reflection space: may-june sessions
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reflection space: may-june sessions
Transcript of reflection space: may-june sessions
reflection space: may-june sessions
Notes about this RESOURCEAll content is created by Sika Wheeler (she/her). Feel free to use this resource for yourself or with others but please give me credit. If you would like to attend future sessions, find them listed at go.umd.edu/UMDSolidarity. These were created as part of my work in the Diversity Training & Education unit of University of Maryland’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion.
My goal with this content is to continue creating processing space for folks to make sense of their feelings and experiences in relation to the current political moment (the global pandemic, the current global uprisings against racism, and the economic and social fallout from both). Feel free to adapt these prompts to fit your context. I wrote them in the context of higher education and to fit within 1 hr.
Lastly, I want to thank Timea Webster for thinking of me as a someone to lead these sessions. Thank you for always seeing the best of me.If you need to contact me about this resource, e-mail [email protected].
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Ways i would like to be compensated for this laborAffirmation Tell me how this content was useful to you.
Utilize Share this resource with a small group of people and do the prompts together. Ask me if you need help with adapting it for your context.
Contribute If you are skilled in leading reflection spaces, offer to lead one. They occur Wednesdays 4pm - 5pm on zoom and will continue at least through August 2020.
Funding LGBT Rights in Ghana Community Support FundBlackTerpsMatter - supporting the needs of Black student activists at UMDPLUMAS Dream Fund - support the needs of undocumented students at UMD
Learn Utilize and share at least one resource from transformharm.org
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Guidelines for participants on zoom
1. Make yourself comfortable & do what you need to stay present (turn your video off, get up when you want, limit distractions).
2. Prompts are structured to continually interrupt mind-body split3. Lean into uncertainty & vulnerability to the extent you are able to. Lean into uncertainty & vulnerability to the extent you are able to.
I wI will always let you knoill always let you know beforehand if we are going to share what w beforehand if we are going to share what we write.we write.
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AAn access need is anything that prevents you from being able to n access need is anything that prevents you from being able to participate - what are yours?participate - what are yours?
May 24, 2020
Today’s structure1. 15 min journal - Connecting to our body2. 15 min journal - On S15 min journal - On Silenceilence3. 15 min journal - T15 min journal - Thankshanks
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Prompt #1: connecting to our Body“Society would have us believe that our bodies are wrong and yet they as their own brilliant thinking selves have defied society and survived over and over again, adapting and healing beyond the challenges that this world presents and are willing to continue as long as we ask [them] to.”
- The Through line Meditation by SpiritHouse NC
Describe how your body has been responding for the past couple of days. Get detailed. Feel free to talk about pain, numbness, and/or pleasure. (Note: if doing this exercise feels too triggering, focus instead on describing your current environment in exquisite detail.]
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Prompt #2: on silence
“My silence did not protect me. Your silence will not protect you.”
- Audre Lorde, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action
What silences about racism and the many impacts of racism are you holding onto? What are the fears and worries connected to that silence? Who are you trying to protect through your silence and is it working?
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Prompt #3: Thank you Gratitude is most effective when we connect it to people/relationships.
Who has awakened your senses? Who has said the things I was too afraid to say? Who in your network was already doing this work before now? Who has given you the gift of challenge, whether or not you were able to receive it? Who gave you the benefit of the doubt? Who keeps your “normal” going?
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June 3, 2020
Today’s structure1. 5 min autowrite2. Video: HoVideo: How Shame Can Block Accountabilityw Shame Can Block Accountability3. 10 min Journal - Apology10 min Journal - Apology4. 10 min Journal - “Enough”10 min Journal - “Enough”5. 10 min Journal - E10 min Journal - Expectations & Rxpectations & Realityeality
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5 min autowriteWrite whatever comes into your mind, no censorship, no need for complete sentences! Keep your pen moving/fingers typing until time!
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Video: shame & accountability“How Shame Can Block Accountability”
More on Building Accountable Communities at bit.ly/BAC2020
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Prompt #1: apology
Think of a time when you apologized to someone at work.
