Rooted and Rising

In times of need and stress I think of gatherings that are brought to life by Black women in my family. Especially with my mom’s family down the country, I relish the warmth of my aunties and cousins’ loving hugs and laughter. At kitchen tables, we reflect on what we’ve accomplished in the past year and dream into happy collective futures. We hold hands and pray, love on each other as we tell our stories, poke fun at each other over games and desserts, and speak light and affirmation into our spirits for the year to come. I always leave with joy ringing in my ears and a fullness in my belly and my heart.

As I’ve gotten older and farther away from my family home and into building my own community, I still have the desire to be in the presence of Black women as well as other women of color and queer folks of color from all types of histories, backgrounds, intersections, familiar and unfamiliar. Whether it’s on friends dates, phone catch ups, parties, time with wellness and health practitioners, supporting Black women, queer, and POC owned businesses, or community spaces; I am always seeking the warm familiarity of this community energy particularly when I am transitioning from one season to the next.

This season has been one full of transitions and change. Whether personally, professionally, or culturally, we have seen huge shifts in how we think of ourselves in relation to our work, our communities, and our impact. Many organizations and leaders are stripping away the resources that center humanity, dignity, and agency. There is so much fear and uncertainty about who will be impacted and how. However, we must learn to access our imaginations to build a world where even the most vulnerable can feel safe and empowered lives.

This season has also been a threshold, a liminal space that shows the gap between what was and what could be. That liminal space fosters a lot of self-doubt and criticism as much as hopefulness and possibility. I have used this year of transitions to experiment my way through a year of big wins, hard confrontations, moments of clarity, failures, and new beginnings. And in my own healing and navigating of a season full of transition and uprootedness, the spaces I have shared with my community have reminded me that I’m not alone, that my fears are not unwarranted, and my capacity to navigate complex new realities is shared by many other folks who hold amazing gifts in the world. It is so important that we find ways to restore and affirm one another for the chapters that are ahead.

I’ve had many conversations with friends, peers, mentors, and community-members who are coming to terms with the fact that fighting for a seat at the table ain’t it! We rediscovering what it means to be without having to justify or explain or translate our experiences to the mainstream. We are rediscovering what it means to just be without having to justify or explain or translate our experiences to the mainstream. We are stepping back from toxic jobs (and job searches) to find other ways to resource ourselves and our visions. We are finding ways to be more choiceful our connections, the opportunities we lean into, and how we invest our energy. We are looking to travel and frolic to refill our own cups first. We are acknowledging our capacity to drive change and have our own backs with the armor of divinity. 

As we look to trust ourselves more than the world around us, this moment of transformation and being in the in-between is calling on us to release what no longer aligns or serves our highest purpose and tap into an ancestral capacity to manifest the resources, community, and self-embodiment needed to carry our ideal visions forward.

Rooted & Rising: A Transformative Dream Space for Envisioning Bold New Futures is an offering to pour into the community that has poured into me in this year of transition and transformation. Together we can cultivate the space for us to witness one another in the same loving away as generations before. We can create a healing space that allowed us to have our current and future realities acknowledged, supported, and celebrated. Black women, women of color, and gender expansive folks of color have a unique capacity to create in impossible circumstances. We make a way out of no way. This time, rather than investing our energies into making a way for brands, businesses, political parties, or cultures outside of our own—that are so willing to ditch us when they’re not in dire need—we get to invest in ourselves and our communities in ways that will outlast oppressive structures and regimes. We are limitless beings that are able to tap into an ancient and divine power to calling in our empowered, rested, and abundant futures.