A month ago I put up a poll on my stories asking if there was interest in a new kind of circle. Many of you said yes. As promised, here it is. Hermanidad was born from the in-between moments. The moments after Mujeristas ended. The conversations with women who still felt the pull to be held in circle. The quiet noticing that so many of us are carrying sisterhood wounds we never had room to name. This is the space I needed years ago and the space I still need now. A circle to come as we are. No performance. No pressure. No program to complete. Just an open door each month and a theme that meets us where we are. Hermanidad Circles begin in December at Casa Kindred. A soft space for femmes who want to heal and grow in community. Type 'hermanidad' in comment and ill send early regisration form!

Big news! ✨ Kindred has been awarded the RSSP Grant from West40 Safe Schools to continue our S.E.A.R.C.H. program for the 3rd year! AND we also get to introduce our new R.O.O.T programs! Stay tuned! Through creativity, healing, and story, these programs offer students space to express, reflect, and grow. We’re excited to deepen our partnership with West40 and keep building classrooms and communities rooted in belonging and care. 💛 Grateful to our partners, educators, and 🙏🏼most of all👆🏼 the youth who remind us why we do this! #KindredSchools #SEARCH #ROOT #West40 #SafeSchools #ArtAsHealing #HealingCentered #CommunityCare

🪬CASA Kindred presents: 🕯The Art of Remembering🕯 Join us for A Liberatory Arts Open Studio at Casa Kindred On November 1, Casa Kindred opens its doors for an afternoon of creation, reflection, and offering. 🧿We’ll gather to honor memory, lineage, and culture through art and community. Inspired by Guatemala’s barriletes gigantes and altar traditions, each room will hold a space for remembrance and connection and per usual we align to the elements: 🕯Fire – Collective altar by the fireplace 🕯Earth – Mini ofrendas and photo frames 🕯Air – Prayer flags and kite reflections 🕯Water – Writing as offering All materials provided Refreshments and light snacks included (Atole de Maiz, cacao, cafecito and more). Limited to 10 participants. Casa Kindred | November 1 | 2–5 PM Contribution: $33 or $44 RSVP through the link in bio. A gathering for remembrance, creation, and honoring those who came before us. #CasaKindred #TheArtOfRemembering #Barriletes #Ofrenda #Guatemala #LiberatoryArts #CommunityHealing #KindredCollective #DiaDeLosMuertos #ChicagoEvents #HealingInCommunity

Healing in Motion is here!!! Now we can finnally share it with you! Backstory/what is it: When Prevention First reached out to Kindred to collaborate on a project supporting youth who have a loved one impacted by incarceration or substance use, we knew it had to be something heartfelt, creative, and alive. This project hits close to my heart. Together, with Daniela Aguilar, we dreamed up a toolkit and video series that could bring healing-centered tools to life, blending art, storytelling, and embodiment in a way that youth and caregivers could actually feel. Thus, Healing in Motion was born. In this series, @mimi_movesyou , @lahtere , @simonejw , and I shared our own stories of healing the real ones, the tender ones. I am endlessly grateful to each of you for joining me in vulnerability and truth-telling. You continue to inspire me and remind me that storytelling is medicine. And yes, hearing myself in the video was a trip. In the beginning, I sound like I am about to cry, because I was. These topics are so close to my heart. But then you can hear me find my rhythm again, grounded, confident, and clear in why this work matters. In addition, I wrote up a 70+page toolkit of short intuitive arts based projects (that i have collected, been inspired by, done or searched up). Ive been wanting to do something like this for a long time. And this is just the beginning. Deep gratitude to my partner @slomo2.0 who always sees my vision and patiently endures my thousand edits, helping me refine the design aesthetic that makes Kindred feel like home. This toolkit comes at a time when we need more spaces for expression and deep healing. A small prayer, even if it is through social media: Spirit guides, please continue to align us with the spaces that heal us, where we can reflect, express, release, tell our stories, witness each other, and create counter narratives. We need us. Explore the full toolkit and video series here: https://www.prevention.org/youth-and-caregiver-resource-center #HealingInMotion #Kindred #KindredDesign #ArtAsMedicine #LaCulturaCura #CollectiveHealing #StorytellingHeals #HealingSpaces

