kuumba lynx on transformative spaces

lately i’ve been feeling the pull to do more and more healing and trauma work. i know in some ways it feels like the hot thing, but i think it’s for really good reasons. in fact, i would say necessary reasons. i’m beginning to believe that a system’s capacity to deal with trauma and heal is (or is at least directly proportional to) its capacity to grow. more on that in other posts…

anyway, in a recent episode of vs, jacinda bullie and darius parker from the chicago-based youth-development program/org, kuumba lynx, were on and they talked in detail about what a transformative space is. i was so struck by their words that i listened to the section again and tried to write down what i thought were key points. what i gathered was that transformative spaces:

• don’t turn anyone away.

• acknowledge that there will be hiccups and they are prepared to deal with them. that means having people who can handle them when they come up as well as having clear structures to do that. one example was that sometimes you are given a responsibility and, for whatever reason, you can’t show up to it fully. the proper course of action is for you to step out of that role and into another, less demanding or better fitting role until (if ever) you can step back into that original role. this is seen as fine and normal. it helps you and everyone else.

• acknowledge that folks are committed to being held accountable. this is just a straightup expectation. if no one is going to be turned away, everyone must willing to be held accountable for their thoughts and behaviors. these two things are linked and the space won’t work otherwise.

• take as a default that people are perpetuating privilege and should act accordingly when held accountable.

there is so much more to explain here and even more i want to know about this organization and its thinking and being. i’m gonna google them for sure, but i can think of several organizations that need to have conversations involving things like the above. thank you, franny, danez, jacinda, and bullie.

words / writing / post-processing
350w / 11min / 6min