Name: Minds On Design Lab Inc.
Price range: $

This event was part of Reimagine Events

A community grief circle by and for the AAPI community to mourn what has been lost. This is an Asian American affinity space for acknowledging history, collective meditating, and peer-to-peer sharing.

Please join the AAPI community for a gathering to witness, support, and honor one another in our grief. The program will open with agreements, followed by some education and meditation/breathwork as a foundation for peer-to-peer sharing in a safer space. This is a dedicated container by and for Asian Americans.

Following the centering of what Asian Americans may choose to mourn from our shared history in the United States, the facilitators will offer mindfulness and somatic practices for grounding prior to opening up space to invite in the individual and collective grief being experienced by AAPI community members.

(While having cameras on is welcome for cultivating a stronger sense of community, it is OK for videos to be turned off as we want to respect each person's personal grieving process.)

Tony Pham (Butterfly) (he/they) is a heritage Buddhist, facilitator, and healer that occupies the intersection of queer and BIPOC identities. He also identifies as a 2nd generation Vietnamese American whose parents immigrated to the United States as refugees from war. Tony goes by Butterfly in spiritual spaces where they steward practices rooted in compassion, indigeneity, and sacred lineages. They are a student of Lama Rod Owens (Vajrayana/Tibetan Buddhism). They are also an alumnus of the East Bay Meditation Center’s year-long PiTA8 trauma informed mindfulness program for social justice work.

Butterfly offered a dharma talk and guided meditation about compassion during The Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit 2023. Butterfly has completed death doula training and facilitates various grief circles with Reimagine. Tony's death work was highlighted and referenced in the 2023 book, "So Sorry for Your Loss," by Dina Gachman. He is certified in Compassion Cultivation Training ©, teaching compassion and meditation at Tibet House US. Tony is honored to serve on the national board of directors of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). He now resides in Brooklyn (occupied Canarsie/Munsee Lenape land). For more information, please visit tonyopham.com.

Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, contemplative care practitioner, and the Founder of BACII. She is devoted to creating a deeper culture of care, transcending our circumstances, and expanding our experiences through the wisdom of impermanence. Mangda offers supportive services, regenerative programming, and intentional products for individuals, communities, and organizations alike. Her life and death work is guided by her Laotian last name, which means “the light of the full moon.”

BACII is inspired by all of her experiences with loss and life, and specifically the loss of her mother. This life-changing experience of helping her mother through the dying process included being with her in the final moments, washing and dressing her body, arranging a funeral service, and managing a household of tasks that come with death. This experience revealed to her how difficult and isolating grief and loss can be. This led her to reimagine our society’s relationship to the end-of-life as a healthier and more supportive experience.

Driven by these experiences, Mangda became a certified death doula through Going with Grace and an end-of-life volunteer. She then launched BACII as a platform to integrate death into our lives so that we can better support ourselves and those we love.

Additionally she has been immersed in the mystical, creative, and healing arts for over 15 years and is certified and trained in pranayama, asanas, and meditation with Bhooma Chaitanya and Swami Yogeshananda through Aarasha Yoga Vidya Peetham in Kerala, India, Reiki 2 accreditation by Joanna Crespo, NYC, 13th Octave LaHoChi accreditation from Soul Healing, CT, Grief Literacy from Be Here, and Contemplative Care from New York Zen Center.

Mangda was an awarded recipient of Reclamation Ventures grant for under-represented leaders making pathways to addressing grief and loss.

Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, NY Mag’s Curbed, Brydie, Chacruna Institute, Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish Wall Street Journal) and more.