An afternoon of personal and political story sharing and art making for this time. This event is designed for white people who are for the freedom of all beings, and open to looking inward.
WHERE: 645 Grant St SE Atlanta
WHEN: Saturday, May 9th 1-5 pm
WHY: Whatever we are showing up to during this era of rising authoritarianism and fascism (i.e., parenting, organizing, writing, ICE chasing, surviving, loving, working), we are shaped by the place we do it and the people who came before us. As we care for this place–Atlanta, Georgia, the South–and those who live here, we shape this place back. We who are white and in Atlanta or nearby are walking in a lineage of white Southerners. Some of the people in this lineage were disrupters of white supremacy. Lillian Smith was one of those people, and we will spend time with her voice and writing when we gather, as one muse.
HOW: We will move through a set of reflective and creative activities that bring us more intimately in touch with who we are in this lineage of white Southerners. This will sustain us as we keep believing in and building a South where all can thrive.
Have you ever stood in the middle of Sweetwater Creek?
It’s one of my favorite places in the Atlanta area and I know I’m not the only one.
My feet search for stable footing among slippery, wobbly rocks.
Once I find that, the feeling of being surrounded by this large and loud creek is magnificent.
Standing in the middle of the roaring creek, I feel a part of something bigger, older, more timeless than my own small part in this world.
I also slip and fall often, and then I laugh. I find new footing, but this time with wet clothes.
I can feel the current, the water moving eastward around me.
The creek is a metaphor for the lineage I am walking in.
A lineage of white Southerners who came before, and and who come after me.
What if I knew this lineage more intimately?
Who am I in this creek of lineage?
On May 9, we will feel, map, and connect with our individual and shared white Southern lineage(s): elders, ancestors, comrades, and future generations.
Bring your heart. Bring your grief.
Bring your devastation.
Bring your joy.
Bring your playfulness.
Bring your creativity.
Bring your exhaustion.
Find your footing in the creek of lineage.
Laugh in good company when you fall.
TICKET PRICE OPTIONS:
GOT QUESTIONS? Email jen.willsea@gmail.com
Jen Willsea (she/her) is a queer mama of two young children, a sewist of garments and quilts, and a baker. As a white antiracist practitioner for more than 20 years (11+ of those in Atlanta), she has led thousands of individuals and groups through experiences focused on naming and facing the unnameable, connecting to what is real and vulnerable, and healing the wounds of white supremacy. Jen is known for the deep well of wisdom and groundedness she brings to her antiracist facilitation, consulting, coaching and writing as a white cisgender woman.
Jen has spent more than two decades studying with healer facilitator elders across the U.S. - Black, Brown, Indigenous, and white - and their liberatory models for internal, relational, institutional and systemic change. Over the last decade, Jen has founded creative projects with friend-collaborators rooted in the stance that we can and must practice freedom from colonial legacies now. In Atlanta, these have included Liberatory Power Consulting Group and The Black Mecca Project.
A daughter of spiritual seekers, lovers of oceans and boats, studious researchers, creators of beauty and of delights to the tastebuds, Jen’s blood lineage traces 11-generations to English and Dutch Protestant settler colonizers of northeastern Turtle Island, and 4-generations to Ukrainian Jewish and Scottish refugees to the U.S. For Jen, unraveling allegiance to whiteness is a devotional path. She is focused on the spiritual, somatic, and relational practices that make the death of whiteness real, and provide glimpses of a future beyond whiteness.
Jen currently serves on the Governance Team at Change Elemental, is a member of the VISIONS Inc. network of consultants, is an independent consultant, and is a Hearth-Tender at Cavesong. She has a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University.
An afternoon of personal and political story sharing and art making for this time. This event is designed for white people who are for the freedom of all beings, and open to looking inward.
WHERE: 645 Grant St SE Atlanta
WHEN: Saturday, May 9th 1-5 pm
WHY: Whatever we are showing up to during this era of rising authoritarianism and fascism (i.e., parenting, organizing, writing, ICE chasing, surviving, loving, working), we are shaped by the place we do it and the people who came before us. As we care for this place–Atlanta, Georgia, the South–and those who live here, we shape this place back. We who are white and in Atlanta or nearby are walking in a lineage of white Southerners. Some of the people in this lineage were disrupters of white supremacy. Lillian Smith was one of those people, and we will spend time with her voice and writing when we gather, as one muse.
HOW: We will move through a set of reflective and creative activities that bring us more intimately in touch with who we are in this lineage of white Southerners. This will sustain us as we keep believing in and building a South where all can thrive.
Have you ever stood in the middle of Sweetwater Creek?
It’s one of my favorite places in the Atlanta area and I know I’m not the only one.
My feet search for stable footing among slippery, wobbly rocks.
Once I find that, the feeling of being surrounded by this large and loud creek is magnificent.
Standing in the middle of the roaring creek, I feel a part of something bigger, older, more timeless than my own small part in this world.
I also slip and fall often, and then I laugh. I find new footing, but this time with wet clothes.
I can feel the current, the water moving eastward around me.
The creek is a metaphor for the lineage I am walking in.
A lineage of white Southerners who came before, and and who come after me.
What if I knew this lineage more intimately?
Who am I in this creek of lineage?
On May 9, we will feel, map, and connect with our individual and shared white Southern lineage(s): elders, ancestors, comrades, and future generations.
Bring your heart. Bring your grief.
Bring your devastation.
Bring your joy.
Bring your playfulness.
Bring your creativity.
Bring your exhaustion.
Find your footing in the creek of lineage.
Laugh in good company when you fall.
TICKET PRICE OPTIONS:
GOT QUESTIONS? Email jen.willsea@gmail.com
Jen Willsea (she/her) is a queer mama of two young children, a sewist of garments and quilts, and a baker. As a white antiracist practitioner for more than 20 years (11+ of those in Atlanta), she has led thousands of individuals and groups through experiences focused on naming and facing the unnameable, connecting to what is real and vulnerable, and healing the wounds of white supremacy. Jen is known for the deep well of wisdom and groundedness she brings to her antiracist facilitation, consulting, coaching and writing as a white cisgender woman.
Jen has spent more than two decades studying with healer facilitator elders across the U.S. - Black, Brown, Indigenous, and white - and their liberatory models for internal, relational, institutional and systemic change. Over the last decade, Jen has founded creative projects with friend-collaborators rooted in the stance that we can and must practice freedom from colonial legacies now. In Atlanta, these have included Liberatory Power Consulting Group and The Black Mecca Project.
A daughter of spiritual seekers, lovers of oceans and boats, studious researchers, creators of beauty and of delights to the tastebuds, Jen’s blood lineage traces 11-generations to English and Dutch Protestant settler colonizers of northeastern Turtle Island, and 4-generations to Ukrainian Jewish and Scottish refugees to the U.S. For Jen, unraveling allegiance to whiteness is a devotional path. She is focused on the spiritual, somatic, and relational practices that make the death of whiteness real, and provide glimpses of a future beyond whiteness.
Jen currently serves on the Governance Team at Change Elemental, is a member of the VISIONS Inc. network of consultants, is an independent consultant, and is a Hearth-Tender at Cavesong. She has a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University.
Image 1 of 11
Image 2 of 11
Image 3 of 11
Image 4 of 11
Image 5 of 11
Image 6 of 11
Image 7 of 11
Image 8 of 11
Image 9 of 11
Image 10 of 11
Image 11 of 11