SUMMER MESSAGE to our Friends and Family,

Summer 2011 Index

Page 1. Welcome/ SUMMER Message from the Collective! Page 2.& 3. Casa Wish list Endorse/Sponsor & a Message from the Young Womens Cultural Arts Empowerment & Leadership Program Page 4 & 5. CASA Introduces Carmen Mojica Program Director /Sept Calender Page 6 & 7 Special Events Coming up in Sept Simon Bolivar Foundation Funds CASA!
I am willing to release all

Special Thanks to the Collective at Casa The Legacy Circle, Manuela Arciniegas, Ines Mangual and Glenda Hernandez , Sojourner McCauley, Monique Kiera, Monique de la Oz and Mia Briones for being courageous, powerful and using Casa to manifest their creative spirits and for being passionate and standing for their commitment to heal and empower young women. A Special thanks to Omar Freilla for helping think outside the box. The WOC Healing Arts Collective is excited to bring you a line up of powerful wom(y)n this Fall , Oceana Rising, Bettys Daughter Arts Collaboartive, Alicia Anabel Santos and your ver y own Carmen Mojica to mention a few. We invite you to join our Womyn of Color & LGBTQ Healing Arts Collective , for more information contact Carmen Mojica Program Director @ carmenatcasa@gmail.com.

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO SUPPORT CASA AND YOUR INVITED!

1. We are looking for powerful, courageous, fearless womyn/gender non-conforming people of color to support us in creating an environmentally friendly healing and political space where transformation happens through the spirit to volunteer , intern or join our board today! Are you a healer, artist, organizer? We are rebuilding Casa and need support with providing workshops, painting a young womyns mural, affirmations and healing symbols. In addition we are reworking the space to be environmentally friendly and looking for folks who do carpentry. Let us know if you are willing to donate a few hours to end violence against womyn and creating safe space. Make a donation today @ Casa Atabex Ache.org, site . Your financial support makes this work possible. Please join our facebook page to get up to date information and follow us on our NEW Twitter page..http://twitter.com/casaatabexache For more information email us at casaatabexache@aol.com or call the leadership collective at 718-585-5540.

2.

Summer Affirmations
fears, worries and concerns about money, my career, safety, and protection.

3.
I am willing to release all my fears and struggles that have to do with power and control. I fully step into my power now. It is safe for me to be powerful and I accept my Goddess-given power to be used in the service of love and light.

4.

CASA Mission Statement

Casa has rich legacy of supporting womyn of color heal from internalized oppression by reconnecting with their individual and collective powers of healing and action so they may transform their lives, families and communities. Utilizing a self-healing and social justice model, Casas mission is to support womyn to identify the emotional, spiritual, physical and mental impact that their experiences of abuse ,neglect, oppression (sexism, homophobia, classism, racism and xenophobia, trans-phobia), violence and poverty has on their reproductive and mental health.

Supply/ Wish List Fall 2011

Dear Supporter, It is our pleasure to submit this letter of support on behalf of Casa Atabex Ache/House of Womyns' Power located in New York Citys Mott Haven community. We would like to invite you to sponsor/endorse our Cultural Arts Empowerment & Leadership Afterschool program for young women ages 10-18. Casa is located in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district of NYS and has been recently been ranked the un healthiest of New York 62 counties; leaving young women vulnerable to obesity (eating disorders), child sexual abuse, drugs, illiteracy domestic violence and HIV/AIDS. The economic crisis has also left this already under resourced community with no after school or recreational programming, overcrowded schools with no support, no library and safe spaces for young women to find their voice, self esteem and be the powerful leaders they can be. We are asking for you to not only donate but build a sustainable relationship with us and sponsor our program this year, ensuring the survival and power of young women. Sponsorship/Endorse by: Making a monetary donation, Provide gift certificates, goody bag items, promotional goods to support the creation of our space. Donate concrete supplies from our supply list please see list. How will you benefit? By sponsoring our program we will advertise you, your companies , or organizations name on our flyers, programs and website, verbal recognition and special thanks given at our events, promotion of your products at any future events, and distribution of your flyers can be arranged if it's of interest to you. We invite you to also make a taxable donation online at www.casaatabeache.org. Your sponsorship will make a difference! Support Casas Cultural Arts Empowerment & Leadership Afterschool program for young women ages 10-18. this FALL, In September we will be bringing in 20 new young women to go through our program, they will learn how to drum, dance, sing and use social media as a tool for self empowerment as they build their self esteem. We need your support to create a safe and green environment where these young women will have access to quality sex education and resources to take care of themselves from the mental and physical trauma they experience as a result of neglect and poverty. We will also provide alternative healthcare, nutrition and healthy meal preparation. In addition, we will provide peer support group to break the silence & address issues of anger, fear & self hate & other issues affecting young womyn with the aim of developing individual and group action strategies to address the health needs and social issues young women are confronting.

