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PHOTO: IRWIN KELLER
F R O M O U R E X E C U T I V E D I R E C TO R There’s a feeling you get when you make a left on to the Commonweal driveway, just as the old RCA building nestled among the cypress and pine trees emerges, with the Farallon Islands and Pacific Ocean behind it—that feeling lets you know everything you need to know about Commonweal. It is a place of natural beauty, of healing, of belonging, of challenges, and of good work. It is a place that is part of this imperfect world, with an imperfect history, trying to make a difference. As we approach our 50th anniversary in 2026, we are reflecting on the unique quality of what happens at Commonweal, drawn from more than four decades of experience supporting healing for people with cancer, youth, physicians and nurses, scientists, farmers, and the environment itself. We have begun to call this quality “the Commonweal Way.” What is the Commonweal Way? It is a collection of qualities and practices emerging from our work and drawn from ancient lineages. It is not only about how we create and manifest our wide range of healing programs, but also how we hold the organization itself. We have a team at the heart of Commonweal, and they—as much as any of our individual programs—manifest the Commonweal Way. Many organizations work like well-oiled machines— staff have defined roles and responsibilities and they stay “in their lane” to produce what the organization needs to fulfill its function. Over the years, Commonweal has evolved into a different way of being, more like a living organism. Co-founder Michael Lerner and I work closely together with an intergenerational Stewardship Circle, holding a deep sense of care for each other. There is a flow throughout our administrative team that ensures that tasks and responsibilities are fulfilled. Yet even behind the scenes, we are driven by a shared mission and way of being. Our staff, board, and leadership team wear many hats; we bring our whole selves to the work; and we treat each other with deep respect On our cover: The Commonweal Chapel. PHOTO: KYRA EPSTEIN
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and humility. This organizational work ethic is sourced in the Commonweal Way. On September 9th we held a small event to celebrate the confluence of two special anniversaries: Michael’s 80th birthday and my own 60th. We gathered staff, board, and community members to mark this moment, to celebrate our history of almost five decades, and to explore and nurture what future decades could be. Michael began the day exploring the intersection of healing and the polycrisis, asking what our calling during these times might be. Several pairings of staff, representing different generations and different communities at Commonweal, held thoughtprovoking conversations from the stage. The day ended with two delicious birthday cakes and a joyful rendition of the Bolinas “Happy Birthday” song.
Oren Slozberg and Michael Lerner at the September 9 gathering. PHOTO: KYRA EPSTEIN
All of this—the personal touches, the intergenerationality, the adaptivity, the eagerness to learn together, the commitment to respond to the call to be part of the world’s healing—all of this is what makes Commonweal unique. This is the heart of what we do and how we endeavor to do it. We face an uncertain world. Things can change in the blink of an eye. But together, in that Commonweal Way, we will face whatever emerges and continue, with your help, to heal ourselves and heal the planet. With gratitude, Oren Slozberg
PHOTO: DIANA LINDSAY
Introducing Commonweal Northwest Commonweal has a new physical home in the Pacific Northwest—a property that was an incredible gift from Kelly and Diana Lindsay and the entire Langley, Washington, community.
The building—which houses a bustling Healing Circles Langley—is a focus point for Healing Circles Global and hosts many other circles and workshops in the Commonweal community. In the last year, programming is almost back to pre-pandemic levels, with 60 circles or events per month focused on helping people connect, face life challenges, and ensure wellness. Healing Circles Langley is a part of a network of organizations and people that are addressing the challenges facing their island community. Also this year, Healing Circles Langley hired their first staff person, Elin Stebbins Waldal.
For a number of years now, the town of Langley, on Whidbey Island outside of Seattle, has been important to Commonweal. A growing number of Commonweal staff and community members live or gather there. The Whidbey Institute, whose programs and community have influenced Commonweal’s work, is located there. And it was the birthplace of Healing Circles Langley, which has expanded to include circles all over the country and world.
