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Belonging - 6th annual empowerment symposium - live at Birkbeck
Belonging
Come and celebrate our 6th Annual Empowerment Symposium at Birkbeck College.
Details
Day one - Rhonda Magee and Cathy-Mae Karelse
Saturday, 27th July 2024 - Community stalls day
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Day two - Kwame Djemejem and Tijen Ahmed
Sunday the 28th July 2024
12:00pm - 5:00pm
- community and well-being stalls
- music and performances by Andrea Roye, Talibah and Tuneless Choir
Hosted by William Fley and Imani Sorhaindo
About the event
We are collectively facing the intensifying and brutalizing force of our own humanity globally, and its impact on the intersecting social and ecological crises of our time. The root cause of this violence often hinges on a dualistic logic of separation and manifests viciously via exploitation, extraction, and genocide. In other words, the crises of our times require relational solutions, including both a non-dual frame of spiritual practice and a capacity to build collective power for effective action.
While calls for a relational paradigm shift have been growing over the past few years, we still require skills and tools to affect transformative and systemic liberatory change. We are not simply trying to recalibrate our bodies, minds, and hearts towards a new normal in this time of crisis. We are rather called to, as relational beings, develop skills to address the separation deeply rooted in the intersecting crises of our time and leverage our power to envision, create, and embody new, liberatory ways of being
We are eager to explore how we, as well-being communities in service of collective action and liberation for all, might step into our power in the face of these ongoing crises, to actively create new and liberatory paradigms that explore themes of collective and personal power, protection, and precision. The objective of this symposium is to, from a grounded, nondual practice, investigate how questions of power, precision, and protection can propel us from calls for a relationship paradigm shift to the reality of a relational future.
Specifically, we ask:
- How do we work with our attachment and aversion to power to deepen our collective and nuanced understanding of power as a tool of liberation and not domination?
- How can we call forth embodied spiritual teachings within our lineages to help guide us in wielding personal and collective power with precision in service of creating new, liberated worlds?
- How do we wield power precisely and effectively while simultaneously attuning to the need for protection of ourselves–and ultimately all others–on this path? Words taken from the 'Arrow publication'.
Our signature event in 2024 is a symposium at Birkbeck College on 27 July on the theme of 'Belonging'. Followed by a mindfulness practice day on the 28th.
On Saturday 27th we have two key speakers - Professor Rhonda Magee from the US making a rare visit to London, author of "The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing ourselves and Transforming our Communities through Mindfulness" and described by 'Mindful' as one of the "12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement". And Dr Cathy-Mae Karelse, an alumni of SOAS (PhD in Mindfulness) who is an influential and inspirational public speaker on race, difference and belonging and author of "Disrupting White Mindfulness: Race and Racism in the Wellbeing Industry".
On Sunday 28th we will be holding a mindfulness practice day, called 'The Infinite Love Ritual.
For bookings
Visit MNPC to book your place now.
William Fley William has developed, ‘Forgiveness Empowerment’ retreats, and has an MA in race, culture and ethnicity from Birkbeck College, William has also taught at the University of Brighton and the University of London. Qualified as an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist from Roehampton University,