Big news + big gratitude! We’re celebrating Chicago Youth Centers (CYC) @chicagocyc on receiving the Mielle Cares: Mispace Grant! Starting in October, Kindred will partner with CYC to do our part in growing spaces of healing and creativity for youth and staff. We’re especially excited to integrate the arts, identity, mind, body, and soul into our sessions. Together with our kinfolk — Mimi Macbeth (LCPC, R-MDT) with Creative Passages @creativepassages2healing and Simone Woods (LCSW) with Soul Well Collaborative, LLC — we’ll be offering group therapy and staff trainings in mental wellness. Deep thanks to @mielle.cares for investing in community care, and to CYC for always centering young people and possibility. 💙 #KindredCollective #wellness #mentalhealth #MielleCares #CYC #CommunityHealing @mimiyvonne @mimi_movesyou @simonejw @chicagocyc @mielle.cares @yaya_j_2.0 @praxisinstchicago @creativepassages2healing

Kindred family 🧿🪬 We want to introduce you to Casa Kindred🪬 Since 2022- our work has lived in schools, afterschool programs, and community spaces. We’ve carried Kindred wherever we were invited : circles, workshops, healing spaces, gatherings, pop-ups. Now, for the first time, we have a place of our own to root this work in addition to being out alongside you! Casa Kindred is not a storefront or an office. It is a home-like hub for community (Kindred 🪬), where what might have been a house party becomes a house offering😉. A space for wellness, art, connection, and the work of learning and unlearning.🙏🏼💙🧿 We are leaning into the process. Open to the flow as alignment and spirit takes us. Right now, we are in process: painting our walls, sketching our focal mural 😰 😉.. and shaping our first offerings. What we do know: in October we will launch our annual Ofrenda Series — offerings of herbs, circles, support, community, and art. Please stay tuned and stay patient alongside our easy pace.. for our new website launch, our Casa Kindred offerings, and our community-based offerings coming soon. With so much gratitude 🙏🏼🪬 thank you for staying with us as Casa Kindred comes alive. #CasaKindred #OfrendaSeries #HouseOfferings #KindredFam #HealingInCommunity

Kindred! We’ve been on a quiet summer break since July, resting, resetting, and letting the next chapter unfold slowly. Thank you for the love and support these past 6 months. Truly. Every circle, every message, every co-created moment has kept us going. We’ll be back in full flow come September… but August is for little glimpses of what’s been quietly brewing behind the scenes. Here’s your first peek..our new Kindred website Still in the works. Still soft-launching. But we couldn’t wait to share a little something with you. Special shout out to @studio.itzi @david.nala for his amazing vision 💜🩵 #KindredLLC #CasaKindred #intention #HealingThroughArts #SoftLaunch #IntentionalGrowth #HealingInCommunity

Bringing this moment back into the light. El Encuentro Mujerista was our soft launch and it felt like a full bloom. Thank you to everyone who showed up with love, curiosity, and truth. This space rooted in ritual, altars, and femme connection was rare and so needed. So what is a Mujerista She is rooted and rising Soft and bold Tender and unafraid I’m proud of what we created and excited for what’s next Mujerista Cohort 2 is blooming this fall! Reach out if you feel the pull!!! #ElEncuentroMujerista #MujeristaMagic #SoftBoldUnafraid #AltarsAsMedicine #Cohort2ComingSoon

