The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering

The Lab is a monthly membership supporting black feminist worldbuilders with their writing practices, conjuring ceremonies and business building invested in the end of colonial order.

The Laboratory Open Enrollment

Enrollment into The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering is now open and closes on November 28th.

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Learn More About The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering

Erotic engineers inside The Lab have month to month access to live workshops and open studios plus the entire Seeda School Library including...

The Seed A World Retreat

^{9 WEEKS}

A black feminist business development course for launching income generating creative offers.

The Worldbuilder's Handbook

^{9 CHAPTERS}

A black feminist business development workbook for launching income generating creative offers.

The Fullstack Software Engineering Portfolio Program

^{5 PORTFOLIO PROJECTS}

A black feminist creative coding course for worldbuilding on the internet.

The Worldbuilder's Way To Creative Marketing

^{12 WORKSHOPS}

A series of workshops for launching newsletters and marketing in alignment with a black feminist politic.

Library of Breathwork Meditations

^{12 AUDIO MEDITATIONS}

A library of guided black feminist breathwork meditations for grounding inside the desire to practice in public and increase your visibility.

Erotic Engineering Workshops

^{LIVE EVERY 1ST THURSDAY}

Black feminist spells and strategies for writing projects, launching your newsletter and telling the story of your world, practice or business.

Erotic Engineering Open Studio

^{LIVE EVERY 3RD THURSDAY}

Time and space to practice sharing your work in progress, allowing yourself to be witnessed inside your desire and requesting feedback if desired.

Erotic Engineering Manual

^{NEW GUIDES RELEASED MONTHLY}

Monthly guides for engineering the erotic through writing practices, black feminist businesses and creative lives of refusal.

“The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.”

_{— Audre Lorde, "Uses of the Erotic, The Erotic As Power" (1978)}

The Seed A World Retreat

Seeda School's flagship offer, The Seed A World Retreat, is available as part of your membership inside The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering. The Seed A World Retreat is a black feminist business development course with 9 modules that can be completed in 9 weeks or at your own pace.

9

^WEEKS

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^MODULES

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^{INCOME GENERATING OFFER}

The Seed A World Framework

Seeda School's Worldbuilding Framework consists of nine critical action steps with three major milestones: Decide on your creative offer, connect the story by developing the framework for your offer and invite the people by releasing your offer. Leveraging the worldbuilding power of storytelling the framework takes the form of a story circle, invoking a circular business practice you can return to for years to come.

The 3 Retreat Milestones

By the end of the retreat you will...

Decide on Offer

After locating your true desire for your creative practice using the Element X Quadrant we will map your entire Creative Ecosystem to get clarity on the flagship offer you will workshop throughout the rest of the retreat.

Create Your Framework

Now that you've decided on your offer we will develop a narrative and framework around your offer informed by your values and the people you dream of serving. You will be able to use your framework to sell and validate your offer before it's fully created.

Invite the People

With an offer idea rooted in your desire and a brand narrative established you will learn creative marketing and sales strategies to release your offer to your first 100 participants in order to generate income you can count on in the seasons to come.

The Worldbuilder's Handbook

Based on Seeda School’s worlbuilding framework and the black feminist teachings informing the school, The Worldbuilder's Handbook is your go-to tool for navigating the 9 modules of the Seed A World Retreat and beyond. Each chapter is a workbook with worksheets, templates, toolkits, frameworks, checklists and more helping you develop, market and sell your values aligned creative offer in 9 weeks. Completely informed by black feminist praxis, the Worldbuilder's Handbook is a toolbox you can return to for years to come as you scale and deepen the impact of your creative offer and practice.

Each chapter is a workbook with worksheets, templates, toolkits, frameworks, checklists and more helping you develop, market and sell your values aligned creative offer in 9 weeks. Completely informed by black feminist praxis, the Worldbuilder's Handbook is a toolbox you can return to for years to come as you scale and deepen the impact of your creative offer and practice.