What happens in your body when you think about this memory?Write down the automatic thoughts that come to your mind as you remember.What parts of these thoughts/sensations feel like moving toward the other person? What parts of these thoughts/sensations feel like moving away?
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Prompt #2: enough
Many of us have struggled with the feeling of “I’m not doing enough” in the face of racial violence and tension.
In these moments, what are you picturing as “enough?”What would it feel like in your body for it to be “enough?”
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Prompt #3: expectations & reality For 5 minutes, complete the sentence as many times as you can:
“I’m supposed to be…”
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For 5 minutes, complete the sentence as many times as you can:
“I am…”
June 10, 2020
Today’s structure1. Icebreaker
a. Name, pronouns, where you work etcb. (briefly) what emotions have been present for you today?
2. 20 min journal - Asking more & better questions3. Debrief discussion
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Journal: what questions are you grappling with?
“Curiosity is often the first casualty of the politics of fear. Sometimes the things we fear most are our questions. More specifically, we fear the questions to which we don’t have answers. When we are afraid, we stop asking questions and start seeking short-term solutions. The work of my hands is the work of teaching students how to ask more and better questions.”
- Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
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Debrief conversation
What were your questions?What was emotional and physical reactions happened as you wrote?Where did you get stuck?How have you been handling having questions you can’t yet answer?How are your questions evolving?What might be the benefit of sharing your questions with others?
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June 24, 2020*note: we cancelled june 17th because I was at low capacity. Please always listen to your body and rest where you can!!
I’m looking at you Black women!!
Structure for wednesday, june 24th1. Intros 2. Dreaming Accountability3. Journaling (8 min)4. Discussion5. Community Accountability6. Journaling/Discussion7. Wrap-Up
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Intros - type in chat!a. Name, pronouns, campus role/where you’re located. Any access needs?
b. A few words on how you’ve been feeling today (for real)
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4 stages of accountability: mia mingus24
Share the graphic of the 4 stages from Mia Mingus’s blog, Leaving Evidence.
SELF-REFLECTION APOLOGY
REPAIR CHANGED BEHAVIOR
Dreaming accountability: mia mingus“What if we welcomed the quickening of our pulse and the beating of our heart as signals of being alive and caring and what is most important to us: our relationships with each other? What if we listened to that fear—the fear of losing someone important to us or of losing ourselves?”
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Dreaming accountability: mia mingus
“What if we understood our accountability, not as some small insignificant act, but as an intentional drop in an ever-growing river of healing, care, and repair that had the potential to nourish, comfort and build back trust on a large scale, carving new paths of hope and faith through mountains of fear and unacknowledged pain for generations?”
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Dreaming accountability: mia mingus
“What if we understood that no amount of ‘tough love’ or punishment could ever hold a candle to the long and hard labor, fear, and pain of facing our demons and our traumas? What if we learned to desire the challenging and the transformative, instead of the easy and the comfortable? After all, comfort and transformation do not live on the same block.”
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Journaling : 8 minsWhat are your immediate reactions to these provocations?
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Free- flow conversation29
(Possible debrief questions:)Within this framework...when have you experienced “true” accountability? What was that like?
What are examples on campus where accountability takes the form of “tough love” or punishment?
How is fear and comfort preventing accountability in your workspace?
How can we understand self-accountability in relation to the framework Mingus offers?
community accountability: incite!30
ONGOING DEVELOPMENTfor all to transform conditions reinforcing harm
SAFETY & SUPPORT for those targeted that respects self-determination
VALUES & PRACTICESthat resist harm and encourage safety & accountability
SUSTAINABLE PROCESSES to address abusive behavior that allows for transformation
Journaling prompt #2 (or discussion)31
Pick one aspect of CA where you feel like your workspace is on the right track.
Pick one aspect of CA that you feel your office/group has particularly off-track.
Wrap-up:● Final offerings (lessons from Mariame Kaba and @moonlighttheory):
○ You cannot force or manipulate someone else into taking accountability. Always start from self-accountability.
○ It matters more what you do when no one is watching.
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