Meet Maggie!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: An activist for the kids on the block that were grounded. A dreamer that would bring moments and feelings to life with art and music. A huge fan of the Backstreet Boys and Cristina Aguilera. Played on the basketball team for the Cardinals and deeply in love with science and my pink roller skates.

Some Things I've Done: I grew up between two cultures, two languages, and one huge family that shaped my ways and beliefs. I am a social worker, a cosmetologist, and a mom with two kids. I enjoy life living in Galt, a small town with its own beauty.

Maggie's Workshop:

Many families maintain a small altar to celebrate their family and honor ancestors. In this workshop, we will build and decorate wooden altars while considering the blessings our ancestors have bestowed upon us.

Meet ANNA!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Extremely studious, fairly quiet, and painfully self-conscious

Some Things I've Done: Summitted Mount Kilimanjaro. Studied Mandarin and majored in Geography. Served as a U.S. Senate Page. Worked at the World Toilet Organization. Ran a marathon. Performed in Dartmouth's Hip-Hop Troupe for four years.

ANNA'S WORKSHOPS:

BFF'S FOR LIFE: Besides your family, your best friend is one of the most important people in your life. Through both the good and the bad, a best friend is someone who supports, encourages, and offers honest and caring feedback. In this workshop, we explore what it means to be a best friend and how we can all work on being the greatest friend possible to those we care about most. Whether you have no friends or a whole gang, you'll learn a little more about your strengths as a friend and how to use them in your current and future friendships. Through a range of activities, we'll make you the best BFF ever!

JUSTICE MOB: In 2011, the queen of hip-hop, Beyonce, posed the question, "Who run the world?" The answer: GIRLS! We want all girls at the festival to embrace their power to create change by learning a fierce hip-hop routine and dancing together in the name of Girl Power.

Meet Bridget!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Paralyzingly shy with a bad hair cut, headgear, and an enormous book bag. Loved Broadway music and James Herriot books.

Some Things I've Done: Majored in writing poetry. Spent most of my one basketball season on the bench. Wished I was Hermoine Granger. Rode my bike across America with 17 kids. Raised triplets. Started Waking the Village.

BRIDGET'S WORKSHOP:

SPILLED ART: So much of life is learning to dust ourselves off and learn from our mistakes. In this workshop, we will spill acrylic paint and learn how to celebrate the beauty that can be found in messy moments. As our artwork dries, we will share stories of some of our own moritfying moments and hunt for the lessons learned and muscles grown from surviving them.

MEET GRACE!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Proficient in being picked last for gym class with an avid love for pop punk and anything with Blue dye #7. Standout qualities include irreverent penmanship and rocking knock off timberlands with lopsided pigtails.

Some Things I’ve Done: Majored in paint splatters and low budget theatre productions. Started an affinity group for Harry Potter enthusiasts before moving on to play Seeker for my college Quidditch team. Failed miserably at starting a garden. Produced an album of poetry that has generated nearly 7 cents in Spotify royalties.

GRACE'S WORKSHOPS:

ART THAT FIGHTS BACK: Langston Hughes painted a picture of Black America with his poetry during the Harlem Renaissance. Dorthea Lange changed the way we viewed poverty during the Great Depression. Tupac continued to carry generations of musical revolution combating racism and inequality. Be it anti-nuclear street art, hymns against slavery, radical photographs capturing overcrowded housing conditions, art has been a vibrant part of the social justice movement since inception. Explore how a rich history of art movements have influenced social justice and once our minds are buzzing with inspiration, we’ll take to the studio and try out different ways to create critical art based on some of today’s current movements.

THE ART OF YES-AND: So often, we name all the reasons an idea will fail before ever trying on an open mind. Community cannot be built on a legacy of “no." In this workshop we will practice the  improvisational theatre habit of “Yes and…” to learn how to build ideas in community with others. Creators will engage in whimsical theatre games that force us to stretch our minds into saying “YES” to new  ideas. Once comfortable, we’ll try our hand at brainstorming solutions for our own community and practice saying yes to one another’s ideas—and most importantly, our own. Join us in strengthening our inner changemakers with an afternoon of silliness, play, and saying “YES” to life.

meet cesca!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Frizzy, nervous, and eager for friendship. Accidentally joined a Bridge Club (the card game) and faked my way through a year of travel tournaments without ever actually learning how to play Bridge. Shared a journal with two friends that we exchanged between periods. Carried the Library of Congress in my roller backpack.

