The Luminosity Intensive 
This note is about Tuesday’s upcoming Luminosity Intensive, a transformative 12-week online journey designed specifically for women who are ready to embrace their true essence and illuminate the world with their light.

How do we build the world we are longing for in the here and now?

This is the question that orients the work of my friend, Sól Gonzalez. Sol is an intuitive coach who understands their work with others as the act of holding and mirroring. You will appreciate this conversation. We cover lots of grounds. Some of Sól’s story. Their approach to coaching. Their commitment to justice and how they contend with the intensity of living in a world that includes horrors such as what is happening in Gaza. While remaining connected to the good, the true and the beautiful.

I recently reconnected with Nicole Carty. It was in the context of an effort to leverage arts and culture in ways that impact public policy. I was impressed by the rigor of Nicole's thought. She holds a commitment to a theory of change that is well articulated. Grounded in the lessons that have made for successful movements in our past.

When we spoke about her approach, I felt more grounded in something that feels real. Something that has rigor to it. An effort held together by a deep analysis. Something that demands coming together. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of my conversation with Nicole. I am very excited to introduce her to those of you that don't know her yet.

One of the drawbacks of my work is that my mom doesn’t know how to talk about it. She doesn’t get to brag about what her kid does. And she wants to! That’s because it’s not easy to talk about facilitation. How do you explain what facilitators do? Different facilitators do different things. You have to experience it. And when the stakes are high, you really have to trust someone’s reputation.

I’m inviting you to listen to two facilitators talk shop. I’m calling this episode Love & Facilitation because facilitation is an act of love. But also because we spend the first part of the podcast talking about love. The love of partnership and relationship.

This conversation with Kate Morales moved me to the core. I can honestly tell you I grew from it. That I’m still integrating lessons learned from this beautiful talk between kindred souls. Kate is a Somatic Scribe. Kate’s body is sensing in the way of the ancients. They are channeling what cannot be spoken but can only be seen.

Kate lives a courageous life, experimenting with ways of being that aim to unlock from the consensus trance that define our culture and our day. They are a young person whose very presence is a “yes” to life and to what is good. You will learn from Kate. And you will want more of them in your life.

Earlier this year, I invited you to join me in a set of dialogue sessions to help deepen my understanding of John Verveake’s work on ritual.

Cecily Engelhart was one of the people that responded to the call. Our spots were already full, but something about Cecily’s email caught my attention. She was talking about grief and the way ritual was an essential part of her own dealings with loss. I knew I had to talk to her.

Enjoy our conversation, and please share it with a friend if it is something that moves you. Friend to Friend. That’s the way the good stuff spreads.

I’ve known Giovanna Negretti for at least two decades. She is one of those Puerto Rican women possessed with passion, focus, commitment, perseverance and a charisma for leadership that makes her unstoppable.

I have witnessed her growth through many leadership roles. And I was thrilled to interview her as she stewards the Online Progressive Engagement Network, a community of organizations wielding digital campaigns for progressive change all over the world. I think of her work as an essential counter-weight to the global rise of authoritarianism.

Would you rather have an ally or a friend?

I’ve been taken by this paradigm shift of a question from the moment I heard Rinku talking about it.

She says that an “ally” is too low of a bar, like taking something off the shelf and putting it back if you don’t like it. 

So what happens when we talk about friendship instead?

You can find remarkable people in every corner of this planet. Many of these people have something in common. There is a spirituality about them. They seem to be motivated by the call of something greater. They seem to live their lives in the context of a bigger story. A story that precedes them, and will go on after them. They are on a path of awakening to wisdom.

I met Khadra Ali in 2014. I’ve always been struck by the light that radiates from her face. I have also been intrigued by how she keeps traditional, religious, ways of Islam and remains so open to so much that fits outside of her tradition.

We are among the richest, safest, most privileged humans to have ever walked the earth. We are also the loneliest and the most anxious. We are the most medicated and most depressed. 

We are also the only humans managing to steal from our descendants (that means our children, our grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren)  at such a scale and such a pace that our species could die away.

Are we doomed, or, is there a way to have an economy of abundance that nurtures well-being?

This is where my friend Stephanie Gutierrez comes in. She is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.

Jihan Gearon is an artist who is pouring her spirit into the sort of art that can change your life. I think of her as a recovering activist. But that’s not exactly true. She can’t stop being an activist. She is just another one among the ranks of us who are looking for a better, kinder, and more sustainable way to make the world whole again.

I titled this episode “Life Giver,” because that is who Jihan is, and what she does. She breathes life into the world. She reminds us that we can create anything. Here you’ll learn about how

If you grew up in 90’s you probably know what it meant to be “sweatin” somebody. It’s something like liking someone, and doing all sorts of things to make sure they know you like them. You are after them. And you might do a little too much to make sure they notice you.

What if you were just as committed, just as passionate, willing to go just as far, when it comes to sweatin’ your truth?

