Jane Spielman

Decolonizing Our Voices

Facilitated by Jane Spielman and the Somatic Writing Lab team
 

“When white men get scared, we’ve got to stay focused:”
 

This course of study explores how we identify and extract ourselves from the deep assumptions of empire; we unpack the colonialist, racist and patriarchal roots of how we live and breathe. All of us are impacted. The very act of witnessing ourselves and others in this writing container is disruptive of heteronormative white supremacy. What shape will each of our authoring agency take? Who better than us? When better than now?
 

We use Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands as one of our mentor texts. We’ll use his BODY PRACTICES to support us to uncover how white-body supremacy lives in and can potentially heal Black and other BIPOC bodies, white bodies and police or other “public safety” bodies.
 

Other texts we’ll be using:

Ibram X. Kendi, How to be an Anti-Racist

Ruby Hamad, White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color

Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

The Red Nation, The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth

Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (Parables for a Planet in Crisis)
 

Jane Spielman, Ph.D. has been working in Somatic Writing since October 2021. Her memoir centers the 5 years she took care of her wife before her death. The book focuses on mapping Lea and Jane’s love as it evolves over 34 and a half years. It unpacks how we engage in struggles for social justice over the course of our whole lives. And it excavates the many ways we worked on healing our selves and each other.