Every Wednesday, 6–9pm
13 October–8 December 2026
Wellcome Collection, London

13 October
Facilitator: Rochelle Webster Nembhard
Workshop: Altar Making: Indigenous and Spiritual Wisdom

The programme begins by creating a collective altar under the guidance of Artist and healer Rochelle Webster Nembhard, connecting to spiritual and indigenous wisdom through embodiment, facilitated conversation, ritual making and inner world-exploration.

20 October
Facilitator: Jamila Johnson-Small, SERAFINE1369
Workshop: Dance and Embodiment

Through dance and movement, artist and dancer Jamila Johnson-Small leads this session to explore our relationship with our bodies, the spaces we inhabit and the knowledge the body carries, opening up conversations around gynaecological health and wellbeing.

27 October
Facilitator: Seyi Adelekun
Workshop: Spirit Moves Us: Body as a Living Archive

A participatory workshop exploring Black wellbeing through embodied movement, sound and cultural memory, drawing on Beatriz Nascimento’s thinking around the quilombo not only as a physical place, but as a living process of gathering, creating belonging and sustaining one another. Nascimento’s work considers the body as a site where memory, territory, movement and collective histories are carried, offering a way to think about how quilombo can be enacted through bodies coming together. Through movement, sound and collective listening, participants will explore what it means to aquilombar: to create a temporary space of connection, care and belonging through the body, and to consider what we carry with us when that gathering ends.

3 November
Facilitator: Dr Annabel Sowemimo
Workshop: Advocating for yourself and your gynae health

Dr Annabel Sowemimo will facilitate an exploration of gynaecological health, working with the group on how to advocate for yourself within clinical healthcare settings.
The session will involve de-mystifying health conditions, explore personal and collective experiences and develop strategies to navigate medical health care systems and environments.

10 November — Integration Week

A week to pause, rest, integrate and reflect on the first half of the programme.

17 November
Facilitators: Gaylene Gould, Ketchurah Ravindren and Yvette Riby-Williams at Calthorpe Community Garden.
Workshop: The Black Mary Project

Taking place at Calthorpe Community Garden, the session explores the story of Mary Woolaston, a Black woman who tended a healing well in London in the 17th century. Beginning with a seasonal meal and conversations around the fire, the session will involve stitching healing flags, creating dried herb bouquets and finishing with a song, fire, milk and water ritual in a practice of letting go.

24 November
Facilitators: Chine McDonald and Zoey Thompson, Sweet Thang Zine
Workshop: Unmaking Mary: The Virgin of Guadalupe

Beginning with a viewing of The Virgin of Guadalupe, writer and broadcaster Chine McDonald will facilitate a discussion on the mythology of Mary, deconstructing ideas of perfect motherhood through Black feminist and womanist perspectives. The session will touch on mothering beyond biological motherhood and the networks of solidarity and care that are created between friends, sisters, aunties and communities.

Following the viewing, Zoey Thompson of Sweet Thang zine will lead a collage and zine-making session, inviting responses to the themes and personal experiences explored in connection with the Virgin of Guadalupe.

1 December
Facilitator: Dr Hannah Catherine Jones,
Workshop: Chironic Groundings

Dr Hannah Catherine Jones will lead a workshop exploring the different ways we can ground ourselves through embodied vocal praxis as diasporic subjects. This workshop will draw from Jones' art-music praxis incorporating the mythical archetype, astrological placement and astronomical queer celestial body of the wounded healer in tandem with taking inspiration from The Virgin of Guadeloupe held within the Wellcome Collection.

This session will be facilitated by Artist Dr Hannah Cathering Jones, taking place within Rudy Loewe’s exhibition Intimacies of Care: Spaces of Grief and Possibility, which explores the lived experience of Black people whose mental healthcare is shaped by racism, reimagining an equitable mental healthcare system.

8 December
Facilitator: Safiya Robinson, Sisterwoman
Workshop: Intentional Nourishment -  Celebration Dinner and Collective Reflection

We close The Sanctuary Within around the table. This session will begin with an intentional nourishment workshop with Safiya, followed by a celebration dinner with all participants and practitioners who have been a part of the course. It will be a space to reflect on the knowledge, joy, practices and relationships formed across the programme and to celebrate the community that has been cultivated over nine weeks.

The programme will be documented by award-winning photographer and director Myah Jeffers, capturing the people, practices and shared moments that unfold across The Sanctuary Within.

The Sanctuary Within is for Black women, trans women and non-binary people interested in exploring wellbeing through creativity, embodied practice, cultural knowledge and collective care.

You do not need any previous experience of art, movement, somatic practice or the other disciplines explored during the programme.

The programme is designed as a collective journey. With only 18 places available, we ask participants to commit to attending as many sessions as possible so that together we can build a consistent, trusting and supportive space.

Participation in The Sanctuary Within is free, with 18 places available for the Autumn/Winter 2026 cohort.

Applications are now open.

Apply for The Sanctuary Within

The deadline for applications is 30 September 2026.