Belonging - 6th Annual Empowerment symposium - Live at Birkbeck College

Belonging- 6th Annual Empowerment Symposium -

Birkbeck College

Saturday 27th 

Hosted  by William Fley and Imani Sorhaindo

Intention & Community 

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.

Transformation & 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.

Hope and vision

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.  

Learning and Integration 

Specifically, we ask:

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. 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' 

 Day1 - Key Note speaker: Professor Rhonda V. Magee, M.A., J.D.

Deepening The Roots of Wellbeing: 

Awareness-Based Practices for Grounding in Your Lifeforce, Even in Hard Times

Based on our own exploration of the Four Noble Truths, and the supportive direction detailed in teachings of the Eightfold Path, we'll look at additional teachings and practices that support establishing mindfulness in a kind of a deeper, more resilient and more robust way, as a support for really being able then to discern wise action in the face of the challenges around us. We will explore cultivating mindfulness of breathing, the four establishments of mindfulness, and being inside the spacious joy of allowing these practices to penetrate every aspect of our lives. And we will evolve our own deeper practice for really establishing oneself in the strength of our innate being – no matter what comes our way in these times. We will shine a light on the reality that when we engage in mindfulness practices, we are never really talking about just a personal practice for focusing, or increasing wellbeing, though these consequences of a regular practice matter. The practices deliver us to the awareness that we always, already belong in this world, and therein lies their capacity to help us amplify our lifeforce to exalted heights, for our wellbeing, and for the benefit of all beings.

Ronda Magee is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, where she has taught Torts, Insurance Law, Race in American Legal History, and a course she co-created called Contemplative Lawyering. She is the author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (Penguin RandomHouse TarcherPerigee: 2019, which broke new ground on publication as the first book of its kind to integrate mindfulness principles and practices thoroughly into the conversation on addressing race and racism in diverse settings and communities, and helping us heal from the trauma that the legacies of racism cause. She accepted authorization as a spiritual guide and teacher in the Zen lineage, Hoshi Myozen Magee also draws on her training as a mindfulness teacher trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and her study and co-teaching with Bhikkhu Analayo, a Buddhist Monk in the Theravadan tradition, and renown scholar of early Buddhism. Hoshi Magee is a founding advisor of the Mindfulness in Law Society, and an internationally recognized mindfulness teacher and Keynote speaker. Her current writing and teaching explore how culturally specific practices – including Black cultural spirituality and the quality of soulfulness -- may intersect with and strengthen mindfulness.

In January 2023, Magee received an appointment to the National Institutes of Health’s National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health, which plays a key role advising the NCCIH on forthcoming research projects and policies. In Fall 2023, and while continuing to serve as Professor of Law, Rhonda accepted an appointment as the founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco.

Key Note speaker: Cathy Mae Karelse- 

Bridging and Belonging: Embodying Freedom

Bridging is a powerful way to build movements that bring our dreams of a fair and just world into being. A global home in which we all belong transcends Othering with its roots in neoliberalism, whiteness and hyper-individualism. Rather than limit ourselves to culture wars, playing catch-up, or proving anything (which Toni Morrison cautions us against), we continue to choose freedom. Inner-led change has long found resonance with individual, communal and planetary liberation. In most of our traditions, the inner and outer are inseparable and intertwined. By stepping into our birth right, we bathe in the communal waters of freedom that reside deep within us and among us. We dance with the cosmos, play our part, and engage in worldmaking. Bridging occurs as much within ourselves, as it does with the land and the elements, with our kin and our more-than-human kin. This heart-based work moves us beyond imposed limitations towards freedom. We practice becoming free and the felt sense of being free. Embodied liberation, rooted in communal joy and belonging, is a pathway to our limitless nature. It is the way of the cosmos.

Cathy-Mae Karelse- PhD is an independent specialist with years of experience in deep systems change and decolonisation. As a thought leader in belonging and thriving, she designs and delivers customised change-making strategies and programmes to shepherd meaningful transformation. Cathy-Mae has worked with corporates, policy institutes, communities, and global programmes around policies and strategies that generate embodied leadership, justice, and freedom. As author of Disrupting White Mindfulness: Race and Racism in the Wellbeing Industry, she advocates for global South, Indigenous, queer leadership in emergent worldmaking. In addition to public speaking, she is an educator, coach, and change-maker.

-Community and Well-Being Stalls -Music and performances by Andrea Roye, Talibah and Tuneless Choir

Talibah Rivers -  is a Singer, Choir leader and Sound Reiki healer,  she is an accomplished vocalist

with a passion for Jazz. She has a strong belief that singing should be for everyone and

loves helping people find the confidence to express themselves and to enjoy singing whether

they are in tune or out. She has facilitated workshops for the Lambeth Country Show online

and in person and hosted Sing, Play, Release singing, meditation, and movement

workshops she devised for well-being and social prescribing for the Royal College of

General Practitioners. Singing gets your endorphins flowing. These are the brain’s feel-good chemicals, one of the many reasons why singing with others has been shown to increase life satisfaction. Choir

members leave sessions feeling uplifted and experience a positive shift in their mood after

joining in. 

Please join us for an exciting event with guest speaker presentations, celebration, music and discussion at Birkbeck College.

The folowing community stalls stall have been confirmed as attending 

   1. Ella Taylor – Reiki and Crystal Healing products

  2. Mindfulness in Schools- Working with young people 

  3. Jacquline Hannam - Health and Well-Being Dietary Supplements and Yoga Classes

  4. Sussex Mindfulness Centre 

  5. Civil Society Consultancy

  6. Universal Healing Tao UK-Matthew Boseley

  7. Zindika Kamausi

  8. Gaia House- Retreats 

  9. Insight london- Dharma connection 

 10. Mindfulness Network- International mindfulness confrence 

 11. Bamba- DEI'S

 12. Nathanial Mclean woking with youth crime 

 13. Andrea Atwell and Turkish retreats