Mission

By Moonlight creates the conditions for liberation — Through retreats, strategic planning, and refuge spaces, we somatically dismantle oppressive power using the tools of creativity, rest, and belonging.

Our Team

Sojourner Zenobia

Sojourner Zenobia is a multidisciplinary performance artist and healing justice facilitator who has spent decades learning and teaching that creativity, rest, and belonging are skills that we have to keep returning to, together.

Sojourner is the founder of By Moonlight, an art-centered healing justice practice rooted in ancestral knowing, somatic presencing and the premise that underneath every conference name tag, networking lunch and strategic plan lives the inconvenient yet beautiful mess of our humanity. Their work is about what becomes possible when we stop asking people to leave the most wise parts of our humanity at the door.

Their signature offering, the Hush Harbor, is a liberatory affinity space named for the secret gathering places where enslaved Black folks held community, truth-telling and worship beyond the reach of surveillance. For ten years, Sojourner has also held Stillness a meditation and ritual space where hundreds of BIPOC queer folks have deepened their relationship with ancestors, nature and their own spiritual gifts.

Sojourner believes that large-scale, systemic love has never been done before — and that learning to be with our full humanity just beneath the surface is our highest calling. They hold space at the intersection of song, somatics, ancestral memory, and the slow, deliberate architecture of belonging. Based in Chicago and North Carolina, they facilitate healing justice experiences for nonprofit organizations, conferences and communities across the country.

Founder

Zahra Baker

Zahra is a vocalist, ritualist, storyteller, actor, teaching artist and wellness practitioner. She is recognized for her performance work as an engaging performing artist, a keeper of African American oral traditions and an experimental vocalist. She is honored to have collaborated with phenomenal musicians, poets, dancers, artists, filmmakers, and storytellers over the past 35 years in Chicago.

As a creative musician, Zahra has performed extensively with Shanta Nurullah, which include Shanta Nurullah’s Sitarsys, Freedom Song Leaders, Classic Black and ShaZah. Zahra has also performed with Hamid Drake as a member of the improvisation ensemble Moment to Moment. Storytelling performance history includes the Performance duo “In the Spirit,” with Emily Lansana and collaborative works with performance artist, Sojourner Zenobia. She has performed at venues such as the World Music Festival, M3 Festival, MCA, The Chicago Art Institute, The Old Town School of Folk, The Chicago Jazz Festival, The National Association of Black Storytellers Conference and Festivals, The Chicago Cultural Center, Jonesborough National Storytelling Festival, Rhode Island Black Storytelling Festival and countless Schools, Museums and Festivals.

As a 2024 Elastic Arts Dark Matters Artist in Residency, she developed a ritualized performance that included Adam Zanolini, Avreeayl Ra, Luc Mosely and Paige Brown. As a teaching artist, Zahra has developed wellness music and performing arts programs in schools, community centers, shelters, recovery centers, eta Creative Arts Foundation, the Chicago Department of Corrections and the Chicago Park District.

Facilitator
Facilitator

Aarti Tejuja

Coaching is more than a profession for me — it’s my life’s purpose. I’ve always been a natural nurturer and a spiritual seeker who cares deeply about people. Over the years, I’ve fostered and mentored young people and held healing and restorative spaces for thousands of adults.

My spiritual roots began in Hindu tradition, and in my twenties I worked at a Buddhist meditation center in Chicago, where I counseled community members and led meditation and spiritual programs. I’ve also been deeply involved in interfaith work, training in wisdom practices across many traditions and weaving them into my approach today.

In 2023, I moved from Chicago to the Appalachian Mountains on Cherokee land (Boone, NC) with my partner, Matt, and our cats. Here, I’m learning small-town rhythms, tending to the land, and co-creating Moya — a modern, intentional spiritual community rooted in everyday practice.

I’m a natural connector, collaborator, and space holder. My style is nurturing, playful, and direct, and I love supporting people in their growth. I’d be honored to meet you and explore whether we’re a good fit to walk this journey together.

Facilitation Skillset

-conflict circle

-connective circle

-celebration circle

-healing circles

  • restorative justice frameworks

  • ancestor healing

Facilitator

King Lexie Honiotes

I am King Lexie (she/her) MA candidate at Goldsmiths University of London, a certified life coach & artistpreneur. I have 17 years of experience facilitating transformational solo & group workshops. Since 2016, online coaching has allowed me to serve clients in Denver, Chicago, New York, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.


My professional coaching practice focuses on adult learning, helping people turn unwanted patterns and habits into more resourceful states. I care deeply about somatic (body-mind) research, skill building, erotic wildness, basic human goodness, authenticity, conflict resolution and enjoyment .

Consultório coaching makes hard things easier by helping you get clear on your goals and what’s keeping you stuck, so that you can move forward in your life,  experiencing more of what you want with greater ease and efficiency.  

I speak many languages: metaphor, Brasilian Portuguese, re-frames, movie quotes, dad-jokes- I am full of emergent strategies and am as dogma free and holy irreverent as I can be.

  • authentic movement

  • Interplay

  • rituals

    -grieving rituals

    -celebration rituals

    -rites of passage rituals

    -rituals of all kinds