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Mattie Marguerite Martinez is an American artist whose work spans through a variety of creatives modes of expression. Exploring the boundaries between deeply personal experiences and collective memories, her works often pose questions about the construction and deconstruction of the mind and the existence of being. Q: Mattie, as an artist, your work is driven by your emotions and experiences throughout your life. How does your emotional landscape feel and look like today? How is your heart? A: It's an interesting question. My heart in this moment is good. I’ve actually been thinking a lot these days on the heart space and how our relationship to our heart affects our energy and our moods and the world we see in our everyday life. Finding a balance in the heart space is a very vulnerable place to be, but it’s also the place you hold the most power when you harness it correctly. It is a lifetime of working with yourself and recalibrating yourself. Q: Tell me a bit about you and your journey? A: I was born just outside of Washington D.C and then moved to Atlanta, where I grew up. Art was my first language and the first way I learned how to express myself: I’ve always been a creative. Ever since I was a child, I was always drawing or making something. Growing up, I always struggled in school and the classic American academic settings. I was so lucky to have my parents, who were always supportive of putting me into extracurricular activities where I felt I could properly express myself without - what I felt - were limitations around how I could be and who I was. I mostly always had some extra art or dance class in my schedule throughout all of grade school. I then got a scholarship to a really amazing art school in Chicago, which was also my favorite city in the U.S at the time and moved there for four years to get my bachelors in Painting and Fine Arts. And, I always thought I was going to be a painter, and I still am, but halfway through my education, I switched into Graphic Design and Visual Communications, and also started working at a gallery in West Town Chicago where I gained a massive interest in the very unique industry and structure of the art world in general. So, I moved to London, one of the art capitals of the world, to continue my education in the art industry. This time was incredibly pivotal in my life because while I had temporarily stopped making art for the first time in my life, I was constantly inspired by the overwhelming amount of creativity and history that constantly surrounded me every day. I fell in love with researching and learning the stories and philosophies behind other artists and their work and London was the perfect place to be in addition to being a direct access point to other art epicenters of Europe, such as Paris and Venice. In March of 2020, I moved to New York for a job at a gallery, where I only worked for one week before the whole city and the world shut down. I was in between Texas and an empty New York for most of that year until a good friend of mine told me to come to Mexico City. I flew there, and once again, the whole course of my life changed. Just a simple flight to Mexico was the start of an entire chapter in my life where I started living nomadically, working with a creative agency in design and art direction and working from the computer, and was also surrounded by some of my favorite living artists that I know. While I learned so much in my time in London, Mexico was the place where I reconnected with my heart the most and became the most “me” I feel I have ever been. I've noticed the patterns of connection to location or connection to places that I have been have always left a big and never-ending mark on my creative journey and personal growth (which work in tandem). I find inspiration in the environment and culture of different places, and this sense of connection has contributed to my vision of the world as well. Now I mostly live in Los Angeles. Throughout the last few years, I had several crucial moments of my development as a creative that made me realize that my expression does not and will never fit in just one or two (or any) categories. I have many many ways of expressing myself all the time, whether it be through drawing, writing, design, and now photography, which I started practicing throughout all of my travels since the start of the pandemic. Photography became a source of creative therapy for me: a way to reconnect and ground myself with my surroundings and develop deeper relationships to wherever I go. For example, photography, like all other forms of creative thinking, helps me see the beauty in everything, good or bad. For me, everything has a story and every story can be reinterpreted in millions of ways over and over again, all the time. Q: What’s your creative process like? A: The creative process is an ongoing investigation of intangible concepts that effect our subconscious such as dreams, the essence of memories, time and space. Q: What are topics you cover within your art and work? What type of materials or sources of inspiration do you use? A: My work is often very personal and is rooted in storytelling and mark making. Whether it be my photography or my writing or my illustration - I love the feeling of capturing a moment candidly. Q: What are the principles that your work stands for and why? A: I believe in always exercising my ability of continuous learning and curiosity….I don't ever want to stop for the rest of my life. Q: Understanding that “success” is objective, tell me about any success stories or do you have a particular story to share that is special somehow? A: "Success story" is an interesting term because that idea is really what I have struggled with for most of my life. It's been a bit distorted by the capitalist idea of success, or at least that's what first comes to mind for me when I first hear / see that word. It plays into the idea that you finalize a series of steps and processes which are otherwise meaningless until you reach your goal. It feeds into this idolization of "being the best" or perfectionism with these undertones of competing against one another. Everything I have done up until now and everything that will happen after is a success story to me :) Every time I choose to follow what my heart tells me to do and listen to my intuition, that is a success story. It's all about perception. Q: If you could describe your vision for your art in one word what would it be? A: This is not one word but, “Live the questions”. After all of this time I realized (and am still reminding myself) that all of my art should always be about me and my relationship to it. I should stop wasting time worried about the outcome of a vision and just follow my intuition on something I feel is right for me to do. The answers will find their way to me. Or, sometimes they don’t. But that is the beauty of it.

