About

In Queer Teens Group we collectively make and hold space for each other in generating discussion, creativity, joy, community, and understanding. We welcome teens under the LGBTQIA2+ umbrella. We’ll meet virtually once a week.

Together our group will generate topics we’d like to explore within and beyond the Trans, Queer, and questioning universe. We’ll navigate this universe through conversation, games, doodling, writing, laughter, visioning, image-making, asking questions, watching films, reading, movement, storytelling, and more!

We will also check out local Trans and Queer artists work across a range of different media and invite various guest artists to lead creative prompts within our class.

Throughout the semester we will ask students if they would like to contribute their creative output towards a zine as a gift to each other and future classes. We’ll make something very specific to this group of people to this moment. Won’t you be a part of it?

Isa Coffey, WiseBodies Director, will also guest teach a special 2-class segment of Queering Sex Ed, and further guest teachers and class visitors will be announced as the semester progresses.

The conversation around our (virtual) table will be warm and filled with laughter, steady and safe, inclusive, and welcoming.

Dates & Time

We'll meet Mondays, 5-6:30pm starting March 13, and going until June 12, with two weeks off, to be determined based on students schedules.

We'll meet virtually via Zoom so students can join us from anywhere.

Teachers

Jeremy Bloom
Jeremy Bloom (he/him) works in community gatherings and art, including collaborating with Isa and WiseBodies on Pom-Pom Prom. He makes movies and more with Evenstar Films, makes plays and parties with Rady&Bloom, and helps to organize events and exhibitions at Athens Cultural Center.

Hobbies include drawing with sharpies and discovering things he never knew he never knew. As a teacher, he continues to learn, and has taught workshops at NYU, Northwestern, Montclair State and various high schools. Jeremy is grateful for and inspired by WiseBodies.

Kole Kovacs
Kole (he/they) is an all around creative collaborator at WiseBodies, as well as a class leader. He helps with our communications, provides administrative and technical support, and collaborates with WiseBodies in emergent ways. He was also an assistant teacher for the 2019-2020 KNOW and CIRCLE classes and co-leads Queer Teens Group.

Kole is a lifelong learner. He sees so much wisdom and energy in WiseBodies and is excited to share in the mission of helping people learn more about bodies, plants, and sexuality (aka communication!).

Registration + Cost

The semester cost is $360 - $600 sliding scale for 12 classes. We ask that families make a commitment to attending classes for a full semester. Payment plans and partial scholarships are available. Priority given to Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority.

Email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more information.

About

Circle Class is a welcoming place for trans and cis girls and gender fluid kids 11 – 13 years old to learn about their whole bodies in relation to themselves and the natural world.

Our spring semester Circle Class will focus on our bodies, on everything related to sex and sexuality, on cycling, on pregnancy and pregnancy prevention, on navigating interfacing with medical practitioners, on straight, trans, and LGBTQ lives, and on internet safety.

Students help create our curriculum, and will help lead it. We’ll make sure we focus on the topics that most interest us.

As always, we’ll add some extra weekend days for students to lead us in baking (so fun!), in conversation about books we’re reading, and we likely will have a film night.

All this cool stuff happens on zoom, so Circle students can join us from everywhere!

Also:

WiseBodies is hosting two in-person dances this semester! The first will be on March 11th, in a very cool place near Hillsdale NY, and will be a magical alternative to Valentine’s Day dances. The second will be our annual Pom Pom Prom, in June!

This semester WiseBodies again is offering a class for queer teens. If you know someone who might be interested, learn more here.

Teachers

Brianna Pope

Brianna Pope (she/her) is passionate about creating safe spaces and encouraging creative learning in nontraditional classrooms. Over Summer 2022, she taught a collegiate level course (via zoom) in a global classroom with students aged 7 to 26, connecting stories from the Eastern to the Western Hemisphere, and balancing time zones. Prior to that, she served as Pre-K teacher assistant and Summer Camp Coordinator for Berkshire Community Center. She has worked in private homes, as both a nanny and special needs educator. She is also a playwright, fiction writer, and pop culture enthusiast. She is a political studies and modern literature graduate of Bard College. Brianna is made up of California sunshine, sarcasm and abundance, naps, and text love letters with her sister.

