- September 15, 2021
- 5:30 pm
- Online (PDT)
Event Time Listed in U.S. Pacific Time. Find the start time in your time zone.
$10 - Suggested Donation
(Copies of Kate's book, Radical Friendship, are available for purchase at checkout)
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This event was streamed live online with an interactive Q&A. This event was recorded and is available to watch on our YouTube channel and portions of the audio was released on our podcast.
The divides we experience within us and between us are not only a threat to our physical and emotional health—they are also the weapons and the outcomes of structural oppression. Meditation teacher and author Kate Johnson believes that through wise relationships it is possible to transform the barriers created by societal injustice. Drawing on her experiences as a leading meditation teacher and personal stories of growing up multiracial in a racist world, Kate brings a fresh take on time-honored wisdom to help us connect more authentically with ourselves, with our friends and family, and within our communities.
In Kate’s latest book, Radical Friendship, she illuminates seven strategies to help us embody our deepest values in our relationships. Kate shares meditation and reflection practices to help everyone cultivate vibrant, harmonious, revolutionary friendships. Grounded in the Buddha’s teachings on spiritual friendship, Kate offers us a path of depth and hope and shows us the importance of working toward collective wellbeing, one relationship at a time.
Join licensed psychologist and CIIS faculty Elizabeth Markle for a conversation with Kate as they lead us on a journey to becoming better friends by offering ways to show up for each other’s liberation at every stage of a relationship.
Kate Johnson teaches classes and retreats integrating Buddhist meditation, somatics, social justice, and creativity at leading meditation centers, universities, and cultural institutions around the country. Kate also works as a culture change consultant, partnering with organizations to help them achieve greater diversity and sustainability. She's a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center's four-year teacher training, as well an utterly unprofessional dancer and performer who earned a BFA in Dance from The Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU. To learn more, please visit www.katejohnson.com.
Elizabeth Markle, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, professor, and assistant professor of Community Mental Health at California Institute of Integral Studies. Elizabeth is also Founder and Executive Director of Open Source Wellness, a clinical-community integration initiative offering experiential behavioral health and wellness via a "Behavioral Pharmacy" approach for individuals and families. Elizabeth recently served as a project director with Well Being Trust, a new foundation focused on the mental, social, and spiritual health of the nation, and lead the Youth Peer Initiative, focused on uplifting and spreading the Youth Peer Hotlines model across the nation. Formerly, Elizabeth served as a postdoctoral fellow at the San Francisco VA. Dedicated to multitheoretical and multi-level approaches to individual and community health and healing, Elizabeth’s research and entrepreneurship are focused on systems design to generate social support, social capital, and social sustainability in health and healthcare.
We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner 
Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere.
