A Note from Our Founder: Rachel z Harris

For many years, I have carried a vision of sanctuary as something we create for one another—a place where a Black Woman, and the girl within her, can feel safe enough to rest, play, imagine, and become more fully herself.

Black Woman Sanctuary began with intimate, culturally responsive peer support for Black Women, offered virtually. At Ixchel‑Balam, that work takes physical form. Across the Sanctuary Campus, there are many paths to wisdom and wonder. Some begin in the garden or the water. Art and movement awaken the imagination. Plant medicine and spiritual practice deepen our ways of knowing. Shared meals and meaningful gatherings bring us back to one another.

We welcome a wider community while remaining clear about who we are, what brought us here, and our responsibility to cultivate conscious relationships with the people and place that receive us.

This vision is larger than any one woman, and I know I cannot actualize it alone. Ixchel‑Balam calls for a matriarchal way of building—women gathering our wisdom, labor, resources, imagination, and care to create something living together.