Isa Coffey

Isa Coffey (she/her) spent the last four decades doing these good things (some, but not all, at the same time): being an out lesbian; helping women have safe abortions; teaching teens, kids, and adults sexual health and wellbeing; founding and running a cervical cap fitting site; leading classes in sexuality in public and private schools; gaining her RN; being a labor and delivery nurse and a homebirth doula; growing medicinal plants and making plant medicine; birthing and raising two sons; caring for honeybees; surviving brain injury.

Thirteen years ago she dreamed into and birthed WiseBodies, a school in which all humans can come together in safety and joy to recognize sexuality as a force for good, a way to connect fully within the natural world, and a magical pathway toward moving into wholeness.

Location

We will meet via Zoom so students can join us from anywhere!

Dates & Time

We'll meet on Wednesdays, from 4:15 - 5:45 pm. March 1st - May 31st, with no class April 5 or May 24th.

Registration + Cost

The semester cost is $360 - 600 for 12 classes. We ask that families make a commitment to attending classes for the full semester. Payment plans and partial scholarships are available. Priority given to Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

About

Fairy Houses, our beloved class for 5 to 7 year olds, will center itself within the miraculous world of fairies and earthly magic.

We'll read fairy stories and build fairy houses, and as we explore this magical world, we’ll also learn about the magic within our own bodies.

Our youngest students will create paper bodies they'll fill with images and objects from nature that reflect the very magical feeling sense of our emotional and physical body systems.

And we'll build our capacity to feel into, understand, and express when our bodies tell us yes and and when they tell us no. When we can hold this, we'll step well outside this binary, creating the magical world where live all the spaces between and beyond yes and no.

This class will be held in-person at our WiseBodies studio in Kingston, NY.

Teachers

Ella Goodwin

Dates & Time

Oct - Nov 2023
REGISTRATION OPEN NOW
Tuesdays in October: Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

Tuesdays in Novemeber: Nov 7, 14, 28

3:45 - 5:15 pm, Eastern Standard Time, US
(We'll move this 15 mins later if better for our families)

Registration + Cost

$120 - $228

Sliding Scale; Partial scholarships available depending on enrollment, priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

About

CIRCLE class is a welcoming place for trans and cis girls and gender fluid kids 11 – 13 years old to learn about their whole bodies in relation to themselves and the natural world.

Circle Class offers kids the chance to experience how amazing and powerful are our voices and our bodies; how intimately connected are our bodies to the plant world; how deeply similar are bodies we’ve known as “female” and as “male”; how we can use our voices in strength and in power; how our bodies grow and change through childhood and adolescence; what cycling is all about and how to prepare for it.

We’re in for a real treat this year: Circle kids, some of whom will be starting their 4th year with us, will be learning how to sew! Yep.

We’ve hired two incredible sewing teachers, Meredith Mack and Ellie von Wellsheim (Founder of The MoonCatcher Project, where Meredith has worked.) who’ll be leading us on a semester-long journey starting with learning how to thread your sewing machine and how to cut fabric; learning how to sew colorful cloth buntings, work aprons, pillows, flags, and more; to learning how to make your own US-style Mooncatcher kit.

We hold this space in joy and tenderness to welcome new kids, and to welcome back the kids who return, year after year, to learn with us.

• We’ll have student-led lessons on the ovulatory/menstrual cycle.
• We’ll get a chance to learn about the MoonCatcher Project, and hear what it’s like for kids around the world to get their periods.
• We’ll add a couple optional, very fun student-led baking classes on weekends during the semester, because we love to bake together.
• What if you don’t have a sewing machine and sewing supplies? We’ll loan them to you for the semester.

Teachers

Meredith Mack

Meredith Mack (she/her) is an entrepreneur who has been using her extensive creative skills to enrich the world. She has been sewing personally and professionally for many years, designing, producing and reinventing a variety of garments.She has also worked as a pattern maker in the Garment District in NYC.