6 months in and 2025 has been a year of deep initiation, expansion, and realization. From a vision seeded during the Art Xpress and Venus Collective days to what Kindred is now becoming, this work has always been about weaving. Weaving story and space. Weaving healing and creation. Weaving personal and collective transformation. This year we continued building out the Ofrenda Series, a collection of community offerings rooted in sacred exchange. @ayurvedic.elements Cristina opened us with Learn the Language of Your Body, and from there Mujeristas emerged as a living, breathing part of the series. It has become a dream that keeps on giving. We have been growing in all directions. Murals. Liberatory Arts Pop-Ups. Kindred Little Creators. We are shaping what Kindred Design and Kind(red) Sports will look and feel like as we continue to grow. Our website is also receiving a glow up. It reflects our belief that art is not a luxury but a practice of self-expression, storytelling, and transformation. At Kindred we interweave social-emotional learning, movement, healing, and community care to create spaces that are educational, liberatory, joyful, and rooted in exchange. We are thankful for every conversation, collaboration, and moment you have shared with us. Thank you for sticking beside us! Here is a glimpse of what we have and continue to offer: • (2) 5 week school-based Kindred installments at west40 (love @mlhopper27 •We secured 2 new school pop ups and projects • Arts integration workshops •liberatory arts open studio @positivespacestudios • Kindred Design offerings including flyers, conversation cards, banners, logos, T-shirts, toolkits, and lesson plans Mujerista cohort 1 Learn the language of your body led by @ayurvedicelements Murals Kind sports sessions What is incubating: ♡Mujerista cohort 2 ♡3 other affinity spaces (i.e.Hermanidad circles) ♡More liberatory arts sessions ♡Healing in Motion series What else would you love to see from us in the rest of 2025 and beyond?? We are listening. We are creating. We are so grateful. #KindredInMotion #OfrendaSeries #Mujeristas #HealingInCommunity #LiberatoryArts #ArtAsMedicine #

⚘️El Encuentro Mujerista 🌹 Still soaking in the magic. To everyone who came, showed up with open hearts, and shared their stories, art, altars, and medicine, thank you. It’s not every day that femmes come together like this. With softness and power. With vulnerability and vision. The space we created was out of pure love. And we can only hope that it was received. So… what is a Mujerista? She’s a creator. A disruptor. A tender force of transformation. She’s someone who leads from her roots and reclaims joy, voice, and story on her own terms. This was the soft launch, and still-it felt so full. We are proud. humbled. And lit up by what’s possible. We are so eager to see how this blooms next. We captured so many beautiful moments..and while there’s so much more footage to come, here’s a glimpse into the magic: 🌹 Opening Circle – Rooted in ritual, intention, and rose petals. 🌹Workshop A – Where Mujeristas shared their wisdom through art, storytelling, and movement: ⚘️Finding Your Art in Leadership – Jessica Vann ⚘️History as Inheritance– Mayra Almaraz ⚘️Awakening the Inner Wisdom Woman – Cristina Salgado 🌹Workshop B – A second round of sacred offerings, deep reflections, and creative expression: ⚘️The Art of Connection: Susy ortega ⚘️A Meditation for Collective Abundance – Veronica ⚘️Reframe and Remember– Elizabeth Rodriguez 🌹Closing circle: We honored Mujeristas past and present by inviting attendees to name an honorary Mujerista and place rose petals on the altar. The night ended with a collective blessing, Mujerista certificates, and a walk through the altar gallery. 🌹Closing Altars – Built by each Mujerista as a reflection of their journey..holding memories, prayers, and their unique offerings to the collective. 🌹 Final Blessing + Photos – A moment of joy and gratitude shared with our soft launch guests—chosen family, friends, and community who showed up with so much love. This was more than an event. It was a remembering. A reclaiming. Un Encuentro. And this is just the beginning. 🌱 #Mujerista #ElEncuentroMujerista #FemmeHealing #AltarsInBloom #SoftLaunchSacredGathering #TenderAndTrue #CollectivePower

