Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing From White Supremacy

This live online conversation was recorded to the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel. It is also available on our podcast.

Radical racial justice means daily, intentional, and informed action. It demands addressing the emotional violence we have perpetuated on ourselves and others—most notably toward Black and Indigenous women and femmes—as individuals and as a society.  
 
Heart-centered and spirit-based practices are often the missing but vital pieces to achieving racial justice. Racial justice educator and sought-after spiritual activist Rachel Ricketts provides these missing pieces to help others manifest practicable, sustainable solutions such as: identifying where we most get stuck, mitigating the harm we inflict on others, and mending our hearts from our most painful race and gender-based experiences. 
 
In her work, Rachel has developed heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices to fight white supremacy from our personal lives to our communities, addressing anti-racism from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spiritually aligned perspective. Her latest book, Do Better, is an actionable guidebook and a loving, assertive call to do the deep—and often uncomfortable—inner work that precipitates much-needed external and global change. 

Join A-Ian Holt, director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford for a conversation with Rachel as she offers mindful and practical steps for all of us to dismantle white supremacy on a personal and collective level. 

This event is hosted live online. Instructions on how to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event. If you need to request accessibility accommodations, please email publicprograms@ciis.edu at least one week prior to the event. For more information click here.



Rachel Ricketts is a queer, multi-racial Black woman. As a global thought leader, racial justice educator, healer, speaker, and writer, she hosts intersectional racial justice workshops worldwide, including her renowned Spiritual Activism series. Rachel cultivates change by fusing her experiences as an attorney, trained anti-racism educator, and grief coach with her spiritual certifications in breathwork, yoga, mindfulness, and Reiki. She has helped numerous global brands with anti-racism efforts, including Google, WeWork and Lululemon. Rachel was named one of well+good’s 2020 Changemakers and has been featured in international media such as the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Goop, and The Atlantic. She loves donuts, dancing, disruption, and all things metaphysical (ideally all at once). Learn more about Rachel at www.rachelricketts.com and @iamrachelricketts.


A-lan Holt is Director at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University. There she trains undergraduates in the areas of diversity and culture; arts leadership and social justice. She is a mother and practicing artist whose work includes theater, poetry and film. She is a 2018 Sundance Fellow, a 2018 SF Film Screenwriting Fellow, and a frequent contributor on-air at KQED Arts. In 2016 A-lan's artist book Moonwork was published by Candor Arts Chicago and was shortlisted for the Cornish Family Prize at the Melbourne Art Book Fair. Since its release, Moonwork resides in several private and public institutions around the country. A-lan has over ten years of experience considering questions of identity, diversity, culture and aesthetics and holds a degree with honors in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University.  

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. It is a space that affirms and reflects back every beautiful shade of black.