Collectivizing Care toward Liberation

285 17th St,Oakland CA 94612

28 January, 2023

Description

Saturday, January 28th 2023 9:30 - 4 PM PST (Time Zone Converter) Closed Captioning Provided Overview Care and caring can become overly focused on the individual, and consequently become “too capitalistically driven and centered on luxurious pampering that has very little to do with sustainable nurturing and all to do with spending money, which for the communities that actually need the most care, they cannot access!” (Aimaloghi Eromosele). Aimaloghi Eromosel also offered that “There is no self-care without community care.” This workshop draws from Dharmic values and other spiritual traditions and social justice movements so that we embrace our purpose and activism as acts of healing and loving. We will acknowledge that in life, there is suffering, and awaken the love, power, and justice within our communities. We will take away from this program a deep acceptance that “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare” (Audre Lorde). The workshop will be experiential in nature, allowing for thinking, feeling, and doing alone and in with others. The facilitator will cultivate community agreements toward fostering “brave space,” yet in every community, the issues we broach (e.g., White supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, oppression) may be trigger addressed and unaddressed trauma. I will facilitate a process that nurtures healing, yet does not eliminate the potential for harm. The Flow The elements of the day-long workshop will include: - Mindfulness instruction and practices (e.g., meditation, etc.,); - Frameworks of Collectivizing Care: - Wisdom from the Buddha, the Dharma, and our Sangha; - Foundation of movement building that incorporates somatic healing; - Accessing love, power, and justice from what matters, what’s difficult, and what’s possible. - Increasing awareness of practices and tools for caring and not caring; healing and harming in the midst of attachment/greed, aversion/hatred, and indifference/delusion. - Practicing care and compassion, as well as learning from the challenges of why individual and collective care can be difficult. For those wishing to practice in person, space will be limited to 40 people to allow ample space for social distancing. Participants will be asked to wear N95 or KN95 face masks and be fully vaccinated against covid19, which at this time means having received the covid bivalent booster no less than two weeks before the event. (N95 face masks will be available at EBMC.) East Bay Meditation Center is a scent free / fragrance free space and is wheelchair accessible. To attend in person, you need to be completely free of fragranced body and clothing products -- more information and a list of fragrance free products, including those that are especially good for people of color, appears on our website: https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/ To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please do so via Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation or our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana 100% of our programming is sliding scale and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. Thank you for the gifts of your generosity and for supporting the work of East Bay Meditation Center and our beloved teachers who have volunteered their time. Dr. Renato Almanzor is a transformation catalyst, whose experience emerges from over 25 years developing leaders committed to equitable communities, multicultural organizations, and social justice. As a leadership expert, he has delivered keynote addresses, workshops, and seminars on issues related to leadership for equity, cultural diversity, and social change. Much of his work has been dedicated to supporting community leaders working with and in low-income communities and communities of color. He has a PhD and MA in organizational psychology, an MS in counseling, and BA in psychology, as well as certifications in coaching and Zumba Instruction. He is a proud alum of the first Practices in Transformative Action program at the East Bay Meditation Center, where he also served as an apprentice the following year. If you would like to make a gift to support Renato's teachings, please do so via Venmo: @dralmanzor