Yeye Luisah Teish with Host Cassandra Fererra
The Plants Know, but Do We? Healing Ourselves by Healing the Earth
Join us for conversation and a ritual on the Commonweal land with author and spiritual advisor Yeye Teish and host Cassandra Ferrera, director of Commonweal’s Center for Ethical Land Transition. Artwork: The Black Oshun by Luisah Teish.
Chief Iyanifa Fajembola Fatunmise (Yeye Luisah Teish)
Yeye is an American author of African and African-diaspora spiritual cultures. She also is an affluent ritualist, keynote speaker, and spiritual advisor on a global scale. Primarily known for Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, a women’s spirituality classic published in 1985 by Harper & Row Publishers. This book has been translated into German, Spanish, and Dutch. She has contributed to 40 anthologies, most notably Spiritual Guidance Across Religions: A Sourcebook for Spiritual Directors and Other Professionals Providing Counsel to People of Differing Faith Traditions. As an Oshun priestess (Yoruba Goddess of Love and Sensuality), Yeye continues to officiate over spiritual retreats, rituals, and workshops that span over 40 years since her introduction into the Ifa spiritual practice.
Host Cassandra Ferrera
Becoming a person of place is Cassandra’s orienting cosmology, and her activist real estate career is informed by this path. She became a real estate agent in 2003 as a single mom needing to support her family, and was compelled to understand how market capitalism prevents so many people from a direct and secure relationship with Earth. She committed early on to learning how to support cooperative living and to find ways to decommodify and deprivatize Land. As someone with mixed European settler ancestry, Cassandra is keenly aware of the paradox of how those with white colonial privilege have often been displaced from land-based culture. Cassandra listened her way forward, guided by the generosity of spirit, mentors, and friends who would help her co-found The Center for Ethical Land Transition. Through the work of ethical land transitions, Cassandra works to transform conventional real estate practice in service to Land, cultural reunion, and reparative justice.
