stone circles at the United States Social Forum

Written by Jesse Vega-Frey

Sometime in the fall of 2006, a ragtag group of radical seekers, soul rebels, healer-practitioners, and mystic-rabblerousers from across the country started getting on the phone to talk about how their piece of social justice work was going to represented a the United States Social Forum coming to Atlanta in June 2007.


Buddhists, Yoruba practitioners, Jews, Indigenous medicine people, sound-healers, Christians, and yogis - many of whom had never met– came together from a spectrum of racial backgrounds, geographic roots, and activists worlds because they knew something good was cooking.

Woking closely with Cara Page from Deeper Waters and Kindred, we had no idea what the outcome would be. And though we used a lot of different language to talk about it, we were sure about two things:

• that the work of liberation has inner dimensions which are rarely attended to in mainstream activist culture,
• and that the USSF was the perfect place to demonstrate their value and power to a broad range of social change agents.


From my perspective, our work together offered something unique, powerful and much needed to the community of activists and folks doing the hard, heart-work of change... There’s little else I can imagine being more thrilled and content about offering to people as a sacred space for centering and healing.
-Oren Sofer, Buddhist Peace Fellowship





We soon we decided to create a Healing and Spiritual Practice Space in the context of the USSF that would be available to all Forum participants during the week of the event. We pulled an awesome planning group together, including Egypt Brown; Ari Shapiro, Shash Yazhi, Jesus Solorio, at Spirit in Motion; Oren from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship; Esmeralda Simmons, Tulani Kinard, Jodi Lasseter, and others. We developed guiding principles for our collective vision and collaboration:

• We believe the work of revolution, liberation and transformation is integrally connected to art, creativity, nature, prayer, ceremony, ritual and healing.

• We are supporting each other as we build this work, developing both programming and a network of spiritual activists, artists, healers and practitioners.

• We place great value on sharing community, traditions and practices from many different paths and we realize the potential risks involved in creating this kind of cross-cultural, multi-traditional context. We commit that least 50% of practitioners and healers will be people of color.

• We remain conscious of how spiritual and healing practices – particularly from indigenous traditions and peoples – can and have been misappropriated. We have great respect for the roots of all traditions and ask that people embody this respect in their offerings.


five days at the Forum

We don't just want this kind of work, we need it. That deep resting, openness and connection is critical for creating change. Change is not created through hate, change and transformation are created through cracking open and seeing in a different way. And to do that there needs to be safe places for that coming together and opening to occur.
- Briana -

(photo from USSF website)

While nearly 10,000 people buzzed around downtown Atlanta for the 5 days of the US Social Forum, several hundred of them found a quiet place of rest and reflection in the space on the corner of Piedmont and Ralph McGill.

Housed in the bottom floor of the AIDS Survival Project, the Healing and Spiritual Practice Space was held by a team of practitioner volunteers whose confidence that healing and spiritual practice are essential to the work of social justice energized their commitment to creating a space at the Forum for this piece of the work.

Throughout the four days that the space took shape, activists, organizers, agitators and practitioners came to find refuge in the space in a variety of ways. Perhaps you were one of the several hundred participants of the USSF who stopped by the space during your adventures in Atlanta. Maybe you came to get a massage, to learn how to meditate or dropped in for a yoga class. Maybe you just needed a place to close your eyes, gather your energy, snag an apple and a bottle of water, and head back out to the hot Atlanta sun. Whether you participated in a wellness workshop, sound healing, or ceremony, spent some time praying, got an acupuncture or energy treatment or took a nap, you probably left refreshed, relaxed and renewed- ready to get back to the myriad other tasks at hand. Over three hundred people participated in the varied workshops, ceremonies, and body and energy work. Many came into the space exhausted and war-torn, and left rested, energized and clear minded.

From posters and programming to ceremony and altars, everyone brought tremendous energy and grace, and the collective vibe was felt by folks whoencountered the space in its various aspects. Twenty-five healing practitioners from Atlanta and across the US came to offer their hands through community acupuncture, reiki and massage. Together we created a refuge and place of deep learning for USSF participants, and also inherently created a space that explored multi-cultural and cross-traditional, spiritually grounded work.

In addition to the indoor space, several outdoor altar spaces were created by the group, lead by Egypt, Cara, Omisade Burney-Scott and others. An Ancestor Altar and a Memorial Altar were set up in Renaissance Park to invite attendees to acknowledge the work and struggles of those gone before us. An Abundance Altar was created in the Art Lab at the Task Force for the Homeless. Our hope was to invite the use encourage the use of sacred space throughout the forum.


It was great to have people come together in a peaceful, loving, spiritual gathering, something I feel that embodied what the whole forum was about. Also I was glad to finally learn Qi Gong, something I had wanted to do for years. May we have the likes at every such event.

-Brian Tate

Our hope is that this work and particular piece of programming was recognized by the broader group of attendees and by the USSF organizers in particular so that in the future, spaces and practices that attend to the inner needs of activists and organizers will be acknowledged and supported in the future. It is our sincere belief that this kind of work not only sustains those working for change but also transforms the work that we are doing in the world as our actions begin to embody the peace, justice and freedom that we so powerfully seek in the world around us.

kindred spirits: a visit to the Highlander Center

Recently, I spent four days at the Highlander Center for Research and Education in New Market, TN. Highlander has such an incredible history of supporting movement-building and organizing in the South; there is no way to do it justice here. You can read a lot more about the decades of strengthening labor organizing, civil rights work, fighting environmental degredation in Appalachia, creative youth work, protecting immigrant rights and much, much more in the history section of their website.


