BIO

Alyssa (she/they) is a dyslexia educator, spiritual director & writer.  What unites their work is the desire for white anti-racist community building and storytelling while re-learning healthy rhythms of interdependence and rest.  Alyssa lives and works on Anishinaabe land, now known as South Haven, Michigan. They love beach walks and naps and these rituals serve as core practices of connecting to their creativity.  

As a chronically & environmentally ill healer, creator & entrepreneur Alyssa values grounding their work in disability justice principles, particularly sustainability and cross-movement solidarity.  They are learning to ground their creative process within "crip time" valuing how their body-mind is existing in the moment, and not extending past their limits. 

To learn more about Alyssa & their work, check out their website at https://www.alyssastorrs.com/ or on IG at alyssa_storrs.

INSPIRED BY

Lake Michigan, pine trees, sand dunes, poetry, The Nap Ministry, a good question, disability justice activism, folks dedicated to their own healing, MoTown, place-based art

EXPLORING:

I'm wanting to work on a multi-disciplinary project researching the history of white antiracist and abolitionist ancestors and creating intergenerational oral storytelling circles to learn these stories together. Using these stories, I would also like to create curriculum for my tutoring students (and maybe beyond!) and gather resources to center these stories in my spiritual direction practice as well. I would also like to start writing pieces/poems about how I'm starting to connect to these ancestors.

INSPIRATION FOR PROJECT:

Conversations with white friends weaving healing and justice--where I asked the question, "Who are our white anti-racist ancestors?  Who is gathering these stories?" 

Sitting in the absence of an answer. 

Realizing the desire that my students that I work with know these stories.

Daydreaming during my daily rest time about an ongoing project that I can work on during my current multiple-year medical protocol. 

Watching documentaries of Anne Braden called "Southern Patriot" and Lillian Smith's "Breaking the Silence."