Founded by Nicole Gulotta, Nomadic Thread Society began to pivot as an organization, as passion for style and design turned ever more towards social good through entrepreneurship. She began to work more actively in support and development of other creative, sustainable, independent businesses – from artisans, to entrepreneurs, to established, mission driven brands. Q: What are topics do you cover within NTS? A: Independent entrepreneurialism, women's leadership, cultural preservation through heritage craft, slow design, circular product development, fair trade, four pillars of sustainability, SDG's. Q: Tell us a bit about you and your journey A: My studies in art history at NYU and general fooling around in the New York City creative scene of the 90’s planted a deep aesthetic appreciation and set me on a curious, humanistic trajectory early on. Twenty five years as a NYC-based fashion and wardrobe stylist followed; an independent, creative, business person was formed. My tree-hugging nature drew me into the deep end of the world’s heritage hand-made sector in 2009, when I founded Nomadic Thread Society. I gravitated towards conscious design and business practices from the start, digging into working with heritage textiles in developing communities around the world. Support of artisanship, fair trade, and sustainability became the company ethos. Working from the heart, my business concept coincided with the emerging redirection of global fashion. These days I apply my cultural curiosity, activist nature, and independent business chops to slow design and business development, along with consulting and mentoring in the conscious design and culture spaces. I have an anthropological angle on creativity, opportunity, and enterprise. What do people seek, want, make, do, wear? How do they express themselves? What materials are available? How is the work done? And the most pressing question, can this all be done responsibly? Q: What are the principles that Nomadic Thread Society stands for and why? A: The topics I listed above are exactly the principles my work is centered around. In addition, my core belief that "doing one's own thing" is a recipe for self knowledge, love, and satisfaction is a driving force. Q: Tell me about any “success” stories, do you have a particular story to share that is special somehow? A: I'm not sure I'd qualify this as a success story, more a delightful expression of divine kismet! I moved to Menorca from Mallorca in March of this year because it was calling me. After rooting in Mallorca for the preceding year, it was actually a bit difficult to transition here. One day, the curtain in my room fell down and the repair people were somehow a hotel director and manager that day - they became interested in my sustainability education program as we chatted, with me in my pj's. They wanted to meet again and discuss working together! In the next room, there were a couple of Danish elders, textile artists, and keepers of ancient flax growing and weaving knowledge at their museum in Denmark, so lovely. They invited me to visit their place, with the idea to create a workshop. I looked at the stars with the astrology loving staff, befriended the slow-food chefs, ran into a few people I knew from the island - all this in just two days. That's what I call a quirky bit of kismet, beautifully paving my path. Q: Wow, the universe speaking marvels there! If you could describe your vision for your business in one word what would it be? A: Sustain.

Hermanas investor Jennifer Lujan has been working in social impact since the beginning of her career. Being a Latina, a mom, and a burner have all impacted how she sees community, education and the role of psychedelics as well as other plants as agents of healing. We talked to her about her many life projects as well as her connection with Hermanas. United States Linkedin https://www.eaze.com/momentum Q: What’s your story Jennifer? A: I am originally from El Paso, Texas, which is predominantly Hispanic. First one to go to college in my family. I took many different career paths, but I would say all of them have the common theme of social impact, whether working for nonprofits or working in politics, or doing a lot of advocacy work, to then doing impact work in the corporate world. Q: When was the moment, throughout your career when you were like, okay, I want to keep working in impact-driven initiatives but now with plant medicine? A: Probably back in the 2013 / 2014. I was already in San Francisco and you heard a lot about psychedelics then. I’ve always had this strong connection with the land and the earth and plants, so these conversations around plants and psychedelics resonated with me, always. But it was when I actually walked into a cannabis facility that I could feel this energy of so many plants and then I saw how much all of these plants have healed many patients, specifically cancer patients, or people who are dealing with so much pain. Seeing them get off their pain medication and spend their last days or months of their lives with their families in way less pain, opened a new door to me. Q: This is when Weed for Good was born? A: Yes, I started to travel the world and meet with other practitioners who offered different modalities of different plant medicines. Different alternatives to the standard western practices for healing. I then found a deep passion for these healing modalities, specifically, plant medicines and so I pivoted my social impact career into cannabis where I started to work directly with patients. The mission with Weed for Good was to create opportunities and access for patients who are terminally ill, specifically hospital patients to receive access to cannabis, which could be used in replacement of opiates. And I saw how this transformed so many people who were in that terminally ill stage that it took me into a deeper level of knowing and seeing the power of not only cannabis, but psychedelics and plant medicines. Q: You then pivoted to focus on social equity in cannabis. Can you tell me