On Two-Spirit Identity and the Body as a Portal to Freedom (In-Person)

What role does dominant culture play in how we experience the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and deeper existential mysteries of our bodies? 

Dr. Roger Kuhn, a Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigequeer activist, artist, sex therapist, and somacultural theorist, believes that Two-Spirit people hold a unique and valuable perspective. Straddling colonial imposition and tribal significance, Two-Spirit identity offers a powerful decolonizing framework to achieve freedom and navigate the toxic systems of domination that impose upon the precious truth of who we are. 

Join Dr. Kuhn and queer nonbinary therapist and mediator Jay Tzvia Helfand for a conversation illuminating the ways our bodies offer portals to our own liberation and how viewing our bodies through a somacultural lens can help us better understand how dominant culture informs and, all too often, misinforms our relationship to our bodies.  

Dr. Kuhn discusses his latest book, Somacultural Liberation, based on his revolutionary mode of inquiry, Somacultural Liberation, an embodied practice that helps people connect with the intersections of their identity. Dr. Kuhn’s approach illuminates the full impact of our cultural reality in shaping both our individual and shared sense of self. 

The history and experiences of Native American peoples and those who identify as Two-Spirit provide a path to access the full brilliance of the body. Dr. Kuhn invites you to explore how our bodies offer portals to personal and collective freedom.  

Following the conversation, Dr. Kuhn performs an acoustic set of music featuring songs from his most recent music tour, The Two-Spirit Love Tour.
   

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Dr. Roger Kuhn is a Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigiqueer soma-cultural sex therapist, sexuality educator, writer, activist, and musician. Dr. Kuhn’s work explores the concepts of decolonizing and unsettling sexuality and focuses on the way culture impacts and informs our bodily experiences. He is a community organizer of the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit (BAAITS) powwow, and a board member of the Two-Spirit & Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity. His latest music project, Mvto, is a songwriting anthology of his work over the past two decades. His first book, Somacultural Liberation, is currently available in paperback or audio. Learn more about Dr. Kuhn at his website.  
 

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Jay Tzvia Helfand (they/them) comes from a lineage of revolutionary queers, anti-Zionist Jews, and sick and disabled people. They honor the complex ways their ancestors have survived and carried culture to make their life possible. Jay is a white, trans nonbinary, queer, disabled, Ashkenazi Jew raised on Dakhóta and Anishinaabeg lands in Minneapolis. They learned from their elders who survived the Nazi genocide that never again must mean never again for anyone. Jay holds their work as a therapist and mediator as expressions of this deep call to align their life with movements for justice and transformation. Jay's politicized somatic therapy practice centers trans and queer movement organizers, cultural workers and trauma survivors. The lands where they live are the unceded territories of the Chocheyno speaking Ohlone people, also known as Oakland, CA. 

We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner

Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. Learn more about Marcus Books.

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All tickets and donations for this event are nonrefundable.