a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part one

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part two

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part three

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part four

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part five

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part six

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part seven

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part eight

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part nine

a visual love letter to you, our fellow Black, Indigenous, People of Color

part ten

foundations

podcast: being a student of hope; embodiment of radical hope

We had nourishing conversation with Nicole Raines, LMFT, on her Be Love, Be Well, Be Whole podcast (that Dena is also a podcast co-host of). We talk music, defining and tapping into hope amidst grief and injustice, and the stellar move, One Night in Miami. Listen on all the places podcasts live.

the artists, educators, and activists that shaped us and our work

We believe that justice work involves both the head and the heart. Here are some of the teachers, activists, researchers, artists, writers, organizers, and thinkers that inspire and inform our work.

our collective core

At and/now, we live by these core values to be and act for equity and justice, allowing each to guide our mindsets, behaviors, and relationships. When we are faced with complicated truths and complex emotions, we lean into our values to better understand ourselves, others, and the distance between us. That’s how we build stronger, connective bridges together.

radio interview with DJ Rome on Psychotic Bump School #133.3

We had the privilege and opportunity to chat with DJ Rome on his radio segment, Psychotic Bump School, about how and/now came to be, how we met back in 2015, and how we’re making sense of police brutality and COVID-19 within the racial justice and healing space.

our origin, our why

We put forth a different way forward that interlocks justice, healing, transformation, and growth as expansive possibilities that begin with the collective us. As we carry on, let’s put DEI and mental health on intersecting, inseparable, and undeniably ambitious paths forward. We all deserve healing.

our manifesto

Break the barrier, then get out of the way. Trust our lived experiences as evidence enough. Don’t be colorblind; see color and center race. Believe in all of our infinite capacity for radical transformation and healing. Stop beating the odds and start changing them instead. It matters how we position ourselves in this world, especially when it feels safer to build up walls and close our gates. Stay open. As Rinku Sen says, “If you have some privilege, risk it.”

racial justice x social healing resources

f* that to disenfranchised grief

Let us no longer disenfranchise our own grief and speak loudly about our pain, rage, and sorrows. Disenfranchised grief (aka hidden grief) is that unacknowledged by society or invalidated by social norms. We say F* that.

a lot of noise, some boundaries, and a hug

We started looking for the things unsaid. What did we do when no one was looking? How did our behaviors shift, even in the slightest, when we weren’t displaying all the ways we were anti-racist or inclusive or allies this week? How do we find space for ourselves within all this noise?

RJSH weeks 7-11: stages of grief

Download the weekly racial justice x social healing prompts and practices, wrapping up five weeks of applying the stages of grief to navigating racism in our lives. Featuring the work of Dr. Anneliese Singh.

RJSH weeks 4-6: racial socialization

Download the weekly racial justice x social healing prompts and practices, wrapping up three weeks of racial socialization, featuring the work of Dr. Anneliese Singh.

RJSH weeks 1-3: identity development

Download the weekly racial justice x social healing prompts and practices, wrapping up three weeks of racial identity development, featuring the work of Dr. Anneliese Singh.

wonderings & curiosities

ten things we REALLY hate about “you” — a series on what not to do (part two)

We are back with part two and not gonna lie, this one is even sassier than the first. You know that feeling of getting angrier and angrier cause you keep thinking about it? And how you start to spiral and get stuck in that negative energy? Yeah, that’s us.

ten things we hate about “you” — a series on what not to do (part one)

Our advice this week is a list of ten things we hate about — okay, it’s not you, unless you fit the bill. It’s actually ten things we hate about how “diversity work” is described and (sometimes) actualized. These are our pet peeves, work rage, eye rolls, WTF texts, and angry emoji faces.

what is it to be free in our collective aftermath

We want to know: what is your racial self-care, and what does it look like at the community level? In the BIPOC spaces we’ve been holding and moving through, racial self-care means pushing our collective imaginations into movement, feeling both the limitations and possibilities within a system of white supremacy that relentlessly pushes back against us.

is radical the new woke?

Grasp at the roots. Radical has turned into the new “woke” where it’s become more of an identity to wear and less of how we intentionally and critically analyze systems of oppression.

don’t bring people in as neutral identities

Don’t bring people in as “neutral” identities; bring them in as people with historical ties — this changes the way we relate to each other.

why you didn’t care, not why you didn’t see “it” (aka racism)

The first 2020 presidential debate got us deconstructing disagreements in its various forms — verbal, philosophical, ideological, political, experiential, historical, and yes, even physical. We often frame conflict as generative and evolutionary; conflict is change trying to happen. We still believe that. However, discerning the kind of conflict is the difference between self-protection and trauma, particularly for historically and presently marginalized identities.

what is it to deny racism

Whether we acknowledge this stage or not, this country has been in denial about anti-Black racism like a birthright, a kind of unseeing for what we’ve become, what we tolerate as inconveniences that go unnoticed. We lose the depth of what it means to be fully human when we look away.

a space (and place) for us beyond the margins

Thick with COVID-19 racial disparities and anti-Black violence, Dena and I have been thinking a lot about this lingering question: what exactly do we mean by space in our simultaneously marginalized and liberated selves as women of color living and leading for equity and justice in this current era?

and, now