more about that? A: As cannabis moved into the legal realm for adult use, the industry recognized that we need to correct the harms from the impact of the War on Drugs. I started a philanthropic arm for a company called Eaze, one of US’ largest cannabis delivery companies. Fast forward, I created an accelerator, which focuses on social equity and providing access. Q: Tell me more about this… A: Momentum [the name of the accelerator] is an accelerator for underrepresented entrepreneurs in the cannabis space, so BIPOC, Women, LGBTQIA and it gives them opportunities in the space by entering capital, pairing them with investors and mentors, and giving them very strategic partnerships either with investors or with retailers and dispensaries. Q: Oh wow, and now psychedelics on top of that? A: Yes, now we’re getting into the realm of psychedelics. Trying to give indigenous voices a space in the industry. Q: It sounds like you’ve always been connected with the land and indigenous voices. And now you are a steward of a 12-acre property that you share with a wide community. How did you get there and what’s the purpose of that place? A: Right before covid hit, I had my son Mateo and at that time, a lot of things were closed off and that’s when we moved outside the city, just outside of San Francisco, in a place called Bolinas. Like many people, we had this huge desire to get a piece of land and live in community and grow our own food. This was a big shift towards building community and also of understanding the importance of it, while also reconnecting with nature. Those two things became really important. Q: What happens there? A: We are creating an education centre for all ages. We have a forest preschool that we run, so it's an outdoor learning for two and three year olds. And we have started to have different workshops, retreats and after school programming that's centred around regenerative principles and gives access to nature. The community didn’t have a preschool, so some parents came together and created a forest school on the land. It is all outdoor learning and allows the children to discover the magic of the natural world. About 90% of the time, even rain or shine, these children are outside and everything they learn is centred around nature. Q: What does community mean to you? A: I think community for me is creating an environment and an ecosystem that allows you to feel supported by others, to feel like you belong. Belonging is probably you know, the first real word that comes to mind. Community for me has meant so many different things. It's my family… my blood family, my chosen family. Q: I also wanted to ask you what led you to invest in Hermanas? A: Putting my investor hat on: I was impressed that there was already an MVP. There was already this product, you already had your audience you already had people who are invested into it, and your customer acquisition is one of the hardest things that people spend so much money on. I really trusted Dragana, who had built a strong community of women over years, to build and scale something bigger and more impactful. I really also admired how Hermanas tries to keep it focused from the female perspective, have only female investors kind of just as the foundation of Hermanas. I think Hermanas is very mission driven, which I appreciate. I invest in people and it felt right.

Babe Blue is a project based in Mexico City focused on sexual wellness and cannabis. They provide high-quality products like lubricants, suppositories, and tinctures with CBD while at the same time sharing education about the benefits of cannabis for a healthy sex life. Q: What are topics you cover within your organization? A: We cover sexual education and education about how to use cannabis in a responsible and healthy way. We also produce high quality products to empower pleasure and conscious experimentation. Finally, we do research about the eendocannabinoid system and how it is related to sexual and reproductive health, specially in women’s health. Q: Tell us a bit about you and your journey A: My name is Mariela, I grew up in Mexico City and I was lucky to grow up next to Huerto Roma Verde, a project focused on socio-environmental well-being, culture, ecology and community. Growing up in a space like this gave me, from an early age, the sensitivity to connect with plants and their medicinal uses, it also gave me an understanding of the need to care for the land and the importance of community. As a midwife and herbalist, I started doing research about the medicinal benefits of cannabis in women’s sexual and reproductive health. So, in 2021 I started Babe Blue, a project focused on education, products for female pleasure, and community building. Q: What are the principles that your organization stands for and why? A: We value community and are against discrimination, homophobia, racism and toxic masculinity. We fight for the legalization of orgasms, because we deserve it. We fight for the legalization of cannabis, it is an ancient medicine, not a drug. We fight for an open spaces to share ideas and ask for help. We fight for the right to access reliable information about sex and cannabis. We fight for equality because pleasure is not a privilege, it’s a right. We fight for a society free of stigmas and myths. We fight for a c ommunity that welcomes everyone and does not discriminate against anyone. We fight for our mother earth. We fight big corporations and agrochemicals. Our commitment is to create products that are safe, infused only with organic and tested CBD. We are trying to collaborate with other projects, organizations and farmers to create a network of people who share the same values. Q: Tell me about any success stories, do you have a particular story to share that is special somehow? A: We've had many successful stories. Specially from women sharing their stories on how Babe Blue allowed them to have a more pleasurable and pain free experience. Q: If you could describe your vision for your business in one word what would it be? A: Pleasure.

