Arts and wellness refers to the act of connecting with your body, mind and soul. As humans, this is a way of engaging in self-care and emotional well-being; however, the cost of one’s self care remains a “luxury.” Soultry Sisters, a community organization, tackles this by creating a space for women to experience accessible arts and wellness across North County.
Soultry Sisters was founded by San Diegan biological sisters Alyssa Ajay Junious and Toni Lynn Junious in 2019. As they grew closer, they learned they both had a love for arts and wellness. With this, they started to explore new activities, which ultimately led them to attend an arts and wellness festival. At the festival, they learned these activities can be very expensive.
Ajay explained they were only able to afford one day of the festival, along with the cost of the Airbnb.
“After that experience, we were like ‘We wish we could have this experience without having to pay a lot of money and having to not do it together,’” Ajay said.
Their journey with creating Soultry Sisters started with a family and friends event, which led to people wanting more events from them. They were able to continue growing their organization through partnering with local, women-owned businesses.
“That’s how we got our community started with women-owned businesses, because a woman with a business opened up her space to us. Another woman, supporting us,” Ajay said.
Ajay highlighted that when it comes to pilates and wellness classes, they’re often taught by mostly white women. This led Soultry Sisters to want to change the narrative and diversify the arts and wellness field.
“In North County, there aren’t a lot of people who look like us. There’s not a lot of Black and Filipino leaders in the wellness industry,” Ajay stated.
Their own cultural backgrounds inspired them to start the Soultry Sisters community to foster more inclusivity in the industry.
“We felt inspired to create a safe space for women of color and queer people to do wellness without getting re-traumatized by the systems which make us need to heal,”Ajay stated.
“That’s what inspired us to be really intentional about who we’re saying this space is for,” she continued. “Because at first we were like ‘We’re for all women,’ and we’re for women, BIPOC women and BIPOC women who identify as queer. We want to be inclusive and that’s our identity. We are both queer. We are both women of color.” Along with their goal of finding sisterhood and highlighting local artists, they host a wellness festival once a year to connect their community.“Our parents were in the military so we know what it’s like to move around. We know what it’s
Courtesy of Pauline Scully of NoEnds Media
like to start over again and have to find new friends. So part of Soultry Sisters is to have a community where you can come to actually meet new friends and make meaningful connections,” Ajay said.
The organization hosts events like journaling, virtual book clubs, walking challenges and retreats to connect with one’s self-care.
For Soultry Sisters, finding a sister and a friend through arts and wellness is what’s important. Building that friendship and community is how that sisterhood is formed.
Soultry Sisters believes in affordability and accessibility, and describes arts and wellness as a birthright. They believe women can benefit from implementing small wellness programs into work environments and finding what already exists in the community.
“So change for us happens with partnering with the local library. The library is a place where you can get free books but there’s also free wellness classes. Oceanside has a free yoga series. So a way to make change is to know where things already exist,” Ajay said.
Ajay encourages individuals who want to start an organization to just start it.
“You don’t have to have a full five year plan or 10 year plan like they try to tell you. With purpose comes a plan,” Ajay states.
“I think if you want to be an advocate, get really specific about what you want to help in that community,” Ajay explains.
Ajay believes that finding a community to advocate for and determining how to advocate for them is the biggest way to make progress. Whether it be through art and wellness or collaborating with people passionate about the same community, advocacy is how change is created.
