There are many ways to support our continued efforts – and our stability and longevity is entirely dependent on this support, from our community.
They go hand in hand – when we are no longer supported, that indicates to us there is no longer a need. Just like a fruit tree that doesn’t bear plentiful fruits because no one is harvesting it – we don’t need to exist if we as a community are indicating that this work isn’t necessary.
If you find us relevant, helpful, supportive, regenerative, inspiring, innovative, or you just want to see us keep on keeping on, your support as a fellow community member is NECESSARY for us to do so!
To cover financial needs we have a crowd-sourced education fund, (MBEF) that helps us to sustain a restorative model – one that enables our community to provide needed support to BIPOC business owners of whom, due to economic barriers, would not ordinarily receive relevant and beneficial access to business education that will enable them to grow, thrive, and continue to support their communities.
Any financial contributions go towards MBEF, but there are many ways to support – see below.
How to Support Us
Contribute to the MBEF through our Patreon from $5 per month to $500 per month to support our BIPOC scholars. You may also request access and join our community platform, that works to connect all students, alumni, and patrons of the Matriarchal Business, all in one place.
The Matriarchal Business Patreon
Contribute to the MBEF by giving a one time (or recurring) donation.
Every Matriarchal Marketing workshop put on will give you the option to pay for your ticket at True Cost (top tier), or on the sliding scale (lower tiers). Paying top tier will include contributions to cover 1 full ticket for a fellow BIPOC workshop participant.
Contribute by purchasing a ticket to our fundraiser events where previous scholars share their journey, stories and Matriarchal Business journeys.
View Upcoming Fundraiser Events
Help us spread the word through your own networks, friends, family, colleagues, and on your social media platforms. Add this page’s URL to your link in bio/linktree and/or visit Clarinda’s social media to share her work with your community.
Contribute to the MBEF by becoming an official sponsor, and matching every dollar donated. Contact Clarinda directly here.
If you have a 501(c)(3) and would generously consider becoming a fiscal sponsor to our fund, please contact Clarinda directly here.
Featured Scholars
Justina Kamiel Grayman PhD (she/her) 2021
– Artist & Community Psychologist / Founder of Raw Movement
“I understood that I wanted to take more of a community organizers’ approach to my work but not until I’ve been in this course have I realized what that really looks like! And that I could be so excited about “marketing” aka serving & educating!”
I study / experiment with / educate on practices & processes for designing beautiful, deeply liberating communities. I make systems/frameworks to support others in creating their own homes, families, communities of deep freedom, truth, love.
My current focus is Raw Movement. Raw Movement is a research home where we research, practice, and connect through ancient and universal movements that naturally ground, move, and deeply connect us as humans – with a specific focus on raw, natural human movement.
I thought I was going to develop the business/marketing aspects of Raw Movement alone until I encountered Clarinda’s work. Almost everything else I’ve encountered seemed out of alignment with my community-centered, serving-people-rather-than-manipulating-and-preaching values. I understood that I wanted to take more of a community organizers’ approach to my work but not until I’ve been in this course have I realized what that really looks like! And that I could be so excited about “marketing” aka serving & educating!
My big vision for Raw Movement is creating a new dance ecosystem for the sensitive and neurodivergent and folks who haven’t felt absolutely loved in dance spaces, while creating a forever stamp on dance history – offering a tangible system to ground dance in deep connection.
This course is helping me clarify the depth of what the purpose of Raw Movement so that I can reach the folks who are already yearning for it, already doing aligned work. I have no doubt that once I know what to say, my mission is basically accomplished. So much gratitude for this course!!
Ryookyung Kim (they/them) 2021
– Interdisciplinary Artist
“Being a part of Matriarchal Marketing with Clarinda and the bigger community within the Matriarchal Business space has allowed me to practice showing up as my Self, whatever that looks like on any given week, without the pressure of consistently making “progress”, or presenting false ideas about where I “should” be. I am inching closer to what my work is about and what it’s not. Who I want to serve and who it’s for.”
