Radiant Thresholds : A Spring Equinox Celebration

A nourishing haven awaits and welcomes you.

Experiences that deepen each time you show up.  Join us for a day filled with local art, tea lounge & elixirs, tarot, open mic poetry & community hosted by Ancestral Wellspring Collective (AWC), building a community-based infrastructure where healing is accessible, leadership is rooted in lived experience, and care is supported as a shared responsibility. Together we are turning personal solace into communal uplift.

Spring Equinox is a time tested pivot ~ a universal moment when nature mirrors our own cycles of renewal, drawing us into shared rituals that feel ancient yet urgently needed today. It marks a new year and seasonal cycle, with light overtaking winter's dark, inviting us to plant seeds, celebrate rebirth, and welcome fresh beginnings together.

We celebrate light’s return, weaving connections and healing.  The first of many intentionally nourishing community gatherings.

Saturday, March 21 • 2 – 10P

@ 524 Union St, San Francisco | North Beach Bohemian Neighborhood

(entrance side door, private alley)

The historic Paper Doll SF landmark always a safe haven for artists, queer folks, and community. We carry forward its legacy as cultural crossroads & pivotal gathering point.  

Tickets $20+ sliding scale donation

Online or door | Every ticket fuels healing the land | Every elixir plants a tree

$1 per ticket goes to the Ramaytush Ohlone Land Trust (ancestral land restoration)

$1 per elixir goes to One Tree Planted and plants a tree (sustaining future forests)

Funding seeds of justice, restoration, and legacy grab yours now, grow a sustainable future

Come as you are - immerse yourself

Phone-free haven | No photos/video | Alcohol-free zone | All welcome | Drop-in friendly

Be prepared to connect with new people and socialize with a clear mind

AGENDA 

2p | doors open | 10p doors close

2p | Welcome with Amaya Rose
A gentle opening to ground, set shared intentions, and arrive together in the WILLOW and space

2–10p | Tea Lounge & Elixir Bar, Root & Nectar Apothecary

Seasonal herbal based brews, plant-powered nectars to stir your soul & soften the edges

Tea lounge is spacious for those who are looking to relax and unwind

4:30p | Amaya Rose speaking on Willow, the art & AWC

Folk herbalist & artist weaves ancestral wisdom, land connection & mycelium magic into art for mind-body-spirit healing.  Experience WILLOW up close: tactile nests for resting, breathing, and witnessing poetry + music

6–7p | Open Mic with Deborah Marie Can I Get a Witness?  

Open Mic.  Open heart.  Open floor. Grief, survival, sexuality & raw truths met with deep listening, not applause poets share, we witness & respond

The event has ‘Ways We Witness’ and optional speaking prompts that keep the container safe for both the performers and the audience

About Open Mic

If you’ve never been to a CIGAW event here’s how it works:

6-10 poets sign up for the open mic and share up to 5 minutes each.
After each reading, the room responds for 3-5 minutes—not to judge or just hype (though hype’s always welcome), but to engage the themes that land differently for each of us.

About WILLOW & Featured Artist, Amaya Rose

Her offering at this gathering, WILLOW is natures way of malleable grief ~ soft, natural, inviting deeper connection.  Willow embodies the equinox's balance ~ flexible branches bending like light through transition, roots grounded in water, emotional transitions from grief, while reaching for air and sun.  

Amaya Rose, Founder of Ancestral Wellspring Collective, Artist-in-Residence at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (2026–2027), is a folk herbalist and multidisciplinary artist. Drawing inspiration from the rich environment of her upbringing, she channels her deep connection to the land into her practice and art. With reverence for ancestral wisdom and technologies, Amaya blends African cosmology, herbalism, and art to nurture the mind, body, and spirit. Guided by the cycles of nature, she invites others to rediscover their innate connection to the land, their ancestors, and embrace the mycelium network that connects us all.

Ancestral Wellspring Collective (AWC) is a nonprofit healing justice initiative providing community-rooted care centering Black women and Women of Color (BIWOC). Our work centers dignity, cultural resonance, and accessibility for survivors, caregivers, and community members navigating grief, burnout, and systemic inequity.

We focus on herbal support, peer support, and space to uplift creative expression. We're building a tea lounge, community apothecary, treatment space, and artist nest right here at 524 Union St, San Francisco.

About Spring Equinox & Why It Resonates Deeply

This isn't just a date on the calendar; it's a cosmic reset. Astronomically, day and night balance (around March 20-21), then light overtakes darkness symbolizing hope after winter's isolation. Cultures worldwide celebrate: Persians with Nowruz (jumping fires for purification), Celts with planting festivals, modern Pagans with Eostre rites. Your event taps this by framing gatherings as "planting seeds" of community, turning personal winter (trauma, disconnection) into collective spring.

• Shared rebirth ritual: In a world of endless scrolling and shallow ties, equinox offers tangible renewal ~ music/poetry as modern seed planting, fostering that we made it through winter together bond.
• Cyclical mastery: Returning repeatedly builds emotional muscle people crave this rhythm, like clockwork gatherings and rituals they anchor identity and purpose.
• Elemental pull: Light's return is primal; it stirs dormant instincts to gather, create, heal. Folks show up (and swear by it) for the felt shift: from solo surviving to communal thriving.

People bond over this because it's bigger than one event ~ it's pledging to a seasonal heartbeat that promises growth, witnessed by stars and each other.

This is why, we come together to celebrate light’s return, weaving connections and healing.  The first of many intentionally nourishing community gatherings.