A Blade of Grass
Parallel Fields: Mindful Leadership
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
6 to 8pm
[Image Description: A photograph of three panelists sitting in front of windows, all smiling. In the windows’ reflection, seated guests and a partial view of the gallery and its exhibited art can be seen.]
This conversation explored the intersection of mindfulness and accountability in leadership roles organizing around art and social justice, with Patricia Jerido, Principal Consultant at Leadership Matters Consulting, and Adaku Utah, 2015 ABOG Fellow, moderated by Michelle Coffey, Executive Director of Lambent Foundation.
They explored how strategies inspired by mindfulness and wellness can foster greater accountability for practitioners and institutional partners alike in aligning their work with their social justice goals. Questions asked included: What does mindful leadership look like? How does an individual balance mindful thinking with with the immediate needs of getting things done? How can practitioners utilize healing and self-care to be more effective organizers? And how can ecosystems of support reflect those qualities back to the communities they serve?
Bios
Patricia Jerido is a trained M.S.W., social worker, and has over 25 years experience in social justice work. She has worked as an advocate, board member, coach, community organizer, fundraiser, funder, individual and group work counselor, strategist, and trainer, and is now Principal Consultant at Leadership Matters Consulting. Learn more: leadershipmattersconsulting.com
2015 ABOG Fellow Adaku Utah has taught, organized, created sacred healing spaces and performed both nationally and internationally as a Social Change Initiatives coordinator, rape crisis counselor, youth organizer, intuitive healer, gender-based violence advocate, dancer, liberation trainer, sex education teacher, herbalist, sexual violence organizing educator, and board member for several organizations including Yale University, Chicago Foundation for Women, The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, Black Lives Matter, Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER), Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Museum, Sadie Nash Leadership Project and more. Her greatest desire is to embody the sacredness and wholeness of love and support herself, humanity and our larger ecosystem in garnering and using our tools of love, healing and liberation to fashion just and sustainable realities.
Her ABOG Fellowship supports Harriet’s Apothecary, an intergenerational, healing village led by Black Cis Women, Queer and Trans healers, artists, health professionals, magicians, activists and ancestors that continues the rich healing legacy of abolitionist, community nurse and herbalist Harriet Tubman. Learn more: harrietsapothecary.com
As Executive Director, Michelle Coffey designs, implements and furthers the strategic agenda, leadership and vision of Lambent Foundation. Through innovative grant making and projects, Lambent Foundation supports the intersections of contemporary arts and culture as critical strategies for social change. Lambent’s global grant making provides critical general operating support for artist-centered organizations in the visual, performance and alternative media fields in New York, New Orleans and Nairobi.
Prior to the creation of Lambent Foundation in January 2009, Ms. Coffey was Director of Starry Night Fund and Senior Philanthropic Advisor at Tides Foundation. With a global lens, her areas of focus included Human Rights, Women/Girls, Criminal Justice Reform, Arts and Culture and HIV/AIDS.
In addition, she currently serves on the boards of The Schott Foundation for Public Education, the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics at the New School and the Brownsville Multi-Service Family Health Care Center in East New York. Learn more: lambentfoundation.orgThis program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Parallel Fields is a discussion series that pairs an artist and a non-artist, both of whose work is socially engaged, to discuss with an audience how different professions are connected.