Awakening Together: Surrendering to the Joy of Sangha
About this Event
We are gathering.
This November, Nashville POC Sangha and Sangha House NOLA - two BIPOC sanghas rooted in the South - will come together in Birmingham for a weekend of practice, healing, connection, and joy. All BIPOC practitioners in the South are welcome to join us!
There is something special about meeting one another across Southern communities: recognizing familiar experiences, sharing what we have learned, making space for what needs to be healed, and remembering that we don't have to practice alone.
This retreat is an invitation to slow down and be together. We’ll sit and walk in meditation, listen to Dharma teachings, share in community, engage in ceremony, visit Birmingham’s Civil Rights District, and make room for music, art, rest, laughter, and joy.
Transportation (van rental), housing (Airbnb), and food options will be provided, and we are fundraising through Givebutter to cover these costs. Any donations made during registration will also go towards those expenses. The teachers and facilitators are sharing their offerings on a dana basis. Feel free to reach out to [email protected] with any questions.
Our weekend together
Friday, November 13
We’ll arrive, settle in, and gather informally for the evening.
Saturday, November 14
We’ll begin the morning with community introductions and practice before spending time together in Birmingham’s Civil Rights District - we'll practice together there and have circle time for sharing.
In the afternoon, we’ll return for meditation, a dharma talk, and a healing ceremony. We’ll share dinner together and close the day with a Joy Practice—an evening of music, art, and other offerings from the community.
Sunday, November 15
We’ll return to silence and practice in the morning, along with more dharma sharing by the teachers and group sharing. We’ll close by dedicating the merit of our practice and carrying what we have cultivated together back into our communities.
Why we are gathering
We believe that sangha is not simply a group of people who practice together. Sangha is relationship. It is refuge. It is a place where we can be witnessed and held, where we can learn from one another, and where our practice becomes something we live together.
For BIPOC practitioners in the South, creating and sustaining these spaces can be especially meaningful. This retreat gives two communities an opportunity to meet face-to-face, deepen relationships, exchange practices and wisdom, and imagine what becomes possible when our sanghas are more connected.
We hope this weekend will nourish us as individuals and as communities—and help strengthen the dharma in the South.
There will be time for intentional practice and time for simply being together. You do not need to arrive with a particular level of Buddhist knowledge or practice. Come as you are.
Come sit with us. Come walk with us. Come heal with us. Come rejoice with us.
Let’s awaken together to the joy of sangha.
About the Teachers
Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda
Venerable Clear Grace Dayananda is a Black queer Buddhist monk, founder and Spiritual Director of Sangha House NOLA, a Buddhist temple and community care organization in New Orleans’ 7th Ward. She began practicing as a renunciant in 2015 and received novice ordination under Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in the Plum Village Vietnamese Zen tradition. She later received higher ordination through the Embracing Simplicity Contemplative Order, carrying a multi-lineage inheritance that includes Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna, Sōtō Zen, and Vietnamese Zen traditions.
Through Sangha House NOLA and her former Traveling Nunk pilgrimage, Venerable Dayananda brings Dharma teachings and compassionate presence to communities impacted by systemic oppression. Her work centers healing, liberation, culturally rooted practice, and boundless love in action.
Jennifer Wang
Jennifer is the founder and guiding teacher of Nashville POC Sangha. She has been practicing mindfulness and meditation for over 15 years in the Theravada Insight, Shambhala, and Plum Village traditions. She has practiced at residential and silent retreats at Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, Deer Park Monastery, Magnolia Grove Monastery, Southern Dharma, and other retreat centers, and has completed instructor training in the Shambhala and Insight traditions. She is currently part of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leaders program.
Jennifer’s practice is grounded in creating spaces where people of color can meet their own minds, cultivate compassion, and find freedom and joy through practice and community.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
