Upcoming Events
Protective Presence for Abortion Access
We would like to welcome you to a very special conversation focusing on how abortion clinic defense might be understood as a form of protective presence.
Protective Presence in the West Bank
We would like to welcome you to a very special conversation focusing on the use of protective presence as one non-violent way to support peace during these difficult times.
A dear friend of ours (who uses the pronouns they/them and who, for safety reason, we will identify after they return to the U.S.) will lead our February 7th conversation.
They are a previous speaker at Making-Visible and a U.S. American Buddhist person of Jewish ancestry and they have been in the West Bank of Palestine for several weeks serving as a protective presence for Palestinian families.
Antiracism and The Engaged Eightfold Path
Adriana and Annie will be in conversation online with Rev. Liên Shutt (she / they). We will be discussing Rev. Liên’s new book, Home is Here: Practicing Antiracism with the Engaged Eightfold Path.
Film + Conversation Series: Immigration: When Home is Somewhere Else - Session 3
We will continue our film and conversation series, and learn more about the incredible documentary, Home is Somewhere Else.
This animated documentary portrays the genuine experiences of three young immigrants and their families, through three stories that together comprise the film.
Film + Conversation Series: Immigration: When Home is Somewhere Else - Session 2
We will continue our film and conversation series, and learn more about the incredible documentary, Home is Somewhere Else.
This animated documentary portrays the genuine experiences of three young immigrants and their families, through three stories that together comprise the film.
Evelyn, who is featured in the story of the film, will be joining us to share her experiences.
Film + Conversation Series: Immigration: When Home is Somewhere Else - Session 1
Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos are two amazing Mexican directors of the film “Home is Somewhere Else,” an exceptional animated documentary that follows the true stories of three young immigrants and their families.
In our conversation, Carlos and Jorge will share with us how and why they felt it was important to give them a voice in their film.
Gentrification
David shares with us his experiences and insights on “Gentrified Wood” - how wood from gentrifiers' home improvement projects is transformed into stunning works of art. We will explore the process of creating these artworks and discuss how they contribute to beautifying the community.
Emerging from the illusion of separation: Mindful Resistance of Uneven Development in Black and Brown Communities in Baltimore Webinar 2
A continuation of the conversation from the first webinar, Dr. Gomez will get into the alternative big picture level and bring more context to this topic, using VOLAR as one practical example.
Emerging from the illusion of separation: Mindful Resistance of Uneven Development in Black and Brown Communities in Baltimore
We are thrilled to invite you to our next webinar featuring one of our favorite Buddhist teachers and activists. Join us to learn from Dr. Marisela Gomez about how the illusion of separation drives our greed. We must see this clearly so as not to repeat; and emerge from the illusion of separation.
Defending the Sacred: Indigeneous-led Environmental Justice Webinar 3
We hope you will join us for our next webinar of the series, which will be led by Brook Thompson. We will learn from Brook about the work of the indigenous communities and the fight at the intersection of environmental justice and indigenous self-determination.
Defending the Sacred: Indigeneous-led Environmental Justice Webinar 2
Ashton is a proud advocate for Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation, and is fascinated by the intersections between race, authenticity, and historical memory as well as their roles in the lives of Native communities within the mid-Atlantic region, particularly the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape.
Defending the Sacred: Indigeneous-led Environmental Justice
Thomas is a young person that has been organizing with native youth for environmental justice. They come from a generational family of community organizers and activists. Thomas also has a lot of experience working with indigenous-led non profits.
Gender Inequalities in Contemporary Art
In this webinar, we will learn about contemporary art from a female, immigrant, brown perspective. Art has never been a field of equality for men and women, and there are many studies and statistics that show those numbers. Less than 12% of museum art collections is sourced from women artists, and less than 20% of the work exhibited in galleries is by women. This is part of the inequalities that we face, in addition to many other challenges that artists face.
Disability Justice Webinar 3
Our third webinar of the Disability Justice series will be led by Moeena Das. Moeena will talk about her personal journey with her disabled identity. We will also learn about ableism and why language matters, as well as facts, figures, and definitions of disability.
Our conversation will help us become more aware of just how common the disabled experience is, with an understanding of how to be more conscious that their own day-to-day language and behavior matters.
Disability Justice Webinar 2
Our second webinar of the Disability Justice series will be led by Dara Baldwin. Dara will discuss the history of disability, why Disability Justice was created, and the difference between disability rights and disability justice. We will learn about American Disabilities Act (ADA) laws and racism within the disability rights movement. Dara will also cover the 10 principles of disability justice and how we can fold them into our own lives.