Arts integration is one of our favorite workshops to lead. Every time we facilitate this session, we’re reminded how powerful it is when people slow down, create with intention, and connect through shared practices. @yaya_j_2.0 and @mimi_movesyou have been co-facilitating for years, and this one continues to hold a special place for both of us. Arts integration doesn’t always get the respect or attention it deserves. It’s often dismissed as an “extra” or something soft. But for us, it’s a methodology rooted in relationship, culture, and healing. It helps move emotion, build trust, and support expression in ways that traditional approaches often miss—especially in youth work. This workshop invited folks to engage with a variety of hands-on stations and movement practices: -Movement activities like SIFT, affirmation-based stretches, and Mimi even taught us a bit of boots on the ground line dance ! It brought a moment of lightness and joy to all of us trying so hard! Swipe to see.. lol -Paint-by-number fans that invited people to return and reengage over time (take home) -A collaborative mural that can be done anywhere while still keeping the aesthetic and the purpose/benefit (pro social building) -Ojo de Dios weaving to ground and focus and engage in culture /story telling -Scribble exercises and storytelling prompts using Choose-Your-Own-Adventure cards We don’t just talk about the arts, we practice them. As tools for emotional regulation. As invitations into deeper connection. As ways to support reflection and community. This workshop was held with love by Kindred LLC . And if you’re curious about how arts integration could support your team, youth program, or school, we’re always open to building something together! Thankful to @chicagocyc ESI team for inviting us and beibg so engaged and down to try all the stations! #ArtsIntegration #HealingCenteredEngagement #CreativePractices #YouthWork #RestorativeEducation #EmbodiedSEL #TraumaInformedCare #CommunityWellness #LiberatoryLearning #EducatorsWhoCreate #MovementMatters #StoryAsResistance

Today we paused the hustle of the accelerator to come back to center. We opened in circle taking time to connect, to witness each other, and to show up boldly in community. Deep gratitude to @csalgad1 and @mayra_almaraz12 for leading us with so much care and intention. From there, we shifted into creation mode. We began building our altars!! honoring the parts of ourselves that are ready to be seen, celebrated, and offered forward. These aren’t just art pieces. They’re reflections. Reminders. I’ve been dreaming about hosting a Create Your Own Altar workshop for a while now and today was the perfect start, as part of our soft launch for El Encuentro. Each Mujerista began creating her altar today after months of incubating intentions, dreams, and visions. My heart is full and my mind is buzzing with ideas. The magic is unfolding… and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to see how our altars evolve and to share them as part of the Mujerista Encuentro soft launch! We’re not just making altars. We’re becoming them. #ElEncuentroMujerista #MujeristasCreate #AltarsOfOurselves #CircleAndCreation #softlaunchmagic

#Backatit with @west40isc students today, bringing our mural to life! With new @novacolorpaint in hand, our #Kindred young artists are pushing through the end-of-year hustle to co-create a collective art piece that will carry them into summer and beyond. #Staytuned #YouthVoice #CreativeYouthDevelopment #YouthPower #InProgress

New logo, who dis? After months of incubation, the accelerator is in full force. This evolved mark holds the softness, boldness, and stretch we’ve been living. Each mujerista is crafting their offering. This carousel holds their names, their essence, their magic! This isn’t a final product-it’s a living process. A soft launch. a collective becoming. Gracias for walking with us. This is mujerista. This is kindred. #Mujerista #KindredLLC #SoftBoldUnafraid #EnergyExchange #HealingInMotion #sacredfeminine #sacredspace #IncubatorAndAccelerator @essence_555 @mayra_almaraz12 @csalgad1 @enexcesoo @itsme.jessv @suortega0608 @yaya_j_2.0

Mother’s Day Cards: Never Too Old to Make Them! Today at #KindredSchools at West40, we brought a little love to life with a special focus project: creating Mother’s Day cards! And because choice is everything at #SEARCH, students also had the option to dive into Open Studio, exploring their own creative paths. The ones who chose to however, poured their creativity into heartfelt messages and designs, celebrating the people who mean the most to them. Art, self-expression, and a space to create — that’s what we’re all about. #SEARCH #KindredSchools #MothersDay #CreativeExpression #OpenStudio

Much love and thanks to my sister, @icarolinajuarez for inviting Kindred to be part of the Día del Niño celebration with Rogers Park Business Alliance and Colectivo Clark on April 30! We were honored to join in this beautiful celebration of our community’s Mexican heritage—with hands-on activities for the whole family: piñata-making, salsa recipes, collective art, and so much more. Kindred brought our signature interactive Wing Project, and it never fails to spark joy! Youth as young as 1 and as grown as 14 (plus a few awesome adults) added their magic to the wings. Take a sneak peak on the behind the scenes and the process and finished product. So grateful to show up for community pop-ups like this. See you at the next one! #KindredPopUps #DiadelNiño #RogersPark #CommunityJoy #InteractiveArt #HealingThroughCreativity

