WE ARE SORRY, BUT THE MY GRANDMOTHER'S HANDS READING AND PRACTICE GROUP HAS ALREADY STARTED, AND WE ARE THEREFORE NO LONGER ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS. PLEASE SIGN UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST IF YOU WOULD LIKE UPDATES ON FUTURE GROUPS, OR FOR WAYS TO STAY INVOLVED WITH ORGANIZING EFFORTS FOR NOVEMBER.
The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. In his groundbreaking book, My Grandmother's Hands, Resmaa Menakem argues that our US society's rapid downward spiral will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn’t just affect Black people and other people of color. White people suffer their own secondary trauma as well.
My Grandmother’s Hands paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. And it offers a practical, embodied, step-by-step healing process, which Menakem argues is utterly essential if we're serious about growing beyond our entrenched racialized divide.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
This offering is for white-identifying people who are ready and willing to do serious work - our work as white people - on whiteness and racism in a shared space where the reality of white-body supremacy is treated as a given. Many people obviously identify with multiple and mixed racial identities. We leave it to each person to determine for themselves whether for the purposes of this offering they are "white-identifying".
While this series is a stand-alone offering, we are also using it as an opportunity to invite people into the Yet-To-Be-Named Network, a decentralized constellation of small teams of people dedicated to direct action at the intersection of climate justice and racial healing.
Specifically, the YTBN Network in the Bay Area will be organizing actions leading up to the November election. This series is a special invitation to those who want to join our preparation for that work.
We have been deeply inspired by the recent surge of popular uprisings. And yet, we also seek a place in this larger movement ecology that sees our work as an attempt to bring healing to all beings, to honor the dignity of all life, and to move us closer to Beloved Community.
THIS IS A STUDY AND PRACTICE SERIES
If you're planning to join us, we strongly encourage you to get a copy ofMy Grandmother's Hands (hard copy or digital, whatever works best for you) if you haven't already, as soon as possible, and to begin reading and doing the body-centered practices described in each chapter. Our weekly sessions together will largely be devoted to sharing about and creatively integrating our personal experiences experimenting with the book's embodied practices during the week. Please read and practice through Chapter 4 prior to session 1.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
All events at the East Point Peace Academy are offered on a Gift Economy. This means that there is no fee to register, and everybody is welcome to attend regardless of their ability to pay. An opportunity will be offered to participants to give gifts to support the work of our organization and to support the facilitators. No amount is too small or too large.
FACILITATORS
Conly Basham has spent years working with youth and elders: serving as a teaching artist on New York's Lower East Side, offering Expressive Arts and Narrative Therapy to teenagers in Richmond, California, and cultivating autobiographical therapeutic performances with elders at Mercy Retirement Home in Oakland, California.
daniel jacob self has worked as a grief counselor at Pathways Hospice in Oakland, California, facilitating deeper layers of embodiment and resiliency through the grieving process; introduced somatic practices to incarcerated populations throughout California; and worked in communities with families, couples, and individuals coming together to have hard conversations around harm, accountability, shame, and love.