My name is Ryookyung and I am an interdisciplinary artist in the midst of pivoting my practice towards nurturing community spaces for creative humans as a facilitator and co-creator. My area of study and experience largely overlap in the realms of illustration, design, zine-making, writing, and ceramics. My hope is to bring my lived experiences to these spaces with the intention of cultivating intimate connections with our Selves and others.
Having weaved in and out of several creative groups that were designed to foster accountability, sharing resources as well as job opportunities, I felt disconnected to the way in which these communities experienced difficulty in navigating conversations around power dynamics and the insidious ways in which capitalism and supremacy culture act as the stage we’re forced to perform on. Decolonizing and untangling internalized oppression became a necessary and sacred practice that reframed the way I related to creativity and the people around me.
The vision I hold for the future is to collaborate and co-create liberatory spaces, both in-person and online, for those who are looking to reclaim their unique ecosystems that is in sustainable relationship with their innate creativity.
Being a part of Matriarchal Marketing with Clarinda and the bigger community within the Matriarchal Business space has allowed me to practice showing up as my Self, whatever that looks like on any given week, without the pressure of consistently making “progress”, or presenting false ideas about where I “should” be. I am inching closer to what my work is about and what it’s not. Who I want to serve and who it’s for. I also have deeper understanding and clarity around why it’s so important for me to take pleasure in what I create and sharing this magic with others. I feel so much more expansive than I ever thought was possible, and I find my Self living through the work I aim to create with my community.
Vance Brown (he/him) 2021
– Founder of the Divine Black Masculine”
“By being in this course I learned that I was viewing my “readiness” in undertaking this endeavor from a very “I” centered – elitist and hierarchical way. That “I” need to stockpile a bunch of degrees, certificates and other forms of credentials in order to create these kinds of spaces. I’m learning that just because capitalism hasn’t yet figured out how valuable I /this work is, doesn’t mean my community hasn’t.”
My name is Vance Brown. I was raised by a single mother who taught me how to love, fight, and survive in a culture that would rather me die than thrive. I listen, write music, films, books and poems about being. I also lead spaces for healing and personal and spiritual growth for Black men and boys.
I’ve been in the personal and spiritual growth and wellness spaces for a long time and just took for granted that Black men’s stories and well-being were not going to be centered. This past year I was on a meditation retreat that was led by three Black males and it blew my mind and then saddened me at how it took 15 years of me being in the work before seeing myself reflected in the leaders holding space for people of all walks of life.
In two – five years I would like to have several different courses, circles, retreats, and workshops for Black men and boys to love, learn, and grow together.
By being in this course I learned that I was viewing my “readiness” in undertaking this endeavor from a very “I” centered – elitist and hierarchical way. That “I” need to stockpile a bunch of degrees, certificates and other forms of credentials in order to create these kinds of spaces. I’m learning that just because capitalism hasn’t yet figured out how valuable I /this work is, doesn’t mean my community hasn’t. I’m way further along than I think I am. You’re way further along than you think you are, so go ahead and do it.
Phelicia Okon Magnusson (she/her) 2020
– Flower Essence Practitioner, Herbalist & Ritualist
“I am learning the true value of my work, where it is needed and why it is important that I get paid for my contribution and the means I need to sustain myself in this work.”
My name is Phelicia Okon Magnusson. I am a queer black woman of Sierra Leonian, Nigerian, and Swedish mixed ancestry. I am a new mama, a wife, a flower essence practitioner, an herbalist and a ritualist .
I work with plants in ritual to support individuals and communities in healing intergenerational trauma, shifting narratives of unworthiness, exploring sexuality and embodying plant allyship as a tool for cultivating sacred relationships with ourselves, our communities and the lands we call home.
