.png)
What: Redefining Independence + Reweaving Belonging: a retreat for multicultural folks with rural experiences
When: Friday, July 4-Sunday, July 6, 2025
Here, you don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to choose one piece of who you are over another. We invite you to collectively explore what it means to stand fully in your complexity - rooted, whole, and free.
We invite you into a small group exploration for what it means to move from outsider to rooted, from isolated to interconnected, from surviving to thriving using song, movement, collaborative creativity, embodied exploration and spaces for silence.
Together, we explore what it means to move from the margins to the center of our own lives, without leaving any part of ourselves behind.
* This retreat is for those who hold multi-cultural and multi-racial backgrounds, particularly mixed-identity folks and trans-racial/national adoptees, and who have been shaped by rural spaces—whether currently or in the past, through home, work, community, or personal journey. We use multi-cultural here to represent the vastness of experiences without needing to type every instance every time. Thanks for understanding our wish to be concise.
Where: Episcopal House of Prayer, Collegeville, MN
As multi-cultural* folks from rural settings on Turtle Island, we are immersed in a narrative of independence that isolates and weakens instead of making us strong. Out of necessity, many of us understood belonging as fitting in with low amounts of safety, comfort, and autonomy.
In this retreat, we take a step in redefining independence and reweaving belonging by sharing our stories, singing together, and dreaming our way towards a different way of being. We’ll practice belonging to self, while supporting each other’s growth as we practice becoming an interdependent community.
As multi-cultural* folks from rural settings on Turtle Island, we are immersed in a narrative of independence that isolates and weakens instead of making us strong. Out of necessity, many of us understood belonging as fitting in with low amounts of safety, comfort, and autonomy.
In this retreat, we take a step in redefining independence and reweaving belonging by sharing our stories, singing together, and dreaming our way towards a different way of being. We’ll practice belonging to self, while supporting each other’s growth as we practice becoming an interdependent community.
Here, you don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to choose one piece of who you are over another. We invite you to collectively explore what it means to stand fully in your complexity - rooted, whole, and free.
We invite you into a small group exploration for what it means to move from outsider to rooted, from isolated to interconnected, from surviving to thriving using song, movement, collaborative creativity, embodied exploration and spaces for silence.
Together, we explore what it means to move from the margins to the center of our own lives, without leaving any part of ourselves behind.
* This retreat is for those who hold multi-cultural and multi-racial backgrounds, particularly mixed-identity folks and trans-racial/national adoptees, and who have been shaped by rural spaces—whether currently or in the past, through home, work, community, or personal journey. We use multi-cultural here to represent the vastness of experiences without needing to type every instance every time. Thanks for understanding our wish to be concise.
RETREAT FACILITATORS:
This retreat is led by experienced facilitators Conie Borchardt and Kathryn Gonzalez, both mixed race individuals from rural spaces. Read each of their bios below.
-----------------
Logistics:
WHEN:
- Arrival window: 4-6 pm, Friday, July 4
- Leave: 1 pm, Sunday, July 6
WHERE:
Episcopal House of Prayer is on the periphery of St. John's University (at Collegeville, just west of St. Cloud, about 1+ hour from the Twin Cities). While the location is on the grounds of these religious institutions, retreat programming has no religious affiliation.
MEALS + LODGING:
- Meals are vegetarian. First meal is Fri dinner, 6p; last meal is Sun lunch.
- Bed linens and towels will be provided.
FEE:
- Retreat lodging and meals is offered gratis as part of Episcopal House of Prayer's Awakening Hearts campaign to connect with communities less able to access retreat space. Retreat leadership is also offered freely as a gift to community.
- To further support folk's attendance, $100 is available to each retreatant to help cover related expenses like childcare, mileage, lost wages, etc. See registration form question below for more details.
We have space for 12 people; priority will go to people who can attend the whole weekend.
This retreat is led by experienced facilitators Conie Borchardt and Kathryn Gonzalez, both mixed race individuals from rural spaces. Read each of their bios below.
-----------------
Logistics:
WHEN:
- Arrival window: 4-6 pm, Friday, July 4
- Leave: 1 pm, Sunday, July 6
WHERE:
Episcopal House of Prayer is on the periphery of St. John's University (at Collegeville, just west of St. Cloud, about 1+ hour from the Twin Cities). While the location is on the grounds of these religious institutions, retreat programming has no religious affiliation.
