We made it to year four! Proudly accouncing the 2025 Garden House Fellows! Introducing Damali Vidot and our first visual artist, Zaskya Perez. We are welcoming back Shamaiah Turner and Nisrin Elamin for the 2nd half of their residency and I am excited for the blessing to once again steward this beautiful life experience.
On behalf of the 13 women and non-binary artists who've accessed this blessing through these four years, THANK YOU to each person who has made this residency centering working-class women writers possible. Deep gratitude for the gift of the home where we gather together in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Accessing space in a peaceful environment surrounded by nature to dedicate time to work on our creative projects is not something we take for granted.
It isn't too late to help us reach our fundraising goal of $3,500 to cover costs of food, transportation, and materials. We appreciate the love of all who've made this experience possible.
My name is Shana Turner and Community Solstice is where my work as a writer, facilitator, organizer, and grassroots educator come together.
Born on the summer solstice, I was raised in the tradition of kitchen-table, relationship-based organzing for collective survival and capacity to thrive. Most of what I value deeply, I've learned from Black Feminism, queerness, and working-class culture.
I bring twenty-five years of experience with justice organizing, infrastructure development, participatory planning, creative writing projects, and collective learning through popular education. My insights about how power functions are also informed by my experiences sustaining myself throughout most of my life with jobs in food service, house cleaning, and childcare.
Through my work, I seek to treat wounds as sites for transformation, to interupt the narrative that people are either victims or offenders, and engage rituals of ceremony in the ordinary movements of everyday life. My work assesses equity and disparities of power within groups, seeks to understand the roots of violent domination and supremacy, including exploring crossroads between division or solidarity within the histories of my Irish and Jewish lineages.
Front porches, racial tensions, stretch marks, kitchen tables, coming of age, queerness, lives interrupted by violence, natural human magic and intricacies of working-class culture are threads in my writing. I am currently working to publish my first novel, 'Claiming Caidin.'
Contact: info@communitysolstice.com
Current Community Writing Projects
YESTERDAY'S FUTURE
I am serving as
Editing Team Coordinator & Logistics Manager
THE GARDEN HOUSE WRITING RESIDENCY
I am serving as
Organizer
DIFFERENT THREADS OF THE SAME FABRIC
I am serving as
Steward of the Process
PAST COMMUNITY WRITING PROJECTS
