In This Issue:

• From the Director
• And Still We Rise Women of Color Leadership Forum
• January/February Classes
• Featuring our Trainers – Benita Jackson
• What Participants are Saying
• Andrea’s Gazette Column: The miracle of the human body
• Thank You to Our Funders 

From the Director

Six years is both long and not long.  Not long because years do fly by (especially as one ages!).   And long because look at the difference between a newborn and a six-year-old!   Oh my goodness.

The last six years have been both long and not long for the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership.   We are six years old in January and, oh my heavens, how we have grown.   Begun in the wake of Trump taking office and born out of despair about what would (inevitably) lie ahead, I had the idea for the Truth School on a 3-day train trip home from Austin, TX to New England.   Desperate to do, create, work on, initiate SOMETHING as I envisioned the pain and suffering that would occur under Trump’s leadership, I realized that a movement-building School—a FREE movement-building School—might be needed, useful, and stem the tide of sorrow and feelings of hopelessness so many activists were experiencing.

Numbers are boring but here are a few…

Since 2017, the Truth School has offered well over 400 classes and trained well over 4000 people.   Prior to the pandemic, we held our classes in the Connecticut River Valley in the cities and towns of Greenfield, Northampton, Easthampton, Holyoke, and Springfield, MA.   We have now pivoted to Zoom, and have had class participants from 33 states and 16 countries!   We have well over 600 individual donors, much support from foundations, and have, since 2017, raised over a half a million dollars.   We have a wonderful board, a small, hardworking staff and have, in the last six years, hired 113 white trainers and 127 trainers of color.

We are successful by any measure, and still scrappy.  We succeed and also misstep, we recalibrate and make changes, we pride ourselves on being responsive and supple, and we are making a difference—one remarkable class at a time.

One of the things I have enjoyed so much over the last six years is reading the evaluation forms completed by YOU ALL after you take a TS class.   Wow!  The praise for our remarkable trainers, the gratitude for the classes, the appreciation that all of our classes are free, and the descriptions of how the class material will influence YOUR WORK for change move me and make all the hard work of running the School worthwhile.

The Truth School is thriving.  Thank you for being part of the extended family.   Here’s to six more years.  Wait, wait!  Six years is both long and not long.  How about, here’s to 60 more years?  (Am I being too ambitious?!  Forgive me, and ever onward!)

With warmest New Year’s wishes and ongoing appreciation for your work for change,

Andrea

And Still We Rise
Amihan Matias
Saturdays, January 21, 2023 to June 17, 2023, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
January 21, February 18, March 18, April 15, May 20, June 17

Dream a New Dream: Live a New Story
Amber Chand
This is a series class; participants are expected to attend both sessions.
Saturday, February 4, 2023, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM and
Saturday, February 11, 2023, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Being the Change You Wish to See
Sarah Hickman and Tiffany McGee-Hickman
This is a series class. Participants are expected to attend both sessions.
Thursday, February 9, 2023, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM and
Thursday, March 9, 2023, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Walk The Talk: A Workshop for Men
Natalia Muñoz
Thursday, February 23, 2023, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Race, Class, and Gender: A Cross-Generational, Frank, and
Free-Wheeling Discussion!
Olivia Ilano Davis, Thulani Davis, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, and Safiyah Bey
Saturday, February 25, 2023, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Repercussions of Revolution
Keamo Mokone
Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Benita Jackson – In her words…

I’m an active college professor who teaches and researches on how society gets under the skin. I also support women to find their life’s purpose.

And once becoming a mama of twins, one with complex special and medical needs, coupled with a busy professional life, I felt exhaustion like none I’d ever imagined.

I could barely get a moment to myself that wasn’t in the wee hours of the night. How could I—of all people—find energy to help other people play bigger in the world?

Through years of trial and error, I finally figured out that bone-crushing fatigue isn’t something I “just had to live with.”

Re-learning how to rest deeply was transformative.

In addition to my years of academic schooling and social justice community building, I was moved to teach Daring to Rest™ so I could share the gift of this powerful experiential method. A critical health psychology researcher and health coach by training and passion, I also instruct a range of practical tools for bringing greater flexibility into one’s system, including breathwork, bioenergetics, emotion metabolism, and mindset shifting.

For decades, I’ve coached professional women to step into their life purpose as world changers.