This workshop builds upon Resma Menakem and Tada Hozumi’s cultural somatics work. As a somatic practitioner, I know that White-bodied people need remedial somatic work in order to operationalize the things we intellectualize. A Black colleague told me that her BIPOC clients easily locate responses to racial situations in their bodies, whereas her white clients look at her “like I’m from Mars” when asked to do this simple task.

This is important to Truth-Telling because White-bodied people must be able to hear, feel and process counternarratives. Truth shatters cherished beliefs about our “founding fathers,” our “exceptional” governance, our vaunted economic system, even our family histories. We must develop the skills to discern, unpack and honestly express our own resistance - resistance that comes from the shattering of these false narratives upon which we have built families, systems and self-images.

This experiential session will include a “20-Minute Dance.” The relationship of this practice to racial justice work is described by its creator, Arawana Hayashi at https://arrow-journal.org/body-knowing-as-a-vehicle-for-change/ Briefly, it cultivates, “the capacity to feel and the ability to be with what is happening as a doorway into collective creativity.” Hence, it is the base strategy of operationalizing racial equity.

We will also practice mirroring others’ body language back to them in a non-judgmental, non-interpretive way, using “Embodied Research.” This promotes cultural self-awareness necessary to understand our physical impact on others. Finally, we will utilize “Village” simulations to feel in our bodies what happens when we project false identities onto others.