RETREAT SCHEDULE

Day 1: friday, July 11, 2025

Time Start Time End Agenda
6:00 PM 8:00 PM Check-in, dinner provided, relax
8:00 PM 10:00 PM Performance & Film Night
10:00 PM 12:00 AM Party!

Day 2: saturday, July 12, 2025

Time Start Time End Agenda Facilitator
9:00 AM 10:00 AM Check-in, coffee, tea, snacks  
10:00 AM 10:30 AM Welcome and ice breakers  
10:45 AM 12:00 PM Gender-Affirming Surgery Willy Wilkinson
Clark Musto
Sindhu Muthusamy
    Q:DREAM - Postcards from the Future A.L. Hu
12:00 PM TBD Beach Party! Outdoor games, swimming, relaxing.
Lunch provided at noon.
 
9:00 PM 2:00 AM Club Night  

Day 3: Sunday, July 13, 2025

Time Start Time End

Agenda

Faciliator

9:00 AM 10:00 AM Check-in, coffee, tea, snacks  
10:00 AM 10:30 AM Welcome  
10:45 AM 12:00 PM We Keep Us Safe: How to Build Safety with Your Neighbors  Kyle
    Butch Words for Butch Feelings:
API Innovations of the Legacy of Stone Butch Blues
Judas Ātman
Chino Lee Chung
    Make Your Own Guardian Angel Gaia Wu Magidi
12:00 PM TBD Park Day! Outdoor games, hiking, relaxing.
Lunch provided at noon.
 
1:30 PM 2:45 PM Spirituality and Movement (Outdoors workshop in the park) Bobby C.
Sindhu Muthusamy

All locations will be provided with registration.


PERFORMANCE & FILM NIGHT

July 11th, Friday, 8:00 PM

Alder Duan Hurley is a poet living on Ohlone land and a member of Lavender Phoenix, where he organizes for safety and abolition. As Alder & the Kindred, he performs spoken-word pieces work scored to music. For his evolving practices, artistic and otherwise, gratitude to: Audre Lorde, Grace Lee Boggs, Marquis Bey, Octavia Butler, Aja Monet, and many more. He is an MFA student in Creative Writing at SF State, where he has been awarded the Wilner Award in Short Fiction and the Daniel Langton Poetry Prize.

Photo: Claire S. Burke

 

Eli Maliwan AKA Saxreligious is a Thai American professional jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator who was born and raised in the Bay Area. His debut album is entitled "Elysia Marginata," which is a type of sea slug that decapitates itself and grows a new body. Because his deadname is Elysia, Eli felt very inspired by the tiny sea muse and composed a jazz/lo-fi hip hop/retro video game music fusion album as a self-care love letter to himself and other quirky children of the ‘90s. 

Eli will be performing an original 15-minute set of music on voice, keys, and saxophone. The music explores intersecting marginalized identities as a queer trans Asian American raised by a single immigrant mother. 

 

Judas Ātman (they/he) is a butch, transgender, mixed-race, South/Southeast Asian diasporic artist based in Oakland. Their artistic practice is based in hybridity, including creative writing, directing, performance, and queer archiving. He writes at the intersections of queerness and mythology, as the two converge and diverge in forming intergenerational ideologies. They graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama and a Minor in Film Production. Currently, he is an MFA candidate for Creative Writing at SFSU with concentrations in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction. They also serve as Co-Editor in Chief at Fourteen Hills Magazine: The SFSU Review.

 

Trần Mai Xanh (he/they), from San Jo, CA, wears multiple hats as an organizer, gardener, and a multimedia artist in photography, DJing, and filmmaking. They are curating an API Transfusion Film night featuring API Queer and Trans documentaries, short comedy series, and music videos from all around the world. Find him on IG @c0mpost_king and soundcloud.com/DJChanhXanh

 

Trinh Lê is a Bay Area dyke of Vietnamese origin. You can find them at the Bay Area Lesbian Archives communing with their foremothers, or self-publishing under the name B!NGO Press. Trinh will be reading a selection of poems.