What Seeda School Worldbuilders Are Saying

“Being led through the Seed A World Retreat by Ayana offered me the sea I know I can rely on to float me above all that attempts to drown me. Each of the nine action steps helped to buoy my practice & deep sense of embodiment utilizing the full power of Audre Lorde's uses of the erotic.

Ayana's excavating groundwork reminds us that the ability to float already resides in the power of our expansive breath. If we can dream it, then it is safe to trust that it is already done for not just ourselves but folks dreaming of the work we are producing.

The world you desire to build already exists within you & the worldbuilding framework helped me realize that our work can support so many others if we break through the fertile ground where we stand alone. In fact, through the worldbuilding framework, Ayana facilitates that we are never truly alone because the Sankofa sensibility circularly connects us to our past, present, & future.

If you're ready to invite folks to wade into the sea of your worldbuilding & transformative offer then sign up! Trust that when it rains it pours & your abundant desires will grow & be witnessed by the outstretched limbs of folks in the Seeda School community with you.”

Kay Brown author of Assemblage: Baby's Breath

The Support You Can Expect

The Seeda School Library

^{COURSES, WORKSHOPS, MEDITATIONS, ETC.}

Erotic engineers inside The Lab have month to month access to the entire Seeda School Library to support their worldbuilding practice.

Monthly Erotic Engineering Workshops

^{1ST THURSDAY}

For transmuting fear and writing and speculating alongside black feminist literature, poetry and worldbuilding.

Monthly Erotic Engineering Open Studios

^{3RD THURSDAY}

For reading your work, allowing yourself to be witnessed by your peers and reflect on all things writing life and writing practice.

Erotic Engineering Manual

^{NEW CHAPTERS MONTHLY}

A handbook with erotic engineering resources, writing prompts, spells and strategies for your writing practice. A new chapter is released monthly.

1:1 Support

^{VIA DISCORD}

Through private text and voice memos on Discord. Talk through writer’s block, blank page overwhelm and fear of pressing “publish”.

Group Support

^{VIA DISCORD}

From a global Discord community of writers, worldbuilders and erotic engineers treating their Zone of Desire as non-negotiable.

What Seeda School Worldbuilders Are Saying

"11/10 recommend joining The Retreat with Ayana Zaire Cotton. It was deeply transformative: from re-rooting into new affirmations that better support our world-building to having the guidance and community support to actually build the thing. In 9 weeks!

For years, I've worked on creative projects but avoided creating a framework because I was afraid it would feel too contrived for both me and my clients. The Retreat changed that: I now feel clear-minded and excited about guiding others through my process (I have a process!). I can't believe what we were able to create in 9 weeks together, piece by piece, week by week.

The community was one of my favorite parts of The Retreat: it felt living, breathing, and magical. The poetry! The bookish fanfare! The expressions via multi-media! Every week, I felt completely inspired by how the fellow retreaters were translating their interests, desires, and visions into offerings rooted in their rituals, too.

Ayana's teaching structure, content, and language left me feeling focused and encouraged—two vital things you need when you're world-building—after every class, every session, every week. I loved that their entire approach was informed by Black feminist teachings and guides that moved us through each topic. I come back to our Worldbuilder's Handbook daily, if not for the templates, then for the affirmations.

They've created an incredibly important, helpful, and inspiring space to participate in if you want to deeply resource your own world-building. Again, 11/10, y'all."

Karly Borden

Solidarity Pricing

Solidarity pricing tiers and descriptions are borrowed from black feminist worldbuilder and Seeda School alumni nènè myriam konaté. If you're interested in The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering you might also be interested in their offering, The Clap Back Manifest(o).

