Caregiving through Community

Join Penumbra for a fascinating conversation about the many different dimensions of caregiving. Explore interpersonal elements involved in major life transitions and learn about communal practices used to care for ourselves, each other, and our land. Facilitated by Wellness Director Camille Cyprian. This event begins at 6pm with refreshments and light bites, followed by a 90-minute presentation and discussion. Panelists include Joy McAfee, Postpartum Doula; Sandy Agustin, End of Life Doula; Jeanelle Austin, Executive Director of the George Floyd Global Memorial; and Bridgette Kelly, Managing Director of Rootsprings

Thank you to our Black History Month sponsor

Panelist Bios

Bridgette Kelly (she/they) is an experiential learning educator, yogi, performance artist, and outdoor enthusiast based in her hometown of Northfield, MN. Bridgette serves as the Managing Director of The Fields at Rootsprings, a 36-acre retreat space in Annandale, MN (just over an hour outside of the Twin Cities) centering rest and respite for BIPOC and queer artists, activists, healers, and community members in Minnesota and beyond. Bridgette graduated from the University of St. Thomas in 2012 with a double major in Environmental Studies and Psychology. For over ten years, Bridgette’s work has centered around guiding folks through new and challenging experiences and watching them come alive when they unlock new levels of self confidence. Bridgette warmly embraces that positive outdoor experiences can reset our nervous systems, deepen our connection with nature, and activate a sense of awareness and responsibility to protect, respect, and care for not only the planet, but all living things. Their intersecting identities inform and inspire their love of learning, healing and liberating with other Black and queer nature lovers. Bridgette’s favorite healing practice is riding their bike (Watermelanin) with no hands as they sing and lovingly high-five the flora along their route.

Jeanelle Austin is Executive Director and co-founder of the George Floyd Global Memorial, and she is the founder of Racial Agency Initiative. A native resident of Minneapolis, Jeanelle grew up blocks away from the intersection of 38th & Chicago (George Floyd Square), where she helps move the work of racial justice forward. Jeanelle earned an MDiv in Ethics and an MA in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is the inaugural 2022 Community Visionary for the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub at the University of Minnesota, and is a 2022 Leonard I. Beerman Foundation Fellow. She consults and speaks nation-wide on various topics as they intersect with race in America.

Joy McAfee, CPD, is a postpartum doula and CEO of Joy the Village Doula LLC. She has experience serving the BIPOC perinatal community as a Black community health worker. Her professional work focuses on helping families heal, adjust and thrive post birth or post baby adoption. Joy is trained in, lactation support, Trauma informed care, administering herbs and PMADs. She is a vetted Pregnancy and Postpartum Support MN integrative/complementary health provider. Joy’s postpartum support packages include both in person and virtual support options for families to choose from. Through infant care consultations, meal service, herbal tea baths, emotional support and facilitating rest Joy ensures families are thriving rather than surviving in the 4th trimester.

Sandra Joy Agustin (Firekeeper) grew up in South Minneapolis, the youngest of 8 children born to a Pinoy immigrant and Euro-mix mother. Her first language was movement; studying Hawaiian dance at the age of 9 and teaching it by the age of 10. She grew up surrounded by animals, siblings, neighbors, gardens, Filipino dance, and the sounds of Motown. She is a lifelong dancer, creative activist and lover of all sentient and living things. She has collaborated with children as a teaching artist, with adults through teaching dance and exercise and is a longtime volunteer for animals and considers herself a “cre8tive navigator”, helping individuals and groups move from where they are to where they need to be, whether a nonprofit or a family experiencing a loved one’s transition into death. She is a master facilitator, using artistic tools to help shift energy, embody ideas and build understanding among people.  Her artistic work has been shown on the stages of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, The Southern Theater, Ballet Folklorico de Amalia Hernandez, Madison Civic Center, Mixed Blood Theater, the University of Minnesota, Macalester College, Augsburg College and Caponi Art Park as well as others. She has been a panelist for the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and has consulted groups of spiritual leaders to those using funding to make radical shift in the philanthropic landscape.

Camille Cyprian Moderator, is Penumbra’s Wellness Director. Camille’s life and heart’s work is supporting change makers, change making organizations, and organizations working to change themselves, envision, embody, and engage in transformative healing praxis. A long-time community organizer and justice activist, Camille’s current place in the movement ecosystem is holding space for change makers to incorporate intersectional healing justice into the every-day work of social change, and specifically racial healing justice. Cyprian is currently a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, with research interests in healing justice, African Indigenous knowledge, and organizational development. She earned her Master’s in Nonprofit Management degree from Hamline University, and her Bachelor of Science in Individualized Studies: Social Justice and Community Organizing from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. She is also a certified coach in community healing justice, and certified mind-body medicine facilitator. Cyprian currently serves as a graduate instructor for the Social Justice minor at the University of Minnesota, and serves on the advisory board of The Funders Network P.L.A.C.E.S. Fellowship, as well as the governing boards of Headwaters Foundation for Justice and Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary.