038 Gibrán Rivera – White Supremacy, Woke Fundamentalism, and Evolutionary Allyship

State of Emergence

Inspiring master facilitator and social impact consultant Gibrán Rivera joins Terry to explore how our very way of being together might be our most meaningful response to this choice point in human history. They discuss how our social justice work might evolve to serve the flourishing of life in ourselves and one another, and how we can move beyond relating as individuals, and instead cultivate a new “we”, in the aliveness between us.

Gibrán Rivera is an internationally renowned master facilitator and consultant committed to transforming organizations into more “networks of collaborative leadership” by shifting dynamics of power, equity and inclusion, and building beloved community. Gibrán has devoted much of his work life to the idea of democracy and to the work of emancipatory politics in urban communities. He led community engagement work at Roxbury’s La Alianza Hispana, served as Executive Director of Iniciativa – the Massachusetts Education Initiative for Latino Students, was the founding board chair of MassVOTE, a director on the Board of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and President of the Board of the Center for Nonprofits and Voting. Gibrán is also spearheading a number of online communities and conversations. He leads Collective Consciousness Meditations with other spiritual teachers and medicine people every Wednesday, is the creator of the Better Men Project, a community and course on conscious masculinity, as well as a new conversation series on race called What Should White People Do?, for white people who want to learn, take responsibility and take action.

Here are some of the questions Gibrán and Terry discuss in the episode:

• What happens when we regard belonging and community as the first steps in our journey toward individual and collective healing?
• How can we go beyond the fundamentalism sometimes found in “woke” culture?
• In what ways have we deprived ourselves of our ancestors’ legacies at the times when we need them most? How can we reclaim ritual, story, and dance?

For more information on Gibrán Rivera and Terry Patten, check out the following resources:

• Gibrán Rivera's website
• The Better Men Project
• Collective Consciousness Meditations
• Evolutionary Leadership Workshop
• Evolve Mastermind
• Terry Patten's website

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