Meredith developed patterns, improved production, maintained sewing machines and guided volunteers for The MoonCatcher Project, a non-profit organization that makes and distributes pads to help keep menstrual cyclers worldwide in school. MCP started in upstate New York making reusable menstrual pads for those who do not have menstrual supplies and are denied education.

Meredith has always felt that sewing is a reliable skill, with endless possibilities. She is excited about teaching sewing to WiseBodies students.

Ellie von Wellsheim

Ellie von Wellsheim (she/her) has a deep concern for social justice. During her lifetime she has initiated and organized several far-reaching efforts beginning with the Compañera Project in the 1980s, an international endeavor in response to human rights injustices in Central America.

Moved by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the gulf coast, Ellie organized teams of volunteers for re-building trips to New Orleans and surrounding areas from 2006 – 2015. In 2011, Ellie founded The MoonCatcher Project, 501c3 non-profit, which creates and internationally distributes reusable, washable menstrual pad kits to help keep girls in school alongside menstrual management and reproductive health classes.

Making art has always been her passion and a way to find joy. She has been painting and drawing since she could hold a pencil. Working with WiseBodies is a wonderful creative gift for her.

Isa Coffey

Isa Coffey (she/her) spent the last four decades doing these good things (some, but not all, at the same time): being an out lesbian; helping women have safe abortions; teaching teens, kids, and adults sexual health and wellbeing; founding and running a cervical cap fitting site; leading classes in sexuality in public and private schools; gaining her RN; being a labor and delivery nurse and a homebirth doula; growing medicinal plants and making plant medicine; birthing and raising two sons; caring for honeybees; surviving brain injury.

Ten years ago she dreamed into and birthed WiseBodies, a school in which all humans can come together in safety and joy to recognize sexuality as a force for good, a way to connect fully within the natural world, and a magical pathway toward moving into wholeness.

Location

We will meet via Zoom so students can join us from anywhere!

Dates & Time

We'll meet on Wednesdays from 4:15 - 5:45 pm.

Dates: Sept 14, 21, 28 (no class Oct 5 for Yom Kippur), Oct 12, 19, 26, Nov 2, 9, 16 (no class Nov 23 for Thanksgiving), Nov 30, Dec 7, last class Dec 14.

Registration + Cost

The semester cost is $350 - $650 per semester, sliding scale, for 12 classes. We ask that families make a commitment to attending classes for a full semester. Partial scholarships are available depending on enrollment. Priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

About

Recommended for queer and questioning youth ages 14-17. Don’t you wish someone gave you an instruction manual for this life, this mind, this body? Um, yeah. We don’t have that. But what if we did? We’ll be asking what do I wish someone had told me? What do I need moving forward? What do I wish a queer-led, queer-centered sex-ed class could be? Through non-thinking writing and art-making in real time, we’ll collect material to make our own zine/manual. No need to be an artist. In fact, it’s great if you’re not. Either way, this process will be about letting go of self-judgment and overthinking, embracing improv, humor, discovery. We’ll imagine we can have all the answers. Students will drive the content creation and steer conversations. We’ll sometimes outsource to visitors with specific expertise, knowledge or experience. Nothing's off-limits, and we will prioritize that this is a space for trusting, compassionate communication.

Teacher

Jeremy Bloom (he/him) works in community gatherings and art, including collaborating with Isa and WiseBodies on Pom-Pom Prom. He makes movies and more with Evenstar Films, makes plays and parties with Rady&Bloom, and helps to organize events and exhibitions at Athens Cultural Center. Hobbies include drawing with sharpies and discovering things he never knew he never knew. As a teacher, he continues to learn, and has taught workshops at NYU, Northwestern, Montclair State and various high schools. Jeremy is grateful for and inspired by WiseBodies.

Location

We will meet via Zoom, so students can join us from anywhere!

