Two Spirit Talking Circle with La Johnny

Please join our Indigenous Two Spirit community for this online talking circle with La Johnny. This is our time to circle up, reconnect and focus on our individual and community wellness. BAAITS presents this series of Talking Circles as a direct request from participants in our Two-Spirit talking circle in February 2023, facilitated by Lenny Hayes. Our Talking Circle series are created for and by Indigenous Two Spirit & Indigequeer TG/GNC LGBTQIA+ peoples, and we ask everyone who attends to be respectful of this focus. 

There are no cost for our circles! BAAITS will host a monthly Talking Circle featuring different facilitators during the coming months. Please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Eventbrite to receive notices of our upcoming programming.

~~ FOR ONLINE PARTICIPATION

Here are a few points to consider for our time together in circle:

• Quiet Space: Try to find yourself a quiet comfortable location to join us from where you can focus and be fully present.
• Sacred Space: You may wish to prepare your space if you can, by burning medicine to clear it out, lighting a candle, or do other grounding practices.
• Self Care: It's always good to have water or tea ready for yourself. Sometimes circles can bring up emotions, so we often have tissue close at hand to help with our healing tears. 

~~ BIO: La Johnny

As a Two-Spirit elder in training, Johnny aims to re-indigenize spaces and practices that focus on healing. Johnny works in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, where he practices and explores what it means to decolonize therapy and social work.

Johnny has been Circle Keeping for 9 years. He started by working with youth in Long Beach, then eventually around the state, following the guidance and teaching of the National Compadres Network. In these spaces Johnny ensured that the voices of queer, trans and two-spirit youth were centered and uplifted.

Along with his current work in San Francisco, Johnny takes an active role in creating spaces and ceremonies for indigiqueers through the Bay Area Mexica Queer & Two Spirit (BAMQTS) Collective.

Through his circle keeping practices, Johnny holds space so participants can build community and heal together.

Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating a forum for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people. Visit our website for more info.