Witches Decolonial Brew: A Reading Group
Read. Rethink. Resist.
‘We never talked about men or clothes. It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution—real girls' talk.’
—Nina Simone
‘Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission fulfill it, or betray it.’
— Frantz Fanon
Read. Rethink. Resist.
We read and explore the suppressed texts that reveal how your oppression is interconnected with struggles across the globe, to help shift you out of despair and into community, solidarity, and action.
The intention of this reading group is to give you access to texts that have been intentionally and actively suppressed so that you can start making the connections between the oppression that you personally are experiencing, and those that you see other folks experiencing.
This isn't a boring, passive book club. It's a collective; we break down the walls that make you feel alone in your struggle. We show you that the maintenance of structural oppression requires you to think it's distinct, separate, and individual. We are here to learn it's anything but.
This is our moment to step into our authority. We are the ones we are waiting for.
“There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not lead single issue lives.”
—Audre Lorde
Our Core Philosophies
1. Interconnected Struggle
Oppression is not a single-issue fight. We recognize that class, gender violence, and racism are different heads of the same global monster, under Capitalism. Our internationalism is a lived practice of solidarity, not just a theory.
2. Revolutionary Praxis
We are building alternatives; alternative ways of learning, relating and living. Our contributions as scholars and organisers, and your contribution through sliding-scale membership and engagement are acts of mutual aid and solidarity economics, turning theory into practice. We teach a cycle of Read, Act, Reflect—transforming how we move through the world in relation to others, and deepening our understanding of mutuality, community and solidarity. Our process models social solidarity, mutual aid, reciprocity, and compassion.
3. Knowledge as Armor, Community as Protection
We study suppressed texts and learn from centuries of resistance. This knowledge and the way in which we learn to engage is a defensive weapon, giving us the tools to understand power and dismantle it, no matter how it shows up and where we are. There’s a reason these texts are suppressed - because to read them and understand them is a direct threat to oppressive structural power.
4. Frontline Leadership
We follow those who know the terrain best. Our facilitator, Asere, is the organizer of Crystal House, Brooklyn—a 24 year grassroots hub providing housing and resources for communities impacted by displacement and militarization. Crystal House works to transform oppressive power dynamics by creating space for queer, trans, women, and youth leadership, challenging the very foundations of systemic oppression.
5. This is Spiritual Work
It’s not a coincidence that both Asere and Kate are both Spiritual practitioners. This work is spiritual by its very nature. One of the most violent ways in which Colonialism has enacted oppression is through the systematic and intentional uprooting of people from spiritual practice; the one thing that gives us daily lived experience of our true mutuality and interconnected nature. To separate spiritual practice from political consciousness is deadly.
6. Our Commitment to a Safe Space
This is an exercise in redistributing power. We actively dismantle hierarchies of class, race, and formal education. This community strives to be a place to learn new dynamics of power through self determination, in order to transform oppressive power dynamics among individuals and communities at large; not merely mirroring the dominant mainstream ways of living and learning.
Leadership from those on the frontline of the struggle against racialized capitalism rooted in imperialism, colonialism and enslavement. Learn from the folks that have been successfully pushing back against Imperialism and Fascism for 25 years.
Guidelines exist and are protected: Infractions are gently pointed out once, not tolerated twice.
We model what being in revolutionary relationship looks like, with an ethos of Power-with, communal growth, and solidarity.
Reading as Resistance
We know reading can be daunting, especially if you have learning differences or were disenfranchised from education. That is by design. Learning to read and to be in community are two of the most powerful forms of resistance that you can enact.
Our Approach: Be patient with yourself. We offer flexible ways to engage: read on your phone, print copies to annotate, or find secondhand books.
The Goal: It's not about being an expert. It's about building the skill of critical reading together.
How it Works
Each Month: You receive a short but foundational text sent to you in PDF format.
Over the Month: You read and let the ideas percolate. We encourage journaling and note-taking.
Discussion Week: We come together as a community on Patreon to discuss the text. Asere will be present to lead discussions and answer deep questions. Kate will also be present and will contribute when helpful.
Is This For You?
This group is for you if you:
Feel the weight of systemic oppression and want to understand its roots.
Are ready to move beyond isolated struggle into collective power.
