The creative process can feel isolating, waiting for inspiration to descend upon us.

Guided by words from our Black women creative ancestors, in this workshop, we will explore how creating in community can help individual projects by practicing and exploring exercises, and that will open our imagination and support our creative process.

Here are some of the questions we will explore:

• What impact do capitalism and individualism have on our creative process?
• What is the difference between a creative routine and a creative ritual?
• What’s the relationship between meditation and imagination?

This workshop is for Black mamas who are creatives and innovators who feel stuck and/or blocked.

Grief and joy are not opposites;

They are kin,

Traveling together, shaping us, moving through us.

For too long, we have been working and living in spaces that carry the expectation of loss as something to process in silence, and treat joy as a reward and not a resource. This has led to burnout, disconnection, and a profound forgetting of what it means to be fully alive—especially in the midst of uncertainty and change.

Thea Monyee and Akilah S. Richards, the founders of Bringing Flowers use their Grief & Joy Interlocks Strategy, to bring a deeply human approach to creating and sustain ourselves and our communities in times of transition.

This is not about sitting in grief indefinitely, nor is it about bypassing pain in pursuit of joy. It is about making space for both, listening to what they teach us, and using this wisdom to move forward with integrity, imagination, and trust.