Birthing Reality - CommuniTEA Salon Mother's Day Edition

Join us 1 pm, Saturday, May 10th at the Anacostia Arts Center for the second salon of 2025. The CommuniTEA Salons are a mix between conversation, dreaming, memory making and a playdate. In our May 2025 salon, Mēlani N. Douglass and our guest Joan McGoy of The Managed Mind will lead a series of activities that explore motherhood and birth as a community and creative practice. 

Join us for a powerful Tea Salon where we explore what it truly means to give birth to a dream.

Led by artist and healer Mēlani N. Douglass alongside special guest Joan McGoy, founder of The Managed Mind, this gathering will weave together conversation, reflection, and creative activities inspired by the birth cycle and creative cycle.

Expect guided meditations, group dialogue, journaling prompts, and quiet moments of insight—all held in the nurturing container of our signature salon space.

What You’ll Gain:
-  A deeper understanding of the birth + creative cycles
- Tools to unlock your own creative process
- Community support for the dreams you’re making a reality

Who This Is For:
Anyone giving birth to ideas, identities, projects, or possibilities.
Anyone longing to create with more clarity, determination, and alignment.

It's time to reconnect to birth wisdom as a community. Join us and bring the fam. 

And...
Bring your journals. Bring your sketch pad. Bring your favorite mug. Bring your voice. Come comfortable. Come cozy and let's get into birthing this dreamt reality.

Pillows, back jacks, and other comforts are provided. CommuniTEA is served.

This is a phone free event. Put the nightmare on mute.

The cost? 

Courage and care and a love for community. Monetary donations are welcomed. If you make a donation, please select a ticket as well. 

This one is going to require you to be brave. You are going to need to believe in yourself and others. Sounds like a lot? No worries. Come because you care. Come because you care about what exists after the fall and you need care while it's all changing. If you have just enough courage and/or care to show up - that is all that is required at the front door. 

Mark your calendars for the next CommuniTEA Salons: 

June 14 - Fathering Wellness

June 22 - Dreaming Reality - Summer Solstice Edition - details loading!

About our Guest Joan McGoy 

Meditation. Just saying the word conjures up images of cross-legged practitioners with their eyes
closed working to blank their minds. It’s just that, that is not what I am promoting. Not at all.
My name is Joan McGoy, and I am an Applied Meditation Script Coach. I use a revolutionary
meditation technique that trains the brain to face and address maladaptive mental, emotional and
behavioral responses to life circumstances commonly called “stresses.” Applied Meditation
Scripting programs peaceful, positive and productive responses that are “prehearsed” in the
meditation state to be lived in the real-world circumstance.
I have been a meditation practitioner and instructor for over 35 years. Companies and Institutions with which we have worked include American University Life Pieces to Masterpieces Summer Staff, D.C. Child and Family Services Social Workers and Nurses, One World Center for
Autism, Health Care System for Child Services, DC Healthy Babies and the NAACP’s Health is the New Wealth, and GW University as a substitute teacher for their Stress Management Course. I taught meditation to both instructional staff and middle school students in a DC public charter school. Since 2012, I have been implementing The Managed Mind’s Applied Meditation Scripting program clinically, as well as facilitating meditation workshops in the DMV with outstanding results. 

About the CommuniTEA Salon Series

This immersive gathering blends meditation, tea, art, and conversation to create a space for deep reflection and collective wisdom. We begin with a guided meditation to quiet the mind and invite stillness, followed by a soothing tea ceremony to center the body. Through thoughtful discussion, we will explore how peace of mind is essential to building a thriving home and a strong community.

Inspired by the salons of the Harlem Renaissance, the soul gatherings of Combahee River Collective, the strategizing of The Colored Conventions, and the legacy of Black organizers using the home and community centers as places for transformation. This salon is a modern gathering rooted in history, wellness, and empowerment. Together, we will listen, share, and co-create a vision for a more mindful, peaceful and collectively beneficial future.

This event is made possible by the Valley Place Arts Collaborative, Carter Farms, and the Washington Area Community Investment Fund.

Event powered by the Family Arts Museum and MĀK Apothecary.