Seeking Out & Embracing the Edges
Orland Bishop, Resmaa Menakem, and Bayo Akomolafe
The instant I saw the announcement Greg sent me, I was excited by the prospect of three notable black men joining forces to explore “a radical re/imagination of how we respond” to the challenges plaguing our society. Three Black Men: A Journey Into the Magical Otherwise was a conversation and community gathering to bring together three visionary leaders for the first time – Resmaa Menakem, Bayo Akomolafe, and Orland Bishop. I’ve listened to each one of these men individually as they wrestle with questions about global inequities, racial and social justice, healing and trauma, the planet in crisis … and so I was intrigued by what the experience of this power trio would reveal.
Resmaa Menakem is an American author and psychotherapist specializing in the effects of trauma on the human body and the relationship between trauma, white body supremacy, and racism in America. He is the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions, a leadership consultancy firm, where he dedicates his expertise to coaching leaders through civil unrest, organizational change, and community building. Menakem created Cultural Somatics, which utilizes the body and resilience as mechanisms for growth. He is the best selling author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.
Bayo Akomolafe is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Emergence Network, an international speaker, essayist, public intellectual, and Yoruba poet. Akomolafe is the convener of the concepts of ‘postactivism’, ‘transraciality’ and ‘ontofugitivity’, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. He is also the host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will dance with Mountains.’
Orland Bishop is the founder and director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, where he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge. ShadeTree serves as an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers, and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth. Orland’s work in healing and human development is framed by an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology, and Indigenous cosmologies, primarily those of South and West Africa.
These three men said yes to each other and by extension to those who question how we and the world can be different. Two main threads wove together explorations of embodiment, the sacred, the ancestral, visions of other places of power, and alternative futures. The first thread was to seek out and embrace the edges—the unknown, the unfamiliar, the uncomfortable—because it is from there that we can release presumptions and spark imagination. Bayo invited us to feel the vastness of where we are now; Resmaa suggested that in exploring the edges, we can move “complimentarily and in alignment;” and Orland invited us to have faith so we can participate in what is preparing to change.
They asked the question: How we can respond in ways not yet imagined?
The second thread was that of the imaginal—that place where the breakdown provides the elements for transformation, as with the imaginal cells of the caterpillar to transform into a butterfly. A shift from what we have always known requires a different way of thinking about identity, healing, and transformation.
It was a gathering to build community, to shrug off old mantles, and to reshape connections as human beings. The day was filled with music, poetry, art, and interactions that brought everyone from their seats to the stage for intimate engagement. They sang, they hummed, and to build “a radical performance of trust” and move towards the edges of uncertainty and the unfamiliar, they walked in silence with their eyes closed, to go beyond the visual and the verbal. The intention was to encourage reverence, mystery, and deepen the desire to heal ourselves and each other.
“Three Black Men” offerings to consider:
Dare to move beyond the usual, the known. Be open to not knowing
Gratitude is how we pay attention
Breach and occupy the cracks
Pause in order to find out what is possible at the edge
The space between us is about creating futures
We live in a kind of grace to move energies that do not want to be forced into an individual frame
Let go of the chemistry of not knowing how to rest
Reconnect with our body senses
The age coming into reality is more like jazz. You play because you understand the integrity of the sole notes that are sounded by others. And you harmonize to give this planet our good fortune of having a kind of existence.
—Orland Bishop
The quote above, part of Orland Bishop’s opening remarks, brought an inner smile to my soul. Similar to how we have translated the principles and practices of jazz (Jazz Leadership Project) to the workplace, Bishop sees the value of jazz as a novel approach to life and the framing for a better society.
And so, three black men created a space for a community of seekers, resembling a big band swingin’ with trust, intention, attention, and shared leadership. Each of the men soloed, with thought-felt notes that inspired and empowered, then invited all the participants to birth and hold a co-creative space that says yes to new possibilities.
