The Arc
Metaphor of a Song
We find that there's a familiar rhythm that emerges over the arc of our programs. Like the various parts of a song, each element of our curriculum brings forth a particular energy and signals what is to come. We hope these offerings meet you in the energy and space you're trying to hold with your people.
INTRO & HOOK: Welcome, Land, and Creating the Conditions
We always start by coming together to welcome our participants to land in our decolonized space. This intentional act disrupts white dominant cultural ways of engaging and indicates that our space will be one of healing and belonging where folks can bring their whole selves, know they will be taken care of, and be helped to detach from all that is pulling on them outside of our space. Our goal is to make participants feel as though they arrived at a good friend’s home after a day of travel and can rest, eat and release in a beautiful space chosen for their comfort, enjoyment and growth.
To create the conditions that enable us to receive the rest of the offerings and each other, we then hold significant time to co-create a liberated zone (known In many other spaces as "community agreements.") It is tempting to skip this process because we can often feel squeezed with time, but making the investment strengthens our community and pushes each of us to show up as our best selves.
These sessions help participants transition into this communal, decolonized space together.
Political Education
These are sessions that foster a shared political analysis of the context that women identified people of color organizers are leading within. They are facilitated in 2 to 3 hour-long blocks and are structured according to the Vertical Development pedagogy. This means that during each session we introduce a "heat" topic that awakens long held, under-examined perceptions, then unlearn/discern and advance through discussion, activities, and planned experiments.
These sessions can be particularly hard for both participants and facilitators. So we are always mindful to 1) remind the participants that the vertical development process is not one they need to do on their own—they have their siblings to lean on—and 2) always facilitate a "cooling" experience in the session that follows- meaning-making about the sessions via pair-ups, journaling, group reflection, or TeachBacks (wherein participants use their own voice and experiences to revisit a core concept with their peers).
Grounding in Purpose, Strengths, & Leadership
Our whole curriculum is built around the intention of grounding women identified people of color organizers in a deep rooted sense of purpose and strengths. The sessions in this section bring it all together. Through centering activities and reflecting on leadership, the participants discern and put into action their leadership approach that counters societal norms and the multiple -isms shaping how they perceive themselves as leaders.
We find that these sessions are like hitting the high notes -- they go to the heart of this work and open the participants up to new visions of what is possible in their leadership. Like the part of the song that gets everyone on their feet, on the dance floor, hand in the air.
Healing & Centering Practices
Grounding and centering invites the participants to practice authenticity and live into their purpose to incorporate transformative ways of being into their leadership and daily lives. These practices set them up to deepen learning or slow them down to breathe together and strengthen our container.
We incorporate many of these healing and centering practices into the other sessions and also offer these practices to be held on their own. We invite you to integrate these practices into your sessions and attribute the culture keepers who have offered them to the collective.
Closing & Carrying Forward
Closings are very important because they “seal” the container. They help participants shift to meaning making about what they have learned, have been challenged by, and about how they are feeling.
We use closings at the end of a day or a gathering -- often an inspiration, forgiveness or affirmation offered through poetry reading, chanting, singing -- to support folks in transitioning into an evening activity or back home.
We also use the following sessions to close our program, as a way to help the participants ground in practices, learnings, and community that they can carry with them outside of our liberated zone. We hope these sessions help to ease that cultural transition from liberated zone to home organization.
Jump to full list of ALL SESSIONS