Instagram story viewer> @the_desert_belle> Tagged

Michelle

@the_desert_belle

1.4K

followers

1298

following

Queer Cubana
Dreaming of a liberated future for all
Nomadic vehicle dweller
💃🏻✨ @la_antonela_candela
PCT Class of 2025

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

September - October 2026 | Washington, Utah, Tennessee, Arizona ✨

Alaska was big. Coming back to the lower 48 seemed bigger. I let the van rest, only driving her around Seattle twice in the past 6 weeks.

Instead, I bip-bopped around the country on the kindness of my people. Thank you to the family and friends who opened their doors, fed me, and made room on their couches and guest rooms. You are my favorite kind of home.

Nomad life has a funny rhythm. I have a community, but we’re scattered across the map. So I practice checking in and out of physical closeness, holding connection across the miles. Always worth it.

Planes and trains for the rest of the year. 🚆✈️

109

8

New gathering dropped!!

NOMADS UNITE GATHERING | Dec 4-6, 2026

Build our knowledge, skills, and network of collective resistance. Together!

Push towards a better future through a weekend of educational workshops, intentional conversation and joy.

Location: near Joshua Tree. Coordinates announced via signups 1 week before the event

Poster by Niko @rambling_campbell

152

28

SUMMER 2026 Dump!
Wow! So many people came into my life this year & so many people came back, & so many people showed me I am worth loving & trusting & that I can believe in myself again 💕 I had the best summer in YEARS!😭
I had the best Birthday in YEARS!❤️🌈💯
I AM SO LOVED! 💕❤️🥰🌟🌈
**PLZ TAG YOURSELF!! My memory is so badddddddddddd with screen names!🥹💋

43

8

Join us for the first Nomads Unite Gathering this Dec 4th through the 6th (the weekend after Vansgiving) near Joshua Tree! We will be learning how to resist and push for a better future through a weekend of workshops, action, and joy. All allies and co-conspirators are welcome to attend! ✊🏼🌈
.
Link to RSVP & get involved in bio
.
Currently seeking organizers and nomads to facilitate skill building sessions and panels.
If you or anyone you know might be able to help host sessions or wants to help out some other way, please get in touch! ❤️

112

8

Turn trash into political action at our virtual postcard making session this Wednesday, August 26th, at 7 pm PST!
.
We want to use materials we already have and repurpose our trash! Save your old cardboard Things like pasta or cereal boxes work great. We’ll cut them postcard size (4”x6”) and use any writing and art supplies you have lying around to make our voices heard. We’ll provide ways to find your representatives' addresses and potential topics to write your representatives about. Open to all! queer nomads, queer allies, and nomad allies :)
.
Link in bio/ stories to RSVP!

82

1

Mud-Night @vanstockalaska first ANNUAL midnight mud wrestling championship!

You've all been waiting so patiently! We are starting to get galleries back from year two of Vanstock!

Our first annual mud wrestling championship started with a Saturday 10am tournament finished with a midnight Sunday re-match!

As Woodstock's namesake, we had to include mud wrestling in our summer camp themed schedule!

With a dip in the lake and post wrestle sauna provided by @boydbisonranch and @solsticesaunasak it made this midnight match incredible! 🔥🔥🔥

Tag someone you would want to mud wrestle with!

We are going through sooo much more footage! Stay tuned 😉

Photos by:
@jerzyellannaphoto

Video by:
@therhodesrecords

Drone footage by:
@j_lampone

143

13

You just might need to heal your inner child 🫂

SAVE THE DATE - July 1-5, 2027 ☀️🌈

97

12

Meet the Queer Nomad Collective Team! Together with other collective and community members, Lozz, Lily, Niko, and Michelle are collaborating to empower and engage queer nomads within our own community and beyond.

Say hello to Lozz/ Lauren! The Queer Nomad Collective emerged as Lozz’s brainchild from a conversation at Van Life Pride in 2024 about how to better build out resources and community on the road.
.
Originally from Alaska, they have helped organize queer community events in New York (including Dyke March!) and is striving to develop resource sharing methods for queers on the road.

Say hello to Lily! Hailing from Miami, Lily is a longtime nomad with an even longer history as a community leader, organizer, and artist within the nomad community and beyond.
.
Her extensive experience means they bring both a deeply creative vision and practical know-how to our team, along with an inspiring dedication to working hard for systemic change.

Say hello to Niko! A trans-masc Texan with a heart of gold, Niko nourishes the nomad community through food as community care and by facilitating workshops and community art projects, such as their famous 2024 Van Life Pride flag cobbled together from everyone's fabric scraps and pieces.
.
He comes to our team with a rich history of community and event planning and a deep passion for inclusion, especially for trans and disabled folks.

Say hello to Michelle! Dancing the political into performance, Michelle is a burlesque artist and activist from Miami who now feels most at home in the borderlands of the Southwest.
.
She worked previously as an educator to empower students to build a better world and is now working to build up the same community power among nomads.

While this is currently our core team, the Queer Nomad Collective is working to ensure we truly are a non-hierarchical collective where we build visions and community together. If you have ideas about how to better create queer inclusive community on the road or how nomads can more actively engage in the present moment, please reach out!

293

22

Adjusting back to living in society, outside of the queer safe haven that is @camppride_, has been so incredibly hard. I’m forever grateful to have found this community and made(and continue to make) these connections with such amazing people. Life really is all about who you share it with and who shows you it’s safe to show up as your truest self.

A million “thank yous” to @travelingboutz and @abiroadriguez for capturing all of these moments which allowed so many of us to put our phones away and connect to each present moment with each other and ourselves🩵✨

#camppride

3

12

CAMP PRIDE 🌈☁️
there aren’t enough words to describe just how much camp pride means to me, how much it means to all of us. it is one of the most healing experiences i think we’ve all ever had. as i return, i watch people come into who they are and who they want to be, watch their confidence grow, watch people work on themselves, love themselves , and find community more and more each year and it just brings me such immense joy to be around. I’ve formed so many special relationships with so many of you this year, you all and the camp pride team mean so much to me. thank you to everyone who loved on me at camp, who showed me friendship and support, and a HUGE thank you to the entire camp pride team and all they do. we all NEEDED THIS and we are all eternally grateful that this camp exist! if you have ever thought about attending, this is your sign 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
.
Huge shoutout to @abiroadriguez & @travelingboutz for capturing so many beautiful moments for us all 📸
.
& absolutely nothing better than celebrating & fundraising for @nativewomenswilderness over fourth of july weekend instead 🦅
.
#camppride #queersummercamp #adultsummercamp

182

20

July 23 - 26 | Homer, Alaska ✨ First queer nomad retreat in Alaska was so memorable 🏔️

🔮 Between meditation and reflections lead by @codygoneferal, impromptu fishing trips, intuitive challenges, and tarot pulls, something shifted, and folks left with real momentum toward making progress on personal and collective goals.

🕯️ @seedsandspells closed us out with a ceremony of intentions and gratitudes, and I don’t think I stopped crying through a single share. The vulnerability in that circle was something else.

Deeply grateful for this community and everyone who showed up as themselves, and to Taylor for co-leading this with me — could not have asked for a better partner in it. 🖤 Especially after I blew my tire and had to be towed 111 miles to town and was welcomed with warm arms days early 🖤

Thank you to @vanlifepride for supporting this dream of mine to host a retreat. Until next year. 🥂

79

17

The @lastsaturdaysidequest and @goodvibe.collective mashup was such a good time!!! I love how genuine the connections become at these events. So much love being spread around. Thanks for everyone who made it possible for me to attend without my van! And I can’t believe how hot all of friends are 🥵

98

13