Racial Healing Circles
KUSANYA: "The Gathering"

Free and open to lay and clergy who identify as African American. Each racial healing circle is limited to 20 participants.

The Anti-Racism Commission is offering racial healing circles facilitated by Lailah Dunbar-Keeys intended to gather African Americans from the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania community to discuss the ways in which systemic racism has affected American culture and has consequently impacted their lives. Racial healing circles provide a safe space for a small group of participants to speak about, listen to, and subsequently heal from stories about race and racism.

This particular racial healing circle is for an African American affinity group. Our intention is to convene a multicultural racial healing circle in the future.

Some of the questions you will be challenged to consider are: When did you first discover that you were a part of a racial group? What messages did you learn from your family about your racial group? What messages did you learn from society (mass media, school, church, etc.) about your racial group? How did you cope with being seen as the “other”? Could you share a story about a time when you felt powerful?

All racial healing circles are on Saturdays from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom. Register for more than 1 or all of the upcoming racial healing circles, scheduled for: Mar. 9, Apr. 13, Sep. 14, and Oct. 12, 2024.

For any questions about ARC's racial healing circle series, please email The Rev. Barbara Ballenger ([email protected]), ARC co-chair.

Sat. Mar. 9, 2024 from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Sat. Apr. 13, 2024 from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Sat. Sep. 14, 2024 from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Sat. Oct. 12, 2024  from 9 am to 12 pm on Zoom

Racial Healing Circle Facilitator

Lailah Dunbar-Keeys, M.S. M.Ed

Lailah Dunbar-Keeys is an educator, author, and spiritual life coach who integrates social science and spirituality to affect transformational change. She has taught sociology and African American Studies at the college level for over eighteen years at Temple University and the Community College of Philadelphia. She was also part of the team of educators who wrote the mandatory African American Studies curriculum for the School District of Philadelphia. To learn more, contact Lailah Dunbar-Keeys ([email protected]) or visit www.lailahdunbarkeeys.com.