AAPI Special Focus Retreat: Community Support for Survivors of Sexual Assault
Let us build our capacity and resources together to move into relationship with our full selves
AAPI Retreat for Survivors of SA living in New York, NY
{Location: Wild heart near Beacon, NY, 1.5 hour north on Metro North out of New York City
When: Weekend of Nov 15-17th
What: We hope to craft a safe, inclusive space where participants can explore their experiences as sexual beings and confront sexual violence in the community through the wisdom of our bodies and movement improvisation}
These videos share testimony from a participants of the last AAPI survivor retreat. The one one the right positions the testimony in relation to a federal grant we received to do Culturally Specific work with Survivors of Sexual Assault. In that video you will learn more about our partners for men’s work.
This Residency is an immersive experience designed for the New York Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community across the spectrum of gender and sexuality. A couple spots are open for non-New Yorkers to support the building of partnerships.
What to Expect
This three-day residency is designed as an affinity space for Asian Pacific Americans Survivors of Sexual Assault an their communities. . In collective, we will co-create a safe and nurturing space for healing, empowerment, and play. Disclosure is not required. You do not have to have "it" figured out or have any experience with creative movement.
Expect voluntary story sharing and natural cross-pollination among participants, fostering a collective learning experience. Participants will be introduced to the Moving Rasa framework through guided exercises and reflections, both indoors and outdoors, with a focus on creating a playful and trusting community that is able to openly address and move through our relationships to sex, sexualities and sexual violence in a healing, culturally specific and empowering way.
Moving Rasa: Grounding Knowledge and Social Justice
The term "Rasa" means taste or essence in Indonesian, and Moving Rasa connects participants to their Rasa, embracing their cultures, histories, and spirituality as vital for authentic relationship-building and creating unity through diversity. Participants will learn to trust their interconnectedness with others and the world around them, navigating obstacles to self-expression and expanding their capacity to improvise in changing and challenging environments. You can hear from a prior participant from August here.
How is this possible?
This opportunity is possible thanks to the American Rescue Plan for Survivors of Sexual Assault. This inclusive workshop is free and open to individuals of the local New York AAPI community, embracing all abilities, ages, and classes. The cohort size will be limited to 10 people with priority given to marginalized identities within the AAPI community especially who are Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders and non-Brahmin South Asians. That said, all AAPI are encouraged to apply.
Please register through the link below, and we will get back to you by the last week of October if not sooner to confirm your status. We look forward to welcoming you to this transformative experience.
Location: Wildheart, 183 East Road, Wallkill, NY 12589
Basic Itinerary (Subject to shift as needed by the group via consensus)
Lodging and Culturally specific meals are included.
Friday Nov 15th
3-6p Arrival and early dinner
6-9p Introduction to Moving Rasa, the Container and the Theme: Addressing Sexual Violence in our Communities
9p Sharing Dessert
Saturday, Nov 16th
10-1p Embodying Community Agreements and Consent Labs
1-3p Break and meal sharing
3-6p Exploring Core Values around Intimacy and Connection
Sunday Nov 17th
9:30-12:30p Active Witnessing and Improvisation
12:30-2:30p Break and meal sharing
2:30-5:30p Collective Design and Synthesis
Our Team
Our Facilitator
Andrew Suseno is an Indonesian-Chinese American movement artist, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Feldenkrais Practitioner, and Certified Laban Movement Analyst based on the unceded land of Lenapehoking. With a couple decades of experience in martial arts, improvisational dance, and Contact Improvisation, Andrew has centered his work on healing and liberation, particularly for communities of color. He is the founder of Moving Rasa, an organization that blends indigenous Indonesian philosophy with movement improvisation, somatics, and community building.
Drawing from his rich background, Andrew’s work focuses on helping marginalized communities reconnect to their bodies, reclaim agency, and heal from trauma. His unique approach integrates Rasa, the Indonesian word for taste, which also means the discernment of feeling through the heart. Through workshops, residencies, and retreats, he creates culturally specific spaces where participants can explore movement, healing, and cooperation.
Andrew has collaborated with national organizations like NAPIESV and the Guam Coalition, creating wellness guides and retreats for sexual violence survivors. His efforts extend to building men's consciousness spaces, where participants address systemic oppression and explore new ways of being. Andrew's vision bridges movement and social change, offering pathways for individuals and communities to move through trauma and thrive.
Our Chef
Shandra Woworuntu from League of Kitchen will be sharing delicious cuisine with us from Indonesia, Japan, and Korea! Shandra was born in Manado, the capital city of the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi. She grew up in Banyumangi, a city in East Java, where her family owned several food related businesses including a food production company, peanut factory, bakery, and restaurant. She learned how to cook by spending time with her family in the kitchen. In first grade, Shandra’s grandmother set up a child-sized kitchen with a working flame and taught her how to make eggs. Soon Shandra was cooking and serving the dishes she made to her grandmother’s employees, and that was the beginning of Shandra’s lifelong passion for food and cooking.
Shandra moved to Malang in East Java for high school and then attended college in Jakarta where she became a financial banking analyst. In 1998, demonstrations and violent riots erupted in Jakarta, triggered by severe economic issues in the country. Women and ethnic Chinese communities were the primary targets of the violence. Shandra became a fierce anti-violence activist--work she still pursues to this day. Since arriving in New York City in 2001,
Shandra has resided primarily in Queens. She currently lives in Astoria with her family. Shandra has worked in restaurants and has run her own catering company. She also enjoys teaching cooking classes through a nonprofit she founded which aims to empower survivors of human trafficking with support services and vocational training. One thing she loves about living in NYC is tasting traditional foods from around the world. Shandra also collects cookbooks and is often innovating with new flavor combinations in the kitchen, just as she did growing up in Indonesia. Shandra is excited to introduce people to Indonesian culture and cuisine through her League of Kitchens classes! Shandra and her cooking have been featured by Spruce Eats.
Our Virtual Mental Health Support
Marie Janiszewski will be the crisis counselor on call from the Loving Kindness Wellness Services. Marie Janiszewski holds a Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University. With a concentration in mindfulness-based transpersonal counseling, Marie orients toward the wisdom within every person, which often lies below the realm of logical thinking. She holistically engages each client in accessing their own keys to insight and healing.
Marie has training in trauma-informed somatic approaches, including Hakomi, Somatic Experiencing, and Indigenous Focusing-Oriented therapies. Integrating these body-based practices with her training in parts work, including Gestalt and Internal Family Systems therapies, Marie welcomes the many dimensions that make each client who they are.
She believes that the same difficult emotions that cause humans to suffer are also the gateways to greater resilience, insight, strength, and connection. Marie supports her clients in turning toward their experience in a therapeutic manner so they may explore and discover that which heals and gives meaning to their life. In her free time, Marie loves to paint, dance, hike, bike, share meals with family and friends, surf (yes, even in New York), grow vegetables, and travel. She is dedicated to a daily meditation practice, and has attended many week-long silent meditation retreats in the insight (Vipassana) tradition. She also pursues research in the fields of nutrition, environmental health, and psychology.
Other Relevant History:
This project is made possible by the 2023-2025 American Rescue Plan Grant to Support Culturally Specific Programming for Survivors of Sexual Assault. Our programming is designed to support all members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) diaspora, with a special invitation to marginalized populations such as Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, and non-Brahmin South Asians.
In 2021, we collaborated with the National Organization for Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV) and other AAPI cultural bearers to create a Wellness guide for survivors. Since 2022, we have been building programs with providers of sexual assault services in Guam through the Guam Coalition, and now, with the ARP grant, we offer retreats for survivors and have begun creating Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander men's consciousness spaces to address sexual violence.