Disability Justice webinar 1
Our first webinar of the Disability Justice series will feature Kaitlyn Hatch. Kait will lay the foundation for us to understand Disability Justice in a dharma context. Kait will share their insights on disability as a lens for cultivating awareness of emptiness / interbeing / boundlessness, owning your mind, and impermanence. Kait will delve into access needs, language, and the insidious aspects of ableism and the way they tie into other forms of oppression and how we can use mindful awareness as a means to understand the fullness of what it is to be human.
Asian Americans and Asian Pacific Islander Americans 3
We’re so grateful for the opportunity to have An join us in the closing webinar of this series. The conversation will be centered around attempting to decolonize American Buddhism from its anti-Asian and white supremacist roots. It does this by exposing the history of how American Buddhism was constructed out of revisionist history that was often upheld through violence.
Asian Americans and Asian Pacific Islander Americans 2
David Woo works as a care specialist at Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit that serves high risk, recently incarcerated and formerly gang-involved youth as well as adults. He has also served as a counselor and mentor at NaNoom, a faith-based, addiction treatment center located in Koreatown, and as a mindfulness meditation group facilitator for youth serving sentences at juvenile incarceration facilities. Woo is currently in his final semester of Buddhist seminary, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at the University of the West and was the recipient of the 2020 Semester of Justice social justice grant by the Kaleidoscope Institute, an award recognizing rising faith leaders of color.
Asian Americans and Asian Pacific Islander Americans
More than two thirds of U.S. Buddhists are Asian American. But you’d never guess this from mainstream representations, which all too often whitewash the racial and cultural diversity of American Buddhist communities. In the context of increased anti-Asian violence, including the deaths of six women of Asian heritage in the Atlanta shootings and the vandalism of Buddhist temples in Southern California, we need to develop intersectional understandings of race that include Asian Americans. American Buddhist sanghas are beginning to address this need, though there is much work to be done.
This three-speaker series counters the marginalization, erasure, and stereotyping of Asian American Buddhists by celebrating the diversity of this group as indispensable stewards and shapers of American Buddhism. In May, author Chenxing Han will present a talk based on her recently published book, Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists. An Tran and David Woo will be our speakers in June and July - registration for these events will open soon.
These participatory online events are freely offered and open to all. We hope these events will build a foundation of ongoing learning and empathy between Asian American and non–Asian American Buddhist communities.
Latinx Immigration and Belonging 3
After spending many years feeling he had no community to rely on, Camilo Montoya began making films in order to connect with the immigrant community here in the US. His films have also helped him re-connect with his community back in Nicaragua by sharing his appreciation and respect for the struggle of the Latinx community as a whole.
In this Making-Visible webinar, Camilo will share his perspective of the the impact of misrepresentation of latinos in the media. He will also share the role that art and creative expression plays in healing generational trauma.
Latinx Immigration and Belonging 2
Cristina Martínez is a Mexican chef and immigration activist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a native of Capulhuac, Mexico. Cristina is an undocumented immigrant who barely survived crossing the border through the dessert. She arrived in the United States after escaping from her extremely abusive husband and looking for more opportunities for her family.
Martínez had been cooking Barbacoa in Mexico and so she began working as a chef in an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. When the restaurant was asked to help her become documented, she was fired. After that, she began cooking food for other Mexican workers in her apartment…
Making-Visible: Latinx Immigration and Belonging
RESOURCES AND RECAP
Led by:
Brenda V. Perez Amador and Renata Lara Arizpe
We are able to share all our content for free thanks to the support of our community.
In what ways do some Latinx feel about belonging? Is the Latinx community perceived as part of American society?
Some of the Latinx community feel they need to forget and erase the culture of their country of origin or their parents’ culture to really become “American.”
There is a societal pressure to speak only English in this country. Often, Latinx people have been made to feel wrong about speaking two languages or even speaking Spanish while living in the USA. And what about all the indigenous languages that many immigrants speak as a native tongue?
What is the relationship between America and undocumented Latinx immigrants? Are they embraced, or are they are just used as cheap labor or as a source of votes when needed by a politician?
To what extent has the Latinx community been a fundamental part the USA — since the establishment of this country up to today?
We will discuss this and more on immigration and belonging as we kick off the series of with Brenda and Renata. We are delighted they will be co-facilitating our first webinar!