From Diana: “I’m thrilled that Commonweal wanted to have a home here, to partner with us, and to support intentional healing programs. Whidbey has a gift for community; Commonweal has a gift for stewardship. Together, we can support the healing of ourselves and our planet as has always been Commonweal’s mission.”
At the center of all of this is Diana Lindsay, founder of Healing Circles Langley and co-director of Healing Circles Global. Diana and her late husband, Kelly Lindsay, who died in May of 2020, built this international Healing Circle community based in a 100-year-old, two-story house, shingled in wood and overlooking the Saratoga Passage and Cascade mountains.
healingcircleslangley.org healingcirclesglobal.org
Before he died, Kelly wanted to make a large gift to Healing Circles and Commonweal. Both Diana and Kelly wanted to offer a gift that would be a low burden to Commonweal, so a lot of work went into the infrastructure of the building: fencing, shingles, roof, solar, concrete foundation, and heating. After Kelly died, Diana wanted to honor his impulse to make a gift, his deep love of the building itself, and his love of building projects for his family. She raised money from the community, and offered the rest of the gift from Kelly and herself.
PHOTO CREDIT?
Situated at the edge of town, on a bluff across the street from the Whidbey Center for the Arts, the building hosts rooms for conversation, an art room, meditation and qigong rooms, community living spaces and a kitchen. The building is filled with the work of Whidbey artists–of which there are many–so that visitors feel welcomed by the community from the moment they walk in.
Healing Circle in Langley, Washington. PHOTO: HEALING CIRCLES LANGLEY
2023 YEAR-END REPORT
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IN THE LAST YEAR, WE: Reached a milestone goal of providing 100,000 service hours to participants from more than 30 countries in the Healing Circles Global program.
Offered six week-long Cancer Help Program retreats, three retreats for Bay Area Young Survivors, and two on-line Sanctuary cohorts, helping participants with cancer live better and, where possible, longer lives.
Convened international gatherings of 1,000+ people with three visionary leaders (Resmaa Menakem, Bayo Akomolafe and Orland Bishop) as part of the Center for Healing and Liberation’s work with the Three Black Men: A Journey into the Magical Otherwise project.
Marked the full shutdown of California’s youth prison system and its transition to a local care network—a goal accomplished over decades of advocacy work by the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program.
Launched new programs in two California prisons through the Humane Prison Hospice Project to train and support incarcerated people to provide compassionate end-of-life care for their aging and terminally ill.
Reached a milestone 10,000 subscribers on The New School YouTube channel, with people watching and listening to our 400 recordings on media channels 30,000 times each month from 60 countries.
Offered a cohort of young adults 150 hours of instruction, experiential learning, land stewardship, and self-directed learning through the completion of the Innovative Learning and Living Institute’s pilot program.
Facilitated the process to return 1,156 acres of land to Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color through the Center for Ethical Land Transition.
Celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Collaborative for Health and the Environment, now with global membership of more than 10,000, offering a host of new science-to-action tools as well as 30 webinars that reached more than 10,000 people.
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Reached more than 50,000 website visitors through the CancerChoices program, expanded site content, new outreach to professional organizations, and expanded reference handbooks for cancerrelated issues.
Steadily deepened the healing relationship with the 17-acre Commonweal Garden and community through Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine, delivering monthly Community Medicine Circles, full moon events, and restorative healing experiences through partnerships with the Cancer Help Program, Project Avary, Abriendo Caminos, and family medicine residency programs.
Hosted 50 retreats for Commonweal programs and other mission-aligned groups at the Retreat Center, welcoming 10 new groups focused on BIPOC and women-led work.
Hosted the eighth Power of Hope youth camp at our Bolinas site, supporting a diverse group of 28 Bay Area youth in finding meaning, purpose, and connection.
Supported 1,600 migrant and asylum-seeking families at a sanctuary in Tijuana through the Gift of Compassion program’s Migration Support Project.
Launched a new fellowship program providing financial support and mentorship for 21 Global South fellows and initiated 10 research grants to help us navigate the global polycrisis through the Omega Resilience Awards program.
