What is WSPER?
The W.S.P.E.R. (We Spirit Project: Empowering Realities) Project is a transformative initiative under Joy to the Universe dedicated to creating spaces where creativity, healing, and liberation intersect.
Rooted in the principles of joy, community care, and justice, W.S.P.E.R. offers workshops, events, and collaborative programming that celebrate the unique identities and expressions of BIPOC, queer, and neurodiverse communities.
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Open Mic & Writing Series: Sunday gatherings that foster self-expression and storytelling in a welcoming and affirming environment.
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Healing Practices Workshops: Collaborations with community leaders in featuring activities such as candle-making, ancestral practices, and holistic medicine.
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Survival Skills Series: Practical workshops led by community educators covering essential skills, self-care, and resilience strategies.
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Meet the Author Events: Intimate conversations with social justice leaders, poets, and memoirists sharing their work and insights.
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Future Programming: Exploring topics like pleasure activism, meditation, and trauma healing to deepen collective growth.
W.S.P.E.R. is more than programming—it’s a community-driven platform for connection and transformation. Through innovative and inclusive offerings, the project seeks to empower participants to embrace their truths and contribute to collective liberation. With a focus on accessibility and collaboration, W.S.P.E.R. amplifies the voices and talents of underrepresented communities.
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W.S.P.E.R. invites everyone to join in reimagining what’s possible when we center joy and healing as tools for change. Let’s create, heal, and thrive together.
The WSPER Origin
In 2010, I started dreaming about a project that asked one big question: What brings people joy? At the time, that exploration began with pleasure. I devised the acronym W.S.P.E.R., which originally stood for Womyn Sex Project: Empowering Realities. The “Y”, inspired by the Spanish word for “and,” was a way of including gender-expansive people in addition to cis and transgender women.
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I started interviewing womyn to hear their stories about the first time they experienced sex as something joyful—something for themselves—rather than as an obligation or response to pressure. It was personal, raw, and deeply needed. But I couldn’t follow through with it then, so the project paused.
Over the years, as I’ve grown in my understanding of gender and pleasure and embraced my nonbinary identity, my ideas about joy have expanded greatly. I’m bringing W.S.P.E.R. back now but under a new framework. It’s still about joy, truth, and empowerment, but now it’s more significant, inclusive, and holistic.
Eventually, once I’ve completed the training I’m pursuing, I hope to reintroduce those essential conversations about healthy sex and intimacy within the W.S.P.E.R. programming.
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This project has always been close to my heart, and I’m so excited to see where it goes next.