Yoga Mats Throw pillows to sit on the floor every size body pillows Back Jack chairs Bean bags Slippers to walk inside the healing space Water fountains Winds chimes Healing stones, crystals Stress relief products (worry beads, stress balls, things to throw, massage balls , punching bags, pressure point socks , or gloves, etc) natural cleaning products, for bathroom, kitchen and office space (peppermint soap, lavender soap) office supplies, printing paper, chart paper, markers Plants Healing oils all natural for aromatherapy Healing music-meditation, drums Florida water/rose water Candles in every color Incense/nag champa, charcoal, matches, sage Fabrics for altars (yellow, red, orange, purple, silver, blue, black, pink , green) massage equipments, stress balls, self healing tools (do it on your own) Self esteem products (salt scrubs etc) Natural toilet tissue, tampons, kotex ) Herbs to make food Teas for every issue (stress, cold anxiety, reproductive health etc) Affirmations for walls Vitamins Get certificates to spas in NYC to sponsor a trip for abuse victims, young women Movie tickets Barnes and Noble gift cards for self healing books

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM MANUELA! Introducing Casa

Cultural Arts Empowerment and Leadership Program for Young Women!
I walked into CASA that day to hear the laughter and honest banter between Dee and Sheiyee, who I used to know as Toyin. They were chatting about their lives, flowing easily into that familiar safe space that characterized the relationships between women/free -spirited beings who frequented CASA. Amped about the journey we were about to embark on, I raced down the steps with my groceries and headed straight into their welcome... Although new to CASA, I was home. The kitchen soon became the gathering place for imagining our journey towards deeper empowerment. Within 10 minutes I was joined by 3 young women who had grown up in CASA. Their mothers attended activities back when they were 2 and 3 years old.."When we were babies we used to come to CASA...We played with toys and learned how to sage our auras," one of them told me. Eager to help out, they peeled melons, mashed avocados, and shared with me their grandmother's recipes for making juice out of pineapple peel. "Who taught you how to make that?" I asked them. I reminded me so much of my grandmother, a beautiful blue-black ancient wise woman who did everything slowly and intentionally. "My grandmother. She's Dominican too!" We made our first connection as we realized that we both were part of lineages made of women that spanned endless generations... Later on the mothers and daughters filled our space with their chatter. Carmen, CASA's program director, gently nudged me to go meditate and prepare myself for emanating our mission of young women's empowerment prior to talking to the crowd. "The women have already arrived. I think we've already begun." We smiled and realized that were already in our moment to be of service to other women. We acknowledged and just TRUSTED our mission--to create a safe space for young women to explore their emotions, learn about their culture of resistance and dream up new possibilities for lives full of joy and self-knowing. As we went around the room, a why she had come. "I am here took a deep breath and instantly because I want my daughter to amazing she truly is." Another forced me to be here." We smiled straddle the drum and smile as she Rican Bomba. We played the rhythm steadily for a few minutes as our adult ally, Yelithe members of The Legacy Circle Women's Drum Cypher, taught the step for Yuba. Yeli came because, as all of us with The Legacy Circle, in the power of traditional cultural arts to transform our very spirits and "Are you coming back?" I asked her, "Heck yes! But don't make me might hurt myself, or someone else!" We laughed, and she waved goodCarmen, and I watched as the other 20 women walked away. We felt after our evening of talking, dancing, meditating, and sharing, they they were home and that we were here to help them realize their dreams their spiritual, mental, physical and power. shy young woman introduced herself and told all of us because I want to stop feeling so miserable." Everyone sent her compassion and encouragement. "I am here speak up for herself, to trust herself, and know how young woman admitted, "I am here because my mother patiently at her. Later on, we saw her uncross her arms, learned how to play the Yuba rhythm in Afro-Puerto mara, one of girls the basic we believed communities. dance. I bye. Dee, proud that knew that and amplify community

