Maternal Gift Economy: Breaking Through -
Ongoing Salons
Every two weeks
Salon #36 - The Gift of Water
Featuring María Suárez, Guadalupe Urbina and Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe
With Genevieve Vaughan. Moderated by Letecia Layson.
Oct. 1, 2022
María Suárez Toro
Presentation title: Coming Soon
María Suárez Toro is a feminist journalist, an activist in defense of human rights, and an educator. She was born in Puerto Rico and has been a resident of San José, Costa Rica for close to 50 years.[1] She was a co-director of the Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE) from 1991 to 2011, of which she is a co-founder. She worked as an educator in literacy in many countries in Central America during the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1998 she has been an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Denver. Since 2011 she has been a correspondent for Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica for the News Service for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean (Servicio de Noticias de la Mujer de Latinoamérica y el Caribe), and since 2015 has been a coordinator of the Community Center Diving Ambassadors of the South Caribbean Sea (Centro comunitario de buceo Embajadores y Embajadoras del Mar del Caribe Sur), which is dedicated to archeological diving and recovery of the history of the afro-descendant population on the coast of Costa Rica.
Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe
Rev. Areeya Marie Sharpe is an Interfaith Minister, Artist, Chef and Ceremonialist that has worked in large scale Themed Prop Construction and Fabrication, Visual/SacredSound Art and Private Chef venues for over a decade, serving Las Vegas and several other locales around the world. Creating recipes of visual/sound art, prayerFull cuisine and sacred scent honoring the earth, sacred sites and ceremonies. Gratitude for 25yrs of education, nourishment and encouragement provided in Las Vegas community art projects, music, song, group ceremony and woman's circles. Living and perpetuating the " Arts of Sanctuary", *** Those creative and sacred art expressions that offer the sanctuary of sustainable and compassionate, mindful living methods... body, speech and mind."*** "that space, that place of all love and grace". Honoring rites of passage and practices that offer sanctuary of essence in reciprocity with all our relations. Thank you for every day, in every way life gifts opportunities to share LunaSol Salutations, that union of heaven and earth in our hearts... here in the Mojave desert, in and around the world. Thank you beloved teachers, guides, friends, family and the divine essence that guides for the best good of all beings, in this life, throughout all lives.
Home nested in the desert over a couple decades, Areeya lives between Nevada, Western Mass, CT, Oregon, NC and Costa Rica while Interfaith Ministering and Priestessing. A Devotee of Sekhmet she is also a Lohan Shaolin Ngakmo practitioner and Medical Qigong student. Areeya enjoys studying, documenting and perpetuating the "Arts of Sanctuary" while visiting and serving Buddhist Sangha, Earth Centered Goddess Temples and sacred art communities established and yet to be established, around the world. Blessed to guide folks for 18yrs with Journeys to the Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet, in Cactus Springs, NV. Currently a co-care tender at the Temple since Jan 2021, living in an experiment of Maternal Gifting, honoring Genevieve Vaughn's wondrous offering to the world, a Temple perpetuating Goddess Spirituality, Peace Activism and the Maternal Gift Economy. You can find Areeya most often singing, co-creating ceremony, playing an instrument, creating altars and practicing Qigong!
Guadalupe Urbina
Guadalupe Urbina is well known for her work as a singer and composer, but as a researcher of the oral tradition of her region but has ventured into painting, children's stories and poetry as an extension of her musicality.
She has four books published; Benito, Pánfila and the Garrobero Dog, Editorial Costa Rica Cosmovisiones 2002. Al Menudeo, Editorial Horas y Horas, Madrid 2003. Words of a Long Night, Uruk Editores (poetry book), Costa Rica 2015 and Tales of the Madremonte, Editorial Costa Rica in the 2017.
Guadalupe has a name built with her own effort and has performed on various stages in the three Americas, Europe and Central Africa, from the Círculo de Bellas Artes to the Centro Cultural de la Villa in Madrid, the Hot Brass and the Maison de l`Amerique Latine in Paris, the Demba Diop Stadium in Senegal, Biarritz Film Festival, One Woman Show in New York, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in Canada o the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico. And many theaters, squares, streets, community halls, cafes and World Music festivals.
She has recorded ten albums and her music appears on collections from various labels such as Putumayo Records, Rough Guides Music, and Culture Records.