Nurture

$237

Month to Month Payments

Select the Nurture Tier if most of the following applies to you:

Your (embodied or relational) proximity to whiteness, your gender, your sexuality, your marital status, your citizenship, your health, and/or your level of education grant you structural advantages;
You, your family, or your partner own the home you live in;
You have investments, retirement accounts, or inherited money;
You have access to family money and resources in times of need;
You work part time or are unemployed by choice (including unemployment due to full-time school in a degree-earning program).

By selecting this option you are nurturing this practice, paying it forward, and pouring into the honor tier.

Enroll

Sustain

$137

Month to Month Payments

Select the Sustain Tier if most of the following applies to you:

You face structural barriers due to your race, your gender, your sexuality, your marital status, your citizenship, your health, and/or your level of education;
You have stable income and/or you share living expenses with your family or your partner;
You can meet your basic needs (food, medication, housing, childcare, transportation, etc.);
You have access to health insurance and/or other benefits through your employer, your family, or your partner;
You are able to miss work either for sickness, emergencies, or leisure and are still able to pay your bills;
You are able to make regular payments towards your debt.

By selecting this option you are sustaining this practice.

Enroll

Honor

$67

Month to Month Payments

Select the Honor Tier if most of the following applies to you:

You are black and/or indigenous;
You have been forced to leave your native land;
You are disabled;
You face structural barriers due to your sexual or gender identity;
You are a survivor of sexual/domestic violence;
You are single and/or solely responsible for your living expenses;
You are a sex worker;
You have been denied work due to your incarceration history;
You are unemployed;
You have significant debt;
You are supporting (chosen) family;
You take risks to meet your basic needs (food, medication, housing, childcare, transportation, etc.).

By selecting this option you are honoring this practice and inviting the support of those who are resourcing this work alongside you.

Enroll

The Laboratory of Consent

^{THE LAB IS A MONTH TO MONTH MEMBERSHIP}

Life happens, seasons change. There are no refunds after you have enrolled into The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering and accessed the Seeda School library, but you can cancel your membership at any time! Join us for a month or the entire year. We aim to practice with you for as long as it feels desirable and accessible.

What Seeda School Worldbuilders Are Saying

"The Seeda World Retreat has been instrumental in bringing my coaching program to light. When I joined, I had just drafted my framework and had a fuzzy idea for my offer. Every single week of the Retreat helped me clarify and strengthen my initial ideas. It felt like starting with a block of marble and then sculpting and chiseling until what was truly important emerged.

I loved the structure of the Retreat. It has everything you need to birth your offer and business. We had the tools and time to work autonomously and in-depth. Then, we had our amazing Open Studio Calls, where the communal revolutionary spirit made its magic. In between, the asynchronous support via Discord and email was a guiding light and helped me feel never alone.

Today, just two weeks after the Retreat's end, I started softly launching my program. I may not have been here without the Retreat!

More than this, the 9 weeks together have been a time of creative expansion and personal and political evolution for me. I'll always be immensely grateful to Ayana and the marvelous human beings I was honored to have by my side during this journey."

Giada Centofanti

The Erotic Engineering Syllabus

Check out the Erotic Engineering Syllabus for an overview of the monthly programming themes, dates and erotic resources we'll be experimenting with inside The Laboratory.

The Erotic Engineering Compass

^{THE EROTIC ENGINEERING FRAMEWORK}

A compass is both a wayfinding device and an architectural tool. We use it to draw a map and also leave the map behind, allowing ourselves to be pulled by the magnetic force of our north star, our desire. The Erotic Engineering Compass informs the monthly programming inside The Laboratory, guiding you through the 4 movements of Erotic Engineering through 12 worldbuilding steps and elements that help you design a practice rooted in desire using the erotic as power.

Memory

^{MOVEMENT 001}

Remember your desire with the guidance of the erotic engineer, Audre Lorde. Dedicate your practice with the guidance of the erotic engineer, Sojourner Truth. Honor your body with the guidance of the erotic engineer, Lucille Clifton.

