Brothers of the Desert holds an annual Wellness Summit, the second Saturday in November. The purpose is to provide connection, education, opportunities to share stories and hear from thought leaders on how to support our community and ourselves. The summits aim to be interactive, engaging, entertaining, and thought provoking. We convene an array of guest presenters, workshop leaders on a variety of relevant topics that support the overall health and well-being of Black gay men. 

Our first event was held live at the Palm Springs LGBT Center with the theme, “Living Your Best Black Gay Life” and was attended by over 100 people. It was a full day event with workshops to choose from, large group discussions and included breakfast, lunch and an after-summit get together at Blackbook Bar and Restaurant.  Topics included examining spirituality, relationships and intimacy, sexual pleasure, financial planning, and others.

Due to the pandemic, we converted our 2nd annual Wellness Summit to a virtual format and the theme was accessing our resiliency and titled, “Still We Rise, Our Stories Matter”. We added videos, virtual breakout rooms for discussion and brief and dynamic live virtual presentations by Bishop Yvette Flunder, CEO of TruEvolution and social activist, Gabriel Maldonado, motivational speaker Donnie Hill and former Mayor of Palm Springs, Ron Oden. The event was hosted by Bryan Gallo and featured filmed testimonies to create camaraderie, connection, education and inspiration.

The wellness summit has become one of our signature events and attendees have come from all of the country for both our live event and the virtual one. We have had overwhelming positive responses from attendees for both years.  Please join us in November for our 3rd Annual Wellness Summit. 
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