Healing & Dealing is a two-part project taking place this spring in Brussels and Helsinki. Dealing will be part of the Stop Hatred Now Festival in Helsinki, focusing on white people and encouraging them to take responsibility for their part within structural white supremacy. Healing will be organised in Brussels as a mirror event to the one in Helsinki.
Why Healing & Dealing?
“Healing & Dealing was born out of my need to have a space, if only for one day, where I can exist and breathe without the overwhelming presence of whiteness. As I am working in the very white culture bubble of Brussels, I want to develop and expand the Institute’s diversity and equity work. The institute is continuously working on diversifying its staff and programming, so what better way than to have a two-part project where the first part focuses on shifting the responsibility of dealing with racism on whiteness and the second part focuses on giving a break to Blackness? The way the world is set up now the workload of dealing with racism is on Black individuals and on the Black community while it is not them who are in the main role of inflicting racism.”
– Laisa Conde
Dealing
This Whiteness Workout is for those who are interested in increasing their fitness in terms of whiteness as a structure, its manifestations and expressions. The workshop is for anyone who sweats over these issues and feels the need to get in shape in order to combat white supremacy.
The workshop does not entail any physical activities, it is rather an emotional exercise that will have your brain working. The workshop will go over the basics of whiteness and all newcomers are welcome.
The language of each workshop will be determined by each group, Finnish/Swedish/English. The workshop is intended for white people.
Lehmus Murtomaa (hen/they/them) is a performer, musician and producer who has been working in the independent art sector since 1997. Their interests include boundaries, the blurring, erasing, seeing, stretching and strengthening of them, the demolition of white supremacy and consent.
Workshop Dates and Times
16 May 2022, Online – Finnish/Swedish/English
17 May 2022, Stop Hatred Now Festival – Finnish/Swedish/English
Led by Lehmus Murtomaa
More information about attending the workshops will be published in the Stop Hatred Now programme soon.
Healing
The Healing day in Brussels will consist of a mindfulness session and two workshops with a focus on the healing of racial trauma. The vision is to have a safe space for only Black people. The day will consist of a mindfulness session and two workshops all designed to advance the healing of racial trauma. The vision is to have a safe space for only Black people (women and non-binary).
The healing day will consist of two different workshops:
Soul Echoes, facilitated by Isabelle N’Diaye and Céline Gaza: “Soul Echoes is a dedicated space and time where Bodies of Culture are sharing a moment to weave, breathe and reconnect from and within ourselves.”
Resisting Resistance Fatigue facilitated by Monica Gathuo: “In the workshop we will discuss self-care methods, create ways to keep track of our wellbeing and explore ways of releasing the piled up energies”, The vision of the day is to have a safe space for only Black people (women and nonbinary).
Isabelle N’diaye A high density spectrum of practices valorizing non–eurocentric knowledges on time, space, and relationships are streaming Isabelle N’diaye inspirations. Tiding links throughout Africa, the Caribbean and Europe, Isabelle understands herself as a form of cultural hyphen. For a couple of years now, part of her artistic and organising path aims at translating transformative justice in a more desirable and understandable vocabulary, centering narratives of misfits and misheards communities.
Celine is a passionate and certified mindfulness guide, she worked for several years as a social worker. Finding a balanced life in social work is not always easy and she discovered meditation as a form of self-care.The causes of her unhappiness were clearer, but she also quickly realised that it is a lifelong learning process. With this positive change, she decided to train and become a guide. She started guiding meditation classes for refugees and women’s circles. Having worked with many activists, she is also very interested in the connection between mindfulness and social change, but also in embodied activism and how we can clarify the importance of self-care in social movements. Being half Congolese and half Polish, she is fascinated by somatic abolitionism and how to change unconscious biases around race with body centred tools.
Monica Gathuo is the co-founder of ARMA (Anti-Racism Media Activist Alliance) and researches the digital media usage of women of colour in Finland. She is a community organiser, media producer. Gatuo, currently located in Helsinki, Finland, is an experienced moderator and culture producer. Gathuo collaborates with POC lead grassroots organisations and supports initiatives led by youth of colour. Not only does she possess a great deal of knowledge but also shares it by leading various workshops and through mentoring. Gathuo educates antiracist work methods and produces minidocumentaries, music videos and her writing can be found in various publications. Gathuo is currently working as the Producer of The Finnish Institute Art- and Culturefestival, Together Again.
Workshop Dates and Times:
9 June 2022, Cafe Congo, Brussels (by invitation only)
Led by Céline, Isabelle N’diaye & Monica Gathuo
You can find Céline on instagram: @mindfulness.by.celine and her website.
You can find Isabelle N’diaye at Baobab Initiatives Inc.