On Mental Health, Burnout and Liberating Third Spaces: Future Lands No. 2

This Fall, we welcomed back Highlander Center for the second iteration of Future Lands, an all-day teach-in exploring the artistic, cultural and creative impact of southern people’s struggles for justice and democracy.

We dove deep into the third spaces we love and the impacts of healing and visioning in movement-building—all through the lens of Black Feminist resistance.

SCROLL FOR TAKEAWAYS.

this edition’s COMMUNITY NOTES & highlights:

✰ NO. 1 — Emotional literacy is crucial in movements DESIGNED for liberation and joy.

We began the day with a session on Mental Health and Burnout in Organizing, led by Dr. Seyi Amosu, on emotional regulation and emotional identification for leaders in movement work. By identifying and supporting our emotional environments, we create safer spaces to gather, challenge supremacist beliefs, as well as nurture our shared values.

✰ NO. 2 — THERE IS NO JOY WITHOUT INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE PRACTICES IN PLEASURE.

In a midday workshop led by Irma Garcia of Dirty South Sex Ed and Eden Hakimzadeh of Lavender Orange, we continued our exploration of leadership within movement-building. Through exercises in somatic grounding, a tea ceremony, as well as a group discussion, we were each prompted to map our relationship to pleasure in practical ways.

✰ NO. 3 — FIFTY YEARS LATER, THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE STATEMENT IS ANYTHING BUT STATIC. IT’S A LESSON IN LANGUAGE, SELF-IDENTIFICATION, COMMUNITY-BUILDING, transfiguring conflict AND exercising POWER.

We closed out the day with a close reading of the Combahee River Collective Statement and conversation between Jaimee Swift of BlackWomenRadicals and Monaye Johnson of Black Reading To Heal.

In revisiting the text on its 50th Anniversary, we examined the value of shared language as a space to identify shared values, embracing conflict as a necessity for community-building, welcoming difficult discussion and discomfort, as well as the vital role history plays in the present.

Through the Combahee River Collective Statement, we also explored the value of Black Feminist perspectives in the here and now—and how many issues presented in the text are still echoing through our organizing spaces today.

Explore the visual recap below.

Photos by Prasado Studio

Did you miss Future Lands?

Find the presentation slides and packets from this Fall’s teach-in here.

You can learn more about all of the artists, makers, creatives and cultural strategiest who joined us here. For details on future events, stay tuned on Future Front’s calendar.