Return to the River: The Sweetgrass Path

Return to the River: The Sweetgrass Path is a restorative three-day retreat designed for Black, Brown, and Indigenous women working in higher education and related fields who are seeking space to rest, heal, reflect, learning, and re-root themselves before the start of a new academic year.

Grounded in cultural wisdom, somatic healing, ancestral practices, and leadership development, this gathering provides an intentional space to reconnect with your body, your story, and your purpose. Through immersive workshops, identity-centered dialogue, movement, music, and collective ritual, participants are invited to release what no longer serves them and return renewed, grounded, affirmed, and ready to lead.

This retreat centers on productivity, embodiment over burnout, and community over isolation. Whether you are faculty, staff, administrator, counselor, practitioner, or community educator, this space is for you.

At a moment when our democracy stands at a crossroads, this retreat is honored to feature a keynote conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of the most influential voices shaping how we understand democracy, civil rights, and American history.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, MacArthur Fellow, and creator of The 1619 Project, the #1 New York Times bestselling book and Emmy Award–winning docuseries, Nikole Hannah-Jones brings clarity, truth, and historical grounding to the urgent questions of our time. Her work challenges us to understand the history we must confront and the future we are collectively responsible for building.

As participants prepare to return to classrooms, campuses, and communities, this keynote invites reflection not only on where we are, but also on what it means to lead with integrity, courage, and care in this moment.

This intentionally small gathering offers space to slow down, reflect, and reconnect—both personally and collectively. In addition to Nikole Hannah-Jones, across three days, participants will engage in experiences centered on healing, leadership, and sustainability, including:

• Exploring how ADHD shows up in the lives and work of women of color, and why it is often misunderstood or overlooked
• Naming and navigating the realities of leading while Black
• Participating in embodied healing practices, including sound-based restoration
• Understanding how trauma lives in the body, with pathways toward neurological healing
• Drawing on ancestral wisdom to heal, grow, and navigate racism and genderism in the workplace
• Learning how emerging tools like AI can be used thoughtfully by women of color to support healing and work more effectively
• Engaging with truth, narrative, and power, including a featured experience with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize–winning creator of The 1619 Project
• Building a liberating relationship to career and work, including alignment and negotiation strategies
• Practicing self-care in high-volatility environments and integrating learning through collective reflection

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Davida Sharpe