The Undergrowth Sanctuary: Practicing Freedom as Things Fall Apart
We will reflect on, imagine and strategize what it means to practice freedom as core to new world building as systems unravel; guided by intersectional feminist, creative and embodiment praxis.
Course Overview
This course will be a relational sanctuary for leaders ready to heal, imagine and practice freedom as core to systems change. We will move our bodies and listen to what our hearts long for; create visions of cared for communities and worlds; identify how we might interrupt harmful forms of power and nurture power with; map new pathways to transformed futures for ourselves, our communities, our earth and our descendants; and engage embodied and creative practices that remind us of where we are already free -- as we navigate our ways to liberated futures. The course will be infused with wisdom:
- of Black, Indigenous and Global South feminist writers and imaginaries
- generated within the group through peer storytelling and discussions
- emerging from mind, body and spirit practices that nourish imagination and creativity
- tools and practices for grounding, resilience, centered transitions, imagination and grief tending
Who Is This Course For?
Emerging, mid-career and seasoned leaders who are:
- Burned out or disillusioned - by systems collapse and social justice, philanthropic, community based and/or international development spaces responses that reward urgency, perfectionism and performance over interconnectedness
- Likely to hold a marginalized identity themselves – while holding a team, a strategy or an organization together.
- Ready to engage with more than head-centered ways of knowing and being - and compost heroism, identity performance and soulless models of change
- Curious - about more creative, feminist, Black, Indigenous and global south, earth-based, somatic, and spirited paths of resilience
What You'll Learn
- A strategic compass for navigating through systems collapse and its symptoms with vision and purpose
- A toolkit of feminist, earth-based and body-based practices for grounding, resilience, centered transitions, imagination and grief tending
- New relational muscles for navigating uncertainty, complexity and not-knowing with loving power and boundaries
What's Included
Live Sessions
Interactive classes with your instructor
Session Recordings
Lifetime access to all recordings
Community Access
Connect with fellow learners
Certificate
Proof of course completion
Real-World Project
Students will create a strategic compass for their lives or work that includes a north star, horizon, people, practices to support the embodiment of their visions. They will be able to share these with the group, and make pragmatic moves towards making their visions real.
About the Instructor
Social justice and embodiment facilitator, strategist and guide
Shawna is a social justice and embodiment facilitator, strategist and guide with a commitment to joyful, trusting relationships that build loving power with. She helps social justice leaders and organizations bring liberatory visions to life with healing centered mindfulness, somatic, creative and nature-based practices. She is currently working on Reports from a (r)Evolution of Being with Root. Rise. Pollinate!, shares writing, collages and songs for her Substack, Practices of Freedom as Things Fall Apart. For nearly thirty years she has supported transformative leadership, cultures of care and belonging with a range of movement building, international development, philanthropic and community based groups. She formerly taught master’s level courses and workshops on race, power, and international development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
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20 students max
