Why Legacy Trips Is Returning To Alabama and Ecuador
Life's lessons can be the the seeds that are watered and become our legacy, every life we touch. There is more healing to do collectively. So we've decided to go back to our roots.
I thought I was done with her.
Alafuckingbama.
“After I created Legacy Trips, Alabama began suffocating me. There is so much historical significance in Alabama, the backdrop of so many events during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s: Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham. The state felt as toxic as its murky waters where our ancestors drowned, where slave ships arrived to sell Black humans in the square in the center of downtown Montgomery, which we walked past on our way to the Legacy Museum. The drive to and through Alabama still carries the ghosts of the freedom fighters who were killed, and the ghosts of their killers. And they are still killing us.”
(an excerpt from Chapter 3: Just Mercy, from my book Are We Free Yet? The Black, Queer Guide To Divorcing America)
For context and to understand what Legacy Trips iss and what it means to me, read my post about it from last November: The Legacy Trips Story.
A little over a year ago, a woman who had been following my work on IG named Melanie reached out to me and asked if I would facilitate a private trip for transracial adoptees. Together with her friend, Lisa (also a transracial adoptee and someone who had been following me and wanting to go on a Legacy Trip for a few years), they shared with me about their very unique experiences as transracial adoptees. In their cases, they had been biracial babies who were adopted by white, Christian families, and disconnected from their Black roots, disassociated from their Black culture and distanced from Black history. The stories that followed helped me understand how much a special Legacy Trip for this community was necessary. I wholeheartedly agreed to host this trip. And even though we officially stopped hosting other Legacy Trips in Alabama, the plan was always that we would still host this private one.
The only thing that changed is that since we are going back with this private trip, we decided to create and open up another trip to the public so that anyone of any racial and gender identity who wants to join us would be able to do so. And so, for the last time, we will be going back to Alabama for these two special opportunities so that people can gather together to build community, to heal, learn and grow, and to strategize how to affect change, first in their own lives, then beyond. Come spend a weekend with us in Montgomery and Selma. Come and find your people. We have some strategizing for the revolution to do.
To read more about these trips, click these links:
Legacy Trips Alabama for Transracial Adoptees, October 10-12
Legacy Trips Alabama with Racial Equity Insights, October 10-12
Our decision to go back to Ecuador for another Plant Medicine Healing Journey (like the one we went to in July 2023 that I talk about in this post, What Plant Medicine Showed Me) is simple. We want to see more people heal.
Many of us believe that this is a great time of raising the collective conscience on the planet. In order to survive for future generations, we have a lot of shit to heal. And it all starts with ourselves. And because I have seen, witnessed, and personally experienced the healing powers of going into ceremony with ancient medicine, I know that for as long as I can, I want to help bring others along in this particular spiritual path that not all are called to.
Goddess Jhoselyn and Gaddy, along with shaman Tsen Tsek and their team of community caregivers, have created a sacred and protected space where people can safely come from all over the world to experience healing in a container designed to speak directly to each individual’s soul.
To learn more and register for this trip, click the link here:
Legacy Trips Plant Medicine Healing Retreat with La Vida Divine, Ecuador, June 17-26
We are inviting you to join our free, one hour, Connect Call, hosted by each of our facilitators: Goddess Jhoselyn, Gaddy, Tony Nabors, and me, on Saturday, March 22, at 12pm ET. Register to attend the call here.
It is a privilege to gather together at a time in like this.
An honor.
We don’t know what’s around the corner for the United States. We do know that our ancestors made it through some extremely dark times. They are why we are here. There is more for us to do together for future generations.
Right now, we must gather if we can and do as Assata Shakur told us:
“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lost but our chains.”
The Are We Free Yet Files on Substack, formerly Legacy Trips/Tina’s newsletter
As a racial and social justice advocate and activist since 2018, I have been sending out newsletters to those who follow my work and join my mailing list. That original newsletter has now taken the form of this Substack that you are currently reading, The Are We Free Yet files (with the bonus subspace, The Solo Poly Diaries).
Still relevant, here are a few of the last newsletters I sent out before transitioning from Mailchimp here to Substack:
Hope To See You In Philly for the highly anticipated elevated stage reading, The Are We Free Yet project, next Saturday! - October 2024
Reading Assignments For Those Who Are Not Giving Up - September 2024
Black August & An Afternoon and Evening in Brooklyn - August 2024
Join Us On Tuesday For Our July Legacy Alumni Call This Shit Week Check In - July 2024
For Those Who Want An Alternative To Just Watching Empire Fall - July 2024
Alafuckingbama. Exactly. So excited for this trip! 🖤