Dates & Time

Mondays from 5:00 - 6:30pm
Dates: Sept 12, 19 (no class Sept 26 for Rosh Hashanah), Oct 3, 10, 17, 24 (no class Oct 31 for Halloween), Nov 7, 14, 21, 28, Dec 5, last class Dec 12

Registration + Cost

The semester cost is $350 - $650 per semester, sliding scale, for 12 classes. We ask that families make a commitment to attending classes for a full semester. Partial scholarships are available depending on enrollment. Priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

About

For 14 - 16 year olds, centering Queer and Questioning youth, with all 14 - 16 year old teens welcome. If you’ve had sex ed in school, let-go of what that was like, because this is nothing like that. Nothing. Queer-led, queer-centered sex-ed is amazing.

Students lead our learning. Each week we’ll learn through conversation. We’ll focus on topics related to living whole and strong in our private and social worlds, including bodies alone and with another/others; consensual and non-consensual relationships; everything about whole sexuality; how to listen to one’s inner voice; the importance of rest, how our bodies let us know what’s true and not true; how to think about and talk about the choices we make and don’t make; safe sources for continued learning outside class; where to go for good healthcare, including STI testing, abortion, birth control, etc, and how to talk openly with healthcare practitioners; how to communicate with peers and parents; the complex world of social media; and all other topics of interest to the students.

We’ll likely have guests come in to lead on stuff like binding and hormones; what happens - for all bodies - in a pelvic exam; abortion and birth control (yes these are issues for lgbtq folks); how to report sexual violence; options for acquiring necessary info besides porn (and we’ll talk about porn); etc.

The conversation around our zoom table is steady and safe, protected, inclusive, and welcoming. Students often build strong friendships, so there’s that. And teachers often are available to students outside of class, for guidance about stuff that comes up.

Teachers

Isa Coffey joins us from WiseBodies home base in Kingston, New York. Cool guest teachers will join.

Dates & Time

This year we’ll meet on Zoom, so if you live at a distance, it will be easy to be with us! An unexpected gift of COVID-19.

June 2022
REGISTRATION OPEN NOW
We'll meet for four weeks on Mondays:
June 6th - June 27th
All class dates: June 6, 13, 20, and 27
6:30 - 8:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time, US

Registration + Cost

$114 - 288 for a month of classes
Sliding Scale; Partial scholarships available depending on enrollment, priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

About

CIRCLE class is a welcoming place for trans and cis girls and gender fluid kids 11 – 13 years old to learn about their whole bodies in relation to themselves and the natural world.

Circle Class offers kids the chance to experience how amazing and powerful are our voices and our bodies; how intimately connected are our bodies to the plant world; how deeply similar are bodies we’ve known as “female” and as “male”; how we can use our voices in strength and in power; how our bodies grow and change through childhood and adolescence; what cycling is all about and how to prepare for it; how similar and different kids lives are in Kenya and the US; how kids grow up in rural villages in Kenya.

We hold this space in joy and tenderness to welcome new kids, and to welcome back the kids who return, year after year, to learn with us. A forever beloved WiseBodies class, our first Circle Class graduates now are college students, and still are really close friends!

Teachers

Isa Coffey joins us from WiseBodies home base in Kingston, New York. Sima Kamaamia joins us from Nairobi, Kenya

Dates & Time

This year we’ll meet on Zoom, so if you live at a distance, it will be easy to be with us! An unexpected gift of COVID-19.

June 2022
REGISTRATION OPEN NOW
Wednesdays in June: June 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29
4:15 - 5:45 pm, Eastern Standard Time, US
11pm - 12:45am Kenyan time

Registration + Cost

$142 - $360

Sliding Scale; Partial scholarships available depending on enrollment, priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

The Pad Project

In addition to the above, Circle kids have started a project called The Pad Project, in which we are studying the environmental impact of pads and tampons, and are designing and sewing pads for cis girls, trans boys, and gender fluid kids who cycle. These pads will be sold in our local towns to raise money for several projects students will identify, including a long-term project held in Kenya and led by Sima.