Engaged a global audience of more than 7,000 in facilitated discussions around artwork through Visual Thinking Strategies’ Look Club Online— and equipped 160+ individuals with transformational skills in VTS facilitation and coaching through online training programs.
Worked internationally to educate and mentor divorce lawyers in North America, Brazil, Ireland, Singapore, the Pacific Rim, Brazil, and Portugal about the theory and practice of collaborative divorce through the Integrative Law Institute.
With the help of your generous donations and support, our programs offered healing, support, and resources to hundreds of thousands of people world wide. Read about more of the impact Commonweal programs had in 2023 at commonweal.org/news
COMMONWEAL PROGRAMS Commonweal Biomonitoring Research Center California Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice Commonweal Cancer Help Program CancerChoices Center for Dying and Living Center for Ethical Land Transition
GoCompassion
OMEGA Resilience Awards
Healing Circles Global
Partners for Youth Empowerment
Healing Circles Healthcare Healing Circles Houston Healing Circles Langley Healing Yoga Foundation Humane Prison Hospice Project Innovative Learning and Living Institute Integrative Law Institute
Center for Healing and Liberation
Juvenile Justice Program
Collaborative for Health and Environment
Kinship Blooms
Kids and Caregivers
Platform Impact Leaders Fellowship Power of Hope project SOUL Regenerative Design Institute Retreat Center Collaboration SafetyNEST Science Somos El Poder Syntropy Healing and Research Taproot Gathering
Commonweal Retreat Center
Michael Lerner Archives Migration Support Project
The New School at Commonweal
Courage & Renewal Network of Northern California
Movement Liberation Fund
The Resilience Project
Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine
Visual Thinking Strategies
The American Public Trust Foundation for Embodied Medicine
Octavia Fund OMEGA
West Marin Climate Action West Marin Review
CO M M O N W E A L B OA R D O F D I R E C TO R S Serena Bian
Jaune Evans
Robert Mulhall
Steven Bookoff, Treasurer
Katherine Fulton, Vice Chair
Angela Oh
Omar Brownson
Michael Lerner, President & Board Chair
Lisa Simms Booth
Catherine Dodd
Outdoor art installation from above. PHOTO: BRANDON ROTH
2023 YEAR-END REPORT
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W I T H
G R A T I T U D E
We express our deep gratitude to the following organizations that have supported Commonweal this year: Alameda County Arts Commission ● Alberta S. Kimball – Mary L. Anhaltzer Foundation ● Angell Foundation Arizona Community Foundation ● As You Sow ● Association for Healthcare Philanthropy ● The Altman 2011 Charitable Lead Annuity Trust Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund ● Benjamin Abelson Foundation Funds Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ● Bioneers/Collective Heritage Institute ● The Bancroft Foundation Buck Family Fund of Marin Community Foundation ● California Arts Council ● Charities Aid Foundation of Canada Chavez Family Foundation ● Chicago Community Trust ● Church Divinity School of the Pacific ● Clementine Fund ● Compton Foundation Cool the Earth ● The Christopher Reynolds Foundation ● Culp Charitable Fund ● David Foster Wallace Literary Trust Distracted Globe Foundation ● Dune Road Foundation ● EDL Northwest ● Environmental Working Group ● Fetzer Institute Fidelity Charitable ● Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative ● Forsythia Foundation ● Foundation for Intentional Community Harbinger Foundation ● The Heinz Endowments ● The Hobson Family Foundation ● ImpactAssets Inc ● Innovative Health