Awaken your authentic voice and ancestral power in a sacred space of sound, ceremony, and collective reimagining.
Throughout the globe, we are experiencing and witnessing a collective stripping down of human rights, ecosystems, and geopolitical ethics. Simultaneously, we are experiencing and witnessing communities responding to the devastating impacts of this unraveling by co-creating systems of mutual aid, activating existing networks, and organizing in ways that nourish resistance and inspire resurgence.
In their actions, we see echoes of actions taken by our ancestors who resisted erasure and reimagined new liberatory pathways forward when they were stripped of their homelands, cultural expressions, relational ties, and ceremonies honoring Spirit.
Escalating climate catastrophes and a rising fascism across the globe are forcing the human species to return to the basics. As we face this reality, we need spaces where we can grieve what is dying out and release and compost what no longer serves us. Spaces where we process the heartbreaking loss of lives and species as well as reevaluate what we truly need to live purposeful and fulfilling lives in right relationship with Mother Earth. Through reevaluation, we touch the potentiality within this time of collapse - when what we’ve known is falling away and what we dare to vision in its place has not yet manifested.
This is a time to remember our bright ancestors, those who not only survived fascist eras but preserved cultural knowledge, blended and iterated new cultural expressions, and developed systems of collective care and resource interdependence that included our more than human kin. They did so by harnessing a radical imagination that seeded liberatory futures which defied their current reality.
In Rebirth Retreat 2025, you will be invited to re-member this collective consciousness and, like our ancestors, enter into a space of imaginative play to feel your way into liberatory futures that make room for your magic.
Rebirth Retreat 2025 will be held at Akera Retreat Center in Woodbourne, NY, located on 123 acres of forest and countryside in the lush Catskill Mountains, 2 hours from New York City.
Attendees have the option of private, shared twin, and semi twin rooms, in one of 3 residential buildings on-site – The Grand Chalet, The Petit Chalet, and The Sanctuary. Rooms will be assigned based on availability and lodging preferences.
Retreat registration includes:
Ana Mercedes Polanco is an ancestral coach, family constellations facilitator, and former movement strategist who supports women of the global majority in reclaiming their power, healing generational wounds, and stepping into leadership rooted in ancestral wisdom.
A lifelong advocate and cultural worker, Ana draws from her Caribbean and South American heritage, her background in labor organizing, and over two decades of coaching to help others navigate personal and systemic transformation. She is the founder of Wild Dreams, a ten-week coaching journey designed to activate the inner freedom, imagination, and legacy of women who are ready to lead from the inside out.
Ana lives at the intersection of decolonial healing, community care, and intuitive leadership and believes that our dreams are not lost, they are simply waiting to be remembered.
nisha purushotham (she/her) is a queer femme, certified leadership coach, network weaver, cultural facilitator, musician, and writer who's been working within social movements for 30 years. she integrates facilitative leadership frameworks and tools, popular education praxis, somatics, parts work, and sound and ancestral healing to help leaders strengthen their collaborative capacity, unlock their authentic voice, move stuck energies inherited or absorbed, and heal their younger selves to embody their purpose with courage, freedom, and joy. nisha’s practice is informed by the lens of healing justice, an abolitionist vision, and a deep trust in ancestral wisdom, our bodies' intuition, and the natural intelligence of Land. To ground and enliven her being, nisha makes space for long walks, song channeling, writing, drumming, meals with loved ones, playing and laughing with her son, listening to rivers and birdsong and daily communion with SHAKTI.
Stephanie Madrid is a strategic designer, ceremonial cacao facilitator, writer, and the communications director for an arts organization. At the heart of her multidisciplinary work is a deep appreciation for the human experience and integrating ancient wisdom into modern life to foster connection. Inspired by the Mayan cosmovision, her work focuses on building deeper self-awareness for individuals and groups by facilitating the bridge between mind and heart.