Believe in building solidarity across different identities and experiences.
Are willing to be patient, kind, and assume solidarity with others.
A direct word on power dynamics:
White men: You are welcome here but this will be a space where oppressive power dynamics are actively refused. Join us here is to listen, read, and learn.
Formally educated folks: Unlearn the notion that you understand these texts better. We are not here to replicate a classroom.
Ready to See the Connections?
Stop feeling the weight of the world alone. Join a community that is actively building the tools for collective liberation. Your journey into revolutionary reading starts now.
Have questions? Read our full Community Guidelines.
Important Notes on the Nature of this Work
You’re going to get triggered; this group will trigger you and that's a good thing because you're stepping out of your comfort zone and getting on your Learning Edge. That’s where we want you, on your edge as that way you can grow. But we are not going to let you fall off the edge. This process will highlight contradictions, and will bring up problematic behaviours. This is why this work is not easy.
A trigger is something that an individual says or does or an organizational policy or practice that makes us, as members of social groups, feel diminished, offended, threatened, stereotyped, discounted, or attacked. Triggers do not necessarily threaten our physical safety. We often feel psychologically threatened. We can also be triggered on behalf of another social group. Though we do not feel personally threatened, our sense of social justice feels violated.
Triggers cause an emotional response. The emotions include hurt, confusion, anger, fear, surprise, shame, frustration or embarrassment. We respond to triggers in a variety of ways, some helpful and others not. Our guide when developing a full repertoire of responses to triggers is to take care of ourselves and then to decide how to respond, heal and transform effectively. Some of these responses are effective and some are not. Which responses we choose depend on our own inner resources and the dynamics of the situation.
However, this is also why it is so valuable. There’s really very few spaces where you will be held with Revolutionary Love. This is one.
Our hope with this work is that we are not just giving those of us in this group access to texts and new ways of thinking, but that each one of us becomes a seed of this way of being. So that we each are able to soften into love of the self, then of our own families, our wider communities and on and on.
If you are coming from a place of unity (i.e the desire for us to be better, revolutionizing ourselves, and the community at large) then you should recognize that struggle is a necessary process. This process will highlight contradictions, raise concerns, and confront problematic behaviours: this is not the easiest thing to handle. You will need to learn to step into your authority, accountability and reclaim power.
This is a liberated space: where physically you’re going to fine but everything else is going to get rocked.
We are not trying to replicate existing structures of relating. We will all be invited into new non-extractive ways of being together and moving away from a society based on ethnic cleansing, genocide and war.
Facilitated by:
Awo Asere Bello is the founder of and co-directs Crystal House, a 24 year housing cooperative dedicated as a resource hub for those impacted by militarization and displacement. As a first generation Blaktino Cuban/Ecuadorian born and raised in New York City, he continues the path set by his ancestors in responding to and transforming social injustice as a Babalawo in IFA ( an earth based spiritual practices rooted in Yoruba), a father, creative and community organizer. He works with numerous collectives, community based organizations and institutions to develop strategies that address and connect both institutional and interpersonal violence. His educational background in Social Science, Social Ecology, Social Justice, Education, Transformative Justice, and Batterers Intervention supports his ability to connect the personal to the political for positive social change. Asere practices what he's talking about; he's been living and creating crossroads places (Solidarity Housing), building and sharing alternative structures of relating (Solidarity Economies), living and being in the face of imperialist and fascist oppression (Prison Abolition), intentionally and beautifully, for 25 years. Asere has a 12th house Stellium (!) and Mercury in Pisces, with a Pisces Stellium. You won’t find a more gentle and poetic communicator who knows what it is to dig deep for understanding and come back from the borderlands with wisdom and compassion, again and again.
Kate Tomas. Magic is intrinsically political, and Kate has been working as a Witch for 25 years. After decades involved in political action, her work is now focused on the creation of communities where learning is joyful and contributes towards liberation for all. Writing her Philosophy PhD in the tradition of Liberation Theology, gave her a deep understanding both of how to read as someone with multiple learning disabilities, as well as the vitality of liberative texts. She has Mercury in Taurus, and Venus in Pisces, giving her an ability to explain complex ideas easily, and hold challenging conversations with compassion and sensitivity.