Hi friends,
From my position as an administrator leading equity and inclusion efforts in higher education to the depths of my own reflections as just one more person trying to live through 2020, I’ve been wrestling (and sometimes really struggling) with the gravity and complexity of issues we are all collectively called to navigate. Over the past seven months, since COVID-19 disrupted all of our systems here in the United States, I’ve done a lot of thinking and feeling, especially in light of the heightened social and political awareness regarding the need to change how we do things – on every level – to create a more just, equitable, and livable world.
And then I was invited to give a keynote for UAlbany’s Diversity Conference. The explicit ask was to speak to what people can do now to put their social justice commitments into action.
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to share some of what I’ve been working through because it has been A. LOT. Despite how it may look like from the timestamps on my blog posts, I HAVE been doing loads of writing. My reflections have filled about 800 pages of notebooks…since March!
With all that volume of thought, it’s been tough to keep up with myself as I develop several new concepts and approaches to think and feel and act in transformative ways, even though I also desperately want to get it all out. And that’s how and why I’ve come to realize how helpful it is for me to just talk about these things, to share them and my own process by speaking very candidly with others. It’s like a pressure release valve for me right now, but it also helps me massage some of my own learning edges and clarify my ideas even further.
(With that said, if you have a channel, platform, program, event, meeting, gathering, or whatever, I’ve made the commitment to say ‘yes’ to invitations from those who are invested in learning with me. I appreciate every opportunity to share, develop, engage, and get some of this out, and I want to keep exploring creative ways of doing that! Hit me up if you want to connect!)
This keynote touches on many themes – liberation, systemic change, interpersonal relationships, how we can show up when we actually care about other people. There’s more, too, like metaphors about ladybugs and rhizomes, and even why it’s critical to center joy and levity as we create spaces for liberation. Today. Right now. In all of our many opportunities to do so in a variety of ways, and how we don’t have to wait or believe that liberation remains somewhere distant, very far away.
It was a special talk for me because I wanted to share more about where I’ve been these past few months. Maybe you’ve been in similar places. If so, I really hope some of this resonates!
With a lot of love,
Cori