Event Details

A one-day retreat/workshop with LGBTQ+ theologian and artist, Rev. Dr Angela Yarber, on the role of art in decolonising feminist spirituality.

On June 11, Rev. Dr. Yarber will offer a retreat: “Decolonizing Women’s Spirituality”, sponsored by the FASS Decolonizing Lancaster Events Fund.

This retreat will launch her "Queering the Dream" exhibition at Lancaster Priory from 11th - 21st June. The exhibition is free of charge and celebrates women of colour from history and myth.

During the retreat, there will be a presentation, discussion, a guided drawing process, ritual, embodied exercises, guided reflections, and Q&A.

During the presentation portion of the mini retreat, Dr. Yarber will present an engaging lecture alongside art on the topic of Decolonizing Women’s Spirituality. Deconstructing the role of art in #whitewomensspirituality, she will unpack the differences among appropriation, appreciation, and what it means to engage in spirituality alongside otherwise underrepresented perspectives, in addition to exploring understandings of queerness and queering.

The same quote by black feminist author, bell hooks, that anchors her book, Queering the American Dream, grounds her presentation: “Queer not as about who you’re having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”

With both decolonization and queering in mind, Dr. Yarber examines what it means for women’s spirituality to be at odds with everything around it, and how, together, we can invent and create places to speak, thrive, and live.

After the presentation and discussion portion of the retreat, participants will engage Dr. Yarber’s Intentional Drawing Process. With creative writing, drawing, embodied exercises, and ritual, “knowing” is decolonized by approaching women’s spirituality with more than written and spoken words. Participants create their own art as a place to speak, thrive, and live differently than merely within #whitewomensspirituality.

Following the Intentional Drawing Process is a time of guided reflection, a closing spiral dance, and an opportunity for Q&A before a book signing and pop-up shop of books, art, and prints, with all sales benefiting the Tehom Center non-profit.