Solutions Island County State of Washington ● Jenifer Altman Foundation ● Jewish Liberation Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of the Proteus Fund John and Wauna Harman Foundation ● John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ● Kalliopeia Foundation Kindle Project of Common Counsel Foundation ● LIFT Economy ● The Lia Fund ● Maine Community Foundation Matthew London and Sylvia Wen Gala Fund ● Muriel Murch Full Circle Endowment Fund ● Naturally Inspired ● Neale Family Foundation New World Foundation ● Norcliffe Foundation ● Oak Foundation ● O’Donnell Iselin Foundation ● One Project Peaceful World Foundation ● The Patchwork Collective ● Public Welfare Foundation ● Rockefeller Brothers Fund The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations ● Satterberg Foundation ● Scheidel Foundation Schwab Charitable Fund ● Skoll Foundation ● So Hum Foundation ● Susie Tompkins Buell Fund ● Sylvan C. Coleman Trust Szekely Family Foundation ● Taylor Family Foundation ● The Cold Mountain Fund of RSF Social Finance ● Theobald Foundation Tides Foundation ● Trinity Episcopal Parish in Menlo Park ● Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund ● University of California, San Diego W.K. Kellogg Foundation ● Walnut Fund ● Wend II Inc ● West Marin Fund Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at University of California, Davis
We offer special thanks and gratitude to the following Commonweal Friends for their generous contributions of $1000 and above during the last year. Myra Aaronson & Arthur Eves Bettye Adams in honor of Patrick Hill, Ina Sherman & Susan Hammer Dr. Frank Adams & Dr. Maureen Swenson Robert & Carol Baird Carol Banquer Bill Barnes Zane Behnke Nancy Bertelsen Michael Bien Orland Bishop Melani Bolyai Steven Bookoff Penelope & Terry Bourk Frish Brandt Jeff & Judy Brody Bonnie Burt & Mark Liss Robert & Penny Cabot Steven & Krista Call Alison Carlson Ross Chapin & Deborah Koff-Chapin
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Jeff Chartrand Anne Conley Amanda Coslor Susan Cummins & Rose Roven Bruce Deming & Jeff Byrne Gun Denhart Mike & Nanette Dentinger Louise Dunlap Catherine Dussault Richard Eagan & Elizabeth Ostrow Chandler & Molly Eason Justine Epstein Peter & Melissa Evans Dawn Fairbanks Ulrike Faubert Elizabeth Fenwick James Forbes Katherine Fulton & Katharine Kunst Michael Gallagher Ellen Geringer Bing Gong & Eleanore Despina
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Sally Goodwin Deeksha Gowda Cynthia Graham Stasia Grose William & Nancy Grove David & Joan Grubin Frank & Carol Gruen Thordis & Gary Gulden Harry & Shirley Hagey Keshira haLev Fife Lamara Heartwell & Timothy Tillman George Henny Meg & Gary Hirshberg Chris Hitt & C. Kay Briggs John Hunting S. Joel Kaufmann Todd & Blanca Johnson Mary Kaczmarek Arsen Kalfayan Rick Kantor Rebecca Katz & Gregg Kellogg Yoon Hee Kim
Sanford Koltonow & Mary Schlaff Larry & Karen Konick Trish & Larry Kubal Alexander Kushner Harry Lasker Susan Leonard Michael Lerner Roger & Florence Liddell Diana Lindsay Lynnaea Lumbard & Rick Paine Martha Lyddon Jonathan MacQuitty & Laurie Hunter Josephine Merck Tara Milliken Suzanne Mondello Jill Moore Anne Morin Dorothy Mott Marc Mowrey Pete & Lois Myers Judith & Richard Nagelberg
Deepa Narayan & John Blaxall Carol Newell Nancy Nordhoff & Lynn Hays Angela Oh & Ming Tu April Paletsas & Holly Strasbaugh Kim Pattillo Brownson Audrey P Collins Eliza Perkins & Joseph Osborn Margaret & Pete Perrone Charlie Pieterick Jean & Gary Pokorny Andrea Rabinowitz Bonnie Raitt Mark & Susan Reinstra Adina & Adam Rose Alexander Rose Rachel Russell Barbara Sattler Ron & Eva Sher David Silberman Wayne Silby Meg Simonds & Mark Butler