Sima’s project will include distributing pads to girls in Kenyan villages while also teaching cycling, pelvic health and pregnancy prevention. Eventually Sima will host a group of Kenyan girls who will learn alongside girls in the US. We will have a Kenya - US Circle class.

About

For 14 - 16 year olds, centering Queer and Questioning youth, with all 14 - 16 year old teens welcome. If you’ve had sex ed in school, let-go of what that was like, because this is nothing like that. Nothing. Queer-led, queer-centered sex-ed is amazing.

Students lead our learning. Each week we’ll learn through conversation. We’ll focus on topics related to living whole and strong in our private and social worlds, including bodies alone and with another/others; consensual and non-consensual relationships; everything about whole sexuality; how to listen to one’s inner voice; the importance of rest, how our bodies let us know what’s true and not true; how to think about and talk about the choices we make and don’t make; safe sources for continued learning outside class; where to go for good healthcare, including STI testing, abortion, birth control, etc, and how to talk openly with healthcare practitioners; how to communicate with peers and parents; the complex world of social media; and all other topics of interest to the students.

We’ll likely have guests come in to lead on stuff like binding and hormones; what happens - for all bodies - in a pelvic exam; abortion and birth control (yes these are issues for lgbtq folks); how to report sexual violence; options for acquiring necessary info besides porn (and we’ll talk about porn); etc.

The conversation around our zoom table is steady and safe, protected, inclusive, and welcoming. Students often build strong friendships, so there’s that. And teachers often are available to students outside of class, for guidance about stuff that comes up.

Note: We understand it can be hard for students to step into this class, and encourage parents to suggest their teens try this class out for 3 sessions. We’ve yet to meet a student that hasn’t wanted to continue after the 3rd class.

Teachers

Isa Coffey joins us from WiseBodies home base in Kingston, New York. Cool guest teachers will join.

Dates & Time

This year we’ll meet on Zoom, so if you live at a distance, it will be easy to be with us! An unexpected gift of COVID-19.

Spring Semester 2022
REGISTRATION OPEN NOW
We'll meet for nine weeks on Mondays:
April 4th - May 30th, including holidays,
4:30 - 6:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time, US

Registration + Cost

$350 - $650 per semester
Sliding Scale; Partial scholarships available depending on enrollment, priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

About

In QUEER Teens Group we collectively make and hold space for each other in generating discussion, creativity, joy, community, and understanding.

We welcome all teens ages 14-17 and all expressions under the Queer and questioning LGBTQIA2+ umbrella.

Together we will explore Queer topics of interest, current issues, history, and more. Students will also contribute topics they’d like to explore within and beyond the Queer (and questioning!) universe. We’ll navigate this universe through conversation, games, drawing, writing, laughter, show-and-tell, visioning, image-making, asking questions, watching films, reading books, storytelling, and more!

Isa Coffey, WiseBodies Director, will also guest teach a special 2-class segment of Queering Sex Ed, and further guest teachers and class visitors will be announced as the semester progresses. The conversation around our (virtual) table will be warm and filled with laughter, steady and safe, inclusive, and welcoming.

Dates & Time

Pause with us! WiseBodies is taking a short hiatus to begin deep, necessary work with our new Board, teaching staff, and administration. Our beloved classes will begin again in very early spring. Please sign up for our newsletter to learn more, and to stay engaged with us during this quiet time of reflection and rooting.

Teachers

K. Kovacs (he/they, group leader), Shante Melville (she/her, co-leader).

Registration + Cost

The semester cost is $300 - $500 sliding scale for 10 classes. We ask that families make a commitment to attending classes for a full semester. Partial scholarships are available depending on enrollment. Priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more information.

Interview with Shante Melville, Class Co-Leader

Listen to an interview with our very own Shante Melville, co-leader for this year's Queer Teens Group, with Kieran Riley on WGXC's Afternoon Show!

About

CIRCLE class is a welcoming place for trans and cis girls and gender fluid kids 9 - 12 years old to learn about their whole bodies in relation to themselves and the natural world.

