(In response to the gross injustice by our own government, we’ve come together to say “Enough”. This #WELLREAD is dedicated to this call to action. Here’s an excerpt from our official statement on the call for #BlackFridays).

To all who are grieving for themselves and this country, who are in pain and feeling the deep effects of this toxic culture — some for the first time, and others, as they have for their entire lifetimes — you are not alone.

We, the undersigned, are an intersectional group of womxn* from every cross section of society who have come together in sacred rage and with a call to ACT.

Starting this Friday and continuing weekly through November 23rd, we are calling on womxn to wear black, rise up, and put a halt to ‘business as usual.’

Womxn have power. The systems in this country depend on us — our work, our time, our bodies. On #BlackFridays, we refuse to comply with those who demean, destroy, and erase us. We refuse to take care of a system that doesn’t take care of us.

On #BlackFridays, we will take action where we live, walk out of our workplaces and schools and disrupt business as usual to build power that transforms our society. We will be a show of force in the streets and in the halls of government, corporations, and institutions alike.

We understand that womxn’s relationship to work is not easy, and that our lives and our bodies are not valued equitably. Structural oppression makes resistance infinitely more complicated for some of us than it is for others. We recognize these disparities will shape the ways we each show up and hold space for all to express their rage in the ways that they can.

On Fridays, we will disrupt, we will gather to love and protect each other. We deserve better, and we demand it. We won’t stop until we win.

Yours in sisterhood.

See signers here.

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We do not consent. was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How is it that it that in this country it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist?

On Monday, I put my body on the line for survivors and for the future of this country. Together, we stormed the Capital Hill and demanded justice for Christine Blasey Ford, Debbie Ramirez and Anita Hill. I was arrested along with 127 other courageous activists who believe what’s at stake is worth the risk.

One of the most moving demonstrations that day was a group of men organized by Ady Barkin who risked arrest in solidarity with the women who’ve been leading the fight to #StopKavanaugh and end sexual violence. I felt relief knowing that some of our brothers were there and had our backs. But I was also struck by how few of them there were.

Where are the men (and by “men” I mean the sis-gender men who benefit from this system)?

Where are the men saying “#WeBelieveWomen” and “It’s never ok to rape”?
Where are the men taking responsibility for their actions during a time when it was “normal” to exploit, subjugate, pressure women?
Where are the men busting down senate doors yelling “HELL NO” to Kavanuagh’s confirmation?
Where are the men putting their bodies on the line and getting arrested in the name of their sisters and wives and daughters?

I say all of this while being blessed with really good and radical men in my life. Men who show up and model honesty and humility. But we need more than a few brave souls.

I don’t doubt that women are going to lead this movement and save our future. But it would move a hell of a lot faster if millions of men would show up and follow our lead.

-Kerri

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Man Enough was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Deja Vu?

Nearly three decades after Anita Hill courageously testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, we are here again. Blaming women. Silencing victims. And letting bad men get away with murder.

Will anything be different?

Fortunately, Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford are showing us how it’s done — fierce and graceful courage in the face of great risk. Anita Hill sourced inspiration from this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt which hung in her office for many years…

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

We don’t just believe Christine Blasey Ford, #WeAreChristineBlaseyFord

Let’s do the hard thing for ourselves, one another and the many generations to follow and #STOPKAVANAUGH. See you in DC.

-Kerri

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#WeBelieveWomen was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

17.

I’m faced with the same gut-wrenching feeling every year at this time. The endless heartbreak and grief for an ordinary father who became and extraordinary hero when he he ran into those buildings when everyone else was running out. But I also hold the inconsolable outrage at a government that exploited his sacrifice for an agenda of fear and domination that has taken millions of innocent lives since (that’s right, millions). Some say that is the cost of our freedom. I say that is the price of our fear.

I wrestle with those feelings every year. Because if we really want to heal from these wounds, we need to be willing to face the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I talked about this in my TEDx talk “Reimagining Citizenship”:

Every year, on that day, we gather together and we vow to never forget. But are we really remembering, when we don’t tell the whole story? The one that includes the suffering of so many who have been persecuted since that day? And am i truly honoring the memory of the man who raised me, who demonstrated a love for his neighbors every day of his life — he didn’t discriminate between who gets to be saved and who doesn’t. He ran into that tower for all of us.

Ruby Sales’ wisdom reminds us that “we have to begin to have a conversation that incorporates a vision of love with a vision of outrage”. It’s not a binary. We can live in love and outrage at the same time. For the sake of justice. For the sake of all of us.

That is what this #WELLREAD is all about.

-Kerri

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Rage becomes her was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are swimming in a sea of lies and corruption — served up on a silver platter by sexy ad campaigns, wellness mavens, federal judges and the Chief himself.

But while we are defending the truth and fighting for justice, we cannot take our eyes off the prize. Simultaneous to our resistance must be the courage and creativity to build something in it’s place. It requires a capacity to hold complex truths at the same time, to adapt in real time and respond gracefully to what is needed, to be diligent in our effort and action while still centering relationship and humanity. We cannot be distracted by fear so much so that we lose the plot and go off the rails.