Some Things I've Done: Made my own lavender extract. Played volleyball for a university team in South Africa. Ate a cinnamon roll as big as my head. Majored in Lighting Design. Won the 5th grade Geography Bee.

CESCA'S WORKSHOP:

NOPE!  No is powerful word and we grow up in a world that often teaches us to be polite instead of taking care of our own needs. In this session, we will explore how to say no and how we make sure it is heard. Using art and words and poetry and motion, we will practice saying NO to moments we don't want and didn't ask for.

meet shelly!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Homeschooled, socially awkward, and related better to adults than people my own age. Main qualities included not being able to sit still without falling asleep and having a mildly unhealthy level of obsession with Harry Potter, tap dancing, and 1950/1960's Disney movies.

Some Things I've Done: Majored in how to talk to people and why people sometimes won't talk to me. Somehow made it into the finals of a canoe race then came in dead last when we realized we didn't actually know how to steer. Missed prom my Senior year of High School to compete in a livestock judging competition. Created summer camps for kids and currently stand by the youth of Audre's Emporium.

SHELLY'S WORKSHOP:

MANDALA MAKERS:  We each have symbols and images that hold special meaning to us. Our favorite colors and animals express who we are and what we value. In this workshop, we will use these symbols to create a mandala. We will stretch fabric into a frame and draw a pattern or image. Next, we will use dye to bring the images fully to life. The resulting mandala will be vibrant expression of you!

MEET latisha!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Very quiet and introverted. Crazy about astrology and spells (would buy almanacs from Walgreens). Poetry fan.

Some Things I've Done: Traveled all over the Central Valley. Been a Girl Scout. Performed in the DARE Program. Sang in choir. Was a nurse and am now a Child Development Director at Waking the Village. A mom to three.

latisha'S WORKSHOP:

Beading as Expression: Come and express yourself through the art of jewelry making! Girls will have the opportunity to think about their personality traits and have those characteristics reflected in a one-of-a-kind jewelry creation. With loads of beads, charms, and trinkets to choose from, you will be sure to create a bracelet or necklace that represents you!

MEET ANTONIA!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Self conscious dreamer who hung out with the cool kids but felt like an outsider. Loud on the outside, quiet on the inside. Wrote bad poetry and talked to animals. Still do.

Some Things I've Done: Played one season of softball in junior high and got knocked out by a grounder. Majored in Comparative Literature in college. Taught high school English for 9 years. Always wanted to be a professional writer or artist. Ran an underground arts space for 2 years. Had three kids and have taught many others. Elementary school principal.

ANTONIA'S WORKSHOP:

BE MORE BRAVE IN 45 MINUTES: Over the years, I've had to learn how to be more brave, and I want to share some techniques with you! In 45 minutes, we will practice breath, movement, and art to build our bravery muscle! No prerequisites. Just a willingness to get a little bit out of your comfort zone.

MEET SUMMER!

Best described in 7th grade: Late bloomer who straddled the line of wanting to be grown-up but secretly still playing make-believe games.

Things I’ve done: Majored in Criminal Justice but became a yoga teacher with prison yoga training instead. Bought a fixer-upper house with no clue how to fix it up. Taught and lead yoga and stand up paddle board trips locally and around the world. Began connecting people to nature (the one within and throughout).

SUMMER'S WORKSHOPS:

YOGA TO POWER SELF AWARENESS: Yoga isn't just about stretching muscles and making animal poses. It's about connecting to your body and to the spirit within it. In this workshop we will practice yoga, but we will also consider how strengthening our body and listening to the feelings and ideas that bubble up in the quiet of yoga allow us to grow closer to ourselves.

MEET DIANA!

Words that best describe me in 7th grade: Scared, confused, and constantly searching for a mask to hide behind. More than a little lost. A closeted poet and artist with an obsession for the macabre.

Some Things I've Done: Learned to love myself in all my weirdness! Helped to run and support foodnotbombs. Learned to knit after 7 years of failed attempts (super proud of that one). Made lots of art with some awesome kids. Ran art clubs and classes of all sorts. Stayed up all night and into the next morning reading a good story.

DIANA'S WORKSHOP:

FRIENDS NOT FRENEMIES: Lifting, rising, reaching for the stars but we can't ever truly get there if we leave our sisters in the dust. Let's come together for some art making and truth speaking as we learn ways to lift each other up as sisters, friends, and allies.

MEET diane & KEITH!

Words that Best Describe Diane in 7th Grade: A wannabe archaeologist, astronaut, and first female major league baseball player; thrift store Calvin Kleins (likely unpurposefully “high water”); classical musician; trying to grow up too much too soon.