Ariana offers classes and facilitates workshops at events and festivals where she combines breathwork, movement, and meditation, creating a unique experience with a focus on - going beyond what we believe we can do. She believes well-being is a sense of home inside of us and encourages individuals to reflect on what that means to them. Q: Tell me a little bit about you and your journey here? A: From a young age, I’ve had this entrepreneurial vein. I’m not sure where it came from because no one in my immediate family is swayed, but how I grew up allowed me the space to explore that. I learned how to build and run businesses with a grassroots approach, that was my kind of north star. This drive led me to collaborate with talented leaders in wellness, skincare, fashion, and packaged foods. I grew up in California and over the past 3 years, I have lived nomadically, between Portugal, New York and other places. Q: Amazing, and what projects are you currently dedicated to? A: My focus now is wellbeing through breath, movement meditation, and using imagination as a tool. Let me explain: it always starts with grounding ourselves, feeling our body and then going into our imagination. My approaches differ depending on who is in front of me, a client, or a class. I try to adapt to their energy that day. You know engineers or doctors might have a different approach than artists, for example. Currently, I offer online classes where I combine breathwork, movement, and meditation creating a unique experience with a focus on going beyond what we believe we can do. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology and a background in Hatha & Ashtanga Yoga from Rishikesh, India, I use many different tools in this class to create an elevated sense of well-being. Q: What a mix! Tell me a bit more about your latest project in Brazil. A: I recently co-created a project in Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brazil. The space is nestled in the forest providing an opportunity to pause our daily life routines to create space for a new reality for yourself while learning recycling processes and ecological education. The property can house 3-4 guests who wish to visit the national park and is open for collaboration for those who resonate with the space and wish to host experiences here. Hermanas unite! Whatever I do, the idea is for me to always show up and give in the way that I can, which is through this movement perspective, mostly to help people connect further to themselves. It’s a co-creation! This is also why I love Hermanas, it’s really about co-creation and how we can do that in a way that is sustainable. Q: Absolutely! Thank you for sharing all this with us. And last but not least, we ask this to all the people we talk to, what does community mean to you? A: Community shares space physically and emotionally where we can feel safe to express who fully are and who we are becoming. Community is filled with loved ones who recharge us and encourage us to grow. It is having people to go to and be like, “hey, this is who I am” and then being there through time, with open arms, accepting our evolving selves, and also holding us accountable, being honest, and real with us.

It's in our essence to support and highlight initiatives that are inspiring and refreshing. Within our new Ecosystem, we are interconnecting conscious brands, projects, and businesses with our global community, enabling mutually beneficial relationships. We're calling for like-minded business owners to become Founding Partners of Hermanas. If your brand stands for equality, human well-being, conscious innovation and environmental care, or inspires through art & culture we would love to partner with you.

Abril grew up being a nomad and studying Ayurveda in Chile and then in India. Her life and the impact motherhood had on her, allowed her to go back to her native Mexico and start a project close to her heart: Faciales Ancestrales, inspired by Ayurvedic philosophy and blended with Mexican herbalism and plant medicine. Wellness, Wellbeing & Beauty Mexico Website Q: So, Abril, Ayurveda is a huge part of your work and path. How did you get there? I’ve always tried to be spiritual. However, life led me to study international business, which took me on a very different path. Work allowed me to travel to many different places around the world where I was able to see things from a different point of view. I was exposed to different cultures and I loved learning about them. I moved to Chile for work and, once there, I got really sick. I was bloated all the time and every type of food would be a burden on my stomach. And a friend told me that there was a big Ayurvedic community from India in Chile and suggested I get an intake which basically changed my life. Q: How so? A: Well, it was so impactful because all of a sudden I was asked about my emotional health and how it felt to have moved countries and where my roots were. I started making the connection between emotions and your health overall. So, I felt empowered to take control over my health through my habits and emotional awareness. That was really my path towards healing. Q: And what happened next? A: I got obsessed with this type of healing. With the connection to the earth and how to use what is available out there to feel better. I took on all the courses I could find: from making your own face oils, to how to harvest your own food. I felt truly alive. After that, I knew that I wanted to do something else with my life. I left for India for work and there I learned that one of the main principles of Ayurveda was to see someone’s health through their skin. Meaning that the skin will tell you absolutely everything about someone’s emotional, physical, and spiritual health. I then went deep into how the skin works. I took a million courses to learn from the Ayurvedic, to the western, scientific way of looking at the skin. Q: Is this when Faciales Ancestrales was born? A: Yes! I went back to Mexico to ground and root in my own country. I came back with a child and my Chilean husband and met a French girl with whom I felt that I could start this Ayurvedic skincare line rooted in ancestral techniques. From there, I wanted to teach people how to apply the oils and ended up learning how to treat the body through the face, how to use acupressure and the principles of acupuncture to treat my patients. So, the creation of the oils went hand in hand with the start of the facials. Q: Amazing. I understand that you are now applying Mexican herbalism to your ancestral oil making. How is that process going and why did you decide to add Mexican ancestral medicines to your craft? A: I reflected on the fact that these ingredients were coming from the other side of the planet and then also, during the pandemic, I learned that Mexico had plants, herbs and spices that were very similar and were used to heal the same issues. So, I went and studied herbalism at the university of Chapingo. Now, I’m starting to introduce Mexican herbs and local plant medicine to my oils. There’s so much knowledge around herbal medicine in Mexico, it’s really powerful to be able to apply the same healing practices using local plants. Q: What do you envision for Faciales Ancestrales? A: I feel that in this world and especially in Mexico, there’s this notion that you have to suffer to reach an ideal beauty. I feel that it’s rather counterproductive to approach health and beauty in that way. What I want to achieve with Faciales Ancestrales is to allow people to go back to their roots, to empower themselves, and to understand an alternative and more grassroots path towards healing. I also offer a natural face-lifting, to provide an alternative to botox or any type of synthetic filling. I want to inspire Mexican women (and men) to adopt better and more wholesome beauty habits. Q: Finally, what has Hermanas meant for you and your project? A: Well, when I came back to Mexico after many years living abroad, I was afraid of starting again from zero. I wasn’t even in the groups but women started coming into my center saying they got recommended in this group called Hermanas, and then I knew that there was something special about this community. I felt that I didn’t have to go to the world, but that the world was coming to me and then I learned about the community. It’s been such a nurturing space. The project has blossomed there. So, I’m happy to be a partner of Hermanas and elevate the community from within.

Mareile Paley has been a leader and pioneer in the retreat world since 2010. Her speciality is in pilates, curating unique mind-body adventures that connect not only people and culture, but open a path to ourselves. She is now launching CALM, the Center for the Art of Life in Movement, a wellbeing center rooted in regenerative tourism with a focus on Pilates in Portugal. We spoke to her about her life, projects, and visions. Portugal / Germany @ourlifeinmovement https://www.calmportugal.com Q: Tell me a bit about your journey here? A: I'm originally from Germany, but I left when I was 19. First to travel then to study. I met my husband backpacking in Indonesia, then studied in New York, then lived all over the world: many years in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan. Nine years in Hong Kong, seven years in Turkey. 5 years ago I found my true ground here in Portugal and we live in Arrabida with Matthieu and our two boys who are 16 and 12. Q: That’s such a lovely journey! And how did you get into the work you are doing now? A: I am a graphic designer by training, but over the years the different careers I’ve had have morphed into each other. When I started in 2010 hosting my first pilates retreat in Bali there were not a lot of retreats out there. There were some yoga retreats with all their fuzzy talk on finding yourself - that wasn’t for me! Pilates is such an urban spor t, there was no soul-searching. But through the retreats and through learning from others (and finding my path within yoga after all), I eventually found that depth. I'm also maybe one of the few pilates teachers ever that I know that didn't come to pilates because I'm an ex dancer, or because I had an injury. I just found pilates in my gym and I was curious and I fell in love on my first class! Q: Speaking of body, mind and soul, whats your take on wellbeing? A: I would say that in the media and popularly it's become a buzz word. At the same time, it's also a reality, everybody's starting to realize that we actually need to be well. I think we've come over that cusp of wel l being just being for a few elite people that can afford it. I think it's something that is becoming and should become more accessible to everybody. I wish for it to become less exclusive and more natural state of being. Q: Absolutely resonate with this at Hermanas, we even have a wellbeing feature where we go into more details about the topic, and we’re through the community also trying to contribute to making wellbeing inclusive for all. So tell me a bit about CALM. A: I’ve always had a life in movement, so it seemed obvious, to call my project the Centre for the Art of Life in Movement. This seemed like a very long name for a Hotel, until I realized the acronym was C-A-L-M! Talk about serendipity. CALM is rooted in regenerative tourism and is driven by the land and its history dating back to medieval times. We will have, 4 suites, 9 eco-bungalows, 2 pilates studios, a natural pool, spa, and all set amidst an extensive food forest. We are right on the edge of the cute village of Palmela and part of our land is already in the Arrabida Nature Park, one of my favorite places for hiking, biking and being in nature. The water for our pool will come from our own clear spring water cave, then filtered and cleaned through a natural filtration process, using other plants, rocks and sand. Besides pilates, we will offer Restorative Getaways and Nature Immersions focusing on Earth Wisdom and how to reconnect to ourselves through nature. Q: Love this so much too, this is such an original offering in this world. A: Yes, I am also aware that the wellness world is very saturated. Unless you have someone you know or you get a great recommendation, it can be really confusing and overwhelming. I'm fully aware that I'm in that mix with with my retreats, and there is no way to single yourself out or discern yourself or to even offer something that sounds different or is different. Lately, there has been a commercialization of the whole well being industry, and I am personally starting to get to the point where I'm asking myself whether I want to continue to feed into that or not. Wi th this new project I am trying to be extremely intentional and visionary. I see CALM as part of a much larger ecosystem that we need to nurture and be aware of at every step on this journey. This goes from our lifestyle brand Calm Concepts into community building and doesn’t end with the running of a regenerative hospitality business. We need to start thinking in systems and how they each connect to and affect each other. Q: As a last question, we always ask our Hermanas what community means to you… A: To me, community, is like an extension of family. People that are connected, because they share the same values. Community to me needs to be real and honest. Where you can express what you mean without needing to put a filter on it. Where we can have uncomfortable conversation and dare to ask questions, challenge belief systems, laugh and cry together. Community is where you don’t need to be anyone else than yourself.

Arte PRO is a Mexico-based non-profit that approaches empowerment from a perspective that is both science-backed, artful, and provides tools for self-regulation and emotional intelligence. Arte PRO promotes self-knowledge and introspection, creating a space for personal dialogue and awareness that develop socio-emotional capacities of synthesis, consensus, resilience and self-esteem, enabling women and children to become powerful agents of change in their environment, and the narrators of their own stories. Q: Tell me a bit about you A: I was born and raised in Mexico City, and ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been using my creative muscles— exploring and creating art. Art is what brought me to Europe, to Paris precisely, when I was only 16. After a few years in Paris I moved to Germany and started studying medicine, because I wanted art to remain my passion and not my work. I knew pretty quickly this was not for me, so I studied art in Berlin, where I lived for 7 years. Berlin was the door to myself, to finding self knowledge and exploration. Q: Yes! We love Berlin. But tell me more about art and how you then got to Arte PRO. A: Art was always a refuge, the place where I could explore freely, and a catalyzer for soul and spirit. I think there are two truths about Art in Mexico. One is that people that are already in the arts know the power of art to transform, and the second is that it is people who already consume art and culture are mostly already creating it too. It’s very hard to create new audiences, and this was the first challenge that drove me to create Arte PRO. The second driver was a personal experience I had with an abusive business partner. It made me realize the situation of disempowerment of women in this country. So, I began to work at shelter homes, to begin from the grassroots. 10 years ago, when I started this, I was in my mid-late 20s. And I wanted to be very scientific about my approach. And that’s where the Science elements comes in! I gathered a team of scientists, mental health specialists, neuroscientists, and psychologists to understand the power of art in someone’s psyche, especially someone with trauma. Using art as social or mental intervention was not taken seriously at the time, so I wanted to make sure we had the science back us up too. Because I know of the transformative power of art. Q: And how did you come to work mainly with children? A: Children are extremely vulnerable but also extremely receptive to transformation. I began to work with children born into prison or victims of abuse quite quickly after working with women. I saw that, by the nature of their surroundings or situation they were in, they lost access to this very basic right: that every child has to imagine. Children in prison are for me so important to work with, they are born into a situation that they did not choose, and because there is no budget for them, they mostly live the life of their mothers, who are inmates. They are called the invisible children, and every state has a different jurisdiction on how long they have to stay in prison after they are born. In some it’s up to twelve years, imagine! Q: What do the workshops look like? A: We invite artists who design and give workshops to the kids or the women. But before they give workshops, they work with mental health specialists. Essentially, what I did was put in a room artists and mental health specialists and we basically cracked the code of the connection between arts and mental health. In the programs the kids overtly see is that they're playing, they're creating, they're having fun, they're learning creative skills, and what they don't see, is that they're developing skills for their future, improving their mental health and acquiring tools to self regulate their emotions. And this is so important! Q: Wow, yes definitely, we are big on holding both the emotional and mental through the creative. A: Yes, it's a beautiful thing for me personally too! Because I get to be the geek, when I speak to our team of specialists, and then I get to be the curator, the artsy part that I love so much too. We have collaborated with artists like Jorge Yazpik, Luisa Trigo, and Ana Castella, and universities all over the world and I now have had some people from UK that might want to use our program in their prisons. I’m so excited, and it’s our 10 years anniversary in February next year! ​ ​

