Repatterning Whiteness: Shifting culture from the inside-out – Oct. 3
Repatterning Whiteness: Shifting culture from the inside-out
(Embodied Practice for White Sangha Members)
with Or Laura Levinson
Oct 3 – Nov 21. 8 classes. Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
In person attendance is highly encouraged, but a zoom option will also be available.
Limit of 30 people.
We all crave a community that feels like home. As white Sangha members, it is our responsibility to ensure that unconscious expressions of whiteness do not make our beloved community inhospitable to Black, Indigenous, and POC members and participants.
Are you feeling stuck, confused, or at a loss for how to do this? Join us for eight weeks of practice, support, and inquiry with Laura Levinson. We’ll build our capacity for tough conversations through connection to our own bodies and histories. Together, we cultivate deep awareness of the ways colonialism and white supremacy have impacted our bodies at the cellular level, and feel how they continue to show up in our actions and relationships. We are excited to explore the ways in which Buddhist practice can support and amplify our healing and unlearning process. Participants will experience antiracism work as something deeper than shame and guilt. At its core, antiracism work is a practice of love and joy, as we learn to access our full humanity through ending white supremacy. Some of the things we will practice:
- Centering and grounding in our own bodies
- Bringing the practice of the Paramitas into our bodies – Generosity, Morality (precepts), Patience, Effort/Energy, Concentration/Focus, Wisdom
- Giving and receiving apologies
- Verbal and nonverbal listening
- Understanding some of the ways racism shows up in the room
If you missed this class last year, now’s your chance to jump in.
Laura Levinson (they/them), who also goes by Or אור, is a performing artist, arts organizer, and healer who feels most at home in motion. They call on the magic of queer Jewish diaspora to remind us that love in transit still has its roots in the earth. We belong to the land – ani l’dodi v’dodi li. Or has been creating performance and facilitating workshops for the past eight years focused on de-assimilation, solidarity, and abrading whiteness. They have partnered with Clouds on various projects over the past several years. Other past workshops have included “Gut, Bones, Ground,” which brings together deep body awareness, bone- and land-stories, and herbal wisdom; and “Swimming Home,” co-created with Leila Awadallah and following the threads of diaspora, ancestry, body-as-homeland, and river water as divine anticolonial/borderless guide.
Contribution:
Clouds in Water relies on a Gift Economics Model of resource transparency, suggested sliding scale tiers and no set fees in order to balance financial sustainability, the Buddhist practice of generosity, justice and equity. Clouds in Water is a community supported temple, relying primarily on the donations and class fees that our sangha offers.
Sliding Scale (All are welcome. No one will be turned away for lack of funds)
- Patron Level: $1,200 (covers teacher payments, and Clouds admin/staffing, and makes it possible for more people to attend who cannot afford the full amount)
- Value Level: $700 (covers teacher payments and Clouds admin/staffing)
- Basic Level: $250 (covers Clouds admin/staffing)Your Level: You choose the amount. No one is turned away due to inability to pay.
“We know in our hearts that there is a different way to be, a different way to live. Our generosity with one another is indeed resistance to the greed and fear that oppresses us. We provide for one another out of love for each other and love for ourselves. When we give, we acknowledge that all beings want to be happy.”
-Jacoby Ballard
Online registration ends 10/1/2023
If you wish to register after 10/1/2023 please contact the events coordinator at info@cloudsinwater.org. Please note that you may not get an immediate response.