Some Things Diane's Done: Played in the pit orchestra for a professional summer light opera company. Majored in music, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, law, and education. Contracted the travel bug; never cured. Got married in Cambodia. Didn’t give birth to either of my kids in a hospital. Earned a 3rd degree black belt and a doctorate in Education. Kept 3 goats alive for 9 months and counting.

Diane & Keith's workshop:

KI'AI, YAWARA, AND GENERAL BADASSERY: Use the fundamentals of jujitsu to learn to face your fears and become yourself while walking a path to empowerment and standing up for justice. Learn to communicate strength and awareness as you move through the world.

Meet Larisa!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Painfully shy, secretly fierce, and ridiculously obsessed with rock and roll. Pat Benatar and Ann Wilson were (and still are) my heroes.

Some Things I've Done: Parasailed in Mexico, opened for Heart, snorkeled in Jamaica, had a daughter, taught voice lessons for 19 years, rode motorcycles, worked for an animal rights organization, and was first runner up Miss Calaveras County. Started Girls Rock!

Larisa's Workshop:

Your Voice. Your Song: Join us for this dynamic workshop for youth interested in the art of song craft led by professional singer/songwriter and co-founder of Girls Rock Sacramento, Larisa Bryski. Participants will learn how to access their creativity, develop song structure, use writing prompts, create basic rhyme schemes, collaborate with others, and write and perform an original song or spoken word piece.

Meet Somer!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Outspoken but kind. Athletic. Dramatic. Obsessed with New Kids On the Block. Survived primarily on cereal. Big bangs and periwinkle (not purple) glasses that were too big for my face.

Some Things I've Done: Traveled all over South America. Studied Theater Arts in college. Lived in Brooklyn, L.A., Santa Cruz, the Dominican Republic and of course, Sactown. Sold my house and downsized to a travel trailer where I now enjoy living the small life with my adventurous ten year old son. 

somer's workshop:

Whole, Perfect, Complete: Learn how to cultivate a nurturing relationship with yourself. We will explore the healthy and unhealthy ways we go about having our emotional needs met and why. Participants will each write an "I am" statement proclaiming who they are and what they stand for.

Meet abby!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: Colorful, obsessed with lunch boxes, and an avid pen pal to my grandparents and best friends.

Some Things I've Done: Made friends with just under 40 super-cool pen pals from around the world, worked at a vintage clothing store, planted a native butterfly garden, and was a DJ ( put on tunes under the name DJ Celery) for my college radio station.

abby's workshop:

Love in an Envelope: Let’s send out some happy mail and have fun doing it! One of my favorite things about sending out a letter is thinking about the joy of the person who is going to receive it. We will be making, decorating and writing beautiful mail to send to the ones we love.

Meet tricia!

Words that Best Describe Me in 7th Grade: A self-conscious yet outgoing, excitable brace face

Some Things I've Done: Taught in Jamaica.  Earned my Gold Award.  Lived in Ireland. Ran a marathon. Drove across the country and moved to California.

tricia's workshop:

Be YOUtiful: Celebrate your beauty and the beauty of those surrounding you through human connection and active movement. We will be identifying what we find awesome in ourselves and sharing that through team building games that make celebrating ourselves fun.

Meet Ruby & Dea !

Words that Best Describe Ruby in 7th Grade: Athletic. Sneaker enthusiast. Shy. Studios. Not at all a morning person.

Words that Best Describe Dea in 7th Grade:  Troublemaker. Curious about the World. Eager to explore.

Some Things Ruby's Done: Backpacked in the Alaskan wilderness for a month straight out of high school. Graduated from a 4-year university and was first in my family to do so. Lived next to the ocean for two years. Started Aztec dancing 5 years ago and haven’t stopped since!

Some Things Dea's Done:  Majored in life experiences. Some college education, lots of community education. Grew up in the U.S. as a first generation Immigrant, in between two worlds. Oldest of three daughters. Self-taught container gardener, and still learning! Played cello in middle school. Completed 200+ Teacher Yoga Training, currently completing 300+ Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Training.  Have been a community organizer since a teenager. Artist at times.

ruby and dea's Workshop:

Self Care - A Revolutionary Act of Preservation: While some think of luxury when they hear the term self-care, others view self-care is a revolutionary act of preservation especially when traditional healing has been erased and forgotten about. Join Sol Collective in a discussion about self-care through a cultural lens. Come and learn about the history of various plants commonly used today, as well as different traditional methods of healing using these plants and herbs. You will also have the opportunity to create your own self-care kit to take home!