“Sing, y’all! And Go to the Water!”

Down By The Riverside, our monthly intergenerational circle, always brings joy and nourishment. Here one of our beloved elders, Storyteller and Percussionist Mama Edie McCloud Armstrong, speaks to the power of Sound.

A word from Nana Korantema:

When I think about Wind & Warrior, I believe at our core, at our root, that we are love personified. I believe in our capacity to be transparent, to be uncomfortable, to be joyful, to be grief-filled, to recognize that we are healing vessels, to be called out, to be called in, to be stretched beyond what we think is our capacity, to recognize that we are amazing intermediaries. It's such a powerful sourcing. It's a trust that continues to unfold and womanifest. It's knowing our divinity, individually and collectively. I have deep gratitude for Wind & Warrior and my sisters, deep like the Earth's molten deep, deep, deep, knowing that their support and alignment is there. Factual. No question. It reminds me of the brilliance I am, and it helps me to stay focused in that awareness. I pray deeply that I never cease to be amazed at the abundant blessings we get to live, and the gift and that knowing. I love y'all.

Nana Korantema

A word from Ife Afriye:

It's humbling and awesome that The Wind & The Warrior is celebrating its tenth year! As a co-founder, my heart is truly overwhelmed with gratitude for the profound blessing of my sisters and this community. We are a small group of spirit-led folks committed to living in sacred relationship with the planet and one another, deeply honoring those who came before and those who will come beyond.

What I love most is watching the seeds of our collective power and ancestral wisdom—planted with intention—blossom into profound, liberated action within our community. Personally, I continue to learn and grow with each passing moment, guided by this collective journey.

I extend deep thanks for the beloved presence and invaluable guidance of our elders, and celebrate all who contribute to the divine evolution of this movement. Here’s to many more years of shared growth and sacred work!

Ife Afriye

WIND & WARRIOR BLACK AUGUST PORTAL

Dear Wind & Warrior Family,

We are grateful to be able to connect with you during this third quarter of our 10th Anniversary Year!

We are grateful to share that all of us continue to re-commit to our collective well-being, and we extend our hearts to be with you where you are.

ALL OUR LOVE!

THE WIND & THE WARRIOR

FOR FOLKS WHO ATTENDED THE WWILH ABUNDANCE CYPHER: A LOVING REMINDER, IF YOU HAVE NOT YET, PLEASE CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE TO REDEEM YOUR GIFT CARD. SEARCH YOUR INBOX FOR SACRED VIBES TO FIND YOUR UNIQUE CODE AND REDEEM YOUR GIFT. GIFT CARDS DON’T EXPIRE. TREAT YOURSELF!

(If this is not you, please don’t fret…there will be many upcoming opportunities to connect in person and virtually!)

Wind & Warrior Institute for Liberatory Healing completed our Practitioner Training Cohort’s Summer Intensive in July. Here’s a brief video clip that drops you into the center of a conversation on living the solution(s) in our shared embodied practice…

AS WE MOVE THROUGH PORTALS OF TIME AND SPACE, WE WATCH THE SKY THAT MIRRORS OUR PASSAGE….For more on the sacred geometry and electromagnetics informing our cosmic weather…click the button above to read insights from our fav astrologer, chani nicholas…

BLACK AUGUST,

EMBODYING FREEDOM

Dooo Youuu Know What This Year Is? It's Our Anniversary! Wind & Warrior Turns 10!

Wind & Warrior Institute for Liberatory healing hosts a monthly Community Circle for program alums, Down By The Riverside. In this video you’ll hear a collective meditation on the experience of Flow, interspersed with memory and contemplative practice distilled from our most recent virtual Riverside conversation. Here reflections are shared by W&W program alums in their 80’s, 50’s, and 20’s.

Wind & Warrior began in 2015 and we celebrate a decade of Black Feminist and eco-womanist spirit-warrior-activism this year in 2025! We are humbled that we've been able to cultivate relationships among the Co-Founders for over 30 years, having founded Wind & Warrior after two decades of sisterhood in cultural organizing. Our early years found us creating space for movement leaders to rest, grieve, heal and recharge. We held transformative retreats for change makers and front-line direct action practitioners. We received testimony that our offerings replenished the souls of intersecting movements for liberation. We catalyzed shifts in power sharing practices and relational infrastructure in groups where we co-cultivated change with our collaborators. Folks began to request that we offer more trainings. We began building what would become the Wind & Warrior Institute for Liberatory Healing. Our Inaugural Training Cohort entered in 2024 and has now completed the first half of their 3-year apprenticeship with us; we are most proud of their emergent leadership. Cohort Members are engaged in a comprehensive training curriculum leading to Practitioner Certification in Liberatory Healing Arts.