Marjorie Sims Jesse Smith & Annice Kenan Smith David Spaw Elizabeth Starmann Mary Stephens Isabel Swift & Steven Phillips Lois Talkovsky Barbara Taylor Cara Taylor Mary Ann Tebbe Candace Tkachuck & Donald Guthrie John Tydlaska Caroline & Fong Wang Marion Weber Sharon Weil Paul Wexelblat Barbara Wiener Akaya Windwood Serita Winthrop Stephen Zilber
Show your support at commonweal.org:
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Healing with Care and Community
It is impossible to describe what happens in the CCHP. Essentially, most people find a deeper connection to the roots of their own resilience. Many find greater strength, clarity, and purpose in their lives. The CCHP is the greatest work I have ever been given to do. It is soul work. The power of love as a healing force is nowhere more evident than in these week-long retreats at the edge of the Pacific. So please do come—or come back. Our CancerChoices.org website is also thriving, with more than 53,000 visitors in the last year. We’re simply the best source of deep information on integrative cancer choices on the web. This year we added: ten new reviews of complementary therapies; three new stories from cancer survivors; two updated and expanded cancer handbooks on breast cancer and prostate cancer; and two updated and expanded handbooks on managing pain and hot flashes. At CancerChoices, we often link people with cancer to medical advocates trained by Mark Renneker, MD, who literally invented one of the best training programs for medical advocates. A true medical advocate understands mainstream oncology in some depth, knows how to do literature reviews, listens deeply to what the client wants, and has the skills to help them find it. Sadly, these gifted integrative oncology medical advocates are rare. It is a field that cries out for development. It is one of the things we hope to support through CancerChoices. The tragic truth is that for all the billions of dollars that go into cancer research and conventional cancer treatments, very few people have access to the navigational skills to integrate the best of conventional and integrative therapies. These skills reliably improve choices in conventional and integrative treatments, improve quality of life, reduce suffering, and help people find more meaning in these great life transitions. We are trying now to discover how to weave all our cancer offerings into a single powerful pattern that enables people to find what they need as readily as possible. Those offerings include the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices, the Healing Circles Global cancer circles, our retreats for young Bay Area breast cancer survivors,
and the deep work of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment on why cancer is pandemic around the world today. The New School library is a vast archive of dozens of conversations about integrative cancer care, many co-presented with CancerChoices and Healing Circles. This year, for example, our conversation with Radical Remissions founder Kelly Turner has been watched or listened to almost 13,000 times (see all of the CancerChoices videos on their website (cancerchoices.org/ resources/video-library/). The collective CancerChoices/ New School conversation playlists were watched or listened to more than 24,000 times this year alone.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
We recently completed our 221st Commonweal Cancer Help Program (CCHP). It was a beauty. Due to COVID19 we have a shorter waiting list now. So we strongly encourage CCHP alumni who’d like to come back to return—and equally warmly welcome newbies as well.
