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Nat & Danya 2018
JusticeMovement founders Nat and Danya in 2023
Nat & Danya in Tucson

Who We Are

Nat and Danya founded Justice Movement in 2018 to serve as a vehicle for their shared passion of infusing social justice, accountability and transformational learning into the circus and acrobatic community. As the company has grown, so has the audience and they have found that their work has a broad appeal. They have a combined 30+ years of experience facilitating and consulting around issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, grassroots organizing, and community building. They bring a robust mixture of on the ground lived experience and academic rigor. Nat and Danya specialize in intimate, relational learning, building custom courses tailored to specific groups and topics, and a multi-faceted participatory process that feels more like an expansive personal journey than a class. Join us

 

Check out our respective bios below.

Who we are
Justice Movement co-founder Nat
Nat facilitating a discussion

Natalie Brewster Nguyen

They/Them or She/Her

has been studying and teaching strategies towards understanding privilege and oppression, intersectionality, diversity, inclusion, and institutional and structural racism for 20+ years.  They began studying and training with Groundworks and The People’s Institute, and have a background in gender studies, sociology and lived experience as a queer POC sex worker since they were 19. They initially worked as an anti-racism and anti-oppression trainer with the Unitarian Universalist Church, running leadership retreats for youth of color, and training board members and affiliate organizations.  They have continued filling this role for multiple organizations, corporations and NGOs. They focus on understanding the history of systemic oppression and its effect on individuals, capacity building, organizational strategy, mutual support, institutionalizing accountability and commitment to continued growth. They co-own and are the Executive Director of an historic art studio warehouse called Splinter Collective in Tucson. Splinter Collective is a space for artists, and a 501c3 non-profit focused on amplifying marginalized artists, housing justice, and community building. Nat has been working in the housing justice sphere for decades, beginning with anti-gentrification organizing in Chicago in the early 2000s, to their current work addressing issues of homelessness and the affordable housing crisis in Arizona. They also work in various capacities with The Outlaw Project, building tiny homes for Trans Women of Color, The Tucson Alliance for Housing Justice, The Bathroom Access Coalition, and more. 

 

Outside of Justice Movement consulting, Nat is a performance artist, actor, writer, and educator in various fields. They also have several kids, and live in a beautiful coparenting community in Tucson, AZ when not touring and traveling.

 

Reference Organizations:

Unitarian Universalist Association

The Western States Center

DRUUMM 

Crossroads

Groundworks

Peoples’ Institute

SWOP-USA

Acroyoga Montreal

The Desiree Alliance

Yogaslackers

The Outlaw Project

Nat' Bio
Justice Movement co-founder Danya
Danya facilitating a discussion

Danya (Xena) Davis

She/Her/Hers

has been a facilitator and organizer in the field of adult education and social change for two decades.  

 

Danya has always loved and been pulled towards movement - and it’s a really important part of her mental health.  She has been a full-time yoga instructor, a competitive boxer,  dragon boater, gymnast, and has been training handstands on and off for over 30 years. 

 

Danya has a commerce degree in economics and an arts degree in international development studies.  During her studies she volunteered with refugee settlement and sponsorship programs in Canada - ensuring a better quality of life, dignity and independence for the folks that went through the program.  She had the opportunity of studying for a semester in the Gambia West Africa - her undergraduate thesis focused on the inequality and ineffectiveness of ‘Western’ promoted tourism led-development  and the negative impact that it has had on the country's economy and people. 

 

Danya worked and lived in South Africa for a decade, she co-led an employee health and wellness program in a large company in rural South Africa promoting worker rights and access to health care often coordinating with government, as well as grassroots, and multi-national non-governmental organizations.  She went on to complete her Masters degree at the University of Cape Town in Diversity Studies.  Danya’s thesis explored social justice and pedagogy (the art and science of teaching).  She focused on teaching folks in relatively privileged roles - specifically white folks about race and racism.  During her time at the University of Cape Town she worked with student groups to coordinate large scale discussions on race and racism that brought together the local surrounding communities and the university community.  Danya was also part of a group of white folks that worked to dismantle racism within themselves and our broader communities.  She continued to contribute as a researcher, educational tool developer and published academic writer and presenter in the areas of diversity, race and social justice in South Africa for both the University of Cape Town and Wits University.  Fun Fact: Danya had the opportunity of having a one on one interview with Peggy McIntosh - well known for her work on ‘Unpacking the Knapsack of White Privilege’ - the focus was how to develop an offering that was contextualized for South Africa.

 

Continued learning is a passion that Danya has had the privilege of engaging in - outside of academy she has acquire multiple coaching and facilitation certificates.

 

Danya left South Africa to become a traveling partner acrobatics instructor, her version of running away to join the circus.  As a partner acrobatics instructor; she has taught in over 100 different cities in 8 different countries.  The deeper she got into teaching acrobatics the more she was able to integrate in more direct and meaningful ways her passion and deep connection to social justice into her acrobatic offerings. 

 

Danya founded FemPower Acro, which (pre-COVID) hosted an annual festival for women and gender non-confoming folks, focused on acrobatics infused with deep discussions about gender, race, LGBTQ+ inclusivity, power dynamics and a number of other important topics over the years. She also founded the SuperHero Circus Academy which offers ‘Partner Acrobatics with a Social Justice Conscience’.  The main pull of the academy is the Acro and Social Justice Teacher Training which she led.

 

With a deep passion for social justice throughout her life - Danya has had the opportunity and privilege of developing understandings and experiences that have connected how power dynamics play out within herself and each of us, between us, within groups, communities, as well as the local and global forces at play.  

Danya co-founded Justice Movement with Nat in 2018 and the work that they have done since, consulting and teaching, has felt like an amazing alignment of her life goals and purpose and she feels honored to do this work with them.

 

 

 

Reference Organizations:

University of Cape Town

WiCDS Wits University Diversity

Pitch Catch Circus

Acro Yoga International

Let's Connect! 

LinkedIn

Danya's Bio
Let's Connect
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