Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

It never gets old witnessing what plants can do when you are in relationship with them.

Not just reading about them. Not just hearing someone talk about them.

But touching them, harvesting them, smelling them, making medicine with them and learning them in real time.

Because herbalism is at its core, experiential. You don’t know herbalism until you felt first-hand how they change you for the better.

That is part of what makes our Soul & Soil Retreat so special.

For four days, we gather on a stunning 127-acre regenerative farm in the Hudson Valley to get our hands in the dirt, forage, learn herbs in person, and make fresh custom blends with the plants all around us. Plus chef-prepared farm to table food. Plus astrology. Plus less peopling (which we all need right about now).

Herbs land differently when you meet them with openness, on the land where they grow (instead of shipped to your door) and in an intimate space in which you can exhale and feel safe.

If you have been wanting to deepen your herbal practice in person, this is your invitation.

Join us June 18–21 for our 2nd Annual Soul & Soil Retreat. 💗 Limited rooms left. www.reendeavors.com/soulandsoil

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

18 hours ago | [YT] | 95

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

For our final herbal preparation in my Introduction to African American Herbalism class at Spelman College, they learned how to make their own Florida Water.

We talked a lot about how to set intentions and what is required of us when we set them, how to open and close rituals along with why and when to do them, and discussed the spiritual meaning of the herbs I brought, many of which were from our garden.

They got centered, journaled, put their intentions in the jar, chose their herbs and left with yet another ancestral practice that supports their well-being.

The impact of this kind of learning reaches far beyond one class or even one semester. Students stop me on campus to tell me they are still drinking their teas, now without sugar. They text me when they go on to teach a salve-making class to young children. And I get the honor of reading DMs telling me this was their favorite class.

Herbalism, especially when taught within the context of your cultural lineage, changes lives. You realize you have much more in common with your ancestors than you may have realized, even if, especially for Black people, you do not know them by name. And when even one person carries healing knowledge forward, it can begin to shape the health legacy of a whole lineage.

I love teaching my Spelman sisters so much! 💙🩵💙🩵

5 days ago | [YT] | 85

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

I don’t share fundraisers often, but this one is deeply personal.

Niles is raising money through Friends School of Atlanta’s Victory Lap Color Run, and I’m so grateful for what this school has meant in his and our lives. He’s been there since he was 3 years old, and as a Black boy with two moms, FSA has been one of the few places where he can be fully himself and fully loved while receiving an incredible education.


If you feel moved to support, we’d be so thankful. He's already raised $225 and is hoping to raise $2,000! Every gift makes a difference. 💜 💛

www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/niles-lust?new=tru…

6 days ago | [YT] | 10

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

Seasonal allergies are usually blamed on pollen.

But pollen is only the trigger.
The deeper issue is often an immune system that has become overly reactive.

In this new video, I’m breaking down:

what’s actually happening in the body during allergy season
why symptoms can get worse over time
herbs and simple practices that may help support real relief

If your allergies feel stronger every year, this one will give you a more grounded way to think about what’s going on.

1 week ago | [YT] | 16

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

A love note to the ancestors on National Herbalist Day

I give thanks to the ancestors whose ingenuity, resilience, care, and skill is why I live, breathe, and have my being in this work.

To the ancestors who foraged for lamb's quarter to add something more nourishing to her family's plate when they were only allowed meager rations of corn from the slaver. Because of you, I know to refuse the bare minimum and make my own way.

To the ancestor who, sparsely clothed, and barely fed marveled at the grandeur and sweet fragrance of the Southern Magnolia tree (which is medicinal btw) while bound in iron chains walking barefoot from Virginia to South Carolina. Thank you for teaching me to not just see but to relish and wonder.

To the ancestor who carefully wrapped cloth bags of asafoetida around her baby’s neck to protect from illness and evil. We now know the language of aromatherapy and have studied asafoetida’s sulfur-rich volatile compounds, whose antimicrobial activity helps us better understand why you did what you did. You were called silly, stupid, and “superstitious.” For all I know, I may be your direct descendant, so thank you and I’ll remember you as wise.

To all the ancestors who names aren't known, but whose skills live in our bones, passed down through generations of rituals, hot-comb conversations, bedtime stories, family reunion spades games, cookout recipes, church hymns, and more. You continue to live, and breathe, and have your being in us.

1 week ago | [YT] | 104

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

In my African American Herbalism class at Spelman College, we’ve made many immune-supportive blends throughout the semester.

And when you look through the WPA Slave Narratives or written historical records from our ancestors who escaped, a clear pattern emerges. Again and again, you see herbs being used to support immunity.

That makes sense when you consider the conditions our ancestors were living under. Infections were some of the hardest ailments to survive. People did not yet understand how infection spread, how pathogens replicated, or how hygiene could reduce transmission.

Our ancestors were often forced to live in overcrowded single-room quarters, sleeping on the ground or on handmade bedding of dried plant material, with nowhere for a sick person to isolate or recover.

Then there was the deliberate and unrelenting malnutrition, grief, brutality, exhaustion, and constant fear, all factors that we now know weaken immunity. So of course our ancestors’ materia medica included herbs that supported immunity. Their lives depended on it.

Today, we are facing different challenges, but the need has not disappeared. We are living with more chronic illness, more autoimmune issues, and different forms of systemic harm that wear us down.