Today was one of those days you don't plan — you feel. Kindred LAOS: Perfectly Unfinished reminded us that healing and creating don’t need polish — they just need truth. We limited our materials, played with color, let our hands move without judgment. We listened to “Grow” by Facesoul and just... let ourselves be. Extra love to our S.E.A.R.C.H fellows who showed up -full circle, two years later. Your presence meant more than you know. Mara — your heart and your art are both so real and beautiful. And Susie — forever Kindred, showing up soft, steady, and true. We leaned into being "perfectly unfinished" today. And that's the energy we’re bringing into the week: No armor. No performance. No polished version required. Just the masterpiece that we already are — in process, in truth, in community. Thank you for witnessing and blooming with us. #KindredLAOS #PerfectlyUnfinished #SacredCreativity #ArtAsResistance #SoftAndBold #KindredLLC

From incubation to acceleration- the bloom is here! Today, the first Mujerista Accelerator cohort gathered to dream and design: El Encuentro: The Remembering Coming mid-June, we’ll be hosting a soft launch - an intimate gathering for close friends, family, and community to witness the blooms of our first cohort. What to Expect: - Slow, 'easy like Sunday morning' energy - A sanctuary space for reflection and remembering - A Collective Bloom- altars honoring each Mujerista’s incubation journey - Intimate breakout sessions (5–8 folks per session) - Music, art, photo booth moments - Code activations and soulful connections - Opening and closing Ceremonia to ground our collective heart El Encuentro isn’t a conference. It is not a meeting, or just a gathering - it’s a remembering. It’s a space where we honor that we are already bold, soft, and unafraid together. Stay tuned - more details soon. And please stay tuned for the grand opening! We can’t wait to welcome you into this sanctuary. #MujeristaAccelerator #ElEncuentroMujerista #CollectiveBloom #KindredLLC #CreativeSanctuary #SacredGatherings #rememberingtogether

This Weekend with Kindred! Saturday, April 26 Our first ever Mujerista Incubator Cohort is officially moving into the Accelerator phase of our Mujerista journey,  to plan El Encuentro Mujerista! We’re diving into the logistics and dreaming up the vision for our culminating gathering. If you’ve been curious about what the Mujerista Incubator and Accelerator are all about -and how you can be part of future cohorts - please send us a private message! We’d love to connect with you. Sunday, April 27 We’re back with Kindred LAOS: Perfectly Unfinished – Perfection Not Required at @positivespacestudios in Logan Square! This intimate session is all about leaning into the sacred practice of being unfinished. No performing, no perfecting - just honest, creative expression in community. We'll share, create, and honor the beauty of process over perfection. No experience required - just bring yourself. Space is limited - reach out if you want to join! #KindredLAOS #MujeristaIncubator #PerfectlyUnfinished #ArtAsHealing #CollectiveBloom #CommunityCare #CreativityUnbound

The community has spoken… and on April 27, we’re flipping the script. Kindred Liberatory Arts Open Studio presents: Perfectionism Not Required: A Creative Rebellion Sunday, April 27 | 2:00–4:30 PM Positive Space – 3520 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago @positivespacestudios In our last session, we heard the truths: “I felt overwhelmed by all the materials.” “I kept wanting to get it right.” “I noticed how loud my inner perfectionist gets when I create.” This next studio is for that part of you. What if letting go of perfection opened the door to freedom? What if being unfinished was the whole point? Inspired by lessons from art therapy and Pat Allen’s open studio method, we’ll create within intentional limits- a small surface and a limited set of materials. Because sometimes, narrowing the tools opens the portal to presence, play, and possibility.This isn’t about getting it right. It’s about releasing control, trusting the process, and creating from exactly where you are. Whether it’s your first session or your fifth, there’s space for you. $25 per person| Includes art materials, snacks, and creative sanctuary.| Only 10 spots available! To register, fill out the Google Form linked in our bio. DM with any questions or accessibility needs. #KindredLAOS #PerfectionismNotRequired #CreativeRebellion #LiberatoryArts #KindredLLC #ArtAsHealing #artasfreedom