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Connect with our rest doulas.
Real Life
Real Life
Events
Events
June
June
Wednesday Open Hours
June 12th, June 19th & June 26th, 12-2pm and 3-5pm
Drop by for peace and quiet. Just sit. Or read a book. Or play a quiet game. We're here to just offer you a moment of respite.
First Fridays
June 7th, Mini Rest Sessions 6:30 and 8:00
Communal Rest Session
June 8th, 2-5pm
Drop in for some quiet time. Play a game. Sit and be peaceful. Have a cup of tea.
Public Rest Session
June 15th, Session: 2-3pm
This is a full rest session with original music and meditations. Capacity of limited to 8 people. Sign up on Eventbrite for our June Rest Session
Village Building
June 22nd, 2-3pm Spa Day
This month's focus will be Spa day. During these Village Building offerings, we will share skills and encourage you to ponder ways to work small habits into your routine. This months topic will be HerbalSkin Care, Skin Hydration Skillshare, Hygiene regime skillshare
Open hours: 3-5
June 29th, 2 - 3 PM Divining Rest with Courtney Alexander
Rest is not just beneficial for our bodies—it's vital for our spirits too, particularly in divination. Being well-rested allows us to become clear conduits for the divine, facilitating a deeper connection and enabling spirits to channel through us more effectively. In our upcoming workshop, we'll share stories and strategies from both historical and personal perspectives, discussing how these practices can enhance spiritual clarity and ensure safety. Together, we’ll discover ways to create a peaceful space that heightens our sensitivity and effectively manages the energies we encounter. This workshop aims to provide participants with practical, restorative techniques that integrate rest into their spiritual and divinatory practices.
About Courtney:
Courtney Alexander is a multimedia artist, writer, publisher, and public speaker. Her artistic practice is an ongoing ritual of expansion and emancipation. Through her self-portraiture she challenges the politics and narratives of her identity as a fat black queer femme. Moving beyond just the exploration of her physical reality into expressions of herself as a timeless spirit. Less than a year after graduating with her BFA, she developed her series of paintings, Dust II Onyx, which she crowdfunded over $30,000 to self-produce and publish as a tarot deck (and later raised $50,000 for a second printing)—making history as the first black person to create a widely distributed deck and selling 3000 copies to date. The series is made up of 78 mixed media paintings depicting the complexities of blackness as humanity, as a race, and as a color story. It also includes a hard-cover 200 page monograph that serves as a catalogue as well as guidebook.
Full Rest Sessions
Full Rest Sessions
Black Dream Escape offers free monthly community lullaby sessions on the 1st Saturday of the month. The live sessions include original lullabies, online guided meditations, paying touch debt, and a twenty minute stillness exercise. Space is limited. Follow us on Instagram/Facebook to learn how to sign up.
Our sessions are available to all, free to Black And Indigenous folks, and we require a $25 reparation fee for anyone who does not identify as Black or Indigenous.
Mini Rest Sessions
Mini Rest Sessions
We are so happy to participate in Penn Avenue's First Fridays. It's such an exciting time with live music and fresh new artwork. Take a break from the hustle and bustle of First Friday on June 7th and say hello. We'll be offering two small rest sessions at 6:30 and 8:00 PM. Our sessions are available to all, free to Black And Indigenous folks, and we require a $25 reparation fee for anyone who does not identify as Black or Indigenous.
Social Media
Social Media
Our online programming provides rest guidance to you at anywhere and at any time. You can find samples of our music, meditations, and theories on the following platforms:
Youtube (Channel: Black Dream Escape): Consistent, meditative content that provides you with lullabies, rest tips, and our personal rest testimonies.
Instagram and Facebook (Tags: Black Dream Escape): Daily affirmations and reminders to help you rest.
Rest Tips
Rest Tips
Let's Get Black Home
Let's Get Black Home
We're super excited about our new space on Penn Avenue in the Bloomfiled/Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. But, we're still looking for a plot of land to call our own. A place where we can grow our own medicinal herbs, offer overnight respite care and invite you to explore how the land can rejuvenate and restore you. Our capital campaign is going amazingly well. Donations make it happen. Every amount makes it possible.
We are creating a home for Black and Indigenous wholeness. (Black / Indigenous, obviously, includes Queer.) It is the kind of home we believe everyone should have. A place to come for joy and sorrow. A place to unconditionally be ourselves. A place of healing. A place of hope. A dreaming place. A gathering space. A celebratory homecoming.
Historically, when Black and Indigenous folks addressed mental health problems, we went to someone’s home and would be welcomed as a guest. We relied on our grannies, nanas, aunties, siblings, cousins, pop-pops, or uncles for their sage advice and honored wisdom. We restore this practice by modeling healing as a home-based activity.
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