For a certain kind of person, there are few resources that rival Commonweal in terms of what we offer to help navigate a cancer diagnosis. We are there for people who think for themselves, who have a sense of agency, who believe integral approaches to cancer are fundamentally better, who understand what we offer and who believe it may help them. This note would not be complete without my expression of my deepest gratitude to all of you who have supported our cancer work. I offer my fervent hope that you will continue to do so or—if you have not yet contributed—that you join us in making our continuing cancer work possible. —Michael Lerner, Co-founder, Board Chair, Commonweal / Co-founder, Cancer Help Program cancerhelpprogram.org • cancerchoices.org The New School at Commonweal’s CancerChoices podcast playlist: bit.ly/cancerchoices-podcasts Collaborative for Health and the Environment cancer resources: bit.ly/CHE-cancer
2023 YEAR-END REPORT
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Forty Years of Juvenile Justice Advocacy
The shutdown of California’s Division of Juvenile Justice closes the book on a long and bleak history of incarcerating youth (mainly youth of color) for long terms in dreary, prison-like facilities with poor programming and unenviable recidivism rates. When I joined Commonweal in 1992, founder Michael Lerner and his brother, Steve Lerner, had already launched a policy initiative addressing what was then called the California Youth Authority. Steve and others co-authored four Commonweal books between 1982—1990, citing miserable conditions and outlining a reform agenda. In 1992, I took over the reins of this effort. We developed close relationships with legislative leaders and other policymakers who shared our commitment to reform. We compiled a strong track record of “downsizing” reforms over the years, including a landmark 2007 ban on committing youth with nonviolent offenses to state institutions. Fast-forwarding over decades of advocacy work, we were closely involved in the 2020/2021 final push to close the California youth prison system. My role was to draft legislation that took state institutions off line, set up local alternatives to state custody, and supply counties with state “realignment” dollars to provide secure and non-secure care for high-risk/high needs youth closer to home. This work involved lengthy negotiations with other advocacy organizations, legislative committees, the Governor’s office and judicial and probation groups. Governor Newsom signed the first DJJ closure bill in 2020, with another big implementation measure following in 2021. The surrogate system we created at the local level is designed to be more humane, more oriented around treatment, and with new and flexible sentencing guidelines that incorporate each youth’s developmental history and needs in the judicial sentencing decision. A core goal of the local replacement network is to avoid needless transfers of youth at higher offense levels to the adult system.
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Our work over the last 30 years was not confined to California youth prisons. We had a central role in other major reforms—augmenting the due process rights of justice system youth, limiting transfers to the adult system, expanding youth access to mental health services, and pioneering new law on the sealing of juvenile offense records (allowing former justice system youth access to employment, higher education, and military service). We also played an important part in national reforms, including a body of work with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, teaching and promoting changes in juvenile detention practice in more than 30 states. My retirement, at age 81, will likely and unfortunately also bring the long run of the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program to a close. This is the bane of having a program that depends so heavily on the efforts and expertise of a single individual. One of my key responsibilities has been to raise all the funding for the program. We have been fortunate to obtain essentially seamless financial support over the years from a long and rotating list of private foundations. PHOTO: DAVID STEINHART
This year was a huge milestone year for the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program. The big headline is that the dysfunctional California youth prison system—a target of Commonweal policy reform work for more than 40 years—closed for good in 2023. In other news, after serving as director of the program for more than 30 years, I will be retiring by the end of 2023. More on that, below.
I cannot end without expressing my deep gratitude to Commonweal, and to Michael Lerner as its founder, for their unyielding commitment to the goals and work of the Juvenile Justice program. I have enjoyed an incredibly supportive work ethic and environment at Commonweal. I had the freedom to shape and pursue a challenging public policy reform agenda without second guessing or bureaucratic interference. For me personally, it has been a profoundly rewarding and, all in all, highly successful 30-year run at Commonweal. —David Steinhart, Director, Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program comjj.org
The Healing Power of Stories International Fellows Navigate These Wild Times PHOTO: COURTESY OF OMEGA RESILIENCE AWARDS
“The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.” – Ben Okri, Nigerian poet and novelist We have been called the storytelling species. Stories can be lifegiving. They teach our children, maintain cultural values, bring us joy, and give us solace. They can also help us imagine the future. But what if, more and more, we do not like the stories we are hearing? What if they feel harmful or fatalistic? How do we change them? We are holding these questions with 21 Omega Resilience Awards fellows who are working across the Global South. The Omega Resilience Awards (ORA) came to life in 2023, as the first program to be launched from our Omega program. Omega was initiated by Commonweal Co-Founder Michael Lerner to increase awareness of the global polycrisis and incubate projects to help us navigate these unpredictable times. Omega is dedicated to fostering resilience, resistance, and hope, and ORA is bringing that vision to life.