Surrender

^{MOVEMENT 002}

Reclaim your time with the guidance of the erotic engineer, Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Queer your education with the guidance of erotic engineer, Ntozake Shange. Clarify your values with the guidance of erotic engineer, June Jordan.

Sacrifice

^{MOVEMENT 003}

Find your form with the guidance of erotic engineer, Akwaeke Emezi. Learn to receive with the guidance of erotic engineer, Toni Cade Bambara. Name your needs with the guidance of erotic engineer, Saidiya Hartman.

Erotic Expression

^{MOVEMENT 004}

Re-imagine your labor with the guidance of erotic engineer, Toni Morrison. Find belonging inside the ecosystems we call home with the guidance of erotic engineer, Zora Neale Hurston. Create your own cosmology and belief system with the guidance of erotic engineer Octavia Butler.

Erotic Engineering Is For You If...

You are a worldbuilder who wants a place to incubate and rehearse the creative risks you want to take in your creative practice.

You are a worldbuilder who wants to build a creative ecosystem and life that supports your erotic expression.

You are a worldbuilder whose practice, desire and breath are no longer negotiable.

Why Erotic Engineering?

^{MECHANICAL ENGINEERING}

Focuses on the design, analysis, and manufacturing of mechanical systems and devices.

^{ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING}

Deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism.

^{CIVIL ENGINEERING}

Concerned with the design, construction, and maintenance of infrastructure like roads, bridges, and buildings.

^{CHEMICAL ENGINEERING}

Combines chemistry, physics, and biology to design processes for manufacturing chemicals, fuels, and pharmaceuticals.

^{COMPUTER ENGINEERING}

Integrates electrical engineering and computer science to develop computer hardware and software.

^{INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING}

Optimizes complex processes and systems to improve efficiency, productivity, and quality in production or operations.

^{EROTIC ENGINEERING}

Uses the erotic as power and black feminist frameworks as worldbuilding material to create alternative systems and structures of support.

Just like there is Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, etc. Seeda School brings you Erotic Engineering. Someone looked at the world and said, “this is a mechanical engineering problem”, we are looking at the world and saying, “this is an erotic engineering problem”. For Electrical Engineering the material mechanics in question are electricity and conduits. For Erotic Engineering the material mechanics in question are creative spirit and alternative systems of structural support.

Join Us

“The grammar of black feminist futurity is a performance of a future that hasn’t happened yet but must. It is an attachment to a belief in what should be true, which impels us to realize that aspiration. It’s the power to imagine beyond current fact and to envision that which is not, but must be. It’s a politics of prefiguration that involves living the future now.”

_{— Tina Campt, “Quiet Soundings: The Grammar of Black Futurity”, Listening to Images (2017), p. 17.}

_{Pictured: Grada Kilomba in Conversation with Tina Campt}

FAQs

Question not covered below? Reach out at [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you.

Do I have to attend every live session?

What is the billing frequency of The Laboratory of Erotic Engineering?

Do you offer scholarships?

Is Seeda School open to non-black worldbuilders?

What Erotic Engineers Are Saying About Seeda School

"After grinding for over a decade in the nonprofit sector, I needed support building a viable, self-directed career path to generate income rooted in my values and creativity. The Seed A World Retreat offered both the practical tools and community encouragement I was seeking to heed the creative call I have been feeling. Now I look forward to sharing this work that feels personally terrifying and necessary, and I believe in my ability to do it using the Seeda School tools. During the retreat, Ayana held space with such admirable curiosity and generosity! If you want an experienced, informed, Black feminist, imaginative hype-person to put a loving battery in your back, sign up for the Seed A World Retreat immediately."

