Teacher, Eastern Nutritionist, Certified Hatha Yoga Teacher, Qigong Practitioner and Spiritual Consultant. As a healer, her focus is on developing curricula and strong partnerships that support optimum health and well-being for individual and organizations. Her work is deeply centered around serving disenfranchised young adults and the BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ community. She builds relationships with her clients and patients to help them achieve their wellness goals and highest desires. She is a passionate, and dedicated health professional with more than 15 years of experience as a multidisciplinary healer, and trauma healing facilitator. She practices an integral, East/West approach to optimum wellness and believe joyful living depends bringing in to balance the 4 pillars of health: Body, Mind, Spirit, and Emotions. Learn more about DeenaLynn here.

Teresa Mateus: Teresa brings her background as a Clinical Social Worker, with her Masters in Clinical Social Work from New York University into the work of the Ayni Healing Collective. She was trained in Sivananda Yoga in 2009 and has practiced integrative mental health care as a trauma therapist for nearly 20 years, integrating mind-body-spirit care including somatic practices, creative arts, equine-facilitated psychotherapy, and mindfulness for healing trauma. She has also studied for years in the Andean Indigenous healer tradition of the Q’eros tribes from the high mountains above Cusco, Peru. Teresa was born in Bogota, Colombia and loves to return to the Andes whenever she can, back to her tierra sagrada (sacred land) of her birthplace. Learn more about Teresa at www.teresamateus.com.

ADDITIONAL SPACE INFORMATION:

WHAT TO WEAR: Come as you are in whatever is most comfortable to you. There are no expectations for how you show up - just that however you join is in respect and appreciation to the fellow attendees.

WHAT TO BRING/POTLUCK OFFERINGS: Ayni Collective coordinators will provide a main dish, beverages (non-alcoholic), and a desert for our potluck. Please bring anything you might want to share with the community for our potluck dinner - vegetarian snacks, vegetarian or vegan sides, non-alcoholic beverages. You can also always donate funds towards the meals through the donate button on any week. No pressure, only an optional invitation.

COVID POLICY: Kota Alliance + Ayni Healing Collective follow the NYC guidelines on keeping all of us safe and healthy. Vaccines are strongly encouraged. Masks are optional. Weather permitting, windows and doors are opened. Please stay home if you feel unwell for the protection of your own health and the health of the gathered community.

ACCESSIBILITY: Kota Alliance is located in the Sugar Hill neighborhood, between the A/B/C/D 145th Station and C 155th Station, along the M3 bus line. Parking is very limited, with few street spots; the nearest paid lots are at 414 W 155th St and 457 W 150th St. Kota Alliance occupies a historic building, without wheelchair accessibility, with steps inside. (We are fundraising to fix this.)

Steps up to the second floor - where our potlucks are hosted - are wide and have a railing for assistance. If needed, we can modify your seating to be on the first floor if it is not possible for you to access the second floor.

Ayni Healing Collective's work is grounded in the empowerment of young folx through multi-generational community-building and healing centering the ethic of liberation through holistic health, trauma-conscious care, sharing BIPOC/QTBIPOC ancestral wisdom and building collective power for social change and racial, gender and sexual equity. We are a partnered program of Kota Alliance in the historic Sugar Hill neighborhood of West Harlem.

The Kota Alliance is a non-profit Global Center for Gender Equity. Kota partners with organizations, entities, and individuals that seek to improve and empower women's lives through impactful collaboration. By sharing ideas and working together, we advance gender equity and promote women’s empowerment, both locally and globally.