A Catalytic Grantmaking Program ORA provides fellowships and research grants and hosts a learning community among the ORA fellows to crystallize collective insights. The small ORA team partners with anchor partners who direct the selection process and community-building in their regions: Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Nigeria, STARTUP! in India, and Colectivo de Acción por la Justicia Ecosocial in Argentina. The first group of ORA Fellows started in May. They include emerging leaders from across fields, including public intellectuals, activists, artists and scientists. In common, they are biocentrist systems thinkers, bold visionaries, and determined activists. The ORA community also includes research grant recipients—organizations in the vanguard of field mapping and framing narratives, including KHOJ, Global Tapestry of Alternatives, Ethnic Media Services, and the Cascade Institute.
The New Generation of Healing Our early work in cancer and environmental health taught us that programs that invite the richness of our human experience to emerge are true acts of reparation. And when storytelling accompanies the work of cultural repair, hand-in-hand, we can give voice to changing times. This is narrative repair and healing work, for ourselves and each other. This approach continues to guide us, and ORA is embodying the newest form. ORA Fellows are working across disciplines in a vast range of creative activism. Biologist Nandini Velho in India is building an inclusive space for storytelling on conservation in India. Advocate Tatenda Jane Dzvarai is increasing understanding of reproductive justice for African women in the face of climate change. Journalist Damián Andrada leads a journalism training program for indigenous youth in Latin America. This is a small sampling of the extraordinary work of ORA Fellows. Collectively, they share a commitment to making the polycrisis comprehensible. They are also envisioning a future in which human and natural communities thrive together.
Stories of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope You must hear these stories in the fellows’ own words. Because a critical piece of the ORA work is storytelling, the ORA team created a digital platform called The Space, where the ORA Fellows share field notes and stories from their work. The Space is a creative, collaborative storytelling lab, where the fellows can learn from and inspire each other, while also sharing new narratives of life in the polycrisis. These are stories for us all. We invite you to come to The Space and read, watch, and listen to healing stories for these wild times. —Susan Grelock Yusem, Director Narrative Development, Commonweal omega.ngo omega.ngo/newsletter/ thespace.orawards.org
2023 YEAR-END REPORT
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Three Black Men
A Journey into the Magical Otherwise In 2023 the Center for Healing and Liberation brought together three visionary Black leaders—Resmaa Menakem, Bayo Akomolafe and Orland Bishop—for the first time. These men saw the possibility of uniting to investigate the urgent questions of our time. As we reckon with the legacies of historical harms, the normative murder of Black and Brown bodies, climate change, and surging global inequities, how might we respond in ways we have not yet imagined? To dream our futures into being, we need emancipatory spaces of healing, exploration, and discovery. The Three Black Men project traces the Transatlantic slave route in reverse, with public events on each man’s home continent (in the United States, Brazil, and Ghana).
PHOTO: GL ASKEW II, GLA2.COM
This project has been convening community gatherings in which these leaders guide collective inquiry into liberation in our world. The Three Black Men sense into emergent possibilities that speak to what we need now, triangulating toward a synthesis of new forms, new magic, and new directions.
Along with the reflections and teachings of the three men, the joyful Black-centering gatherings incorporate art, song, dance, rituals of deep care, inquiry practices, and smallgroup conversations. Our explorations in Los Angeles, at
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One emergent focus was Black men’s tenderness and need for nourishing connection that honors their aliveness. This is a revolutionary conversation on a theme invisible in public discourse. Our Los Angeles partner Aaron Johnson (of the Chronically UnderTouched Project) will continue to meet with Black men from the gathering, exploring tenderness and healing touch. In Salvador, Brazil, our Black men’s gathering hosted approximately 70 participants while 250 joined our opento-everyone gathering, plus other small convenings. Honoring Black women is a bright thread in this work as well. Our Brazilian partners spoke of their grief and frustration over the high level of violence against Black bodies, especially Black women, in Salvador. Men and women spoke of their commitment to peace, unity, women’s rights, and women’s well-being. Many ideas for projects arose, which will be led by Brazilians. In Salvador, our team was spiritually anchored by a historic Candomblé temple—Ilé Às.e. Ìyá Nasò O . ka, or CasaBranca—led by three Black women elders, and founded in the 1800s by three free African women. It was clear that the ocean-deep resilience of these Afro-Brazilian communities is sustained by the deep remembering held by these practitioners. This fed into our evolving sense of how cultural containers can carry multigenerational medicine. As we integrate learning from Los Angeles and Salvador, our documentary film is in process. With sunlight and wind on our faces, we look toward the December gatherings in Ghana. —Victoria Santos, Director, Center for Healing and Liberation centerforhealingandliberation.com PHOTO: GL ASKEW II, GLA2.COM
Under the weight of oppression and westernization, Blackness is widely framed as negative and evil—leading over and over to grievous harm. This project celebrates Blackness. As we cultivate healing, we know that we are not separate from this Earth, and our liberation-birthright is here.
