Accessible Online Workshop On “Body Positivity” With ASL Interpretation
Sat, Nov 19 | Zoom link will be provided
Frederick Community College & TSS and excited to host the: Deaf Body-Positive Influencers Panel
*coupon code: FREE*
Frederick Community College & TSS and excited to host the:
Body-Positivity Influencers Panel
FREE Event
CEUs $28.00
Enter coupon code: FREE when you register if you DO NOT need CEUS.
2 hours
#DeafBodyPositive
0.2 PPO PS CEUs
Panel of Speakers
Melissa Elmira Yingst
All communities have hidden narratives, and Melissa Elmira Yingst is all about finding and bringing awareness to them, especially when they celebrate women and muxeristas.
As a child in Southern California, she sought for deep connections with other people. As she grew, she realized she wanted to do something more. She ventured off to Gallaudet University to earn her Bachelor’s in Psychology, and to Arizona State University for her Master’s in Social Work.
Since then, she held different positions as a social worker and school counselor in New York City and Phoenix. She currently teaches at CSUN. She is serving as a board member for Council de Manos, an organization for Latinx DDBDDLDHH with goals of dismantling white supremacy practices. She also is the co-founder of Alma de Muxeristas, an organization for muxeristas who are Deaf, DeafBlind, Deaf Disabled, Late-Deafened, or Hard of Hearing.
Now back home in Los Angeles with her signature red lipstick (which gives her powers) and her brown Chicana self, she is ready to take on the world with MELMIRA, her show!
Instagram handle: @Melmira
Kasmira Patel
Kasmira (कास्मिरा) Patel is a mother, influencer, founder & CEO of @girlandcreativity & @shopdaxaco. Kasmira Patel & her business partner Isabel Laínez decided to set up the platform to bring a diversity of Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Hearing women to show their creativity, passion, and growth with their empowerment of self-love.
Instagram handle: @kasmirapatel_
Moona Mohammed
Moona: Somali British, living in London, and world traveler, is part of a new generation of body-positive influencers and models challenging stereotypes and beauty norms. For too long, society pressurized us to feel we should all be a certain shape. We don’t have to accept this lie. All of us should feel able to positively embrace our bodies – whatever shape or size we are!” It’s time to get rid of these fake ‘western beauty standards’ and see the real beauty in ourselves. We are all beautiful in our own way.”
Born in Somalia, I moved to London aged one due to the civil war. I was diagnosed as being deaf at the age of three, taught both BSL and English and am now bilingual.
I work as part of a specialist service, supporting deaf children and young people who experience domestic and sexual abuse in England. This is run by a well-known deaf charity.
I love my job. I’m skilled at working with children/ young people and can empower them by ensuring they have full access to BSL. A fittest approach working with deaf person is efficient
Hobbies I enjoy are photography, attending art galleries and going to events/ talks about women, body positivity, activism for black people (mainly black women) talking about make up, fashion, hair, and travelling!
I set up a group for Somali deaf women living in Europe, to talk about our identities, as we felt it was hard to embrace our culture when we lack the information or safe spaces to do this. Within the group we can raise awareness and learn from each other and uplift/ empower each other.
Instagram handle: @_missmoons
Oscar Roman Alonso
Is a Deaf born Texan. A person of many skills, Oscar has been worked as a traveling hairstylist and stage manager for LADF (Los Angeles DEAF Fashion) in Los Angeles, California for many yers.
Making people look and feel good on the inside and outside is Oscar’s passion, as he has also be a huge participate in the Body Positivity movement since 2020 creating films and videos on YouTube and being a major instagram influencer.
Instagram handle: official_oscarroman
Naomi Katz – Moderator
Naomi Katz (she/her/hers) is a Certified Intuitive Eating Lay Facilitator, body image coach, and owner of Happy Shapes Coaching. She supports and holds space for folks who are ready to reject diet culture so they can reclaim their autonomy and consent over their mind, body, and life.
Rather than zooming in on the nutrition side of Intuitive Eating, Naomi focuses her coaching on the mindset piece—holding conversations about self-trust, body image, what the folks she works with value in their everyday lives, how diet culture robs us of these things, and how to navigate the process of rejecting and unlearning.
Naomi practices through a Health at Every Size and fat positive lens. She believes that all shapes deserve to be happy shapes, that all bodies are good bodies, that diets don’t work, that health is not a moral obligation, that diet culture is an extension of patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism, that self-compassion is our superpower, that our bodies are the least interesting things about us, that we all deserve to take up space in this world, and that cheesecake is better than all other desserts.
Naomi offers online individual and group coaching that focuses on learning to identify the systems influencing our feelings about food and our bodies, and learning to reclaim our power from those systems. Because we have bigger, better things to do in this world than spending our lives trying to fit a false ideal.
Unlearning a lifetime of body beliefs is uncomfortable—which is why Naomi promises to hold a brave space for you to come as you are and honor yourself and the process for what it is—approaching any discomfort and other big feelings from a place of curiosity, kindness, and self-compassion.
You can learn more about Naomi and her coaching at Happy Shapes Websites or by following her on Instagram @happyshapesnaomi.