This visit to Highlander was a gift in every way. It is inspiring to walk the land of an institution that has been holding down a powerful place of transformation for 3/4 of a century. An organization that continues to reinvent and update their mission and approach as times and conditions shift. A space where people have access to the lessons of the past and the possibilities of a different future. A place that is strongly rooted in the realities of the South and clear about where it fits in the global landscape.

a view from the Hill

Highlander's storied rocking chairs

Highlander will be celebrating their 75th Anniversary this August 31-Sept 2 - a weekend not to be missed for anyone interested in social justice and cultural work in the South. The coordinator, Anasa Troutman, is one of the more spirited and organized people I've met in a long while. And the weekend is shaping up to be a fantastic blend of head and heart, sound and strategy. Really - what better is there to celebrate labor day???

After I got an invitation to facilitate a workshop at Highlander for Guilford College alumni doing social change work, I arrived early to learn more about the work Highlander is doing now and how they continue to convene a range of programs and groups creating a better world.


I got to see old friends like Pam McMichael (far right in the photo), one of my favorite people. Pam is the Executive Director and has dedicated her life to building coalitions across race, class, gender and sexual identity in the South. She introduced me to some very good folks like Charlie Biggs (far left) who is organizing Highlander's capital campaign and managing the website, and Johnny Bailey (in the middle) who has been tending to the land and buildings at Highlander for over 25 years!








I also got to spend some time with long-time Durham activist Manju Rajendran, who is now working at Highlander, co-coordinating their youth organizing and leadership work. Manju has spent much of her life in Durham organizing against war and oppression and organizing for the rights of young people, people of color, people living in poverty - and all with her deep conviction that another world is possible. Durham's loss is Highlander's gain.
























One of the highlights of the weekend retreat for the Guilford College folks was the evening w

e spent with Guy and Candie Carawn. Guy and Candie have been at Highlander off and on (mostly on) since 1960 and they are a big part of the history of civil rights movement songs. They adapted "We Shall Overcome" from a gospel song and introduced it to movement organizers in the 1960's. You can learn more about their lives working in Applachia and the Sea Islands on their website; their daughter Heather also made a beautiful film about them - "The Telling Takes Me Home."

first fruits

Spring has arrived in North Carolina and everything is blooming. The earth. The branches. The Stone House, too. We've been spending the past few weeks reaching out to friends and colleagues to help us plan our fundraising strategy, make a pledge, read the case statement, walk the land, and offer ideas.



Marjanne, Geneva, and Ameka taste the first strawberries of the season during their first visit to The Stone House land.

Many, many thanks to all of you out there who are working to bring this vision to life:

*Our incredibly hard-working board - Omisade Burney-Scott, Marian Urquilla, David Sawyer, Polly Weiss, John Parker and Zulayka Santiago. (Omi, John and Z - below - on their first trip to the land... hard at work in the kitchen!)
*Margot and Ellis Horwitz for being our first major individual donors!!!

*Our institutional funders for considering longer-term commitments toward our programs.

*Kindred spirits at the New Dharma Center for Urban Peace in Oakland, CA who are working to buy their own building! Check them out and particularly if you live on the west coast, see what you can do to help.

*Bert Armstrong and Tom Maguire from the Philanthropic Advisory Group who are helping us craft a solid fundraising strategy.

Isabela Basombrio-Hoban who just sent us blessing strings from H.H. Dalai Lama, which she received on her recent trip to Dharamsala, India.

*Leigh Morgan, a long-time friend and colleague now living in the Bay Area, who helped to develop the Ripples training many years back. Leigh heard about The Stone House and immediately put her bonus check in the mail!

And so many more...






Fruit trees coming to life in the orchard.








There's a lot of inspiring work happening in the North Carolina activist community right now as well. The speakout/rally at this past Saturday's National Day of Truthtelling: Creating a World Without Sexual Violence was one of the more important things to happen in Durham in a long time. Survivors spoke out. Activists spoke out. Allies spoke out. I was reminded again that another world IS possible and that statistics and stories need to be shared.

And tomorrow (Tuesday, May 1) is the statewide Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. It starts with a lobby day at the state legislature and culminates with a rally at the state capitol building at 5:00 pm.

finding your way around...

Our good friend, Ellen O'Grady, drew this awesome map of The Stone House. In a couple of weeks, Ellen will return to Palestine to work with the Tel Rumeida Project in Hebron. If you click on the map, you can see it on a bigger scale!

A community kitchen

The community kitchen feeds 35-40 people. It is a beautiful, sunny inviting space, likely to be a heart of The Stone House.

The good, green earth

The land at The Stone House will help to ground those who come and the work we do together. In addition to hard woods, there is about 45 acres of undeveloped pasture. We plan to use at least some portion of this for organic farming; we're also investigating various conservation options. There's also a cultivated vegetable garden and a small orchard with appl, fig, peach, and pear trees, and a 2-acre pond for swimming.

A place for spiritual life and strategic action

The land has six cabins like this one, for folks on retreat, program participants, or staff. They are all passive solar and hand-crafted by Bo Lozoff and friends from the Human Kindness Foundation. HKF does amazing work with prisoners around the country and they have been living and working in this place for over 15 years.













And this is the main meditation/practice space.
It holds 30-40 people comfortably.