I hope that you’ve had a restful and joyful holiday season. The opportunity to spend time with family, or simply unplug and step away from work is something that shouldn’t be relegated to just this time of year, yet we can still savor these moments of quiet and connection.I have been reflecting on the past three years and the chain of events that led me to leaving my life in NYC to relocate to Mexico. Tuning into the wisdom of this land and its indigenous peoples has opened my heart to a new...
about 3 years ago • 1 min read
Based on the plans I put in motion a few months ago, I thought I was going to be writing to you today about my new course under the Wild Dreams umbrella. But that’s not what's happening. (Read to the end for all the updates alongside lessons learned.) When I decided to offer Wild Dreams in a self-guided format this year, I was really excited to simplify and bring ease to myself and the women who would be part of the program. I didn’t realize just how much needed to change and be reshaped. As...
over 3 years ago • 4 min read
For this edition of Emerging Rhizomes, I invited my dear friend and colleague Trish Adobea Tchume. Trish is a first generation Ghanaian-American and serves as Senior Director of Leadership Research and Practice for the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. In this role, Trish collaborates with other organizations to explore, define, and support leadership and organizational approaches that prefigure a world where all of us can thrive. She is a Brooklynite, a proud auntie, a beach stan, and...
over 3 years ago • 7 min read
We’re not talking about rest so all of you can go take a nap. And to be clear some leaders actually need a long nap. In the first six months of the pandemic, I co-facilitated a series of identity-caucus sessions for black staff members from a prominent economic rights organization. My co-facilitator and I had really taken account of the stress inside the organization. Some of this stress came from the way the system works, the diverse effects the pandemic was having, and the ongoing trauma of...
over 3 years ago • 2 min read
The rest movement has become incredibly controversial. We have generational, historical and class communication gaps on this important topic, and we need to begin having a different conversation about the value of rest. I want you to know that we don’t need to fight about rest movements. It is true that some of us are in a season with enough energy to carry on and move at a faster pace. And others, especially black and brown women, have been experiencing burnout at an unprecedented level. The...
over 3 years ago • 2 min read
I am so excited to begin Emerging Rhizomes to share the brilliance of leaders, caregivers, creatives, and facilitators, who are digging deep into their lived and ancestral experiences to help us backstroke, butterfly, wade, float, stand, and sit as we navigate the waters of intense, collective social change in our communities, organizations and industries and ourselves. This section of our writing is meant to inspire and shine a light over work that helps us decolonize our thinking and/or...
over 3 years ago • 5 min read
A few weeks ago, I found myself listening to one phone call after another about the myriad of conflicts inside several organizations and in some of the one-on-one coaching work that I do. It was the fourth call in a week asking for help to resolve what I would refer to as long-standing conflict. I have always tried to be tender with my consulting clients and coachees, explaining things to them in increments so they have time to absorb the information and make strategic choices for their...
over 3 years ago • 3 min read
I can’t express how grateful I am to be living in Mexico.Although I am not from Mexico, being here has brought me a more profound understanding of who I am and what cultural values are important to me, both African and Indigenous to the Americas. I recently spent two months in the mountains of Chiapas. Honestly, I haven’t been able to put into words what happened there until now. I basically received a complete re-education and a new way to walk in the world. But how did I end up there? In...
over 3 years ago • 5 min read
Where purpose, ancestral wisdom, and imaginationtake the front seat in our movements for change Hi Reader, The 5th cohort of the Wild Dreams program came to a close last month, and I am feeling excited and activated around new possibilities and new directions the program will be taking in the future. This season, what rose to the top was the theme of navigating transitions, and all that it entails. Living through transition has taken on many new dimensions, and we’re giving ourselves...
almost 4 years ago • 2 min read