​​
Temple of Two Waters (T2W) was founded by M. Cherry Omirelekun Rangel, a New Orleans based Indigenous (Yucetec Maya and lineages from Texas and Louisiana) and SWANA nonbinary queer cultural strategist, artist, and resource organizer whose work for nearly two decades has focused on disrupting philanthropy, moving resources to BIPOC leaders and orgs, land return, reparations, cultural justice, disaster response, and spirituality. To learn more about Cherry click here. T2W is guided by the leadership of an all Black and Indigenous queer and trans governing board of advisors primarily from the US and global South with deep experience in organizing, land stewardship, arts and culture, healing justice and community care, disaster response and recovery, liberatory governance and decolonial organizational development. 86% of the governance body identifies as tgnc. T2W and Cherry’s leadership is further supported by a constellation of mentors, advisors, and coaches who bring expertise in land stewardship, radical real estate, agriculture, cooperative structures, and more. 
​
The vision for Temple of Two Waters was born in 2023 when Cherry was gifted a parcel of land in rural Sinkiyuse territory in the Ancient Lakes region of so called Washington State, where her parents were displaced to and where she spent much of her childhood. They immediately saw the possibilities for the land to serve as a sanctuary for local, regional, and national QTBIPOC communities as a venue for rest, retreat, creativity,  gathering, and healing. And that furthermore, T2W could respond to several emergent needs - to heal the relationship with nature and land for a community that often lacks safe access to nature and land, to offer no cost landing spaces/ residencies for a community that often experiences housing instability, to create a hub for movement gathering and building that responds to emergents needs within community - especially in times of disaster - and to cultivate a space for creative play and rest, where imagination can thrive. Additionally, there are very few resources available for queer and trans folks in the rural expanse of so called Washington state between the urban centers of Spokane and Seattle which are 5 hours apart by car.  Currently, as initial steps for the parcel we have been working on infrastructure – establishing a well and septic system, connecting to the power grid, and clearing a roadway. An additional 20 acre parcel down the road from the initial site has recently come on the market for $50,000 and we hope to secure these acres in order to have additional space to build an intentional rural QTBIPOC community to complement the retreat and gathering space.
​
Simultaneously the need for a QTBIPOC community hub closer to Cherry’s home community of Bulbancha (New Orleans, LA) was emerging – in New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana there is not a dedicated land project or gathering space for QTBIPOC, or low barrier performance and workshop space for QTBIPOC creatives, or for healing justice practitioners to offer services, and for QTBIPOC to access appropriate healing services or spiritual care. We are currently beginning to search for properties that are in alignment around what we need – centrally located on a main corridor with ample outdoor space or an empty adjacent lot for the gardens, and with enough space to host up to 5 residents, and feature 4-5 creative studios, plus 2-3 healing studios.
​​