Please join Wxmbspace Project at ACRE Project Gallery for an evening of self-care.

There will be free nail art, 10 minute healing back rub, tarot readings, wine, coffee tasting, and a meditation circle. Qiddist Ashé will introduce Ashé Doula Services. Stayfitbiz will introduce Organo coffee. Meditation circle will be offered from 7-7:30 pm by Jade Williams. Nail art will be given by Nicole Caggiano, from 6-8:30pm.

Wxmbspace Project rescripts the womb as wxmb. A wxmb can be any imagined/biological/constructed organ or body part that involves temporality and metamorphosis, because cyclical time and transformation are the two main functions of the womb. Wxmb is a space with infinite potentials, reproduction being only one of the possibilities. Some of the goals of Wxmbspace Project is to support single moms/parents, people with wombs, LGBTQ community, non-heteronormative families and couples, and WOC/POC owned businesses.

Qiddist Ashé is a birth, postpartum, and reproductive wellness doula, an educator, and an herbalist. Her practice Ashé Doula Services seeks to make reproductive and birth education and support accessible and culturally responsive to queer and trans communities of color. Qiddist integrates evidence-based information with her own ancestral lineage of healing wisdom to support people in building relationships with their bodies and their own innate healing power. Among other things, she offers herbal wxmb steams and essential oil blends for supporting menstrual cycles, herbal and nutritional support, birth education classes, fertility awareness education, and sliding-scale doula support.

Lariel Joy creates durational performances and immersive installations that involve one-on-one interactions. She builds Wxmbspaces in order to bring out the voices of the wxmbs and rescript the womb as a space with infinite possibilities, reproduction being only one of the potentials. Her goal is to articulate queer/feminist theories that start from the queer femme body. Her works have been shown at Itinerant Festival (NYC), Leroy Neiman Gallery, 062 Gallery, Links Hall (Chicago), Queer Feminist Film Festival (Athens), and Outdoor Vision Fest (Santa Fe).

Jade Williams is an installation artist and surface designer whose work investigates the histories and complexities that surround black female bodies. Jade received her B.F.A. (2016) from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign where her work was exhibited at the Krannert Art Museum. Recently, her works have been shown at both Woman Made Gallery and Leather Archives and Museum. Jade is a 2016 recipient of the James R. and Dorothy E. Shipley Award, the Florence M. House award, and winner of the 2016 Evanston and Vicinity Biennial. Currently, she lives and works in the Greater Chicago Area.

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Tags: ACRE, Ashé Doula Services, Chicago, Illinois, Jade Williams, Lariel Joy, Lower West Side, Nicole Caggiano, Organo coffee, Playing and Reality, Qiddist Ashé, Self-care with Wxmbspace Project, Stayfitbiz, Wxmbspace Project