MainStage Spotlights
At the heart of Sacred Shadow lives the Mainstage… a space where stories are spoken, truths are felt, and expression takes center stage.
​
Set on the beautiful back porch of the Sanctuary House at Valaterra Retreat Center, this open-air gathering space carries its own quiet presence with deep connection to the land around it. It’s a space that invites you to settle in, soften, and receive.
​
Throughout the day, the Mainstage will feature a flow of speakers, performers, and artists who invite us deeper into both our shadow and our light.
​
From powerful talks and perspective-shifting conversations to poetry, performance, and raw creative expression, each offering is intentionally placed to guide the rhythm of the day… giving you moments to pause, reflect, feel, and enjoy.
​
Mainstage Lineup:
1:00 PM – Speaker: Renesha Martin
1:30 PM – Speaker: Michelle Ganter
3:00 PM – Slam Poetry with Leah Bomar + friends
5:00 PM – Lady Mary Jane presents Bette’s Burlesque performers
7:00 PM – Speaker: Betty Guadagno​​
Nicole Sartini
MainStage MC
12:45-7:00 PM
Nicole Sartini, M.Ed., LPCC, IMHP is a therapist, poet, and movement builder reshaping how health care works. She founded Build Better Health, a nonprofit reimagining care through provider-led reform and community-led alternatives to for-profit insurance.
Nicole uses her sacred "no" to confront systems corrupted by profit and extraction, channeling her anger about power over greed into bold, compassionate change. She lets "inconvenient" emotions serve as inner guidance, empowering herself and others through truth-telling, fullness of self, and authentic expression rather than compliance, silence, or forced agreeableness.
1:00 PM MainStage
Join licensed counselor, trauma specialist, and speaker Renesha Martin for a thought-provoking discussion on shadow work and self-awareness. Discover how hidden beliefs, survival patterns, and unresolved experiences influence our relationships, confidence, and emotional well-being. Participants will leave with practical tools to better understand themselves, embrace growth, and move toward healing with greater compassion and authenticity.
Renesha Martin, MBA, LPCC, CCTSF, CCTIP, EMDR Clinician , a licensed counselor, trauma specialist, speaker, and co-owner of Martin & Muir Counseling, as well as the founder of Strategies for Wellness. With more than a decade of experience in mental health, she helps women heal from chronic anxiety, burnout, and workplace trauma so they can reclaim their confidence, peace, and purpose. Through counseling, coaching, and speaking engagements, Renesha combines clinical expertise with practical tools to help women move from survival mode to living with intention and authenticity. She is passionate about making healing accessible and empowering women to create meaningful, lasting change in their lives.
1:30 PM Mainstage
Michelle will be presenting her journey to the underworld to reclaim her soul and the beautiful unfolding that followed its retrieval.
Michelle Gantner is an herbalist and steward of the property she tends. She has created a priestess temple at her property, where she offers a portal into the sacred. Michelle is dedicated to connecting with the deepest parts of ourselves to prove that one can thrive, not just survive.
Sacred Rage Poetry
With Leah Bomar + Friends
3:00 PM Mainstage
Leah Bomar is a six-time international bestselling author, publisher, therapeutic art coach, and creator of the GlitterBomb movement, a creative revolution dedicated to transforming pain into possibility. Through poetry, storytelling, ritual, and expressive arts, Leah invites others to embrace the fullness of their humanity, honoring both the wounds and the wisdom that shape us. Her work explores the sacred terrain of grief, anxiety, body liberation, pleasure, resilience, and the transformative power of self-expression. At Sacred Shadow Festival, Leah joins fellow GlitterBomb authors for an immersive spoken word experience weaving together Sacred Rage, shadow work, healing, and hope. Through powerful poetry and authentic storytelling, they illuminate the truth that wholeness is found not by transcending our darkness, but by learning to dance with it. When she's not on stage, Leah can be found helping writers birth their stories, leading creative healing experiences, and reminding people that even life's deepest wounds can become glittering portals to transformation.