Circle Class offers kids the chance to experience how amazing and powerful are our voices and our bodies; how intimately connected are our bodies to the plant world; how deeply similar are bodies we’ve known as “female” and as “male”; how we can use our voices in strength and in power; how our bodies grow and change through childhood and adolescence; what cycling is all about and how to prepare for it; how similar and different kids lives are in Kenya and the US; how kids grow up in rural villages in Kenya.

We hold this space in joy and tenderness to welcome new kids, and to welcome back the kids who return, year after year, to learn with us. A forever beloved WiseBodies class, our first Circle Class graduates now are college students, and still are really close friends!

Teachers

Isa Coffey joins us from WiseBodies home base in Kingston, New York. Sima Kamaamia joins us from Nairobi, Kenya

Dates & Time

This year we’ll meet on Zoom, so if you live at a distance, it will be easy to be with us! An unexpected gift of COVID-19.

Spring Semester 2022
REGISTRATION OPEN NOW
Wednesdays February 2 - May 4, with no class 2/23 or 4/13.
4:00 - 5:30 pm, Eastern Standard Time, US
11pm - 12:30am Kenyan time

Fall Semester 2021
Wednesdays September 22 - December 22, with no class 11/24
4:00 - 5:30 pm, Eastern Standard Time, US
11pm - 12:30am Kenyan time

Registration + Cost

$350 - $650 per semester
Sliding Scale; Partial scholarships available depending on enrollment, priority given to LGBTQ + Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority. Payment plans available.

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org for more info.

The Pad Project

In addition to the above, Circle kids have started a project called The Pad Project, in which we are studying the environmental impact of pads and tampons, and are designing and sewing pads for cis girls, trans boys, and gender fluid kids who cycle. These pads will be sold in our local towns to raise money for several projects students will identify, including a long-term project held in Kenya and led by Sima.

Sima’s project will include distributing pads to girls in Kenyan villages while also teaching cycling, pelvic health and pregnancy prevention. Eventually Sima will host a group of Kenyan girls who will learn alongside girls in the US. We will have a Kenya - US Circle class.

WiseBodies youth, ages 9 - 13, will study the environmental impact of products used for cycling, the lack of products designed for our younger cyclers, and the lack of attention paid to products for trans and gender-fluid cyclers.

In response to these topics, WiseBodies youth will design and sew environmentally friendly cloth pads for cis girls, trans boys, and gender-fluid youth who cycle.

Our pads will be sold in our local towns to raise money for several projects students will identify, including a long-term project led by WiseBodies educator Sima Kamaamia.

Sima’s project will include distributing pads to families in Kenyan villages while also teaching youth about cycling, pelvic health and pregnancy prevention. Eventually Sima will host a group of Kenyan youth who will learn alongside youth in the US.

Class Dates

Class will meet Wednesday afternoons from 12:30pm - 3:30pm EST. The class runs from July 7 to August 11. All class dates: July 7, 14, 21, 28, Aug 4 and Aug 11.

Location

In-person, masked in Chatham, NY. If students can't join by person they can also join us by Zoom!

Cost + Registration

Class cost is $210. Sliding scale payments and scholarships are available. Donations to support students in our community are always welcome.

To register, please fill out the form here. Registration will remain open until June 30th, 2021!

A forever beloved WiseBodies class, our first Circle Class graduates now are first-year college students!

This year-long class is for trans and cis girls, and gender non-conforming kids, 9 - 13 years old, with age-flexibility.

The leaders of this class are Sima Kamaamia and Isa Coffey. Sima joins us from Nairobi, Kenya, and Isa from the WiseBodies home base in Chatham, New York.

Class Dates & Times

Fall Semester (Enrollment closed)
October 5th, 2020 through December 14th, 2020

Spring Semester (Enrollment open now!)
February 1st, 2021 through April 19th, 2021

There are now two Circle groups you can join!

You can join our Circle Class either on Mondays or Wednesdays from 4 to 5:30 PM EST.

This year we’ll meet on Zoom, so if you live at a distance, it will be easy to be with us this year! An unexpected gift of COVID-19.