— Jasmyne Gilbert, Winter 2024

“Ayana Zaire Cotton, is, to me, a being whose radically tender ways of loving, teaching, and questioning mirror the revolutionary labours of love of bell hooks, Octavia Butler, Toni Cade Bambara, and the list goes on. Through Seeda School, Ayana plants seeds of responsible hope, of revolutionary reimagining(s), and most importantly, of communal (and personal) pursuit(s) of the erotic into the body, mind, and soul of whoever has the chance to waltz with their teachings, with their being. Being a student of Seeda School is constantly being reminded that one’s desires are needs, and therefore that we — as people — have the power to materialize the conditions we yearn to have in order to thrive, to be free. Receiving teachings and exchanging with Ayana and the lovely beings who tap into their care-full-y crafted [offers] is a blessing that keeps on giving, and I trust that this will remain the case in near and distant futures.”

Gloria-Sherryl François (G L O W Z I), Fall 2023

Chinyere Erondu, Fall 2023

"Words cannot express enough how grateful I am for the blessing that is both Ayana and Seeda School. Enrolling in the retreat was an immediate yes for me — where the weekly meditations and facilitations from Ayana felt like sacred invitations to return — return to community, return to self, return to Spirit, return to our gardens. Like The Artist's Way, but through a decolonial Black feminist lens, I continue to find Seeda School and its Retreat as an evergreen gift and artistic nourishment that, as a result, enriches the tending of my spiritual and literary practice — The Conflicted Womanist.”

“It was such a pleasure being part of Seeda School retreat and be in community with a cohort of talented, caring and loving souls. This offering is a soothing and refreshing balm to each and everyone wanting to delve deeper into their inner being to bring out unknown treasures to the world. Ayana, the creator and facilitator of the retreat is its living proof. They are a bottomless well of inspiring, exciting, creative, experimental and spirit-led knowledge and I’m deeply grateful for their work and their willingness to share with us all that they know with so much grace and care.”

Keren Lasme, Fall 2023

Taylor Rae, Fall 2023

“I find it difficult to express in words just how impactful the Seeda School Retreat was for me as a clayworker, herbalist, teacher, and activist. Seeda School contextualized our work as multidisciplinary artists in the revolution and helped us all to abandon mentalities of scarcity that are upheld by colonialism and white supremacy. Ayana has put so much time, effort, and care into every piece of her retreat and it shows. Even as someone who already had a creative offer established, I gained so much wisdom from the content and discussions that I am confident will only improve the success of my offers, along with one of the most tender, caring, and uplifting communities that anyone could ask for. I am infinitely grateful for the work Ayana does in bolstering us artists and creating containers for the radical dreaming of better worlds.”

“The Seed A World Retreat offered by Seeda School was an invitation to revisit the primordial womb; a safe and warm place for meaningful growth and expansion of our deepest desires. Ayana's passion and deep community care shone through as she guided/facilitated the cohort to transform the seeds of our deepest desires into tangible and beautiful offerings to the world. The carefully curated Retreat Workbook allowed us to seed, tend to, grow (and prune when necessary) our ideas into structured next steps. I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to commune with other like-minded, community-oriented folk who share the same passion for building worlds that provide ample space and opportunity for radical, free existence and communion.”

— Yen C, Fall 2023

"The Seeda School experience has been such an affirming and generative experience for me. I am often seeking out classes and opportunities to learn new skills, be in process with my peers, and engage in self-development and personal growth. My experience with Seeda School, via Ayana's generous facilitation and framework, felt so deeply aligned with my values, my creative praxis, and my worldview. Guided by the brilliant offerings of Black feminists, Ayana has cultivated such a sacred space with an inspiring cohort of people. Since participating in the cohort, I have revisited the curriculum, and it continues to be a transformative guide as I chart my path forward."

— Jessica Valoris, Winter 2024

"The Seeda School is unlike anything I have experienced before. It's a mix of personal, intimate, and necessary inner groundwork, visioning for the future, and practical tools for business and financial sustainability, all within a liberatory framework of black feminism and worldbuilding. I found it to be such a necessary container for reflecting, visioning, developing ideas, dreaming up possibilities and then bringing them to life with the many tools that are offered throughout the course. Ayana is a brilliant and generous facilitator, and has thoughtfully curated a safe community of support among like-minded artists and creatives. I am telling everyone I know about Seeda School as I feel like all interdisciplinary artists and creatives need this kind of facilitated retreat experience to bring their ideas to life and offer them to the world."

