“Beauty and pleasure are freedom rituals…taking my body and telling my own story with it, especially inside of a state, a nation that is concerned with writing my histories and writing my body as legible in certain kinds of ways or illegible in certain kinds of ways, it’s powerful.”
– adrienne maree brown

Those of us from racialized communities are asked all too often to default to our stories of hardships, trauma, and oppression. While these stories are important and necessary, we are also so much more than that. Our stories are beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting, contradictory, and constantly unfolding. Most importantly, our joy is essential to justice and our collective liberation.

This playshop is guided and inspired by adrienne maree brown’s book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. Through gentle movement, creative/reflective writing, and arts-based prompts, we’ll lean into the moments that sustain us – laughter, beauty, care, connection – and consider how these experiences shape our visions for a more just world.

No writing or activism experience is necessary – only an open heart and an open mind with a readiness to give and receive vulnerability.