In this second offering of Something Real, Mawu Lisa shares the story of her life and love with Yulanda Hendrix, a beloved chef, community builder, and woman whose fierce generosity and unmistakable presence left an indelible imprint on the lives of everyone who had the honor of knowing her.
From an unexpected meeting at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival to building a home and raising a family in Oakland, Mawu Lisa remembers the tenderness, devotion, laughter, and nuance of their years together. She reflects on what it meant to find home in one another, the sudden loss of Yulanda, and the ways grief, Spirit, and ancestral connection have shaped her life in the years since.
This is a story of Black queer love, of family made and remade, and of the many ways a relationship continues to live within us, even after death.
This is Mawu Lisa, remembering Yulanda.
MawuLisa flows through life as a southern born, community based trauma healing midwife, somatic bodyworker, song weaver, lover of nature & Spirit and lifelong student of the Healing Arts. MawuLisa currently finds passion & pleasure in her ongoing study & practice of somatic healing, mentoring & developing other somatic practitioners, stewarding land, singing in choirs, facilitating grief rituals, decolonizing Love, and bringing heaven to earth as an Orisha Diviner & Priestess.
