*Creativity, Vulnerability & Power: Moving Forward Together

Creativity, Vulnerability & Power: Moving Forward Together

For Self-identified Black, Indigenous, People of Color & Multiracial persons

With Mushim Ikeda, Dr. Zahra Ahmed & Christian Howard

(ASL Interpretation & Closed Captioning Provided)

Drawing on “deep time” and Dharmic mindfulness-based practices, can we as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and Multiracial persons) see and seize the opportunities now arising to move forward together toward liberation? Is there a “magic formula” for both solidarity and emergent strategy arising from our diversity? Our teaching team consisting of a former Buddhist nun, a professor of political science, and an international organizational design specialist proposes a boldly compassionate community discussion on how Creativity, Vulnerability and Power manifest, interact, and hold the potential for transformative change. Guided mindfulness meditation, music, reflective journaling, and contemplative interactive dialogue in trauma-informed and disability-informed ways.

---

To make a gift to sustain the work of East Bay Meditation Center, please do so via Paypal: paypal.me/eastbaymeditation or our website: eastbaymeditation.org/dana

Zahra Ahmed (she/her) Zahra is an Assistant Professor of Politics at St. Mary’s College of CA. She is also a conflict mediator and a practitioner of restorative pedagogies in community spaces. She is committed to addressing socio-political issues through higher education as a means of creating more socially just communities. Zahra is a graduate of the sixth Practice in Transformative Action program offered through East Bay Meditation Center. She has also served as an apprentice teacher for seventh and eighth cohorts of the program. Zahra’s spiritual background is varied, with foundations in Islam, Ifa and Buddhism. She is the mother of one daughter who serves as one of her most important spiritual teachers.

Christian Howard (they/them) is a writer, designer, and cultural strategist who uses storytelling to explore introspection and transformative futures with communities and organizations. Their work in the US and abroad focuses on cultivating mindful leadership practices that support sustainable social and organizational change. Their spiritual practice is based primarily in Tibetan Buddhist traditions (primarily Gelug and Nyingma, with a strong component of Dzogchen and "mind training" in the Dalai Lama'’s lineage), and integrates research on the experience of emotion as a path for developing the happiness of being for ourselves and in relationship with others. They are a graduate of EBMC’s sixth Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA) cohort and have served as an Apprentice Teacher for the PiTA7 and PiTA8 cohorts.

Mushim Patricia Ikeda (she/her) is a socially-engaged Buddhist teacher and social justice activist based in Oakland, California at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC), where she is a core teacher. Her practice includes both lay and monastic experience. Mushim is the founder and guiding teacher of EBMC’s award-winning Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA), a yearlong secular mindfulness training program for agents of transformative change now in its eighth cohort. For more information about Mushim’s recorded talks and published writing, go to www.mushimikeda.com