I'm excited about journey this summer. I can feel in my gut something big is going to happen to all of us... Trusting, --Manuela Arciniegas The Legacy Circle & CASA Atabex Ache

CASA Wants to Thank you for such a beautiful Summer CAMP you have left a LEGACY !

CASA WELCOMES! Carmen Mojica to our Staff!

A message from Carmen : Its interesting. For the last 3 years, I have wanted nothing more than to work with women to empower us collectively. Yet it is only within the last year that I have begun to learn what it means to step into my power. It reminds me of Marianne Williamsons quote: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. To be empowered means to believe in yourself. It means accepting your strengths and weaknesses. It means being yourself. All of those things are scary in a world Carmen Mojica is an Afro- that encourages us to be severely critical and self-loathing. On this healing path from selfDominican woman born hatred to self-love, I have been blessed to be supported by equally powerful women who and raised in the Bronx. have provided a mirror that reflects all I am and am not. It is out of their guidance and my She is a poet, writer, workshop facilitator, model own desire to help all women heal that understanding empowerment has started to make sense. It is my hope that working in Casa Atabex Ache, a place that encourages healing and birth doula. She has graced the stages with her journeys for women of color, that I will continue to do this important work.
poetry, presentations on Afro-Latina Identity of the Nuyorican Poets Caf, the Bowery Poetry Caf and The Brecht and universities. She is the Founder of These Waters Run Deep, a multimedia project which blends passion for life with words, visual arts, music , dance to celebrate the joy of creation towards the empowerment of women and people of the African Diaspora. In October 2009, she completed and selfpublished her literary work called Hija De Mi Madre (My Mothers Daughter), a combination of memoirs, poems and research material explainingthe effects of race on identity and also shares her life as a living example. In July 2012, Carmen release her second book, Odas de La Mujer de Miel, her first collection of poetry in Spanish .

Wom(y) of Color & LGBTQ Artist & Healing Collective End Of Summer/ Fall Equinox Sept 2011 Calender of Events

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

7 Book Release 8
Celebration with Alica Anabel Santos 7-9pm

10

11

12Full Moon 13
Celebration w/ Carmen 7-9pm

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21 Casa
Fall Equinox Celebration 6-9pm

22

23 WOC &
LGBTQ artist & Healers Network event @ COLORS

24 I APPROVE OF ME! Healing Day with Akua Taylor

25

26

27

28 Body Ecol- 29
ogy every wed sept & oct 6-8pm with BDAC

30

In response to the economic crisis, Casa has created the Wom(y)n of Color & LBTQ Healing Arts Collective to address the internalization of historical poverty and scarcity mentality that women of color have been subjected to, oppressed with and internalized. Casa is excited to be opening its healing space for womens individual and collective economic, mental, emotional and spiritual sustainability. We are looking forward to collaborating with you to create a prosperous and abundant organization! We are outreaching to you and other like minded organizations like yours that want to become a member, offer workshops, rent out our healing space or become a referral to our community. The WOC & LGBTQ Healing Arts Collective was birthed out of collaborative desire for a transformative space of culture, spirituality, healing, creativity, and liberation and healing within our communities with the aim to establish a support network of women of color artists manifesting economic sustainability and providing a valuable tool for the self empowerment and self sustainability to one of the most valuable resources in our community, women! Membership: The idea of membership is commitment from the collaborators through mutual sustainability, financial efforts and shared resources. Casa understands that as artist and healers on the front lines we often times do not have access to our own health care or healing support, Casa is committed to being your respite from internalized oppression as we also become a resource of healthcare mind, body and spirit. Individual WOC $100- $250 for the year. Organization WOC Collaborators $500-$1000 for the year

Join Casas WOC & LGBTQ Artist & Healers Network Today! Post your workshops in our newsletter, offer a workshop at CASA, rent out our healing space or become a referral to our community! Call -718-585-5540 Upcoming Events This September from our Collective!
I APPROVE OF ME! Being With Sprit Healing Day For Wom(y)n of Color & the LGBTQ community! SAT, Sept 24th, 9-5pm Save the DATE! RSVP Today!

