The People in Me: An Ancestral Remembrance Project- Free Practice Session

About the Event:

Join CONNECT Center for Wellbeing and facilitator M. McCubbins for two FREE collective practice sessions, designed to deepen our connection to abolitionist ancestors and build a community accountable, politicized, spiritual practice rooted within our lineages.

The white supremacist, settler colonial project is strategically designed to disconnect us from land, our bodies, our spirits, and each other. “The People in Me: An Ancestral Remembrance Project,” is strategically designed to help us heal that disconnect by creating space for us to practice “being” with land, bodies, spirit, and each other in new and liberatory ways.

About the Facilitator:

M. (they/them) is a white, trans artist, writer, and cultural worker accountable to Black, Indigenous, Queer, Gender Expansive, Intergenerational, Poor, Working Class, Mad, Disabled, Neurodivergent histories and visions of the future. They offer eight years of experience growing systems-survival work, and have held many roles in the movements towards reproductive justice, transformative justice, and restorative justice, working with schools, universities, justice-centered non-profits, and collectives to align our work with liberation. At the heart of their work is the personal, political, and spiritual practice of tending to their own wounds, trauma shapings, and conditionings- noticing and releasing attachments to power, control, and other oppressive energies as they emerge. They specialize in collaborating with their ancestors to facilitate material and energetic reparations for their inherited legacies of genocidal, colonial, and anti-Black violence through public ritual, political organizing, and community care. They love poetry, meeting others where they are at, and experimenting with strategies to stay grounded in principled struggle, even as the ground beneath us shifts, changes, falls, and erodes away.

Acknowledgements:

This offering exists in gratitude to generations of Black, Brown and Indigenous activists, healers, organizers, and communities, who teach us how to steward, protect, and sustain ancient technologies of remembrance and ritual amidst colonial violence.

FAQ’s:

Who are practice sessions for?

Practice sessions are for folks of all lineages and wisdom traditions who are interested in spirituality and seek deeper alignment with abolitionist histories and futures.

Why prioritize connecting with our ancestors now?

As we survive and repair the legacies of colonial violence that deeply impact our beloved communities, we revere the ancestors who survived, resisted, and transcended these systems before us, who accessed freedom and strategized towards liberation under complex conditions. They have much to teach us about the fertility of our lives. We can turn to our ancestors with our questions, curiosities, and big feelings, and they will hold us in surprising and unexpected ways.

Our ancestors are important members of our care networks, pods, and support teams. They can partner with us across realms as we shape and bear witness to the unveiling*, the systems-crumbling, the empire-rupturing of our time.

Our ancestors hold key insights for how we might transform the world, and their wisdom becomes available to us when we create space for their stories, when we listen.

When we gather in political and spiritual community, we call in unprecedented protections, insights, and revelations. We help facilitate the process of intergenerational repair. We amplify collective efforts towards justice. We nourish our freedom.

*Unveiling is a term and a concept visioned by adrienne maree brown on her blog post, living through the unveiling.

Who are ancestors?

In the context of our practice sessions, the term “ancestor” refers to any being who came before us and embodied love, creativity, and possibility on their unique path. This understanding of “ancestor” stretches to include plants, animals, and energies.

An ancestor may be someone we know by name, or someone we simply feel in moments of presence. An ancestor may be a relative in our family of origin, blood lineage, and/or chosen family who offers us a sense of belonging. An ancestor may be a community member who nurtured or cared for us along our path.

An ancestor may be a writer, artist, or activist who inspires us, who we feel resonance with in thought, life choices, or interest. An ancestor may be an energy passed down to us through cultural storykeeping, ancestral folklore, and community tales. An ancestor may speak to us through intuition, sensations, signs, symbols, imagery, and subtle ways of knowing.

What to expect:

Each practice session is open to 12 participants.

Practice sessions are free, but require a ticket. Please register for this event so we can hold your spot!

Practice sessions are two hours long and are held in a community circle with supportive floor and chair seating available.

Circles begin with a grounding, held by the facilitator, and a group check in, where participants are invited to share how they feel and what and who brings them to the space. Following grounding, participants will build a collective altar to abolitionist ancestors and share stories that connect us.

Participants are invited to share what feels comfortable and may always choose to pass or not share.

The circle will be a sturdy container to grieve, celebrate, and wonder. This space can hold complexity, contradiction, difference, and nuance with care.

Participants will emerge from practice sessions with a clear understanding of the connection between the spiritual, cultural, personal, and political. Participants will also emerge with information on an upcoming 6 month cohort-style program, which will be deep-dive practice sessions focused on practical skills for maintaining a spiritual practice overtime.

Accessibility and Accommodations:

We want to make sure this space holds you, your identities, and your experiences well. Please email m.mccubbins.connect@gmail.com with any accessibility and accommodation needs, questions, curiosities, or concerns.