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Partial Scholarships and payment plans available |
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Designed to strengthen sustainability, resilience, and leadership through trauma-informed, somatic InterPlay practices, this retreat invites participants to arrive fully, deepen connection, and leave feeling resourced and re-activated. |
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Body Wisdom, Inc.
(dba InterPlay) is an arts- and somatic movement-based nonprofit organization founded in 1989 by Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry. What began as small community gatherings in the San Francisco Bay Area has grown into an international practice grounded in creative expression, movement, storytelling, and community connection.
Body Wisdom, Inc. stewards InterPlay, a somatic arts-based practice, to support people and communities worldwide by engaging dynamic movement, storytelling, and creative expression that reconnect individuals to the inner wisdom of their bodies, strengthening resilience, connection, and capacity for personal and social transformation.
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InterPlay
Integrates movement, storytelling, voice (including song, chant, hum, and tone), reflection, and stillness through a progression of simple, accessible forms.
These practices are adaptable across cultures, ages, abilities, and professional contexts, and are used in community arts, leadership development, healthcare, counseling, education, and social justice settings. The approach supports resilience, creativity, and connection while integrating body, mind, heart, and spirit in participants’ personal and professional lives.
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- Active in more than 60 cities across six continents.
- Facilitated by over 400 trained and certified leaders.
- Impacting schools, healthcare settings, prisons, peace-building initiatives, multicultural communities, and community development projects.
- Fosters creativity, connection, healing, and social transformation for people of diverse ages, cultures, and abilities through workshops, performances, and training InterPlay.
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What is an InterPlay BIPOC Retreat + Benefits?
A biennal weekend gathering for Black, Indigenous, People of Color beloved community
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Partial Scholarships and payment plans available |
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BENEFITS
- Support radical inclusion, sustainability, and resilience among BIPOC artists, cultural workers, and community leaders, particularly those engaged in long-term justice, anti-racism, healing, and community-building efforts.
- Strengthen participant sustainability and resilience by providing trauma-informed, somatic practices grounded in InterPlay that support stress regulation, restoration, and embodied leadership.
- Build leadership capacity among BIPOC participants by equipping them with practical, embodied tools that can be applied within their professional, creative, and community-based work.
- Unlock and uplift the wisdom of the body as a vital resource for living more fully, creatively, and in connection with others.
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How We Will Practice Together at the InterPlay BIPOC Retreat
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Trauma-informed, somatic practices grounded in InterPlay that support stress regulation, restoration, and embodied leadership
- InterPlay System and embodied practices
- Movement, voice, stillness, Play Storytelling and creative expression
- Rest, reflection, and time in nature
- Shared meals and informal connection
- Featured workshop: InterPlay for Racial Healing and Collective Liberation with LaVerne Baker Hotep, InterPlay Leader from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who is also the Program Coordinator and National Faculty Trainer at the Trauma Stress Institute of Klingberg Family Centers, who will deepen the retreat’s focus on trauma-informed practices through an InterPlay lens
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Partial Scholarships and payment plans available |
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Logistics
Rejuvenation • Renewal • Reactivation • Restoring the Well • InterPlay Global Majority-BIPOC Retreat
📅 Dates: May 22–24, 2026 |
| Arrival: Friday, 12:00–3:00 PM Dinner: 6:00pm Programming: Begins Friday Evening Closing Ceremony: Sunday Morning Departure: Sunday Afternoon
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| Friday
Arrival & Landing
- Settling in
- Opening Circle
- Grounding the collective space
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| Saturday
Immersion & Connection
• Embodied sessions • Creativity, rest, and play • Deepening the web
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| Sunday
Integration & Carrying Forward
• Reflection and meaning-making • Closing Ceremony • Gentle re-entry
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Partial Scholarships and payment plans available |
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Note: This year the Pittsburgh host committee will coordinate with the InterPlay BIPOC Retreat Planning Team to coordinate shuttles from the airport to the Laurelville Retreat Center. To see Laurelville Retreat Center’s full campus tour video, click here.
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May we leave renewed, our energy flowing like water in the well and threading through the mycelium, weaving the bonds of our shared beloved community.
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The celebration doesn’t end here—it keeps moving through May 22 🌍 As we carry the spirit of Give InterPlay Day forward, we continue to show up with communities whose voices aren’t always centered, supporting their leadership and the visions growing from within.
Across our 15 regions—from the Bay Area to Mumbai, Atlanta, and beyond, the energy and generosity we’ve seen are still unfolding.
Thank you for being part of this moment. Your support helps sustain mutual aid, intergenerational transformation, and creative community care.
Let’s keep going, together. Learn more and donate below. |
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As an organization committed to generosity, 10% of all contributions for general operating will be allocated for general scholarships, supporting our commitment to accessible programs —donate today! |
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