(no subject)

[holzman_tweed]

As I write this for later publication, I'm sitting at Atlanta Airport after having spent the last
four days at the Be Present 2006 Institute on Gender, Power,
and Class. It was a gathering of about 60 women, girls, boys, and men of a growing diversity of
races, ethnicities, classes, gender identities, and religions to discuss the named topics and how
they touch our lives. We held and continue to hold this conversation within the Be Present
Empowerment Model, which consists of three steps:

1. Know yourself outside the distress of oppression.
   
2. Listen to others in a conscious and present state.
   
3. Create new relationships and build alliances that celebrate differences as well as similarities.
   

It's hard to put into words in a linear fashion how many ways the conference was wonderful. Using the
model, we were able to -- at least temporarily -- step out of the distress of the oppressive
systems in which we live while still recognizing that those systems exist pervasively. By doing so,
we created an environment in which people who are oppressed by these systems and people who are
oppressors in these systems can better understand how and why we enact these roles,
how we are affected by them, and how we can find new ways to interact with one another, the world,
and ourselves.

The political is personal, and I have seen no place where that unity is more clearly acknolwedged and
addressed than in that room. Because what happens in each circle is confidential, I can't give
examples from the Institute per se, but I intend to adopt the model more often and more
effectively as I move forward here and interacting with others.

Cross-posted to holzman, debunkingwhite and sex_and_race.

Comments

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was a debunkingwhite. Awesome.

[ellimayhem.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wish I had known you were in town, I would have loved to see you!

[holzman.livejournal.com]

There was no time -- Be Present Institutes are pretty immersive and exhausting. When we were done for the day, we were going to bed.

On the other hand, with them being local, you might want to check them out.