“In our time together, we also learned how to balance and fine tune when to take risks together – when did sharing vulnerability feel good and when did it feel too heavy? How could we create moments that were more light touch but invited folks to get deeper, if they wanted to? We asked fellows to create short life maps and five-minute presentations to fellows to connect on a personal level and discover shared interests or passions. We planned fun projects like a recipe book with stories and listened for serendipitous opportunities to share our lives, like when we all shared the artwork in our homes on Zoom.

This also meant I was building in moments for imagination and play – another critical piece of the puzzle. In social justice spaces, there is a dominant narrative that people must always be toiling, fighting and struggling. We had to combat that narrative because so much of what we were seeing was depressing, stressful and chaotic, wrecking our nervous systems and scientifically releasing chemicals in our body to make us freeze. Just as much as folks were bringing to light to the nightmares, they had to be sharing narratives that illuminated their dreams, their joys and their power.”