In the spirit of celebrating our black history and our black heroes, this month’s healing circle will focus on using story sharing and somatic healing practices to address the impact of anti-blackness on the internalized, interpersonal, institutional and cultural levels of our lives and communities. This healing circle is open to ALL INDIVIDUALS who want to heal the ways they have been shaped by anti-blackness. This session will include race breakout groups (generated based upon who attends the circle), and trained healing practitioners. We invite everyone to celebrate Black History Month by addressing their own trauma and conditioning around blackness.
The history of black identity in the United States has included the construction of other racial identities, founded in anti-blackness, and at the service of white supremacy. Cultural narratives, institutional policies, interpersonal interactions and internalized conditioning all worked together to maintain the disparity between Black and non Black, beginning with the events known as “Bacon’s Rebellion” in the late 17th Century, and continuing on into the swift creation of the municipal police forces in the US, within a staggering 30-year period. The last few years of anti-black police violence, and the racial uprisings in reaction to that violence have demonstrated that more and more, communities want to come together to repair harm and create solutions in powerful ways. This healing circle is an attempt at creating a space for exploring our own experiences with anti-Blackness, and to demonstrate the similar and divergent healing paths we all must walk because of our various racial identities.
About the Facilitators
Michaela Purdue Lovegood is the Executive Director of the Political Healers Project, a national political education and healing justice organization centered on leadership development of BIPOC, genderqueer and nonbinary humans. Michaela has more than 20+ years of organizing and training experience and more than 12 years experience of nonprofit consulting, supporting the strategic planning, hiring, staff and board development and fundraising of many grassroots, advocacy and service-based movement organizations.
Mika Gainer is a Liberation Designer and Psychospiritual Alchemist integrating intuitive arts, tantric meditation, eco-therapy and somatic coaching for healing in the material world. She provides ongoing online classes for people to practice in community, 1:1 healing sessions and meta-DEI solutions for organizations.
Monthly workshop spotlight:
Passport to Liberation Workshop Visioning, Sun 3/13, 2pm ET
Setting your vision for the year shouldn’t just happen at New Years! This is an introduction to biomapping as a glorious way to supercharge your vision boarding practice with mind mapping and meditation. We need to regularly step back and become like the cartographer of our life in the present moment, seeing where we are and how things may have changed. And then revitalize our navigation system to stay aligned. We will become mapmakers in piecing together our journey, listen deeply to each other's desired destiny, and nurture our dreams towards wholeness and liberation. All aboard on the 2nd Sunday of each month.
Erin Caitlin Sweeney (they/she) is a politicized healer, lover of movement & dance, educator, storyteller, and group facilitator. They support white folks in building relationships of reciprocity with their ancestors and the land, while examining how white-bodied supremacy shows up in themselves and their lineages, with the intention of healing and repair. Erin believes that when we look inward with accountability, honesty, and compassion we can bring healing to ourselves, our ancestors, and show up rooted for collective liberation.
Check out Erin’s Upcoming Work!
Ancestral Stories // a 6 month community + culture building class series for white folks is an invitation to weave ourselves back into our ancestral and collective stories. We'll go on this journey from Equinox to Equinox, exploring our birth stories, stories of the land, migration stories, stories of the oppressor, and stories of the future while building a relationship with a particular folktale and/or character that's rooted in our ancestry. This class series is designed for people who identify as white and is an invitation to root into our ancestral identities and stories while examining the legacy of white bodied supremacy in us and our lineages. This is an invitation to build community and culture, to remember, to heal and repair, and to deepen in relationship with ourselves, our ancestors, and each other. Begins Sunday, March 20th via Zoom, limited to 11 participants, 2 sliding scale spots available. Learn more and sign up here.