MOre than you ever wanted to know
about Anni
(THEY/them)
I am a mover, shaker, and maker in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Creativity and connectedness - to my(whole)self and to others - are acts of resistance, and I ooze both in everything I do.
Ceramics, watercolor painting, photography, and graphic art are my favorite creative mediums at the moment. Every winter, during cozy season, I hyperfocus on something new (like embroidery, felting, or crochet). Art is resistance! My website focused on my art is here.
I pretty much always follow my heart and let it lead me. It's what makes me who I am: an artist, an empath, a tenacious community cultivator, and a compassionate parent.
I still feel a bit like an undeclared major in the program of life. I love variety, and have many creative and care-related interests. I’m a neurodivergent extroverted multi-preneur, and my life is never boring! Community is resistance!
My emotional support guitar goes with me almost everywhere I go. I started playing in 2024 and doing so helped me find my voice. Music is resistance!
I am a single parent to my two incredible kiddos - they are now 6 and 9. Every season of parenthood just keeps getting better, and getting to know them is one of my favorite things about life.
Being pregnant and giving birth were my entry-points into somatic work. After my second birth, I found somatic and embodiment work and learned to listen to my body with the presence and guidance of somatic practitioners. This led to greater self-awareness of unhelpful patterns I was defaulting to for survival. I spent years (still am) learning to love and value myself for who I really am and this led to making big relational and career changes, coming out as queer/nonbinary/trans, recognizing my neurodivergence, and leaning away from a nuclear family model and into tight-knit chosen family and community. And most of all, it has led to transformational joy, vibrance, confidence, increased capacity to manage the hard stuff of life, and a magnetism that other people can feel. Embodiment is resistance!
I get real revved about social justice issues. Free Palestine! Black Lives Matter! Make love not war! My body my rules! I get ragey about the medical industrial complex and policing uterus-owning bodies.
I am 8ish years into the process of faith deconstruction. I self-identify as someone who was raised in the Christ tradition and has been a closeted universalist since childhood. At this point, I’m much more interested in spirituality and nature than I am in religion. I remember asking my parents in elementary school why being born in Grand Rapids to my parents meant that I was going to heaven and that a little boy born in India to Hindu parents wasn’t. It never made sense to me. My ever-evolving thoughts and feelings on faith stuff can be summed up by this song by Mason Jennings (and Jack Johnson).
My two babies were born at home: one in a bedroom and one in our foyer. I cannot imagine laboring without water, it was such a big part of my birth experiences.
I inherently believe that our bodies are beautifully made to give birth without disruption. But also that life is complex and that no matter what, no matter how, BIRTH IS BIRTH. You’ll never hear me use the term C-Section or CS. Cesarean birth (or “belly birth”) is beautiful and is BIRTH.
My therapist regularly reminds me to “stop should-ing all over myself.”
I’m usually not sure how old I am, especially after all the brain cells disappeared in 2020.
If you stop by unannounced, I will welcome you into my messy foyer with open arms. Then I will proceed to feed you all the things and make you an oat milk matcha.
I overuse parentheses (this is me trying to reign it in). I also tend to overshare (obviously).
When I learned the term Maximalist, particularly as it relates to home decor, I FELT SO SEEN.
In 2021, my ex-husband and I started a business called MI Burial. We are still working together to bring a green burial forest to West Michigan!
Here’s a throwback to my pregnant-with-a-toddler femme era.
