In this workshop, skilled facilitator Laura Levinson will guide us through a deep exploration 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 will practice centering and grounding in our own bodies, verbal and nonverbal listening, and understanding some of the ways racism shows up in the room.

Sosan Flynn will assist by bringing in core Zen practices that relate to this work, including: how to stay with difficult emotions during meditation so that they may be transformed rather than repressed, how bowing practice and the chant of formless atonement can help us connect to our bodies, and how taking refuge in the three treasures supports this work.

This workshop will be a deepening practice of building awareness of whiteness/white supremacy in the body, in relationship and in the wider community. It's orientated towards those already on this journey; however, you are welcome to join in you are newer with the understanding that the structure will not be geared towards beginners.

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 taught the Repatterning Whiteness class at Clouds last fall, and 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.