MEALS + LODGING:
- Meals are vegetarian. First meal is Fri dinner, 6p; last meal is Sun lunch.
- Bed linens and towels will be provided.
FEE:
- Retreat lodging and meals is offered gratis as part of Episcopal House of Prayer's Awakening Hearts campaign to connect with communities less able to access retreat space. Retreat leadership is also offered freely as a gift to community.
- To further support folk's attendance, $100 is available to each retreatant to help cover related expenses like childcare, mileage, lost wages, etc. See registration form question below for more details.
We have space for 12 people; priority will go to people who can attend the whole weekend.
Register here.
COVID POLICY
- All participants must show a negative rapid test taken the day of arrival.
- If you’ve had a COVID exposure in the 5 days prior to the retreat, please reach out to the retreat organizers. We may request that you test each day of the retreat, mask, or take additional precautions.
- We will have air purifiers running in common spaces.
- Sleeping will be in rooms that sleep 1-2 people each.
- Please reach out with questions or concerns about COVID or about other access needs.
-----------------
FACILITATOR BIOS:
Conie B (she/they)
Conie listens and moves at the confluences of the past, present, and not yet; Asian-European ancestry; and the Misi-ziibi and Mni’sota Rivers with training in music, Dances of Universal Peace, and spiritual direction. In addition to being the Lead Public Heart Artist at Points of Light Music where they explore the role of storytelling and community with transdisciplinary projects like Freeing Refrains and Biracial and Rural, Conie is half of the songleading duo GOOD TROUBLE with Liz Digitale Anderson and Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, a binational organization that trains, resources, and encourages folks and communities in the art of paperless community singing. See more at http://www.pointsoflightmusic.com/.
Kathryn (she/her/ella)
Kathryn is a bicultural Latina born and raised in Mexico with an American mother, shaped by the interplay of contrasting worldviews and the landscapes of both rural and urban life. This dance of opposites lives at the heart of her work as a bridge-builder, transformational coach, and heart-centered facilitator. Kathryn weaves together embodied spirituality, energy healing, and Authentic Communication to cultivate spaces of belonging that honor complexity and invite wholeness. Drawing from Kundalini Yoga, Awareness-Based Systems Change methodology, HeartMath™ practices, and several other modalities, she supports others in growing inner stability, flexible boundaries, and heart coherence—guiding the journey from isolation to connection and from fragmentation to rooted, relational presence. You can connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-gonzalez-7a9126a3/
COVID POLICY
- All participants must show a negative rapid test taken the day of arrival.
- If you’ve had a COVID exposure in the 5 days prior to the retreat, please reach out to the retreat organizers. We may request that you test each day of the retreat, mask, or take additional precautions.
- We will have air purifiers running in common spaces.
- Sleeping will be in rooms that sleep 1-2 people each.
- Please reach out with questions or concerns about COVID or about other access needs.
-----------------
FACILITATOR BIOS:
Conie B (she/they)
Conie listens and moves at the confluences of the past, present, and not yet; Asian-European ancestry; and the Misi-ziibi and Mni’sota Rivers with training in music, Dances of Universal Peace, and spiritual direction. In addition to being the Lead Public Heart Artist at Points of Light Music where they explore the role of storytelling and community with transdisciplinary projects like Freeing Refrains and Biracial and Rural, Conie is half of the songleading duo GOOD TROUBLE with Liz Digitale Anderson and Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, a binational organization that trains, resources, and encourages folks and communities in the art of paperless community singing. See more at http://www.pointsoflightmusic.com/.
Kathryn (she/her/ella)
Kathryn is a bicultural Latina born and raised in Mexico with an American mother, shaped by the interplay of contrasting worldviews and the landscapes of both rural and urban life. This dance of opposites lives at the heart of her work as a bridge-builder, transformational coach, and heart-centered facilitator. Kathryn weaves together embodied spirituality, energy healing, and Authentic Communication to cultivate spaces of belonging that honor complexity and invite wholeness. Drawing from Kundalini Yoga, Awareness-Based Systems Change methodology, HeartMath™ practices, and several other modalities, she supports others in growing inner stability, flexible boundaries, and heart coherence—guiding the journey from isolation to connection and from fragmentation to rooted, relational presence. You can connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-gonzalez-7a9126a3/
No comments:
Post a Comment