 

AFFIRMING & Authentic Workshops

This is your retreat! We want this to be an affirming place where we can feel free to be our authentic selves. There is no pressure to participate in workshops or group activities. We do ask that everyone be kind, supportive, and respectful of each other. Some of the discussions may bring up a lot of feelings. We encourage you to take care of yourselves and each other.

 

Gender-affirming surgery

July 12th, Saturday, 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

Are you concerned about access to gender-affirming care locally and nationally? Want to learn more about transition-related surgeries? We will begin with an overview of the current healthcare landscape and how to access gender-affirming care covered by insurance. A panel will discuss the details of gender-affirming surgeries, pre- and post-op care, complications, and long-term outcomes, and end with a show and tell. 

About the Facilitators

Photo: Jordan Reznick

Willy Wilkinson, MPH is an award-winning author, speaker, and public health consultant who has been advocating for marginalized populations since the early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning book Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency, which illuminates trans experience from a Chinese American and mixed heritage perspective. He launched the first trans healthcare access program in the nation and the first program for trans men who have sex with other men, organized the first support groups for transmasculine people of color, and founded API TransFusion. 

 

Clark Musto has been an active member in the LGBTQIA+ community for many years, with over 5 years dedicated to activism for the transgender community (specifically within the healthcare research space). Clark brings deep experience, empathy, and intersectional awareness to his work. Currently based in Berkeley, CA, Clark shares life with their beloved pup, Lily, and remains committed to building a more just and inclusive world for all gender-diverse people.

 

Sindhu Muthusamy (he/they) is a South Indian genderqueer transmasc person living in unceded Ohlone land, also known as Oakland, California. They are a weaver of dreams, images, and stories, and a lover of herbalism and visual arts. They work as an occupational therapist and are passionate about gender affirming care. They prefer to spend their time dipping in any fresh body of water or giggling with friends.

 

Q:DREAM - Postcards from the Future 

July 12th, Saturday, 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

Queeries: Designing Reality Equitably and Madly - aka Q:DREAM - is an emergent research-creation process that asks trans and queer people to participate in acts of spatial design, in order to queer discourses of architecture. Postcards from the Future is a collective visioning: attendees will be asked to share their stories and experiences, and to reflect on them through writing, collaging, and drawing. We will focus on the question: "What kind of space(s) do you need the most in order to thrive?" Attendees will create a postcard of their much-needed space and begin to imagine how to manifest them in the physical realm.  

About the Facilitator

A.L. Hu (they/them) is a Bay Area-based transgenderqueer Taiwanese American architect, artist, and facilitator using spatial design to dream and manifest racial, class, and gender justice. Their collaborative practice straddles corporate work, speculative discourse, and community organizing. As a Registered Architect, A.L. designs accessible, inclusive spaces as part of the Higher Education Studio at SmithGroup, and organizes with Design as Protest (DAP) and Dark Matter U (DMU). This workshop was first hosted at the Center for Architecture in New York City as part of the 2023 Lab Residency. A.L. is often cuddling with their cat, Cherry, or staring at the seedlings in their backyard garden. 

 

We keep us safe: how to build safety with your neighbors

July 13th, Sunday, 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

"You'd shoot guns before talking to your neighbors??" -a friend on buying arms for a potential civil war. With rising fascism, transphobia, and xenophobia, how do we build real safety that doesn't rely on police? When disaster strikes (ICE raids, earthquakes, violence), who can we turn to for immediate help? The police aren't here to protect us and mainstream prepper culture sells us individualist approaches that won't get us far. In our atomized society, most of us never talk to the people who are physically closest to us--those who share our living conditions and can respond in place. Let's learn, brainstorm, and plan how to build relationships, foster community safety, unite on issues, and exercise power with our neighbors.  

About the Facilitator

Kyle (he/him) is a core organizer at Lavender Phoenix on the community safety committee. He has helped facilitate de-escalation trainings for QTAPIs in the Bay Area and has recently begun organizing his Oakland neighborhood around community safety.  