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar is the founder of the legendary ensemble Urban Bush Women. She is also a winner of the MacArthur Genius Award. I met Jawole at a Creative Change Retreat, an intersection of artists and activists that used to be held at the Sundance Resort, in Provo, Utah. One of my favorite gatherings to facilitate.

I was immediately moved by Jawole’s presence, and I could sense how she was tuning into a deeper energy in my facilitation. We started to get to know each other and quickly learned that not only do we share values and aspirations for a more embodied and generative approach to change. But we also share a powerful spiritual alignment.

This allowed Jawole to trust me to do organizational development work with Urban Bush Women. An honor and an experience that I continue to relish.

I was born in Puerto Rico. One of the last “official” colonies on earth. I know something about the taste and smell of empire.

Today all of humanity has to contend with the reverberations of European imperialism over the last 500 years.

There is so much that we can learn from indigenous people all over the world.

Here is a conversation with Kassier Heartendorp. One among the Maori people that are successfully participating in the decolonization of New Zealand.

Today we launch Season 3 of my Podcast, and we are launching it with spells, magic, and the power of a prophetic call.

On this podcast I interview my dear friend Pamela Standing. Pamela is a fountain of wisdom. She is a source of that sort of heartfelt joy and laughter that is embodied by people who hold a deep understanding of what it means to walk well upon this earth.

Pamela is a citizen of Cherokee Nation. I met her when I was facilitating a Rural Economy Fellowship of what was then called the “Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.” She is a grassroots organizer who has immersed herself in rural tribal community wealth building.

How do you make art for our time?

How do you engage your creative life force to meet this moment? A time in which systems are collapsing and a new world wants to be born.

The life of Favianna Rodriguez is an answer to these questions. She is a renowned interdisciplinary artist, a cultural organizer and a social justice activist. But most importantly, she is one of my dearest friends.

It is hard to wrap your head around the breadth and depth of her work. She leads the Center for Cultural Power. And she describes her art as a visual manifestation of her lived experience, and the inspiring journey of her healing.

We live in a punitive culture. The United States incarcerates more of its people than any country in the world.

Turn to twitter at any point of the day and you see cancel culture in full display.

What makes us think we can throw people away?

We are wired for connection. We need structures of belonging. This is how we signal a culture of safety and well being. Punitive culture makes us anxious. It makes us afraid. It makes us feel alone.

What happens when you take a stand for restorative justice?

What if we take back our architecture, our institutional space, to foster love and forgiveness instead?

Meet my friend Deanna Van Buren. The founder and executive director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. She is an artist running an architecture and real estate development firm that works to end mass incarceration.

In this episode I introduce you to my friend Rev. Mariama White-Hammond. Mariama is an advocate for ecological & social justice, youth engagement, and Spirit-organizing. She is very committed to engaging the faith community, and particularly Black church on climate change and ecological justice issues.

Here we talk about Accountability. About what can be done to heal the deep divide in our Country. And we talk about Emergent Church. As Mariama describes, Emergent Churches believe God is doing something new in this moment, and that it is our job to move with spirit and make ourselves available for God to emerge.

I’m introducing you to my friend and colleague Melinda Weekes, founder and CEO of Beautiful Ventures. She is a minister, facilitator, consultant and visionary social change architect. This is a joyful conversation ranging from theology to the business of culture. You will be moved by Melinda’s heart and brilliance.

How do you make art for the temple?

How do you make art for a temple that is itself a work of art, in a city that is defined by the awe that is its art?

A temple that will hold hope and will hold grief.

A temple at the heart of a place where people seek to wake up and get free.

A place of pilgrimage. That you know is doomed to burn.

I am coming into contact with people who hold light, wisdom and hope. Powerful humans who embody the possibility of something new. Jamila Reddy is one such human. She is a Black queer, Buddhist writer, healer, thinker, doer, and dreamer. I am quite intentional about having conversations across generations. And I am learning so much from this millennial person who is obsessed with teaching others how to get out of their own way so they can see a path forward towards the life of their dreams.

Lawrence and Austin high-jacked the podcast this month. They wanted you to hear more about my vision. And how I think about my work. Take a listen. Let me know what you think.

Meet Keya Chatterjee, executive director of US Climate Action Network. Keya knows that we must relinquish the idea of powerlessness. It is our only hope to end the climate crisis.

Deepa is a gifted facilitator, writer, activist and lawyer. In this podcast she speaks of the building blocks for real solidarity work.

Meet my friend Anasa Troutman. CEO of Culture Shift Creative. A strategist and storyteller who is wise beyond her years.

Here I interview Isoke Femi. Isoke, imaginal practitioner, primary facilitator and founder of Soul Matters, brings to the work more than 30 years of experience. She is co-founder of the Todos Alliance Building Institute and co-author of No Boundaries: A Manual for Unlearning Oppression and Building Multicultural Alliances.