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Portland Underground Graduate School: Disarming Our Language
November 1, 2021 @ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
$99 – $199An exploration of the power of words and the potential they have to perpetuate or shift internalized and systemic oppression, and an experiment in building a language of healing and interconnectedness.
Date: Five Mondays from November 1
Tier A Pricing: $199 ($30/hr or above wage earners)
Tier B Pricing: $149 ($16-29/hr wage earners)
Tier C Pricing: $99 ($15/hr or below wage earners)
See our Pricing + Generosity Policy for more information on tiered pricing.
Our reality is made of sound, woven from the vibratory power of words. We contribute to distortion or healing by the words we use, and coherence within the individual body-mind and the collective is supported or hampered by the way we employ language. Using our words with deep awareness and intention can transform our world.
This workshop-style course is an exploration of the power of words and the potential they have to perpetuate or shift internalized and systemic oppression, and an experiment in building a language of healing and interconnectedness through writing exercises, emergent discussions, embodiment practices, and ritual.
To bring awareness to the ways our unconscious biases constrict our comprehension and expression; examine the racism, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and other forms of violence encoded in our language; and explore building a regenerative culture of healing and interconnectedness with the words we speak. This space will strive for bravery and equity as we explore potentially intense themes such as racism and white-bodied supremacy, privilege, sexism, commodification, and intergenerational trauma, in an atmosphere designed to provoke understanding and inspire healing.
Disarming Our Language is for all of us willing to examine internalized and collective oppression, of all backgrounds.
While the teaching and meditation portions will be recorded and shared with students, this is a highly participatory class. Emergent group discussions constitute a significant portion of the learning experience, and will not be recorded to protect student privacy. Please be prepared to attend the sessions live and engage in the writing exercises and conversations to experience the fullness of this offering.
Instructor:
Niema Lightseed (she/her) is a poet and priestess of the new paradigm dedicated to inviting personal and collective transformation through embodiment education, language, art, and ritual.
An artist since childhood (BFA Theatre Performance, Roosevelt University, 2002) and a healing professional since 2004 (Hatha Yoga Teaching, Temple of Kriya Yoga, 2004; Massage Therapy, East West College of the Healing Arts, 2017), she writes and performs medicinal poetry, offers therapeutic bodywork and creativity coaching, teaches about the role of somatic awareness in the liberation process, creates community ceremonies, explores the relationship between gravity and social justice, and seeks the marrow of life through a variety of meditative and creative disciplines. As a fat Black woman navigating the intersection of multiple forms of oppression while determinedly seeking the joy that is our true nature and living as art, she strives to create safer spaces where the structures we have inherited can be transmuted and the work of seeing, accepting, and celebrating the fullness of the human experience is possible. www.radwellbeing.com