ACTIVISM

USE YOUR VOICE

Even though I can't remember a time during which I wasn't an activist, I didn't think I was one for most of that same amount of time. Many years into utilizing my art forms as a way to improve people's lives, I discovered that there are many ways to be an activist - how to push for social change through education and community, through gatherings in which various voices are heard, through poetry, spoken word, movement, music, and cinema. To educate oneself on anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, how to build community, remembering our roots, and studying matriarchies. To remember our essence.

to repair what was damaged and to revere what we remember

My work is about breaking silences that were never mine to keep. I write about and create from lived experience. Peeling the layers that are revealed to me. And naming the things that want to be heard. My activism isn’t separate from my healing or my art. It is where the personal is the universal. My fight for justice comes from that personal place, extended to many others who experience(d) the same or similar. I've realized that the more I've spoken out, the less alone I am. Silence was always an intentional chokehold of the patriarchy. It has kept us apart. Our stories join us

rooted in death & rebirth

Life is cyclical. Incredibly inspired by the chapter on the 'blue bearded man', in Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés's book Women who run with the wolves, that taught me to listen to my intuition. She has shares about the power of knowing what needs to live and die as women with wombs and menstrual cycles. The cycle of birth and death is inherently in us who have periods. The more I dove into that process, the more I reached teachings about Womb Wisdom and womb temples. I've visited the temples in Egypt and Mexico to sit by those pyramids designed for womb meditations. 

My process of reclaiming my voice and body after spiritual and sexual abuse could not have happened hadn't I started connecting with my womb wisdom and my heart's callings. Combining our three brains (in people with no uterus, we could refer to the hara as the 'belly brain') is essential to feeling aligned.

My story is so public, which taught me that vulnerability is my strength. My empathy my gift. And my softness revolutionary. I was supposed to be hard and soulless at this point, but my path of the rising phoenix allowed me to honor all my parts: my inner warrioress, and my nurturer. They are never separate. They are fully integrated. 

This space for justice through writing holds: "memoirs & writing", "public speaking & poetry",  and "collaborations & advocacy"

memoirs & writing

I've written the manuscript of my memoirs about the non-linear process of healing from sexual violence, taking a stance against a huge patriarchal power, named John of God, and outlining various paths I took to become who I am today. My existence as resistance. My voice as my sword. Being a samurai in my own right. To bring truth. To break the silence. And to hopefully be a torch of hope for others. Stay tuned for its release.

public speaking & poetry

At times I share my poetry at venues such as Labyrinth and Bar Bario in Amsterdam. Speaking on sacred rage, spiritual abuse, artistic justice, and (de)colonization.

Appeared as:

• consultant in Brazilian docu-series Em Nome de Deus (2020 - GloboPlay) to expose the spiritual 'healer' John of God 

• feature in Flair Magazine (in Dutch) (2023) by journalist Lisanne van Sadelhoff, tevens auteur van het boek We zullen doorgaan (2023) over veerkrachtigheid, waarin ik spreek over hoe ik ben omgegaan met complexe ptss 

• participant in documentary Where Olive Trees Weep (2024 - Science & Non-Duality) (partaking in the trauma healing conference in Jericho as one of healing facilitators in 2022) about activist, healer, and journalist Ashira Darwish and Dr. Gabor Maté - and hosting the screening and panel at Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam in June 2024

• guest in the MINA at the table podcast (in Dutch) (2025). by creative director and journalist Raja Felgata, speaking about my fight against femicide and how I used my dance theater production THE RITE as a tool to raise awareness and call for change

collaborations & advocacy

Picture here in the panel after the dance theater production THE RITE - a fight against femicide, in collaboration with the City of Amsterdam and local police, crisis centers, and people who lost loved ones to gender based violence or have survived it to share their story. This is the type of work I do with my dance theater company Project Zahira. 

Additionally, I have co-founded Rest/Resist with Tania Shoukair. Rest/Resist is an organization with which we organize workshops and events using decolonized healing practices in community. It is a community of activists, artists, and healers, which rose from the necessity of creating a nurturing space for activists fighting for a free Palestine - increasing it to the greater umbrella of global decolonization and reclaiming (indigenous) roots.