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05/30/2002 Archived Entry: "5/30/02 The 2002 Creating Our Future Memorial Weekend Workshop"

Well, it is over. The Creating Our Future Memorial Weekend Workshop has come and gone. Overall, the workshop was a great success. As my friend, Van Jones, said:

I am still glowing from the COF Memorial Day Weekend retreat that we just completed yesterday. From Friday through Monday morning, about 150 people from all over the United States shared a powerful experience of meditation, visualization, dance, music and personal reflection - all in preparation for a renewed engagement in the hard work of social transformation. Many described their experience as life-changing. When it was over, almost no one wanted to leave.

I was especially pleased that this year, we were able to bring some outstanding young leaders from African-American, Asian and Latino communities to the event. Most were Oakland/East Bay activists in their late20s, engaged in tough struggles against poverty and the prison industry.

Spiritual gatherings and retreats in the United States are usually overwhelmingly white. And often attempts to bring people of colour and white people together in shared political or social spaces fail - too
often melting down in pain, anger and bitterness. But COF has been labouring to break this pattern and transcend those limitations.

So this year, the gathering prioritized the participation of spiritual leaders who are people of colour. And it created a special "self-care" track for people of colour participants during the first full day of the retreat.These two innovations helped to create a positive and empowering experience for the people of colour who attended the event. And that support in turn helped to create a richer, more supportive space for all the participants. The closing circle on yesterday morning featured a rainbow of humanity - standing arm-in-arm, as joyful tears and songs flowed freely. Indeed, it was a rare and beautiful sight in these troubled times.

COF is rapidly emerging as a critical "crossroads organization," a key network through which spiritually-engaged activists from wildly diverse backgrounds are gathering to share invaluable wisdom. I predict that a beautiful and hopeful politics of liberation will emerge in this new century
- and that COF will play a key role in helping to birth this powerful, new movement.