Weekend Overview
Join Ile Ori Kansas and Baba Lou Florez for an introductory weekend exploring Orisha traditions through a global lens. This immersion pairs devotional practice with cultural and historical context. Through prayer, music, movement, and guided teaching, we will develop spiritual practice, respectful presence in Orisha spaces, and deeper appreciation for these divinities in everyday life.
We balance structure and spontaneity, offering foundational teachings and space for personal reflection. Sessions include community etiquette, sacred music, and exploration of the colors, numbers, praise poetry, and philosophical pillars of the Òrìṣà. We will honor the ancestors through ceremony, visit the historic site of Quindaro to offer prayers for liberation and healing, and explore the Yoruba and Benin collections at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.
This weekend is designed with care for the whole person: accommodations for ability related needs, space for self care and boundary setting, and a container of respect, humility, and reciprocity. Whether you are new to Orisha traditions or deepening an existing practice, you will leave with grounded language, practical tools, cultural awareness, and a clearer sense of what it means to walk with the Òrìṣà.
No prior experience is required, only openness, respect, and a willingness to learn.
Highlights
Messages from the Ancestors Ceremony
Who are the Orisha and how can we create relationships with them
How to respectfully enter Orisha temples, spaces, and rituals
Learning songs and movements of the Orisha
Honoring ceremony at Quindaro, a historic site of abolitionist resistance and freedom fighters in Kansas City
Tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Yoruba and Benin exhibitions
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Schedule of Events & Workshop Descriptions
Friday Night, March 20
Welcoming Talk: Overview of the Weekend
We will begin by orienting ourselves to the weekend ahead, outlining the flow of sessions, ceremonies, and shared practices. This opening sets the container for our time together: establishing intentions, creating space for questions, and building connection among the group. We will discuss what to expect, how to engage respectfully with the teachings and rituals, and the balance between structure and spontaneity that shapes our gathering. We will also address practical matters, including accommodations for ability related needs, ways to care for yourself throughout the weekend, and how to navigate the space with attention to your own boundaries and energy. This is also a moment to acknowledge the lineages, ancestors, and Òrìṣà who hold this work, and to invite everyone into the collective energy of learning, devotion, and community.
Ancestral Reunion Ceremony
A gathering to honor and recognize those who have crossed over, offering prayer and positive intentions for healing across generations. In this ceremony, we create sacred space to acknowledge our families of blood and love, spirit guides, and those that hold us. This is a time to receive and share messages, opening ourselves to guidance, wisdom, and presence from the other side. Through song, prayer, and ritual, we strengthen the bonds between the living and the ancestors, affirming that those who came before us remain active participants in our lives and spiritual journeys.
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Saturday, March 21
Ìwúre Wúrè, Early Morning Prayer Ceremony
Ìwúre is a devotional practice in Ifá and Òrìṣà communities—a direct conduit of communication with the Òrìṣà, the Ancestors, and the Creator. Offered as heartfelt conversation with the divine, it connects the visible and unseen worlds.
In Orisha traditions, Ìwúre affirms cultural identity, carries values and teachings transmitted across generations, and strengthens communal belonging through shared prayer. It is also a practice of restoration, healing, and realignment. Prayer is recognized as a spiritual technology for awakening the life-giving energies of the Orisha—bringing light, elevation, evolution, and balance across our physical, mental, and spiritual lives.
Greeting the Òrìṣà: A Walking Meditation
A practice in recognition, learning to perceive divinity moving through the world around us and the interior world of thought, sensation, memory, and intuition. As we walk, we bring awareness to the subtle ways the Òrìṣà and ancestors remain present and in conversation with us, recognizing them in nature, interactions, and urban environment
Breakfast Break
Context and History of Orisha Traditions
This workshop engages the history and cultures of Orisha veneration and grounds them within the larger context of the Yoruba peoples. We will trace these traditions from their origins in West Africa, through the diaspora and enslavement, to the living communities of practice today.
Designed for practitioners, we consistently connect history to the room, the shrine, the body, and community conduct. We will leave with greater cultural competency, a stronger sense of what we are stepping into, and a more respectful way of holding Òrìṣà traditions in relationship to lineage and living communities. *As part of this discussion, we will address cultural appropriation, enslavement, and historic and present systems of oppression, injustice, and inequality.
Community Talk: Jinlẹ̀ Òrìṣà, Deepening Our Understanding of the Orisha
We explore Òrìṣà as living, divine presences embodied through the forces of nature and creation. We will examine their colors, numbers, oriki (praise poetry), and orin (music), as well as ways to build relationships with these divinities. We will also explore the philosophical pillars that hold Òrìṣà traditions together, including Orí (destiny), ìwà (character), àṣẹ (spiritual authority), reciprocity and offering, and how responsibilities and social contracts are understood within the tradition. You will leave with a larger context for these traditions that is grounded, and respectful, as well as a clearer sense of what it means to walk with the Òrìṣà in daily life.
How to Be in Orisha Community
A practical, hands-on session exploring the protocols and etiquette that shape life in Orisha community. We will cover how to greet priests, prepare offerings, wear white clothing, conduct yourself at ceremonies, and navigate shrine spaces with respect and awareness. This session addresses the everyday questions practitioners encounter: What do I bring? How do I ask for guidance? What are the unspoken rules? We will discuss the importance of humility, reciprocity, and right relationship, and how these values translate into concrete actions. You will leave with practical tools for showing up in community with confidence, respect, and cultural awareness.
Lunch Break
Orin Orisha: Sacred Music & Ila
An immersive exploration of the sacred songs and evoking sounds of the Orisha. Orin (songs) and Ila (chants) are spiritual technologies that call the Orisha into presence, carrying prayers, praise, and evocations across the threshold between worlds. We will learn traditional songs for specific Orisha, explore the rhythms and melodies that awaken their energies, and practice the vocal techniques used to evoke divine presence. We will also discuss the meaning and purpose behind the music, how songs function within ceremony, and the relationship between sound, breath, and spiritual power. No musical experience is required, only a willingness to use your voice as an instrument of devotion.
Dinner & Close of Day
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Sunday, March 22
Ìwúre Wúrè: Mid- Morning Prayer Ceremony at Quindaro
An early morning prayer ceremony held at Quindaro, a historic site of abolitionist resistance and freedom in Kansas City. Ìwúre is a devotional practice in Ifá and Òrìṣà communities—a direct conduit of communication with the Òrìṣà, the Ancestors, and the Creator. Through prayer, we seek guidance, restoration, and balance, while honoring the land and the legacy of those who fought for liberation.
This ceremony connects us to the visible and unseen worlds, affirming cultural identity and strengthening communal bonds through shared devotion. We will gather mid-morning to offer prayers, songs, and intentions, acknowledging both the Òrìṣà and the ancestors of this place who carried the spirit of resistance and freedom.
Please bring offerings that can be given directly to nature—biodegradable materials only. We will leave no trace at the site, honoring the land with the same reverence we bring to the ceremony itself.
Brunch at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
A guided tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's African exhibition hall, with focused engagement on the Yoruba and Benin areas. We will explore sacred objects, ritual artifacts, and artistic traditions that illuminate the cultural and spiritual worlds we have been studying throughout the weekend. This is an opportunity to witness the material culture of Orisha traditions, to discuss the histories and contexts of these objects, and to reflect on questions of diaspora, preservation, and current conversations on the ethics of museum collections. We will bring the knowledge and reverence cultivated over the weekend into dialogue with these works, deepening our understanding of how art, spirituality, and history intersect.
Closing & Releasing Ceremony, End of the Weekend
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Cost and Payment Plans
$200
Payment plans available
$100 deposit holds your place