And that’s exactly what we are being challenged to do this week. While we face the very real threat that is the possible nomination of Kavanaugh, we also celebrate the bench that is being built by black candidates who are holding a direction for our country that is brave and uncompromising. Ayanna Pressley’s victory (like Abrams and Gillum and Ocasio-Cortez) is a reminder that while we block and tackle, we are also building the more beautiful society that we all deserve.

The truth will set us free. We just need to be in relentless pursuit of it.

-Kerri

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We got Goop’d was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the most difficult things about writing WELLREAD is reckoning with the good and the bad of current events. This week is no exception.

From powerful primaries to complex legacies, we are navigating treacherous times and existential questions. But I don’t think it is so much as fixing it or figuring things out, but rather imagining better. Holding a direction that is beyond the limited ideas and beliefs that have been shaped by our challenging history.

We can dream beyond borders, we can betray whiteness, we can impeach a tyrant. And we can take back our country. Nothing is impossible.

As Rebecca Solnit puts it “we got here by disengagement, the disengagement of the progressive majority; we get out of this fix by engagement”.

-Kerri

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The Reckoning was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this week’s #WELLREAD, Ai Jen Poo asks

“How should civil society respond when the values that define who we are collectively in America — equality and inclusion, freedom of speech, sanctuary to those in need, due process, and protecting the most vulnerable among us — appear to erode?”

This feels like the exact question we should be asking right now given the stakes. While it’s true, that we cannot fall victim to replicating oppressive behavior and perpetuating separation, we also cannot nice-nice this moment. We are in fight of our lives over the next couple months. The September 4th hearing date for SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh puts the future of our safety, civil rights and wellbeing front and center (NK…everything from abortion to gun rights to climate change is up for grabs). And so back to the question…

How do we respond?

Here’s a helpful framework inspired by our contributors this week:

1. RADICAL: Right action requires that you not just know your values, but also your location in society and how that informs your role and responsibility. It is a radical practice of self awareness that understands our privilege and power in society.
2. READY: Ask hard questions of yourself and your peers about what matters and why. Don’t default to positions, rather stay curious about what you don’t know and capable of holding the complexity of this moment.
3. RESPONSIVE: Don’t just do anything, do what is needed. Look to the leadership of those who are most impacted to assess how you can make the best impact.

And most importantly, y’all, do it with love and care. Anything else is besides the point.

-Kerri

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Rising up for Roe was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Moral (adjective); concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.

Have we lost our moral center? One would think so looking at the policies of this administration. There is no question what side of justice they are on.

But what’s worse is that we let them do it. What does that say about us? Sure, the system is corrupt. But we, too, have been asleep at the wheel. Our obsession with self-sufficiency and personal wellness has become one more strategy of willful negligence.

But it’s not too late to do the right thing; to reclaim our morality and take back our country.

You’ve been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.

Marianne Williamson says “moral outrage is not born out of anger, it is born out of love. It comes from the highest in us.” We are capable of extraordinary things; when we decide we are. After all, we have as many hours in the day as Beyonce.

So let’s get in formation.

-Kerri

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Let’s get in formation was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

White women, we have work to do.

The deafening silence around Nia Wilson’s murder is just one more betrayal by white women. Throughout history, white women have been oppression’s “constant gardeners”. “The fact, is white women have an abysmal track record. From suffrage right through to the 2016 election, white women have demonstrated that they are primarily interested in protecting themselves and advancing their own political goals”, says Jessie Daniels in this Huff Post piece.

But that is also not a reason to cancel them. For those of us who are white women, we have a responsibility to “go get our people” and bring them into anti-racism work and active ally-ship. Not because we are going to save the democratic party, but because we are a threat to it and the progressive values that will move us toward liberation. We will win not through centering ourselves but through solidarity.

Solidarity is based on the principle that we are willing to put ourselves at risk to protect each other (Starhawk). It looks like telling the truth and holding ourselves accountable. It looks like listening and learning from leaders on the margins. It looks like going hard in the battle against an oppressive regime. It looks like boldly showing up and taking risks for the wellbeing of the whole.

And it looks like love. A love that is big enough to include everyone. A love that is sophisticated enough to understand how we got here. A love that is fierce enough to fight. And a love that is hopeful enough to see a way through.

Let’s finally do the work that is necessary for all of our liberation.

-Kerri Kelly

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Dear White Women… was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Everyone is asking “is there such a thing as the #YogaVote”? But the #YogaVote can’t be reduced to a wellness trend or identity politics. There is evidence that people are aligned in values AND acting according to their values — just look at the 290 billion health and sustainability market. The question is, will we vote our values? Will we engage beyond our individual circumstances? Will we come together in solidarity for the wellbeing of everyone, not just a few?

This weekend marks #100DaysOut from the midterm elections — perhaps the most significant (and achievable) goal in taking back our power and reclaiming some balance in government. But the blue wave won’t make itself. We need everyone actively engaged in deep democracy — having courageous conversations about the candidates and issues that matter and turning out the vote so that everyone is represented.

We are more than a voting body to be bought and sold. We are a community aligned in values and practice and ready to act in the name of love and justice. And we’ve got our work cut out for us.

So let’s show them what we are made of.

-Kerri

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The #YogaVote was originally published in WELLread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.