Mending Session 1 | Why Conflict Matters: A Grounding Conversation
Session 1: Why Conflict Matters: A Grounding Conversation.
Speakers
- Aida Cuadrado Bozzo, based in Lansing, MI, by way of Puerto Rico, is a queer Taina/Boricua, a cultural, transformational organizer, facilitator and trainer. For over 15 years, she has worked for social justice across a spectrum of cultures, communities, movements, and sectors. She specializes in designing and implementing leadership development and capacity-building initiatives in organizing, strategy, leadership development, generative conflict communications, racial equity, and innovative program and curriculum designs to serve local, regional, and national organizations, networks, and campaigns. Aida is an auntie, middle child, amiga, and partner.
- Marquita James’s work as a conflict transformation consultant and coach is animated by her passion for empowering people to be agents of their own change. Her consulting practice ranges from helping organizations design healthier dispute-resolution systems to helping individuals navigate murky situations. Marquita provides impact-driven, equity-immersed consulting services using innovative solutions to help social change organizations transform the world. Her work centers on the growth, learning, and development of organizations and the individuals within them. Marquita delights in helping organizations embrace healthy, sustainable approaches to conflict transformation, strategy, organizational change, leadership development, and deep exploration of “why are we here doing this thing in this place at this time?” She has facilitated difficult conversations and provided training and coaching since her time with the Harvard Mediation Program at Harvard Law School. When Marquita is not elbows deep in the consulting and coaching worlds, you’ll find her hunting for live music, attempting to dance bhangra, or pining for gumbo from her home state.
Session Recap
On Monday, March 11, the Leadership Learning Community launched the first session of the Mending Series: Why conflict matters: A grounding conversation. We had a wonderful session that explored the complexity of conflict and generative transformation within movement work. Aida Cuadrado Bozzo and Marquita James guided us through a conversation about the transformative possibility of conflict resolution and liberation. Inspired by the ethos of visible mending arts like Kintsugi, we explored conflict as a pathway to growth and connection, embracing imperfection and incompleteness as catalysts for transformation. As we discussed, conflict is not to be feared but embraced as a portal to deeper understanding and alignment. Through self-awareness, empathy, and embodied practices, we can navigate conflict with grace and resilience, turning moments of tension into opportunities for learning and growth. As we continue this journey together, let us hold space for authenticity, curiosity, love, fear, and respect, guided by our want/need for collective liberation.
by LLC Staff
Play as a Liberatory Practice
Play as a Liberatory Practice
On November 8-9, 2023 Leadership Learning Community participated in the Living Liberation Conference 2023 by CTWO. LLC discussed several concrete ways you can incorporate play into your work. Embracing play allows us to rediscover the happiness and liveliness we once experienced in childhood. When we reintroduce play into our professional lives, we not only reclaim moments of creativity and rest but also infuse our work with innovation and discover new avenues to freedom. Despite the current challenging and disheartening state of the world, it is important to remember that we are on the right side of history. With this in mind, play can serve as a means to introduce breathing space and relief into our routines, stimulate curiosity, and recapture the joy that oppressive systems, structures, and experiences constantly try to steal from us. By integrating play into our work, we can retrieve some of the joy that these systems have taken from us.
Learn about how does play relate to work and the rules of play by Ericka Stallings.
Learn about how to put into practice the rules of play by Ericka Stallings.
Learn how the LLC’s team has incorporated play into their work through the Liberatory Playground Series by Ericka Stallings.
Learn how to incorporate playfulness into virtual meetings by Iman Mills Gordon.
Learn how to incorporate playfulness into virtual meetings and gamify tedious tasks by Iman Mills Gordon, Sadia Hassan, and Ericka Stallings.
Learn how to incorporate playfulness into virtual meetings to build community and relationships and how play is essential to this work by Sadia Hassan and Nikki Dinh.
by LLC Staff
Session 2 | Liberatory Leadership Playground
Liberatory Leadership Playground
Session 2: Recapture Play
Speakers
- Ericka Stallings and Nikki Dinh
On June 6, 2023, we hosted a virtual session called “Recapture Play” with Ericka Stallings and Nikki Dinh with a call to action in mind: Recapture Play in your workplace. Here’s what we learned from the conversation and audience members about what we mean by recapture play and how to start.
Read Session’s Recap Here
by LLC Staff
Session 1 | Liberatory Leadership Playground
Liberatory Leadership Playground
Session 1: Seriously. Play!
Speakers
- Vu Le and Belma Gonzalez
Session Recap
On May 23, 2023, we hosted a virtual session called “Seriously, Play” with guests Belma Gonzalez and Vu Le. In this conversation, we unpacked some of the benefits but also privileges, responsibilities, and rules of play.
by LLC Staff