About the Class

At WiseBodies, we know our place is to help families talk more easily and openly about the whole body, including the sexual body. To help parents — who we know usually were not offered whole sexuality education — fill in their own learning, we offer a parents’ class each semester. Also, we strongly encourage all parents to join their children for the last 15 minutes of each class. We want you to go home with your kids, able to continue the conversation with comfort and good humor.

In CIRCLE class, students and their parents

• build community
• learn about our bodies in relation to the natural world, in particular how closely connected our bodies are to flowering plants
• learn how easy it can be to normalize learning about, and talking about plant’s sexual parts
• develop vocabulary for, and ease with, talking about the whole human body, including human sexual anatomy
• learn how cool and normal our bodies are
• deeply learn the anatomy of the human sexual system
• make whole the “reproductive” and “sexual” systems
• learn about “cycling,” including all phases of the monthly cycle experienced by bodies with ovaries
• learn about cycling in relation to the moon
• recognize the deep similarities/interrelationships between what we’ve called the “female” and “male” sexual/reproductive systems
• familiarize and normalize “trans,” “ngb,” and “cis”
• play games!
• practice creating and holding safe body space
• recognize the body’s natural response when feeling safe, and the body’s natural response when feeling unsafe
• develop strategies for communication with identified, trustworthy adults following the breech of safe body space
• develop ease with clear and open communication about our human bodies
• develop increased ease and good humor when talking about the whole body with peers and with parents/family members/teachers
• recognize the developing internal and external strength that comes with whole body education, and in particular with including the sexual body in our whole body knowledge
• and, post-covid-19, when we are again able to be together in person, we will prepare and enjoy meals for one-another; explore the natural world; make art; sew; and enjoy social gatherings including film nights, field trips, and participation in the Pride Parade

The Pad Project

In addition to the above, CIRCLE kids have started a project called The Pad Project, in which we are studying the environmental impact of products used for cycling, the way pads are marketed for cis girls, the lack of attention to products for our youngest cyclers, and the lack of attention paid for trans cyclers.

In response, we are designing and sewing pads for cis girls, trans boys, and ngb kids who cycle. These pads will be sold in our local towns to raise money for several projects students will identify, including a long-term project led by Sima.

Sima’s project will include — once COVID-19 has passed — distributing pads to girls in Kenyan villages while also teaching cycling, pelvic health and pregnancy prevention. Eventually Sima will host a group of Kenyan girls who will learn alongside girls in the US. We will have a cross-Atlantic CIRCLE class.

CIRCLE Class is a really good place to be right now. Join us!

Class Cost

CIRCLE class costs $350 per semester. Scholarships are available. Extra financial donations always are very welcome.

Sign Up

Please email wisebodies@wisebodies.org to get more info and request an application!

For 9th - 12th Grade Students, with a strong invitation for LGBTQ and non-binary youth. Mondays, 5:30 - 7:30 pm, beginning September 23, 2019. We’ll meet on a 3 weeks on, 2 weeks off schedule, through the end of April, 2020. This unusual schedule allows us to rest, digest, dream, and look forward to returning.

The class costs $30 each week, with a $120 materials fee for the year due at first class. Families make a commitment to the year.

Note: I understand it can be hard for students to step into this class, and encourage parents to suggest their teens try this class out for 3 sessions. I’ve yet to meet a student that hasn’t wanted to continue after the 3rd class.

This class focuses on developing skills for being whole within oneself and within community. Students lead our learning. Each week we learn through conversation over our shared meals. Together we focus on topics related to living whole and strong in our private and social worlds, including plant medicine, bodies alone and with another/others, consensual and non-consensual relationships, everything about whole sexuality, how to listen to one’s inner voice, the importance of rest, how our bodies let us know what’s true and not true, how to think about the choices we make, safe sources for continued learning outside class, communicating with peers and parents, the complex world of social media, and all other topics of interest to the students. The conversation around our table always is warm and filled with laughter, is steady and safe, inclusive, and welcoming. Students build strong friendships with their classmates.