ABOUT US
This retreat is born out of a need to center abundance in spaces that function to cement scarcity as well as a need to maintain connection.
Our Story
The dissertation process (and PhD experience overall) can be incredibly isolating in more ways than one. As such, this retreat is rooted in Audre Lorde’s ethos of making space for Black women to create but also restore through sisterhood and joy. We have curated space to write, reflect, and breathe outside the institutional logics that require productivity without restoration.
The larger vision of this intention is to facilitate a biannual writing & wellness retreat that is largely affordable and wholly generative.
“We must recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.”
-Audre Lorde
Edited by: SkulliProductions
COHORT 2026
The inaugural retreat was an externalization of boundary-breaking joy.
Five Black women PhD candidates —Brittney, Christin, Leana, MaDeja, and Zaria, gathered in the luscious hills of St. George’s, Grenada. The focus was writing, but the work happened in the conversations over home-cooked meals, through the hugs from the ocean, in the mindful yoga flows, and even as we learned to find our rhythm with djembe drums. Coming from different universities, different disciplines, at different phases of the dissertation it was a unique opportunity to learn from and with each other.
Make an Impact Today
If you would like to support in another way, whether it be skill exchange, donating a specific item, future collaboration, or otherwise, please reach out via the contact button below.
Why Give?
Ujima & Umoja
The core of this retreat is community. As such, the model of affordability for this retreat is structured on the intentional support of my community and participating vendors through discounted services, skill exchange, item donation, micro-grants, and collaboration. Building possibilities according to our own imagination and not what has/has not been imagined for us requires creative and collective effort. I aim to maximize affordability and ensure a quality experience in order to demonstrate the abundance in community. As Caribbean elders often say, “One hand can’t clap!" emphasizing we need each other.
There is no individual profit, so your generosity directly supports the writing experience of Black women which supports necessary knowledge production and dissemination.
Post-retreat Reflections & Testimonies