PSYDEH is a non-profit organization that works with rural and Indigenous women from the Otomi-Tepehua region in Mexico. Empowering women socially and economically through personal and professional development, and helping them to understand their rights, PSYDEH is unconventional in bringing the history of feminism into all their program, and valuing the progress made against patriarchal oppression worldwide. We spoke to Hannah to get to know the organization a little more intimately. Q: Tell me a bit about you and your journey to PSYDEH? (Why do you work on these topics, how has your personal journey influenced you to do this?) A: During the pandemic, I started a mutual aid project with others in Mexico City to create a network of aid, support, and allies. Through that work, I was miraculously connected to PSYDEH and invited aboard. In college, I studied community & justice studies and documentary film. Feminism, community organizing, and storytelling have always been through lines in my life. Over the last 2.5 years with PSYDEH all of these threads have been woven together in entirely new ways. Q: What are the principles that PSYDEH stands for and why? A: PHDYDEH believes that it is necessary and urgent to build spaces that are constructed for women and by women. We don’t come from the ou tside with solutions but we co-create solutions through active feedback loops. Also, all of our programming is led by a mighty group of women from and based in the region where we work. This is critical to our success. We see storytelling, creativity, and innovation as essential tools to create sustainable impact. PSYDEH’s community-driven model prioritizes women's involvement to address rural Mexico's inequality. By using dynamic methodologies like Paolo Freire's education model and adrienne maree brown's emergent strategy, the organization empowers women in co-creating sustainable social and economic opportunities, fostering paradigm change and lasting impact. Q: I see you cover really a lot of areas from tech access to women empowerment, how does this comprehensive approach work? A: Our approach is comprehensive, it understands that gender inequality stems from systemic imbalances and so we tackle our work through a dynamic and multi disciplinary approach. We prioritize active listening, feedback loops, and adaptability, as opposed to being rigid, bloated bureaucratic systems that miss the mark and don’t effectively respond to real human needs, our team has become very nimble, collaborative, and creative in order to foster meaningful, sustainable impact that honors the contexts of the communities where we work. I truly learn so much and the work is always beautiful, challenging, and activating. Q: If you could describe your vision for PSYDEH in one word what would it be and why? A: Proceso. Our team always uses the expression "es un procesooooooo", dragged out as long as we have breath, to honor that our individual and collaborative visions are always a work in progress. There is no destination. We are humans and it is messy, beautiful, and non-linear. My vision is that PSYDEH continues to embrace our work as an ongoing, unfolding process towards increased alignment with our shared values - with justice, with love, with stewardship, with equality, with peace. This vision, centered on learning and growth, is one I hold for myself, for our team, for our women partners, for the communities where we work, for the country we share, and beyond.

Natasha Moutran, artist name Yuna Earth is Lebanese-English and is currently based in Portugal where she is creating & sharing her music, as well as helping women go deeper into their sovereignty and sexuality through movement & exploration. She is a musician, entrepreneur, wild woman & sacred sexuality facilitator. Portugal https://www.yuna.earth @yuna.earth Q: Tell us your story? A: The short version is that I began studying drama then ended up a musician, visionary & facilitator. The one constant throughout everything has been meditation, which I’ve been doing since I was about nine years old. But only at 25 I decided to do a yoga training. Towards the end of my six month training, my mum passed away very suddenly, and because of that grief and trauma, I understood the value of speaking through what I had been experiencing, to help others. So that's what I did. I facilitated full time. Teaching in London, around the world, from corporate meditation courses, to retreats. And then ended up in the sacred sexuality practitioners training and and here I am. Music has been a huge part of my life since my teens, and is now taking a bigger role once more. Q: Wow beautiful, and how did it feel to find this path? A: A reclaiming of my voice, my power, my sovereignty, and my wild woman. Q: That must have felt amazing. And why Hermanas? A: I was invited to a Hermanas women’s circle by a dear sister when I first moved to Ibiza. There was 30 women in the whatsapp group back then. I had just landed on the island and I was like “Oh, my, thank God. A a way of connecting with women and meeting friends and find out what's going on! yes!” I'm a nomad, I travel a lot and everywhere I go, the first thing I do months before even arriving to a place is join the Hermanas group just to get a sense of it. Q: What does community mean to you? A: Community is resonance between a group of people. There's an harmonious frequency that runs between people that create their own ecosystem. And everyone has their roles, there's this common thread of intention of communication of alignment and what they stand for. Being in collaboration and not comparison and competition is a really key one for me. The regeneration piece is really important for me at the moment in all aspects, actual regeneration in terms of our ecosystems and the way we run business and the way we work and are in community. Q. Beautiful, and what is important to you today? A: I feel that we've all become really good robots, so how do we reconnect? For me, it’s through reconnecting to the land. And the earth and people. My music is really seeding that message as well. And hopefully we can start to let go of a lot of the programming and messaging and conditioning most of us have kind of been exposed to. Q: Tell us a question you have been grappling with? A: I see liberation and freedom as wellness and well being. The question is how do we bring that into our life?

