OUR TEAM
Ìyá Stacey Sarina Ifafolawe Fluker Bámigbálà-Aresa is the co-owner of Raising Our Roots LLC© and Healing Exchange AL© and the founder and creator of sacRED MOONtime Sessions© (SMT Sessions©).
Currently, she is a Mama Thyme© Full Circle Doula Birth Companion. Where she offers support and comfort to families who are expecting babies as a birth doula, mamas who need after-birth services as a postpartum doula, and even times when families need assistance and support while navigating through the loss of a loved one as an end-of-life doula. Stacey is also a licensed massage practitioner specializing in various healing modalities through touch therapy; her favorite is Thai yoga massage. You may even find her offering her support and assistant chef skills in a kitchen near you.
As the founder and creator of sacRED MOONtime Sessions©, Ìyá Ifafolowe has combined her love for Nature and Her wondrous gifts, our astonishing divine feminine bodies, the power of shared experiences through storytelling, sisterhood, and community, and the tried and true healing techniques through breath-work exercises, yoga, healthy foods, herbs, and more. She brings this one-of-a-kind experience and labor of love, reverence, and awe to our ‘MoonFlowers’ by sharing that their bodies work in tandem with the diverse and expansive “omniverse.” SMT Sessions© continues to grow and evolve daily, receiving multiple grants, accolades, and endorsements from past participants and community members.
When Ìyá Ifafolowe is not working, she enjoys spending her free time with her family, reading/listening to adventurous stories, camping and being outside, cooking and eating delicious meals, listening to elevating and soul-stirring music, watching movies, traveling and experiencing unique places, and meeting new people.
Mama Stacey is married to her incredible husband and mother to three talented and creative adolescent children. Ìyá Ifafolowe , a graduate of the Ifa-Orisa Training & Development Academy, continuously learns and applies the necessary tools as she lives her life holistically and in alignment with her destiny.
Faika Patricia Damon Golliday Liddell Munirah had a calling to become a teacher/educator to many at the age of six. In addition to being an outstanding educator, she is the founder, creator, and primary videographer of MunirahVison, where she incorporates one of her many passions, the video camera, as an archivist and keeper of “OUR” stories.
After graduating from high school in 1969, Faika began attending Central State University (HBCU), where she graduated in 1971 and began teaching the same year. She has over 40 years of teaching experience. Ms. Munirah has had the honored opportunity to shape and mold thousands of children and adults in various capacities while, at the same time, becoming a wife, a mother, and eventually a grandmother.
In the 1950s, she caught her first memory of loving to record people on the reel-to-reel small tape recorder her parents bought their children. After being "bitten by the audio bug," she learned how to use the filmstrip and projector in her sixth-grade audio-visual class. Her parents bought a slide projector and screen a decade later, exposing her to advanced technology. Then, she became responsible for setting up the slide projector and popping popcorn (now known as “Kontagious Kone”).
Her love for the camera never faded. Years ago, Mama Faika, as she is called by those who know and love her well, acquired a reel-to-reel large tape recorder and 8mm video camera. This camera reignited her passion for recording, and she started capturing her children inside and outside the classroom. Throughout her forty-plus years as a teacher/educator, she passed along her love of videotaping to her students by teaching them the art of videography. After living in Portland, Oregon, for about twelve years, she moved back to Cleveland, Ohio. In 2011, she retired as a second-grade teacher, which brought her full circle from 1971 to 2011.
Mama Faika is one of sacRED MOONtime’s© cherished matriarchs and our esteemed video archivist. She was very dedicated during our first cohort, recording, and editing footage of our ‘MoonFlowers’ epic adventurous and learning experiences. We are grateful to have her on our team!
Zsa'ssata Shakur is always honored to be able to collaborate with her extended family of daughters, sisters, and elder matriarchs. Affectionately known as “Mama Z” to her community, she is a mother who homeschools not just her children but a myriad of children from within her community, along with her beloved husband. Sister Zsa’ssata is also a healer, revolutionary, and holistic health advocate; these elements assist her with making our commUNITY a better place to thrive.
Mama Z and her daughter participated in the first 12-week cohort of sacRED MOONtime Sessions©. She is joining our team to continue teaching our ‘MoonFlowers’ the art and cultural traditions of sacred body adornments.