Black Americans are still navigating the the same harm through food apartheid, medical neglect, environmental stress, and the daily burden of surviving structures that still do not value Black life equally.

That is why learning herbalism is still imperative.

Herbalism remains culturally relevant because it carries forward the wisdom, practices, and survival strategies our ancestors relied on. And it remains health relevant because it restores our agency when we understand it skillfully. When you know how to take care of yourself (while still being responsible when modern support is necessary), you have so much power.

To learn herbalism is not just to learn plants and the body. It’s to reclaim memory, restore relationship, and carry forward a tradition of care that has helped our people survive for generations.

1 week ago | [YT] | 135

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

This is why kids are welcome at our Soul & Soil Retreat.

Because they need to see what rest, renewal, and restoration look like.

When we talk about healing, most people think it is something that either happens to you or it doesn’t. But healing is a skill, and most of us were never taught it.

Many of us did not grow up in homes where rest was modeled or where the full range of emotions were welcomed.

And now we have whole generations who do not even know how to cook. Modern society certainly does not teach us how to care for ourselves with real intentionality.

So healing becomes something we must learn and practice.

It is the process of figuring out what you need in order to feel well. The foods that support you. The routines that ground you. The movement that feels good in your body. The herbs that help bring you back into balance.

Join us June 18-21 to practice and model healing in real time.

Only 8 rooms left!

Apply here - www.reendeavors.com/soulandsoil

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 33

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

That herbalist is me. I shared this recommendation today at the 4th Annual Community Herbal Gathering in Louisville, Kentucky, where I taught my workshop, Herbal Pathways to Whole Person Healing that centers gut health, stress, and inflammation.

Because healing isn’t isolated to one part of ourselves, we also talked about tending to ourselves before we crash out. About choosing to reach for an improved feeling without bypassing how you really feel, suppressing or staying stuck. About discovering our well-habits and actually choosing to stick with them. And about extending grace to ourselves, because healing is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice.
We made 3 dope blends:

Great Gut Tea blend, a Peace Tincture for stress and sleep and a Chai Electuary for inflammation.

Herbs remind us that healing, while requiring practice doesn’t have to be harsh, complicated, and should fit into the rhythms of your daily life.

Your body is wise, symptoms are communication, and small changes over time make a big impact.

For Black people, herbalism is also a deep reclamation of lineage, relationship, and wellbeing, a return to traditions of care, skill, and ancestral wisdom.

As always thank you Dr. Shelby Pumphrey for 💗, the Pan-African Studies Department, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, the Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky, Healthy New Beginnings Connect, and Bluegrass Hoodoo Society for creating space for this conversation.

‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
Have you signed up for the 2nd Annual Soul & Soil Retreat yet?

We return to Ryder Farm for four days of herbal practice, literal farm-to-table chef-prepared nourishing meals, foraging and plant walks, astrology readings, community care, and the kind of renewal that restores you for the season ahead.
Details in bio. Only 8 rooms left!
June 18–21, 2026 Brewster, NY

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 125

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

Lots of upcoming gatherings!

April 10 - Steal Away Medicine Lecture at University of Louisville as a part of the Black Women's Studies Lecture Series!

April 11 - 4th Annual Community Herbal Gathering created by Dr. Shelby Pumphrey, Assistant Professor, Pan-African Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at UoL in conjunction with the Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky, Healthy Beginnings, and the Bluegrass Hoodooo Society!

April 14 - Herbal Dream Pillow Workshop for my Spelman sisters 💙🩵💙 with the Counseling Center

June 18 - 2nd Annual Soul & Soil Retreat with @reendeavors! Four days of herbs, rest, chef-made meals, community and more on 127 regenerative farm! www.reendeavors.com/soulandsoil

Hope to see you in person soon!

And if not, we have a plethora of classes and programs on iwillaremedy.com.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 47

Selima & Tami of Iwilla Remedy

At last year’s inaugural Soul & Soil Retreat, an attendee arrived a day later because she had to go to dialysis.

Dialysis is a treatment that filters waste and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys are no longer doing that work well. Most people go several times a week, and each visit can take hours. Many people receiving dialysis have to monitor fluids carefully, and some produce very little or no urine at all.

But by Sunday, just two days into the retreat, this same attendee had urinated. Not once, but twice. Huge.

How did she do it? By doing less

She ate fresh, nourishing food. She rested. She walked the land and discovered herbal allies. She had healing conversations. She was around good people with whom she felt safe and connected.

The basics.

To experience that level of release and improved kidney function in such a short amount of time is what some might consider a miracle. But it’s not. Healing is exactly what we should expect from our bodies when we remove the obstacles.

Sometimes the doorway to your healing is not more effort, more treatments, more supplements, or more detoxes. Sometimes we just need to do more of the obvious: eat nourishing food, sleep, breathe fresh air, spend time with good folk, create, laugh and twerk.

And this is why we’re gathering again this June 18-21. To choose simple and slow in a time when there’s so much pressure to do more and fast.

If you’re feeling this same pull we’re feeling to return to the land to let answers and healing rise to the surface instead of forcing them, I hope you’ll join us! Here's the info page: www.reendeavors.com/soulandsoil

3 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 25