​
Copies of the Best-Selling memoir "GlitterBomb" and the interactive journal "The Body Writes Back" featuring the poems "Sacred Rage" by Leah Bomar and will be available for purchase.
Sacred Rage: A Spoken Word Journey Through Shadow & Light Join Leah Bomar and the #GlitterBombBooks Authors for an expressive experience exploring the landscapes of grief, resilience, healing, desire, liberation, and becoming. Through poetry, personal narrative, and powerful truth-telling, these voices illuminate the beauty that emerges when we stop hiding from our shadows and begin honoring every part of ourselves. This is an invitation to witness sacred rage, radical vulnerability, and the alchemy that occurs when art becomes medicine.
Red Phoenix
"Always an advocate for human rights, reaching to empower others to Rise Up through Laughter, Life's truths and Always Leading With Love!"
​
​From writing poetry, stories, and classroom plays about discrimination in the second grade to crafting theatrical monologues on domestic violence as a theater major, Red Phoenix has spent a lifetime using the arts as a vehicle for awareness. Her career as a journalist and newspaper editor further cemented her dedication to cultural diversity and social justice. Today, she has stepped fully into her creative power as a spoken word artist, using her voice as a tool for healing, empowerment, and revolution. As a Host of the Nashville's open mic, Rise Up & Spit that Fire, she is driven to create a safe space for artists, poets, writers, musicians and comedians to find their power and voice.
Sacred Rage: A Spoken Word Journey Through Shadow & Light Join Leah Bomar and the #GlitterBombBooks Authors for an expressive experience exploring the landscapes of grief, resilience, healing, desire, liberation, and becoming. Through poetry, personal narrative, and powerful truth-telling, these voices illuminate the beauty that emerges when we stop hiding from our shadows and begin honoring every part of ourselves. This is an invitation to witness sacred rage, radical vulnerability, and the alchemy that occurs when art becomes medicine.
Pangea Northstar
Pangea Northstar is a Nashville-based entrepreneur, poet, painter, and intuitive practitioner dedicated to helping others reconnect with their inner wisdom and creative power. Through energy work, sound therapy, intuitive readings, and Compassion Key karmic release, she supports entrepreneurs and women in identifying and transmuting energetic blockages that prevent them from living, loving, and creating fully. As an artist and poet, Pangea is passionate about encouraging women to explore their voices, develop their gifts of expression, and step fully into their personal power.
.jpeg)
5:00 PM Mainstage
Lady MaryJane
Baybe Callisto
Rae Selle
Paige Turner
Lady MaryJane has been a performer her entire life, and a burlesque dancer for 5 years. She created Bette’s Burlesque with the intention of helping others unlock their confidence and to create memorable performances wherever they may go! The art of burlesque is empowering to all!
Baybe Callisto, an alternative burlesque sensation who has been captivating audiences with her unique flair and undeniable charm as a key performer with Bette's Burlesque for the past four years.
This next performer hails from southern Indiana and is the 2026 Bette’s Burlesque Babe of the Year. This neo-burlesque performer is sultry, gothic, and unapologetically queer. Let’s turn up the heat with Rae Selle.
Paige Turner has been a performer with Bette’s Burlesque since 2023. She has found burlesque to be a healing experience of movement, community, and self love. Paige Turner performs regularly in Louisville and Southern Indiana.
"Buddha Betty"
Betty Guadagno is a spiritual transformation coach, speaker, and near death experience survivor who turned a past marked by addiction, homelessness, and profound loss into a life devoted to healing, service, and awakening.
Following a life changing near death experience in 2019, Betty has become known for her raw honesty, humor, and grounded approach to spirituality, helping others bridge shadow and light in a deeply human way.
She is the co founder of The Wheel: Transformation in Motion and has been featured on major podcasts and stages sharing her story of transformation.
7:00 PM Mainstage