Inspired by her New Single Approve Approve was inspired by the book You Can Heal your Life by Louise Hays. Akua read it at a time of deep depression and created the song as a mantra to rise our of her low state. Singing words of positivity helped Ahua overcome, thus Approve was born. Approve is also a workshop led Ms. Taylor. Designed for small groups, this intimate gathering is designed to help participants heal from trauma and move forward renewed. Through affirmation chanting and ritual , the group collectively manifest positivity, enlightenment and empowerment.

THE SIMON BOLIVAR FOUNDATION FUNDS CASA!

With support from the Simon Bolivar Foundation, Casa seeks to spend the next year creating a Leadership Health Model that is rooted in self-healing & organizing focusing on young women /organizer/activist self empowerment, self sustainability, leadership development and personal & organizational health. This summer we will be developing a young and adult Women of Color Healing Arts Collective. The South Bronx is the UNHEALTHIEST of New York's 62 counties. It is plagued with poverty, dis-ease, unemployment , addiction and violence against women in all its forms impacting the mind, body and spirit of young women at an increasing rate. 37% of South Bronx residents say that they have lacked money to buy food at some point in the past 12 months. Most recently, the movie Precious depicting young women reality through the life story of a young black woman whose social conditions (ie. poverty) contributed to rape and incest that she experienced at home, which as a consequence led to obesity , low self esteem, teen pregnancy, illiteracy, sexually transmitted diseases, and an intergenerational cycle of abuse within the womyn in her family. We believe that Casa can give young women the tools they can use for mental, emotional, spiritual and physical wellness to deal with issues such as self mutilation, low self image, drugs, eating disorders, teen pregnancy, suicide, unsafe sex and unhealthy relationships, all leading to mental stress &emotional damage that often gets carried into their adult life affecting their reproductive health and overall health and wellness.

FOOD FOR THE SOUL! SUMMER HEALTH w/CASA...

1. Element: FIRE Summer is about tapping into the roots of passion and our erotic and warrior selves. It is important to go outside, sit in the sun, take a vacation, be in celebration and do activities that help you tap into your vital energy, your erotic, be bold, be creative, and live the seeds you planted during spring. 2. CHAKRA: Solar Plex/ Sacral & Root 3.FEELING /Health: Joy, mental and reproductive health to reclaim your power. Make a list of what you want to commit to and what a healthy love and partnership look like then put it unSummer is season of healderneath the candle until it burns out. ing the past , reminiscing about our adolescents sto- 5. CRYSTAL: Amber, carnelian ries of love that allows one or red jasper, sun stone to live completely in the They comes in rings, stones to carry present. We heal from isin your pocket. Buy one to ground in your leadership & creativity. sues such as child sexual abuse, incest, rape & sexual Tie a yellow ribbon on your waist to walk in your strength and assault. Love lost, past part- power. ners and anything that has Remember DRESS IN Yellow, Red and Orange! taken our power away. While at the same time creating life sustaining relationships grounded in our purpose and creating home within. Go to the doctor, gyn and check for fibroids, ovarian cancer , STDS, HIV/ AIDS. For More Information About CASA . Please contact us at 718-585-5540. 4. Candles : Red, Orange & Yellow Burn one on your altar or in your work and ask for what you need! Remember a situation when you have lost your power or given it away. Light a candle Email: casaatabexahe@aol.com Twitter: Casa Atabex Ache Face book: Casa Atabex Ache Website: www. casaatabexache.org

For some of us Summer is a time of movement and power represented by the growth of the adolescent into adulthood. Its about the love of others, our sexuality and sex. We focus on our womb our place of power, we use our blood and erotic power to manifest through intention and ritual. Its about being courageous, powerful and passionate and moving towards what we are committed and most connected to.