Steph Rue, Winter 2024

“The violence is endless under empire and white supremacy, but so is our capacity to imagine new worlds and to love on each other” – a thought Ayana offered us early on, amid the grief, heartbreak and rage at the apocalypses taking place close and far, is also the best summation of this heart-and-possibilities-expanding retreat. Under Ayana’s effervescent, loving, wise guidance and expansive vision, these 9 weeks were a space for us to practice loving ourselves – breathing through fear, taking our desires, curiosities and oddities seriously, seeing a divine throughline in our journeys, choosing to start without having all the information – in order to answer the call from our people, past and present, and bring about the futures we need today. I told everyone I care about of the gift that is the Seed A World Retreat, looking forward to revisiting our session recordings and completing the worksheets (that I know my life depends on). I am so grateful I followed my intuition (and desire!) and chose to invest in myself through this course. I am grateful and forever charged/changed by this offering, that Ayana had dreamt up and powerfully-beautifully woven into being.”

— Aisha Jandosova, Fall 2023

“Ayana has created a retreat that is immensely valuable. Seeda School has been able to anticipate needs that I was uncovering myself with richness and depth in ways I never expected! I wholeheartedly recommend this retreat for creatives ready to immerse themselves in their hearts desires.”

— Vanessa Murchie, Fall 2023

"Seeda School gathered me and all the threads of my creative practice. I came in with an idea and left with a digital course rooted in ease and pleasure. The workbook is beautifully laid out to include a framework for building out a curriculum, sustainable marketing plan, and sales funnel. Ayana's affirmations each week are a remedy to the uncertainty I experience beginning something new. This retreat has been grounding and deeply supportive."

Brandi Cheyenne Harper, Winter 2024

“This Seed a World Retreat has been been such an eye-opening journey that has shown me that I don't have to fear claiming the things that I am because the current world that I participate in says that I can not be all the things that I am. Ayana, it is clear what you want to put forward - a world where everyone is fully themselves and living in a world of love. I felt that throughout the experience, and felt as if I was being asked to take a chance in believing in and being a part of that type of world - a world built from love. Through a facilitator of love, a community of love, and words/frameworks of love, I felt affirmed and empowered to go on an be the interdisciplinary researcher, director, curator, and writer that I want to be. I feel as though I have so much of the foundational tools and essence from Seed a World and I can wait to launch, and see all the other worlds that are launched from this beautiful retreat.”

— Bo Dautruche, Fall 2023

“Through the Seed A World Retreat, Ayana offers rich, juicy, tangible frameworks for attendees to tap into our deepest desires so that we may then be led by them in our endeavors to develop and share values-driven creative offers. Each retreat session was equal parts meditation, sermon, and playdate. It was an invaluable experience to imagine within a world where Black feminism was the bedrock, where attendees could start replacing self-rejection and scarcity with self trust and generosity, where showing up fully for our practices would sustain our livelihoods in the ways we dream of and deserve. I’m eternally grateful and excited for how what I learned in the Seed A World Retreat will propel me into a more expansive and abundant future.”

— Dkéama Alexis, Fall 2023

"Seeda School is the most nourishing, electric, brilliant, inspired, held space I have been lucky enough to be a part of. I entered the retreat from the depths of a creative winter, and Ayana built the container for a true and revelatory spring. She has architected the balance of structure, rigorous tools, juicy inspiration, accountability, and relational support that will help you (finally) recognize and birth the thing that has been calling you. And more than that, Seeda is the invitation to manifest the luscious version of a life you didn’t know you were allowed to have."

Olivia Vagelos, Winter 2024