This past month I’ve read Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals: one of the books I’ve heard and thought and talked about long enough that I’ve felt a knowing of it, yet never read it. And the timing of reading it now—during a global pandemic, in the midst of winter, and at a time when I’m trying to figure out my relationship with worsening asthma—has felt miraculously timed. It’s felt particularly significant to read Lorde’s oft-cited quote “your silence will not protect ... Read more ...
Emotional Literacies
What emotional literacies—embodied awareness, recognition, intelligence, courage, and response-abilities—are needed for everyday living for justice? These posts offer emotional insights through storytelling and investigation into daily life.
Reflection, Retreat, and Recommitment: Learning from the Winter Woods
In a year that’s cracked me open (like this cracked tree trunk), the week of the winter solstice feels full of possibility: renewing of light, changing of seasons, warming of spirits. I’ve found that sense of possibility most profound in the winter woods, where the natural world has so much to teach—and I have so much to learn—again and again and again. Too often, I focus on disliking winter and the cold, dark, and snow that go along with it. But this year, in the midst ... Read more ...
Interrupting Thanksgiving: Three Responses to Disrupt What’s Normalized on This National Holiday
Each month, I write a Q&A newsletter for Patreon subscribers based on questions I receive, and this month, it felt important to share these responses as a blog post. It felt important because I received three questions all related to the upcoming holiday: How do you interrupt the Thanksgiving holiday? How do you prepare for conversations with white family members? For example, how do you handle situations where people say “let’s agree to disagree” to shut things ... Read more ...
Invitation to Join Upcoming Theatre of the Oppressed Workshops
This fall, as part of the 40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Stamina to Counter White Fragility, I’m facilitating two workshops using theatre of the oppressed. I invite you to join one or both of these workshops, if you’d like to experience Augusto Boal’s powerful approach, rehearse interventions into everyday racism, and connect with others engaged in this work. Here are the workshop dates and description: Friday, October 16th 2-5pm EasternFriday, November 6th ... Read more ...
What Is White Fragility?
How can those of us who identify as white, who are conditioned into whiteness, and who have internalized white supremacy recognize and respond to emotions before they do harm? How can we take accountability when they do? And how can we recognize complicity with the long-standing harm and systems that prevent taking accountability? These questions motivate the “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Stamina to Counter White Fragility”: a daily practice of ... Read more ...
How Do We Build More Accountable Lives?
This week’s processing group asked the question: “How do we build more accountable lives?” In the past few months, I’ve been inspired by and drawn into this question, using it to reflect on how I act on (and fall short of acting on) my commitments. I’m greatly influenced by community organizer Mia Mingus whose work focuses on transformative justice and disability justice. During Wednesday’s group, I read aloud a recent Instagram post by Mia Mingus, and I want to share ... Read more ...
Summer 2020 Is Calling for Change, and Processing Groups Can Support Change-Making Reflection and Re-Commitment
Among the many needs of this time, holding spaces—that is, spaces for processing, reflection, somatic awareness, and grounded re-commitment—feel particularly important. With this need in mind, I’m continuing to hold lunchtime processing groups: “Processing the Pandemic with Heart-Head-Hands.” Throughout the spring, these groups felt supportive for me—like I’d learn or remember or release something new with each session. So, this summer, I'm continuing to facilitate ... Read more ...
Resources for Sustaining Momentum and Doing Everyday Racial Justice Work
We’re in a time of urgent and important work for racial justice: lots of action alongside lots of learning and unlearning. I’m deeply grateful for the leadership, actions, and visions offered through the Movement for Black Lives Matters. I’m deeply grateful for people reaching out, being in the streets, organizing actions, holding space, and diving deep into hurt and rage and grief and more. And I’m deeply grateful for being called to this work: both in this moment and ... Read more ...
Unraveling Whiteness: A Call for More Courage
I’m thinking about whiteness—the structure, ideology, and everyday enactments—as I try to process (yet again) how white people weaponize whiteness. My heart is hurting with rage and grief from recent events, explained in these articles from The Root: “‘There’s an African-American Man Threatening My Life’: Karen Calls Police on Black Man for Asking Her to Leash Her Dog” “Outrage in Minneapolis after Black Man Dies in Custody Following Brutal Police Arrest: ‘I Cannot ... Read more ...
Wailing with the Wind: On Disrupting Work During the Pandemic
It’s windy today—the sort of wind that announces springtime. The sort of wind that lulls and gusts. The sort of wind that howls and rattles windows. The sort of wind that whips through rooms, scattering papers. As it has here: The wind has scattered page proofs that I’ve been pushing myself to review, responding to an email that came out of the blue, asking for proofs to be returned in under a week. On the one hand, these proofs represent good news: a chapter written ... Read more ...
