I grew up surrounded by the woods of Northern Virginia, originally stewarded by the Algonquian-speaking Doeg Peoples. My people are Ashkenazi Jews from New York, Buffalo and Toronto and before that from Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. I currently live in Northampton, Massachusetts, unceded land of the Nipmuc, Nonotuc, and Pocumtuc Peoples.

I am an ordained Kohenet (Priestess of Jewish lineage), a social justice educator, a healer, a youth worker, a Theater of the Oppressed practitioner, a garlic planter, a tree climber, a shrine tender, and an auntie.

I am a political educator who centers healing. And a healing practitioner who believes in collective liberation.

in gratitude and recognition :: where I source my work

In 2008, I received my Masters in Social Justice Education, and was transformed as an educator, by the generous and liberatory teachings of Barbara J. Love through the Social Justice Education program at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and through Barbara’s introduction into the practices of Re-evaluation Counseling.

I completed my Masters program in Counseling Psychology, trained in Drama Therapy, at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2014.

In 2019/5779, I humbly received Smicha, ordained as a Kohenet, a Priestess of Jewish lineage, through the legacy, scholarship, and spiritual guidance of Rabbi Jill Hammer, Taya Ma Shere and Shoshana Jedwab of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.

For eight years, I was guided through my own healing, and trained as a healing practitioner with Gabrielli LaChiara and Lori Friedman through the Infinity Healing School of Western Massachusetts.

I lean into my training for politicized embodiment with Generative Somatics.

I trained in Psychodrama with the The Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute and offer gratitude to the brilliant Leticia Nieto for her powerful political contributions to the fields of Drama Therapy and Psychodrama.

I honor my sister Dove Kent, former director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, for her fierce and bold leadership and for the partnership she offers me in together building an analysis that includes recognizing the connections between anti-Semitism and white supremacy as being core in our commitment to the dismantling of all oppressions.

I fell in love with Theater of the Oppressed through training at The Mandala Center for Change in Washington State and The Brecht Forum, NYC.

I stepped into the role of Circle Keeper for restorative practices alongside the youth and adult allies of the Pa’lante Restorative Justice Program at Holyoke High School.

I honor the members of the Native American Health Center of San Francisco and Oakland, California, who generously and vulnerably shared with me ways of conceiving of and healing from the impact of ancestral trauma and attempted genocide; especially the Two-Spirit folks and the cis-men on the Red Road to recovery, who bravely showed up for my weekly Drama Therapy experiments.

I thank the middle school youth of St. Louis and Seattle and the high school youth of Amherst, St. Paul, West Philly and West Oak Lane, Berkeley, and Holyoke, Massachusetts for all the schooling I received.

I offer gratitude to my dear friend Dori Midnight for her sacred teachings of Jewish ancestral plant magic that help me to remember.

I bless my brother Chris Bolden-Newsome for reminding me that all humans everywhere are connected to land and to growing food, that queer community needs Spiritual healing, and that my prayers are powerful.

And I offer beyond-words-gratitude to the Ancestors and Guidance, yours and mine, for the wisdom, insight and compassion they have offered me and continue to offer through me. May we live our lives in deep honor of theirs.

For testimonials about my work as a healer, an educator, and a ritualist, please click here.