Meet the Team
Jimanekia Eborn
FOUNDER
My name is Jimanekia Eborn (She/Her/Hers). I have been a Comprehensive Sex Educator and Sexual Assault & Trauma Expert for over a decade. With Tending the Garden, I’m expanding upon my mission by creating a space specifically for sexual assault survivors who are marginalized. The experts leading our retreat and other events have decades of experience as sex therapists, sex educators, and facilitators who specifically speak to survivors.
WHY I DO THIS:
Since I was a child, I’ve known that I wanted to support and protect women who, like my mother before me, had endured traumas that uprooted their lives. This passion led me down several paths from school for criminal justice to work as a rape crisis counselor to more school – psychology this time – to several mental health facilities across California.
Now, several years into my work as a Comprehensive Sex Educator and Sexual Assault & Trauma Expert, I have found my ultimate calling. Spending my days working with survivors – educating them on how to care for themselves, uplifting them out of trauma, and celebrating their strength – is a dream come true.
As an expert in my field and as a survivor myself, I know firsthand the importance of finding healing and community when it comes time to process your trauma. When we can come together as survivors to reflect, reenergize, and regenerate ourselves, the healing magnifies. This is more than mantra; it is my mission.
For every Black woman that reports her rape, at least 15 Black women do not report. Communities of color need this healing. The statistics are staggering and our communities are least likely to be attended to. With a donation of ANY amount, you can be a part of creating this sacred space.
Siaira Harris
Education coordinator
My name is Siaira Shawn Harris (she/her/my name.) I am a youth development professional, sex educator, advocate and artist with over 15 years of experience working in music, with youth, organizers and educators in the Bay Area, New York and now Los Angeles. While living in Brooklyn, NY, working for Center for Family Life and in partnership with Planned Parenthood, I led a 10th grade service learning program that focused on sex and reproductive health. That experience showed me that I could combine comprehensive sex education, the arts and civic action to educate and empower youth. Since making Los Angeles home, I have been lead program staff for Mikva Challenge, a national civics education organization that trained students and teachers in creating democratic classrooms, developing youth voice and guiding youth to take informed action in their schools and communities. Previously I served as a lead facilitator for More Than Sex Ed, educating youth and parents all over LA County and was the Program Manager for Get Smart B4 You Get Sexy - Black Women for Wellness’s comprehensive sex education program. I now co-run independent label and music education hub Over Everything, I am creating my own youth empowerment organization and am now honored to work with Tending The Garden.
WHY I DO THIS:
I met Jimanekia when we started to do sex education work for youth for the same organization around 5 years ago and we became fast friends. It is my honor to work with her on Tending the Garden specifically because my work has always been grounded in holistic, trauma-informed education, empowerment and healing and this retreat and her other offerings under TTG are all of those things and more.
Being able to leverage my varied experience to support and strategize new and innovative ways to offer healing to trauma survivors is a privilege. Jimanekia is a pioneer in this work, especially when it comes to centering people of color and your support for Tending the Garden will have exponential affect on countless survivors.
Esmé Edwards
Director of development
My name is Esmé Edwards (she/her/hers). I am a Los Angeles based advocate with a background in Social Work and community-centered care initiatives. I have worked as a Social Worker at a K-6 Elementary School where I led support groups, provided childhood sexual abuse intervention trainings and individual support for students. I am a trained Restorative Justice facilitator and have led multiple restorative circles in college and elementary school settings. I currently serve as the Executive Director of Feed the Streets Los Angeles, a community organization that provides food, hygiene and resources to unhoused people in the Los Angeles area.
WHY I DO THIS:
Already in awe of Jimanekia, when I heard of Tending the Garden I knew it was an organization I wanted to be part of. Having the opportunity to fulfill and advocate for TTG’s mission to provide healing spaces for marginalized sexual assault survivors is an incredibly fulfilling and important experience. I believe in and support their work and feel immense gratitude towards all that are moving the conversation forward and providing healing. As a white, cisgendered woman, I acknowledge that the space that Tending the Garden facilitates is not for my identity. I serve as an accomplice to this work, advocating for the marginalized identities that we work with and encourage other accomplices to utilize their privilege and platforms to open up conversation and healing spaces for BIPOC communities.
J Yamasaki
PRODUCTION & OPS MANAGER
My name is J Yamasaki (They/she). I am committed to and passionate about uplifting the voices of marginalized identities through community event organizing and viral brand messaging. I worked to start-up a grass-roots feminist apparel brand, developing the business and scaling events to amass thousands of paid attendees, featuring performers such as Roxane Gay, Aparna Nancherla, Luenell & Shirley Manson. I have produced events covered by NYTimes, BBC, NPR, Playboy and coordinated partnerships with major brands; RedBull, Buzzfeed, Unbound, and Brooklyn99. I am currently a medical student of Acupuncture & Eastern Medicine. With a background in Neuroresearch at UNC, I strive to use all that I’ve learned about the inner workings of the human mind and communication to facilitate conversations, curate events, and create spaces that are truly safe for all identities.
WHY I DO THIS:
To me, Tending the Garden is easily one of the most meaningful projects I've ever been a part of. It's the on-the-ground work that society needs to invest in to open safe spaces for survivors to heal, provided & curated by folx who know exactly what type of support these victims need.
Jimanekia's trauma expertise, community, and years of experience has ultimately culminated into the perfect confluence of factors, making her the ideal person to carry this vision forward. Tending the Garden is simply taking a tangible stand against the silencing, invalidation and dismissal that marginalized folx experience when they seek help and healing resources from the healthcare industry or government.
If you've been looking for steps you can take to fight the harm inflicted on survivors, then you can get behind Tending the Garden.