Mutual Aid for St. Louis on the Strawberry Moon

Our hearts ache for our beloved St. Louis, where so many are still grappling with the devastating aftermath of the tornado that ripped through the heart of the Black community. Homes, vital infrastructure, cherished gathering places, and access to essential food and water resources have been lost, displacing over 20,000 precious souls from their homes and schools. Yet, even in this profound sorrow, we are witnessing the incredible power of love and compassion. The community has risen, neighbor by neighbor, offering steadfast mutual aid and support, illuminating what true solidarity looks like when administrations fall short. Our spirits are lifted by the resilience and profound care emerging from the ground. Please see below for some ways to help this community in need of support: 

image by Brazilian/American photographer Christiana Ceppas

• Action St. Louis: Donate to Action St. Louis to help with on-the-ground resources and relief efforts. 

• InPower Institute: Reach out to InPower Institute to donate or help provide necessary resources to folks who have been displaced from their homes. 

• Black Healer’s Collective: Contribute to Black Healer’s Collective to help foster the healing of those affected by this devastating disaster. 

• Tornado Resource Guide: Review this tornado resource guide to see a variety of ways to reach out and help the St. Louis community. 

WW SPRING 2025 MBSR Mindfulness Course Welcomes You

MINDFULNESS Based Stress Reduction

Cultivate Calm 

Reduce Stress

Practice Awareness of Breath

Engage in Conscious Communication

Befriend Your Body, Befriend Your Mind

Enliven Your Senses

Access Acceptance

Experience the Present Moment

LEARN MORE

Transformative Love Will Win

WE CONTINUE TO GATHER ANCESTOR WARRIOR POWER….

Our Honored Ancestor Warriors from Central Mississippi

Unita Blackwell (1933-2019) &

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12

L: Unita Blackwell (1933-2019),SNCC activist; first Black woman mayor in Mississippi; mayor of Mayersville from 1976-2001. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964. R: Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)

Wind & Warrior 8-Week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course

Mindfulness is being alive to the present moment, without judgement. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is a practice rooted in both ancient tradition and empirical science. Be supported in community as you practice awareness of your unique embodied experience of each moment. Class meets once weekly on Zoom for 2.5 hours, and we hold a virtual retreat day at the sixth week of the course.

Abundance: Pay It Forward According to Your Means, and Graciously Receive:

Select Abundance: Pay It Forward According to Your Means, and Graciously Receive 500 250 750 900 1250

ENROLL NOW

Completion & The Spiral, Beginning Again

We began the Sacred Waters Pilgrimage on the Summer Solstice, on June 20, 2020.

with our kindred from Indigenous Environmental Network at Lake Itasca

On the Seventh Full Moon of our journey down the Mississippi River, we held ceremony to complete our pilgrimage on the Winter Solstice in Louisiana, both in New Orleans and in Plaquemines Parish, where the Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico.

with extended family, drumming for the Winter Solstice culmination of Sacred Waters Pilgrimage

Reflections at the Headwaters

Reflections 

“The Waters know your intentions.”

                                 -Renee Gurneau

It is early morning on the last day of June, and we’re in the last days at the headwaters. We began this journey with 24 hours of driving across a nation alternately siloed in homes and uprising in the streets, still finalizing the adaptations of the vision of 2019 for the realities of 2020.

We opened the pilgrimage on Juneteenth with a land altar and ceremony on a small shore where the river meets the city under a bridge.

Drums and offerings. Songs and prayer.

Gathering at the river’s edge, and wading in the water.

The previous evening, we were received with grace and storytelling into the home of Renee Gurneau, an Anishinaabe elder and wisdom keeper. We spent hours with her in her home that evening, along with two other women, including her daughter, Simone Senogles, who would join us in ceremony at the headwaters. We talked creation stories, popular music, water songs, family, uprisings, justice, and community. We laughed about the ways of tricksters that walk with us and the great mysteries of cable TV remote controls.

We made offerings, we asked permission.

We left that evening feeling full in many ways. We received permission and an expanded circle of community. Renee and her daughter extended calls to women who are water and wisdom keepers and women learning water ceremony. On the day of the summer solstice, we gathered at the headwaters for ceremony, we exchanged songs and gifts, and later conversation and contact information to stay connected with some who we were just meeting that day.

The Mississippi River begins relatively small. Her waters have a strong song, yet gentle flows here in Minnesota. She gains size and force as the river travels south.

This Sacred Waters Pilgrimage, because of the communities on the journey with us, and those in simultaneous ceremony and virtually community conversations, feels like it is following the same pattern.

Medase (thank you).

Gratitude

As our time at the headwaters draws to a close, we reflect with immense gratitude for the Anishinaabe elders, youth, and women who shared ceremony with us and all the wisdom, knowledge, laughter, and prayers offered; for an unforgettable boat ride to the northernmost point of the river, and for the joy of jumping in the water together. Thank you to the many who are trusting us on the journey of this pilgrimage, the water keepers and local communities along the stops, all who are joining us from home, our Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy partners, and Pilgrimage Circle teams. Thank you to all who are sending offerings and messages with us for the communities where we are traveling and sharing ceremony. Thank you to our families supporting us and holding it down at home during our time away. Thank you to the Ladyslippers, Dragonflies, Eagles, Loons, and Herons who greeted and visited with us over these weeks.

Thank you to the Ancestors and Spirit guides who open the ways for this pilgrimage, who protect and guide us on this journey.