Photo credit, Natalie Renteria
Our next “Femme Voices” spotlight is on Veronica Agard, alchemist and educator in the wellness field. Last year, I attended a “Healing Through Writing” workshop lead by Veronica and had such an amazing experience that I have been following her ever since. As much of a well-versed professional as she is, she is also extremely down to earth and allows her participants the space to feel like each of them have the power inside to heal. Her dedication to gathering folks together to learn better ways of caring for ourselves and connecting with our ancestry and her beautiful spirit are why The Glam Femme had to share her story. Check out her interview after the break below!
Please introduce yourself. What is your name, what are your pronouns, and where are you from?
I am Veronica Alicia Agard, mainly go by Vero and/or V. Veronica is oddly intimate for me now. My pronouns are she/her/hers and they/them/theirs. I’m seventy-seven going on twenty-eight and grew up on Ramapough Lenape land (Rockland County, NY), was born on Powhatan land (Central Jersey), and live on Canarsee Lenape land (Brooklyn, NY). I’ve lived in New York City for eight years, mainly in Harlem before moving downtown.
I’m a Sagittarius only child of a Caribbean-born, Harlem raised, US Army Veteran Scorpio father and a Southern-born, New York raised, Pisces educator mother. Between the two of them, I was raised to carry myself with a certain integrity that folks assume came from my community care work. My parents and family get all the credit for that!
How would you describe what you do? I remember attending your first “Alchemist’s Cypher: Healing Through Writing” workshop in 2017 but I know since then you have had your hand in many other endeavors. Can you tell us what they are?
You came to the first solo workshop that I ever did!!! The Alchemist’s Cypher was/is an embodiment of my healing through writing practice that I asked my folks on Facebook if they would come to and that whim turned into a whole thing. In sharing my practice of alchemy (transformation) with participants, I’m really sharing the questions I ask myself when I write, which are either sparked by observations of trends in communities, or from my intimate relationships. The challenging moments for me as a writer are when they intersect!
I’m growing into a space of describing my work as embodying geographies of being in right relation with others. My main method of understanding my roles in the world show up in lessons from the myriad of folks I’m in community with. That spectrum also informs my work and allows me to show up in the most aligned way possible. Right now what that looks like are my two main projects, Who Heals the Healer and Ancestors in Training.
Sometimes, my work can look like offering workshops and discussion spaces around a variety of themes that I’ve seen come up geopolitically and astrologically. Other moments, it looks like joining a crew of other local queer feminists, Brave Bridges, to roll as a squad to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit so we can bring lessons back to our folks.
How long have you been working in the healing space? How and why did you start?
I’ve been involved in the creation of sites of healing for almost seven years. During my time at The City College of New York (CUNY), I helped co-found the Sister Circle Collective, a group of young women who wanted to bring the lessons brought forth in a transnational feminist course to other folks on campus. It was as DIY as you can be at first, mainly hosting folks in our apartments with food, wine and listening ears. By the time a year had passed, we realized that we had more work to do to be able to help the folks who disclosed to us that they were survivors of sexual assault and trauma. A lot of us were/are survivors ourselves and we knew we had to seek out resources to be able to help those who had shown so much trust in us.
In 2013, we turned to our administration and the services there but realized they were lacking. This is when a bunch of us started to revision what a Gender Resource Center would look like. But after the school took away a key meeting ground (the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center), we ended up becoming walking centers or resource rooms. Being the change we wanted to see became literal but we had to do work to make sure we took care of ourselves.
This is when I started to align myself with healing practices and sought out models of self-care that resonated with me in the midst of attempting to work with other student groups who criticized our collective for having altars present in our spaces. These were groups who didn’t understand or believe in centering wellness at all but especially through what we offered – circle discussions, smudging, healing workshops, intention setting, etc. I found kindred folks in Harriet’s Apothecary and other gatherings that allowed me to be held. Here in 2018, now having curating spaces by myself for a year, I rarely enter community spaces that do not have those same things that we were once critiqued for.
I share that example to highlight that so much of the language that we use around healing and how it is in turned practiced is changing underneath our feet in real time. Yet, this language to describe sacred or ancient traditions is much older than us. This is also why I make a point, as contrary as it may seem considering the work that I do, to say that I do not consider myself a healer – just someone who is brave enough to share their stories and lineages of healing with the hopes that it inspires others to do the same.
Photo credit, Kirk Halliburton; Art by Firelei Baez
What is your favorite self-care method?
This changes with the season so right now in the Fall, entering the Winter and Sagittarius season, I’ve been finding joy in slowing down more. Slowing down or grounding as a self-care method looks like reading a book, taking my time to wash my hair, longer showers, and other adornment practices. Here in NYC, everything is moving so quickly that anytime I feel like I’m racing too quickly or going at a pace that feels out of whack, I heel. Heel, as in stop, so I can move forward in the most aligned way possible.
What are you most proud of about yourself and what you have accomplished?
My top moment to date is having my maternal grandmother, Barbara Williams Glover, open the Who Heals the Healer Conference with me. Aside from my parents, her ethics and compassion for others remind me of the legacies that I am in direct relation with. This opening was after many folks throughout the WHTH mini-series asked me how I came to a question, and then built work around it.
I sat in conversation with my grandmother around the topic and interviewed her in front of a crowd of almost 150 people so that they could understand that none of us is alone in this work, whether you are in the healing or wellness sphere or not. Everything that followed that moment during the conference was an additional gift.
How can we see your work/contact you/etc.?
You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at @verosgotthejuice and once in a Blue Moon on Twitter at @veraicon_. All things Who Heals the Healer have moved to their own website and Instagram. If you want to work with me or contact me, you can visit www.veronicaagard.com/work-with-me. Otherwise, you can find me on a dance floor burning incense in the cut or lurking for vegan patties at Sol Sips.
