At Wellspring 2018, one of the most talked-about panels we presented was entitled “Wellness Beyond Whiteness”. Co-curated with (and moderated by) CTZNWell founder, Kerri Kelly, we assembled Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Anasa Troutman, Michelle Johnson and Seane Corn. You can hear the original conversation right here, as part of the CTZN podcast.
More recently, in May of 2020, Kerri and Anasa joined forces with Nicole Cardoza to produce The Wellness of We, an online practice to advance collective wellbeing. The timing coincided with the nation’s reaction to the murder of George Floyd (and the many others who preceded him), provoking the need for us to look at ourselves as individuals, and as a nation, to confront our racial tendencies and systems.
The reprise of the Wellness Beyond Whiteness conversation took place on Fri May 29, and we broadcasted the conversation on our Facebook page. You can tune in to this incredibly important conversation below.
As a response to this national moment of reckoning, we at Wanderlust would like to commence by listening, and then heeding the wisdom of our BIPOC leaders to get organized and commit to eradicating a system of white supremacy.
We would like to highlight the incredible work of the BIPOC leaders in our community by sharing some of their wisdom, insights, and resources here.
Rev. angel Kyodo williams
Resources from Rev. angel Kyodo williams:
• On June 1, join her Black Sit, a space for folks socially-located within Black experience to take time for simple practices of stillness and breath.
• On June 12, join Rev. angel’s Half/Day Sit.
• Read “Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation“
“love letter to all beloved black bodies:
your beloved black body need not prove itself. .
you don’t need to have credentials or degrees or fewer car tickets or even have worked always and have a job now to be afforded dignity.
your accomplishments are laudable. your humanity is beyond comparison.
the perfection of you as you are is unassailable. .
the only flaw is in this toxic system that has the momentum of history inducing white-bodied people, especially those in policing forces, into becoming sociopaths. .
to be clear, often people of all colors, persuasions and classes are induced into such illness that they cast harm on the people that most remind them of their own lack of relative safety.
this is beyond belief. this mass sociopathy is a Great Illness that insidiously consumes people without them ever realizing that they have been infected, that theirs is not a natural state at all.
it is the most unnatural of states, constructed and massively deployed through every social space.
like Death of human decency disseminated through the air in microparticles.
beloved black body:
you are perfect.
you are beauty itself.
you are worthy.
this environment is a toxic, sociopathological one.
we — especially we that are subject to wanton mental, emotional and physical violence as the daily course of our existence — can and must transmute the illness in the air we breathe by putting our masks on and protecting our own hearts and minds first.
grieve and go easy.
take care of yourself.
protect your Self.
take radical care of your beloved black body.
because it is yours, and it is also mine.
⠀⠀
—Rev. angel Kyodo williams.”