Red Tents: Unravelling Our Past and Weaving a Shared Future

by Mary Ann Clements, Aisha Hannibal, ALisa Starkweather (Foreword by)

Overview

A weaving together of voices and experiences of many women to create a shared story about the role Red Tents can play as liberatory community spaces around the world.

This book has a foreword by ALisa Starkweather, founder of the Red Tent Temple movement.

Each Red Tent is a unique reflection of the community of women who create it. But these varied spaces share some things in common:

• The longing for connection and belonging
• The sharing of how we are feeling and who we are in our lives
• The nourishment of ourselves and each other
• The slowing down, the rest, the replenishment
• The simple act of sharing time and space with a group of women
• The opportunity to let go of the other responsibilities in our lives

When women come together, magic happens. We know this to be true from our own experiences. And we have also seen that something else happens too when these communities grow: they can become a beacon to others.

Full of inspiration and practical learning, along with questions and practices to support and stimulate discussion about some of the challenges Red Tents face. Red Tents is written by the founders of the Red Tent Directory, includes interviews with over seventy women from diverse backgrounds who run Red Tents, and provides the practical support women need to establish and sustain a Red Tent in their own community. Themes include:

• Common challenges and how to overcome them
• Building Red Tent spaces that are liberatory and challenge oppression
• Leading together and making your tent sustainable

This book provides you with inspiring, grounded, and tried and tested advice for creating a safer and more inclusive space

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910559574
Publisher:	Womancraft Publishing
Publication date:	03/29/2021
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Mary Ann Clements is a feminist writer, Shadow Work coach, Action Learning facilitator, TedX speaker, and movement practitioner. She is cohost of the podcast “Change Making Women” and is active in the Women in Power UK Community. She also has many years’ experience as a board member of a Women’s Refuge in South London.

Aisha Hannibal has worked for over twenty years in the charity sector from front-line services in domestic violence to training teachers in intercultural learning in schools. Her commitment to work with women threads through all of her ventures, including managing the website for Women in Power UK.
 

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a bold and courageous antidote to racism, oppression and exclusion. The authors offer a step by step guide to creating liberatory Red Tent spaces where women share collective leadership, listen deeply to one another without trying to fix anything, and inclusion is a central pillar holding up the Tent. The reflective questions peppered through the book encourage a personal journey for the reader. I highly recommend this book for any woman wanting to set up or participate in a Red Tent."
—Nicola Kurk, Shadow Work trainer, facilitator and coach

"A must-read for women yearning to create Red Tent sisterhood. This book captures the magic of the global Red Tent movement and provides new insight into how to celebrate and honour what it means to be a woman."
—Isadora Leidenfrost, PhD, Red Tent movie filmmaker Things We Don’t Talk About and author The Red Tent Movement: A Historical Perspective

"Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. This book is so important in opening up vital conversations for those facilitating spaces for women – it feels like absolute gold dust. What is explored here is what I feel has been missing from the core values of many groups within the Red Tent movement and women’s sacred circles. For those striving for more inclusive spaces, it is long overdue."
—Clare Jasmine Beloved, artist, poet, irreverent Liverpool creatrix, creative activist, circle sista

"In this fast-moving and ever-changing world, the need for Red Tent spaces is bigger than ever. With this powerful, and at times challenging, book, Mary Ann and Aisha offer a guide to how the Red Tents of now and the future can unpick old ideas and offer brave, intersectional spaces where all voices can be heard."
—Awen Clement, founder of The Earth House

"Refreshing, renewing, restorative and indeed, revolutionary, this book nourishes a community-based approach to Red Tents that is both anti-oppressive and expansive, guiding you into the terrain of the liberatory while simultaneously honouring the messy, embodied complexity of doing this world-changing work."
—Molly Remer, author of Walking with Persephone and Womanrunes, rural Red Tent Circle priestess, Red Tent Initiation program creator, creatrix and circle-tender of Brigid’s Grove

"This book is a radical manifesto. It is an honest and practical manual, both challenging and reassuring by turns. Draw the curtains, pull up a comfy chair and settle down to listen to this collective weave of many voices, including your own, as you answer the many thoughtful questions it contains. Find out what being in a Red Tent could mean for you. A wise guide to making change, one rest at a time."
—Liz Rothschild, author of Outside the Box – Everyday Stories of Death, Bereavement and Life, actor, funeral celebrant and founder of Westmill Woodland Burial Ground

"Red Tents is a practical and deeply insightful invitation to firstly look at how you are nourished within your own inner world, and then to consider how you may work in collaboration with others to co-create Red Tent spaces that are truly welcoming and accessible to all women who may feel drawn to be held in the deeply calm, inclusive and courageous space Red Tents have the potential to be. An invaluable resource for everyone creating and holding safe spaces for women’s authentic sharing, showing up and connection."
—Clare Cooper, author of Milestones of Motherhood

"I appreciate this very thorough examination of the many issues involved with hosting Red Tents, including cultural appropriation, gender issues, white woman spirituality and more. Mary Ann and Aisha put deep consideration into how to bring women together for connection, inspiration and healing. And then they went back, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, to include virtual Red Tents and how this vital work can continue in today’s current environment. They’ve created an essential resource for those hosting Red Tents and for those who wish to do so."
—Caryn MacGrandle, creator of The Divine Feminine app

From the Publisher