LaQuanda Simpson was born and raised in the Black Belt region of Alabama. It was there that she first experienced culture and impactful community activism. Later in life, she gained a deep appreciation for her culture through traveling. LaQuanda’s passions; include self-mastery, photography, African Drumming and Dance, geography, and traditional herbalism. Her mission is to empower individuals to realize and achieve their highest potential through self-realization.
LaQuanda joined SacRED Moontime© as a volunteer in our first cohort and is now one of our photographers. Her ability to capture beauty, joy, wonder, and awe aligns with the adventures we share with our ‘MoonFlowers’ during their self-explorative journeys.
Elder Mama Sanovia Muhammad is a retired Registered Nurse of 30 years in Labor & Delivery and has a BS in Community Health. Her certifications include 200-hour levels of Kemetic Yoga, Kripalu Yoga, Yin Yoga, and TaiChi Infused Yoga. She is also certified in Shakti Yoga at the 500-hour level.
She is the Creator of MaYoni’aT Womb Yoga ( the practice of owning the Goddess within ) and offers Certifications in this Sequence. Birth Mama of 6 and Xhoxho (grandmama) to 10. Women’s Health is her passion. On the side, she is a Published Author and Performance Poet.
Elder Mama Sanovia joins sacRED MOONtime Sessions© as our in-house womb yoga instructor. She works with our ‘MoonFlowers and their mothers on tapping into their divine femininity through breathing exercises, the art of mindfulness, sacred movement, and lessons on how our bodies are designed to birth ideas, projects, and eventually, if they desire, children. Please visit Maati Sanovia for more of her sacred womb offerings
Chef Ama ‘Ifágbàmílà’ Shambulia is a native of Los Angeles, California, where her love of food, cooking, and gardening was nurtured in her grandmother's kitchen and beautiful backyard flower gardens. She presently resides in Birmingham, AL. She is the owner and operator of A Beautiful Life Enterprises LLC. (ABLE) and has a passion for sharing whole food plant-based nutrition. Committed to holistic life principles as a chef, well-BEing coach, earth-worker (gardener), and ‘herban’ homesteader, she is excited to share this experience through her work as a Community Food Educator.
Chef Ama graduated from CULINARD, The Culinary Institute @ Virginia College, and IIN, The Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She continues her studies through FRN, The Food Revolution Networks Plant-Based Coaching Certification program.
Presently, Chef Ama partners with for-profit and non-profit organizations whose missions center around 'Food and Health.' Through these partnerships, she continues to advocate for well-being and service to the community.
Her present partnerships include the Jones Valley Teaching Farm/Center For Food Education (Birmingham, Alabama), Community On The Rise Inc. (Birmingham, Alabama) Railroad Park Foundation, Get Healthy On The Railroad Initiative (Birmingham, Alabama), Nature's Garden for Victory & Peace (Tuskegee, Alabama) and Diaspora to Afrika Cultural Exchange for the Arts & Sciences (Nigeria, West Afrika).
Chef Ama (Iyá Ifágbàmílà Bámigbálà-Arẹ̀sà) is a graduate of the Ifa-Orisa Training & Development Academy and is presently continuing her studies of Traditional African Spirituality in the United States and Nigeria, West Afrika.
We are honored to have Chef Ama Ifágbàmílà as sacRED MOONtime Sessions’© culinary nutritionist. She teaches our ‘MoonFlowers’ engaging hands-on cooking classes and provides them with rich and memorable garden dining experiences.
Dr. Muhjah Shakir, aka Mama Muhjah, is the founding president and CEO of Nature's Garden for Victory and Peace (NGVP), a nonprofit organization that works to build a "Holistic Intentional Learning Community Development Model" that is replicable. We are located in historic Tuskegee, Alabama. NGVP invites people of Black-Indigenous heritage to bring shared values, skills, and unifying energies to be part of the NGVP community as either residential members living on the land or non-residential members. Dr. Shakir is a retired professor of occupational therapy from Tuskegee University. She has spent her entire adult life working to uplift the race by building coalitions, promoting high culture, and advocating "learning as transformation." Dr. Shakir respects diverse cultures and has visited 4 continents. She is the mother of two amazing adult daughters and five brilliant grandchildren.
Queen Mother Muhjah is also a prominent matriarch in sacRED MOONtime©. In addition to her experience and insights, the MoonFlowers of SMT have had the opportunity to explore, learn, and camp on the sacred grounds of Nature's Garden for Victory and Peace. Through our partnership, Mama Muhjah has extended her communal land to our program along with in-person exposure to commune with our Great Mother, MOTHER EARTH!