Brenda Perez (she/her/ella) is an award-winning community activist who is passionate about the environment and immigration. She has been awarded both the Empowering the Future Award from the Washington Peace Center, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, was a recent Green Fellow at the DC Department of Energy & Environment, and is currently earning a master’s degree in water resources management. Perez, who is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, came to the United States at age 10, and has been deeply involved in community advocacy. Perez was featured in the Smithsonian documentary “Risers,” a film about how two young students navigated the challenges they faced being young undocumented immigrants. When asked in a 2015 Latinitas Interview, what the difference between dreamers and risers are, she responded: “We’re not dreaming anymore. We’re rising. We’re stepping up to the plate.”
Brenda is planning to share the connection of immigration and sustainability, personal stories and experiences, and stories from the movement.
Resources shared by Brenda:
30 min Documentary about DACA / Dreamers in DC
1 min video that gives a summary of my work and how it's tied to the environmental movement
Smithsonian Article "Exhibit examines explosive growth of Latino communities in four U.S. cities"
Renata Lara Arizpe is Mexican and graduated from NYU last may with a degree ind Sociocultural Anthropology and French with a minor in Public Policy and Management. She is passionate about looking deeper into the evolution of our world’s societies, particularly how humans are agents in our forever-changing environment. One of the questions that interests her the most is how we perceive belonging, particularly in the context of Mexican and Latin American migrants in the US. Renata tries to think of the key characteristics that mark when someone belongs and when someone does not, and what are the systems and orders that dictate these ideals. These questions of belonging are forever changing, and in order to get a better grasp of them we must continue to question how we have been socialized to assume certain ideals and what are important barriers that must be considered to understand formal and social divisions.
Renata will cover the following in this webinar:
- The importance and nuance of language that we use and how it influences belonging
- What are parts of one's identity that remain strong or become stronger as a result of migration
- How there are certain formal entities in society that affect belonging more than others
Resources shared by Renata:
Cities and Citizenship, by James Holston and Arjun Appadurai
Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making
Email our speakers:
Renata: rla321@nyu.edu
Brenda: brendaperez42@gmail.com
Making-Visible: Our 2020 Journey Together
We invite you to look back at our journey together this past year as we show short clips of some of the most inspirational thoughts from our speakers from this year’s webinars: Grief and Loss in the Time of Coronavirus, Anti-Black Racism, LGBTQIA+, and Intentional Giving to Heal Our World.
Each of our speakers this year allowed us to reflect on wise and skillful actions that aimed to support healing and transformation in our societies. In this webinar recap, after showing the short clip highlights, we will include time to share and reflect on the deep causes that are behind all of them, including racism, discrimination, othering, superiority complex, and privilege.
Making-Visible: LGBTQIA+ webinar 3
Speaker: Samantha Rise
Samantha is a co-founder and facilitator of Many Faces Sangha, an intersectional practice community in West Philadelphia that centers the perspectives and leadership of people of color and LGBTQIA+ communities. They are dedicated to the practice of engaged buddhism and its incredible capacities for healing, cultivating resilience and deepening understanding.
In this webinar, Samantha will share the process and evolution of Many Faces Sangha's efforts to revise the Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Five Contemplations to be more inclusive.
Making-Visible: LGBTQIA+ webinar 2
Speaker: La Sarmiento
We are so grateful that La has agreed to lead us in this very important conversation. La will examine the intersectionality of their identities as an immigrant, non-binary, person of color and how the dharma and the practice of mindfulness has transformed their relationship to themself, others, and the world.
Making-Visible: LGBTQIA+ webinar 1
Speaker: Sister Hai An & Lauren Barkume
LGBTQ+ protections in the US have advanced significantly in the last 60 years. There is more work to be done. The Trump administration has led anti-LGBTQ policies at the federal level, and many state and local lawmakers have followed suit. There are 30 states that do not offer full legal protections for LGBTQ+ individuals in areas such as housing, services, adoption, and serving in the military.
Allies can help by educating themselves, and by practicing mindful listening and mindful speech.
Making-Visible: How to Fight Injustice without Hating (Revisiting Anti-Black Racism)
Speaker: Valerie Brown
Making-Visible: Intentional Giving to Heal Our World
Speakers: Jennifer Near & Nwamaka Agbo
Making-Visible: Grief and Loss in the Time of Coronavirus
Speakers: Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D & Frank Ostaseski