 

Butch Words for Butch Feelings: API Innovations of the Legacy of Stone Butch Blues

July 13th, Sunday, 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

“I needed my own words–butch words to talk about butch feelings” – Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues

What words do API, trans butch writers use to talk about their “butch feelings”? With the understanding that much of butchness has existed within the working class, American psychic landscape, we will discuss how American and Asian cultures, histories, and socio-political identities intersect when creating our own written work that grapples with the ongoing, intergenerational conversation on what it means to be butch and trans. From this discussion, we will wrap up this workshop with some time for writing and sharing snippets of work. Writers of all genres are welcome. 

Some suggested readings (not necessary to participate in workshop): 

  • Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg 

  • Breathless by Kitty Tsui 

  • Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg 

  • Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H 

  • “Butch Blow Job” by Jenny Johnson, BOMB Magazine 

  • Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

About the Facilitators

Judas Ātman (they/he) is a butch, transgender, mixed-race, South/Southeast Asian diasporic artist based in Oakland. Their artistic practice is based in hybridity, including creative writing, directing, performance, and queer archiving. He writes at the intersections of queerness and mythology, as the two converge and diverge in forming intergenerational ideologies. They graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama and a Minor in Film Production. Currently, he is an MFA candidate for Creative Writing at SFSU with concentrations in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction. They also serve as Co-Editor in Chief at Fourteen Hills Magazine: The SFSU Review. 

 

Chino Lee Chung is a queer and trans Chinese Mexican personal essay writer, grassroots activist, and is currently working on a collection of essays that integrate his social activism with his intersectional identities. He’s a recipient of the 2024-2025 San Jose State Steinbeck Fellowship and a member of the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. He holds an MFA from the California College of Arts and San Francisco State University. His work appears in Invitation to Joy – Writer’s Creating in Community, Gender Queer: voices from beyond the sexual binary, Our Family Coalition Newsletter, and served as an Assistant Fiction Editor at 14 Hills Literary Magazine. 

 

Make Your Own Guardian Angel

July 13th, Sunday, 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM

Whether we see them or not, we all have a guardian angel— bring yours to life in this special workshop, brought to you by Gaia (@gaiaw0rldwide)! In this class, we will be intuitively dreaming, drawing out, and sculpting our own personal guardian angel/protector out of air-dry clay, wire, and found objects.

About the Facilitators

Gaia Wu Magidi (they/them) is a non-binary Taiwanese and Iranian American artist and community organizer born and raised in the Bay Area. They practice illustration, tattooing, ceramics, mural painting, clothing design, and are currently directing their third collaborative community fashion show, “EMERGENCE: FUTURE ANCESTORS”, which will be premiering August 23rd in Oakland, CA.

 

Spirituality and Movement

July 13th, Sunday, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
**Location of this workshop will take place outdoor in the park.**

For this outdoor workshop in the park, Sindhu will offer a short 15-minute yogic practice to connect with body, spirit, and breath. The practice will focus on warming and lubricating the joints through simple and repetitive movements to allow the flow of energy throughout the body. Movements will include modifications to be accessible to most bodies and abilities. Then, Bobby will lead a free-form discussion and share techniques on mindfulness practice, meditation, tapping into your inner guidance, and making the connection between mind, body, and spirit. Be the creator of your reality and be your true authentic self. 

About the Facilitators

Bobby C. is an immigrant from Hong Kong who also grew up in San Francisco. He is a lifelong spiritual seeker and a spiritual counselor. He has transitioned from female to male for close to three decades. Bobby is a former titleholder, Mr. Transgender San Francisco 2004, and a longtime volunteer and organizer of the LGBT+ community in the Bay Area. He works as a Design Operations Manager / Creative Producer and spends his free time shooting photos at community events, making visual art, and writing poetry. 

 

Sindhu Muthusamy (he/they) is a South Indian genderqueer transmasc person living in unceded Ohlone land, also known as Oakland, California. They are a weaver of dreams, images, and stories, and a lover of herbalism and visual arts. They work as an occupational therapist and are passionate about gender affirming care. They prefer to spend their time dipping in any fresh body of water or giggling with friends.