Marité Villanueva has been a lawyer, a mom, and a lover of nature for many years. She’s Mexican and believes that community is where you can be your most authentic self and everyone feels seen and respected regardless of the differences. As she’s now part of Hermanas leading HR and Culture, we talked about what good culture in a community like Hermanas looks like. Linkedin Mexico City, Mexico Q: Hi Marité, you became a mom at a very young age, and worked in law in Mexico for over 18 years now. How has this given shape to who you are today? A: Becoming a mom at 20 definitely gave shape to my identity today. I’m a very energetic girl, very much in my masculine. I’ve learned to be resilient, having to deal with a lot and working in a tough environment like Mexican law. But trying to grow from it, I’ve developed a very positive attitude. Q: You’ve worked in employment law and are now officially working as HR and culture within Hermanas. And what are the main characteristics of a healthy, forward-looking, and unconventional workplace for you? A: I'd say for starters, communication. I think this is something humans do so naturally, and surprisingly, we're so bad at it. Developing good communication within a work culture is very important. Messages that are respectful and clear are often well received. Also, good communication gives people clarity, safety, engagement and motivation. People know where they are and where they need to go, plus they feel that they belong because they can speak up and they know they are going to be heard. So, I really think that is the base of a really healthy culture and I'd say also, empathy. Sometimes, everything happens so quickly and we want results, we want everything to happen immediately and we’re no longer patient about anything. We don’t take a moment to understand where you are and others are at. This is important because you can lead and set goals, and you can be driven, but you can also lead from a place of “I see you” and “I feel you” and that’s when the magic happens. Q: Tell me how you were introduced to Hermanas? A: I first heard about Hermanas through foreign friends that live in Mexico City. And at first, it was like, “maybe it’s not for me, it looks like a community for foreigners.” But then someone asked for a lawyer. So, I became part of the community because they needed immigration advice. And that's how it all started, I became part of many of the groups, met a lot of incredible and resourceful people, found solutions to problems and truly became an active member of the community. Q: Perfect segway! Let’s talk about community. What does it mean to you? A: Actually,I'd have to say, for me, It's been hard to find my community throughout my life. Growing up and for many years, I didn't really find the place where I belonged, nor a place where I could really be myself. I’ve been tapping into that for many years, while learning how to be myself, to be more authentic. The more I’ve done that, the more of an outsider I felt. Now that I’ve been searching for this feminine energy and learning more about it, I’ve found that community is actually how we support each other from a very nurturing way. Like a true friendship, a true sisterhood, regardless of everything that makes us different. Q: and then you became an investor of Hermanas! How did that happen? A: While I was trying to tap into this feminine side of me, this journey, I saw this post in the groups about Hermanas looking for angel investors and it hadn’t crossed my mind at all, however when I saw the post, it clicked. I was going through a lot and I felt the need to do things differently moving forward and then I decided to become an official member of Hermanas. Because I believe that this platform actually works. Q: How so? A: Well, this feels like actual sisterhood. The sharing of resources, of ideas, of information from a nurturing place, I thought that it was not possible until I met Hermanas. So I'm very excited for the launch of our new community space. And for a private membership, I truly believe in this project with all my heart. Q: What else are you working on that you’d like to share with us? A: I’ve been in search of my true purpose for many years. I’m not entirely sure about what this purpose is, but I feel that things like Hermanas truly bring me closer to it. I want to be of service for the community and this is an excellent opportunity for me to do that. I'm starting a new brand of consulting and advice for companies regarding culture building and preventing labor risks related to employees but it's still in the making. Thank you so much Marité, we’re excited for your role within Hermanas and your path towards purpose together.