Hearth:
a liberation lab
A cohort program for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) community members devoted to collective liberation in the Northeast.
Hearth is as an incubator and practice space where liberatory thinking, play, experimentation, and healing somatic practice get to unravel, breathe, and be in reciprocally nourishing relationships with others in a community committed to the work of liberation.
Click here for a deeper dive into our program.
We’re thrilled to launch our transformative, year-long program dedicated to liberatory thinking, experimentation, and healing somatic practice.
Who is this
program for?
Hearth is for those of us grieving the ongoing global violence, displacement, and systematic disenfranchisement of Black, Indigenous, and working class people around the globe. This program is for those of us wanting our spaces to embody the same qualities of the liberatory worlds we are fighting for. This program is for those of us trying to find our place in the movement. This program is for those of us with strong political analyses that are wanting to further merge theory with practice and embodiment.
This program is for those of us who have a project in mind that would advance liberatory power for our communities, but need the resourcing, love, rigor, and accountability to actualize that project.
If you see yourself reflected in these sentiments, we invite you to apply to join our inaugural cohort!
Who We
Are
One Square World is a movement support organization, operating primarily in the climate and racial justice spheres. We are deeply committed to a role of supporting liberation movements to thrive, in particular in the region in which we are rooted, the Northeast of Turtle Island.
Hearth: a liberation lab is made up of One Square World staff members and several of our trusted community partners and long-time facilitators. We are a team of practitioners, first and foremost. This means we deeply hold ourselves accountable to integrating our political and liberatory beliefs into practice. We are comrades, poets, care-takers, friends, parents, organizers, students, and committed spiritual practitioners. We move in ways that integrate and reflect the experiences we carry: those of BIPOC, queer, trans, non-binary, disabled, and neurodivergent folks.
In our work practice we specialize in various fields from liberatory community education to healing work to policy design and facilitation of power shifting processes from institutions to communities. We understand that the lessons and topics covered within the container of this cohort curriculum are not beyond us; our lives are always iterating in the integration of these learnings, and we have committed to being held accountable, deeply moved by this work, and brought to our edges in the mere creation of this program. We release perfection in this offering, and we lean into trust of our practice, your practice, our ancestors, and make way for the magic of the container to unfold between us.
Lead Designers:
Juli Santoyo
Tarik Bartel
Andrea Atkinson
Program Team:
Juli Santoyo
Tarik Bartel
nisha purushotham
Past Contributors:
Vatic Astahili Tayari Kuumba
Brandy Brooks
Adeola Oredola
nisha purushotham
Shey Rivera Ríos
Mercedes Soto
Participant Requirements
This program is for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) community members, including healers, organizers, policy-makers, educators, culture-workers, and artists in the Northeast who are currently cultivating, nourishing and advancing movements for justice, equity, and liberation.
Key Identifiers– More explicitly, this program is for folks who are:
✱ Over the age of 18 and holding intersecting identities marginalized by dominant culture - for example: gender, sexuality, ability, race, class, citizenship status, housing status, etc...
✱ Currently living and/or working in the Northeast United States occupied land of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont
✱ Interested in building or deepening their work in relationship with other leaders and community members to contribute to systems change and experience tangible and felt evidence of liberation in their lives, the lives of their communities, and future generations
✱ Working in one or all of the following categories for a minimum of four years:
Dismantling or transforming oppressive systems into liberatory ones (for example through policy, organizing, or governance)
Building liberatory structures that promote self-determination, reparations, and deep democracy and Indigenous governance
Supporting our communities to heal from oppressive systems
Telling and building the story of liberation through art
Engagement & Key Dates
Hearth: a liberation lab consists of two in-person retreats, bi-weekly virtual workshop and practice lab sessions (two sessions per month), and one-on-one coaching to collectively experiment with being our most liberated selves, moving in reciprocity with land, and being accountable to our communities and the earth. We hope it will be a space to manifest our visions of collective liberation and embody them, grounding in liberatory thinking, network weaving, and somatic practice.
Applications Open: March 29, 2024
Applications Close: April 21, 2024 at 11:59PM EST
If selected to participate, you can expect to:
Receive a $2500 stipend to support your participation in the program and travel, accommodation, and childcare support.
Attend two in-person retreats and bi-weekly virtual workshops centered in navigating the effects of oppressive systems on our bodies while grappling with the current tensions in our liberation movements.
Practice and embody your visions and project ideas in Liberation Lab, our wisdom-centered model for learning and co-creating in community.
Participate in one-on-one coaching sessions to facilitate your self, community, and movement work.
For more information, contact us HERE.