I have been a life-long student of plants but in my formal study of herbalism and holistic health, the biggest challenge I’ve encountered has been not seeing myself or my community reflected in teachers, conferences, classrooms, books, articles and media. The deeper I’ve gotten into herbalism and holistic health as a profession the more I’ve had to confront the cultural appropriation, racism, exclusion and fetishization of brown and black communities that has been an inherent function of the industry.
It is my heart’s longing to build out my private practice, Queen & Crow Healing Arts, so it is a profitable and sustainable labor of love and intention that supports me and my family, and in the next 7 years it includes a brick & mortar apothecary and a healing house cultural exchange center. These spaces would include a plot of land where we grow a wide range of medicinal plants & flowers, and host a residency for healers and teachers to come be nourished, and share their cultural practices and wisdom with communities dedicated to honoring, perpetuating, and compensating indigenous healers and the legacies of Diaspora teachings.
Working with Clarinda navigating my way through the Matriarchal Marketing course I am learning the true value of my work, where it is needed and why it is important that I get paid for my contribution and the means I need to sustain myself in this work. I have learned how to create content that allows me to reach more clients and work with multiple groups yearly so I can generate the income and schedule that allow me to show up for my community, my family, my dreams and my ancestors feeling full and ready to tend transformation
Jamee Pineda (he/him) 2020
– Acupuncturist & Chinese Medicine Practitioner
“This course is helping me to craft offerings that are relevant to my communities during multiple pandemics and to build my client base in a way that is generative to my goals.”
I am a hilot binabaylan, acupuncturist, and Chinese medicine practitioner. My goal is to help individuals and communities live their fullest lives by offering a decolonizing approach to medicine rooted in traditional and ancestral practices.
When the mayor of DC declared the COVID-19 pandemic an emergency in March, the community acupuncture clinics I was employed at closed down. I realized that in order to safely care for my community and sustain myself, I needed to open an virtual practice that did not rely on in-person sessions.
One of my long-range goals is to open a COVID-safe healing retreat center that prioritizes the needs of QTBIPOC. This course is helping me to craft offerings that are relevant to my communities during multiple pandemics and to build my client base in a way that is generative to my goals.
Julz Bolinayen S. Ignacio (they/them) 2020
– Tattoo Ritualist
“It gives me motivation, strength and hope in believing that longevity and sustainability of my work is possible because it is needed in my communities..”
I’ve been on my healing journey for over a decade. I’ve learned through my own experiences in receiving energywork and bodywork that pain can be transformed into healing energy.
I’m an ilokano, non-binary, queer haranista and hilot binabaylan who specializes in philippine ancestral healing rituals through tattoo ritual, divination, serenade, energy healing and bodywork. I have been performing tattoo rituals over the course of seven years.
COVID-19 made it impossible for me to offer my work in tattoo ritual since Hawai’i does not have free and widely available covid-19 testing accessible to residents, unlike other states and cities such as Los Angeles, New York or Seattle. In those cities, rapid testing, same day testing/results or next day results are free and accessible to anyone, whether or not you are symptomatic; here, we can only get tested if you are symptomatic, and since folks need to work, we must make the choice to risk working in order to earn an income to cover our living expenses – every day is a risk for those who cannot work remotely.
Due to COVID-19, I will be returning to the continent of Turtle Island (“U.S. mainland”), with the vision and goal to open a private healing arts studio in the city of Los Angeles. Since there is accessible and rapid COVID-19 testing available there, it will be more possible to offer tattoo ritual knowing both practitioner and client can get tested, and I will feel good about safely and responsibly offering tattoo ritual. Once a vaccine is available for Covid-19 and it is safe to travel again, I will travel annually/bi-annually to Honolulu, Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, New York and Chicago to see clients there.
This course has helped me learn a particular and necessary skill set in refining how to define and speak about what ritual tattoo is and what it is not, so that folks can have a good understanding even if they have not experienced tattoo ritual yet. I also feel more confident and secure in sharing about the significant healing impact that community members have experienced thus far. It gives me motivation, strength and hope in believing that longevity and sustainability of my work is possible because it is needed in my communities.