the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, were potent and far-reaching. A Black men’s gathering served 60 people, while an open-to-everyone gathering served 125 in-person and 600 livestream participants.
Wayfinders: New Ways of Being in the World It’s humbling and gratifying when a new endeavor exceeds expectations. I feel this way about the Wayfinders program, the immersive residency for young adults we piloted this year at the Whidbey Institute. Commonweal’s Innovative Learning and Living Institute (ILALI) designed Wayfinders to help participants grow and adapt to change, address conflict and polarization, and, ultimately, create better futures for themselves and their communities. This year’s pilot cohort, a diverse group of mostly twenty-somethings from the Puget Sound region, spent eight weeks, cost-free, living and learning at the Whidbey Institute, thanks to funding primarily from Fetzer foundation. Balancing the particularities and politics connected to differences with learning how to live together was dynamic, messy at times, and inspiring. Participants entered the program with a strong yearning for deeper connection and a desire to learn how to create communities of practice and support for themselves and others. The cohort fully embraced the daily transformative practice sessions—body, mind, spirit, shadow exercises— that proved profoundly healing and revitalizing while providing them a more embodied orientation to learning and being in community. One participant described this deepening of an embodied awareness of self, others, and environment as “profoundly uncomfortable and profoundly liberating.” A second shared, “I feel genuinely healthier. Emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I feel like I recovered something within myself that had been lost for a long time.” In addition to the foundational transformative practices, we wove visual, movement, and performance arts, as well as different storytelling exercises, throughout the entirety of the program. Another consistent throughline was the experiential approach we offered the cohort to understand how different worldviews create different
worlds. The cohort explored how diverse life conditions and systems inform how we experience and shape our world. As one participant beautifully puts it: “I have learned how much my perspective, my worldview, and my attitude shapes my lived experiences and my relationship to myself and other people. I was in a stagnant pool of bitterness, grief, depression, apathy, and anger before joining the program. I feel, now, open to new ways of seeing and being in the world.” The immediate impact of the program was evident through the growth and emergence of collective leadership. Among the participants, significant outcomes were observed. One participant embarked on establishing her private counseling practice, while another made the decision to apply for graduate school. Two others honed their coaching and training businesses. The cohort also showcased their talents and creativity by creating and publicly exhibiting artworks, performances, and short films. Some participants chose to relocate to more supportive environments aligned with their personal paths. Notably, two individuals are now employees at the Whidbey Institute. The entire cohort expressed their commitment to remaining a community of practice and supporting future iterations of the Wayfinders program. As a symbol of their transformative journeys, the cohort collaboratively created a large mural that is currently showcased at the Whidbey Institute. It was an honor to witness and help support these young adults in healing and transmuting particular conditioning. Their willingness to be present and move through uncomfortable emotions, including deep grief, anger, and interpersonal tensions, was impressive and transformational. –M. Rako Fabionar, Director, ILALI ilali.global
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ILALI
2023 YEAR-END REPORT
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Waz Thomas: Making the Cut September 11, 2023 - October 20, 2023 Gallery Commonweal GALLERY COMMONWEAL. PHOTO: KYRA EPSTEIN ARTIST WAZ THOMAS. PHOTO: ERIN O’REILLY
