Somebody once called me the Black Miss Frizzle.
They were not wrong. I guide spaces in a way that saturates the cells
— weaving body, earth, story, and delight into the kind of learning that doesn't leave when the session ends.
When you get on this bus, we are going somewhere unexpected. The route is not mapped. There is no arrival time. And by the time you get off, you will not be the same person who got on.
That is not a warning. That is the whole point.
By Moonlight retreat, refuge, and strategic planning spaces run parallel to the top-down structures your team lives inside every day. This is strategic. Changing white supremacist systems is exhausting, divisive, and violent. Innovation needs a different kind of room.
Just like the Black Panthers built parallel systems to feed children the schools were starving. Just like enslaved Black people gathered in the middle of the night to share rhythms, medicine, and escape plans. Just like Tricia Hersey snatches her rest because the system will never hand it over.
Your internal culture needs parallel spaces too.
At By Moonlight we call these unbounded spaces — no product-driven agenda, no performance. The healing happens as we freely explore the praxis of liberation through rest, creativity, and belonging. And from that place, something new always emerges. Something that could only have come from this particular group of people, in this particular room, finally free enough for humanity to blossom both individually and collectively.
What Actually Happens
Here is what has emerged for real organizations during their time with By Moonlight:
A team explored how rest and finances intersect — and redesigned their budget process around it
Movement work was supported by emergent rituals of letting go and celebration
Leaders developed systems for tagging people in and out when rest is needed — and actually used them
Teams found new ways to reignite passion and creativity after years of grinding through the same cycles
Staff started taking dance breaks, stretching on the floor, and bringing nap blankets to work — and meant it
A refuge space was created inside an office — a room where people could go to cry, to pray, to have the conversations that couldn't happen in a meeting
A standing monthly session was established to help the team move at the speed of trust
Retreats
By Moonlight in-person retreats are where we show off.
Not only do we offer an abundance of tools to slow down, feel grounded, breathe, and listen to inner wisdom — each space is an artistically designed sensory experience. Rest nests. Embodied play. Deep stillness. Storytelling. Ritual. Collective singing. Tactile altars. Gorgeous space design. And yes — massage, sound bowls, and tea.
We weave all of it together seamlessly, while holding space for connection and integration throughout.
Retreats can be designed as:
A 3-hour introduction to cultures of care
A 2–5 day team retreat to reconnect, rest, and play
A strategic integration of rest, belonging, and creativity into your work culture
A conference refuge space — a parallel room where attendees can cultivate their own rhythms alongside the business of the event
Testimony
"It was so much better than a mediator. Not just people complaining — my staff talked about how they wanted to be better people at work and in their personal lives. The experience was cathartic."
— Michele Young, Owner, Division Chiropractic and Acupuncture
Hush Harbors :
Liberatory Wellness and Affinity Spaces for BIPOC Folks
In October of 2024, By Moonlight designed and curated a rest space for BIPOC attendees at the grantmakers in the Arts conference in Chicago. What happened in that room changed me.
I had completely transformed the space — hand-painted art, four futons with blankets and pillows, a central gathering space with beautiful fabrics and meditation cushions, fabric-wrapped pillars, craft stations, a stim table, coloring books. The hotel employees joked that they wished they could keep it that way.
Halfway through the first day, a woman walked in, visibly shaking. Her two white male bosses had been micromanaging her all morning. I handed her a pillow. She was hesitant — and then she took it and slammed it onto the ground. What followed was a flood of tears, a flood of words, and eventually, something that looked like relief. She danced out of the room.
Later that afternoon I watched the space in full use: a woman coloring contentedly, four people napping on the futons, people journaling, a grief tending workshop happening in the center, a massage in the back corner, and then — a person who came in, rolled out their mat, and began their Muslim prayers in the corner.
That moment solidified everything I know. Workplaces need restoration rooms. Every conference should have a refuge space. Every organization should have a care facilitator on staff. Not as a luxury. As infrastructure.
"What stands out most is Sojourner's ability to integrate rest, connection, and creativity into nonprofit and leadership spaces in ways that feel both radical and necessary. Joy and community care are not luxuries — they are essential tools for liberation."
— Anika Tené, Director of Grants, Awards and Programs
Strategic By Moonlight Integrations
The deepest work By Moonlight does is the long game.
A strategic integration is a living, ongoing commitment to weaving rest, creativity, and belonging into the bones of how your organization operates — so that over time, a new culture becomes possible. One that emerges from people who have actually practiced something different together.
A strategic integration can include:
An emergent, creative process to arrive at or reassess your values and agreements
A repair process for when tension arises — including somatic skill-building so your team has tools, not just agreements
A series of retreats that use rest, creativity, and belonging to let the collective generate what only that group could discover
A recurring space to move at the speed of trust — deepening, course-correcting, and recommitting together over time
Mentorship for your leadership in weaving creativity, rest, and belonging into everyday organizational life
Testimony
"Sojourner's skill as a facilitator is unparalleled. Every space they hold is intentional, sacred, and deeply impactful."
— Anika Tené
TESTIMONIES
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"Sojourner, I can't thank you enough for the rest that you helped provide - it was amazing. I have never experienced anything like it in a retreat setting. I WANT MORE!!!"
Terri Johnson, Director of Collective Impact
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"Sojourner’s skill as a facilitator is unparalleled—whether guiding us through breathwork practices to regulate our nervous systems, leading creative movement sessions that invite us to reclaim joy and embodiment, or facilitating cultural leadership legacy work that reconnects us to our lineage and ancestral wisdom. Every space they hold is intentional, sacred, and deeply impactful."
Anika Tene, Director of Grants Awards and Programs
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“It was so much better than a mediator, not just people complaining but our staff talking about how they wanted to be better people at work and in their personal lives. By Moonlight held a safe space for our collective and individual healing processes. My staff commented that the experience was cathartic. I highly recommend Sojourner!.”
Michele Young, Division Chiropractic and Acupuncture, Owner
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“The wellness workshops facilitated by Sojourner were excellent — They did a phenomenal job facilitating and we were impressed with how well these went. Sojourner was attuned to where we are at this time, and provided not just a welcoming and inclusive style but real, tangible tools. We loved how we were guided to get in tune with our bodies and connect with colleagues in a different way. The breathing and movement techniques were great tools to help us refresh and calm ourselves during high-intensity times. It was a necessary and healthy moment for our community to signal to each other that we value care and respect for each other and each other's wellbeing.”
Gabrielle Lyon, Executive Director at Illinois Humanities
Clients
Rest. Create. Belong.
Interested in a By Moonlight retreat for your team? Interested in a physical refuge space for your conference? Would you like us to be a part of your strategic planning? Let us know what you are dreaming up.