Reimagining Women & Power

Reimagining Women & Power

Reclaiming & reimagining power in the world today

How can we reclaim and reimagine power to create new cultures grounded in interdependence and liberation?

A multi-teacher course

Course modules

Riane Eisler, Céline Semaan, Sophie Strand, Amanda Yates Garcia, Vandana Shiva, Leila Billing

Understanding Power and Alienation, and Reclaiming Memory; Radical Women & Stereotypes; Transformative Women Leaders.

Ayisha Siddiqa, Cinzia Arruzza, Willow Defebaugh, Efu Nyaki, Sabine Lichtenfels

Transformative Collectives & Movements; Reclaiming Self; Rerooting Relationships.

Pat McCabe, Ebyän Zanini Chimba, Minna Salami, Indra Adnan

Rituals and expression; Land and public space; Transforming visions of power and society.

Course information

If women aren't perceived to be within the structures of power, is it power that we need to redefine?

For centuries, power has been synonymous with men, forms of “masculine” power and narratives of domination that tend towards binary thinking and oppressive hierarchies. As long as women are silenced in public spaces, erased from collective memory and alienated from positions of authority, these paradigms prevail. For too many people, it has become difficult to imagine beyond the dominant narratives, and many women also struggle, at times, to build confidence in our sense of the world, our knowledge and our power.

It is easy to believe that the destructive narratives, systems and practices that are embedded in our everyday lives are inevitable or impossible to change. But power has not always operated this way, and women have not always and everywhere been powerless and oppressed. Ancient history and culture demonstrate very different paradigms, and we can see this resurface across history and cultures through the world. As long as there have been attempts to silence and oppress, there has been collective and personal resistance. Women-led movements have emerged globally, presenting alternative visions for society, ways of being and relating that draw from ancestral histories and life-supporting principles.

We will explore how reclaiming and re-imagining power can mean radically challenging the construction of power in society as a whole, making way for new ideas and ways of relating to emerge and take root.

Course Includes

3 Modules
32 Sessions
16 Speakers
Curated readings, resources and embodied practices
Community discussion area
Video and audio available

Teachers

Riane Eisler Picture

Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, futurist, and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking has transformed the lives of people worldwide.

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Céline Semaan Picture

Céline Semaan is a Designer, Advocate, Writer and Founder of Slow Factory Foundation. She writes for New York Mag: The Cut, Elle, Refinery29, Huffington Post, among others.

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Sophie Strand Picture

Sophie is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, & ecology.

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Amanda Yates Garcia Picture

Amanda is a writer, artist, professional witch, and Oracle of Los Angeles. Her work has been widely reported in global press and she leads classes and workshops on magic and witchcraft at cultural institutions and universities. She is the author of Initiated.

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Vandana Shiva Picture

World renowned intellectual and advocate for the preservation and celebration of biodiversity against genetic engineering and the negative impact of globalisation. She is an important voice in favour of people-centered, participatory processes; support to grassroots networks; women rights and ecology. Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an “environmental hero” in 2003, and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia.

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Leila Billing Picture

Leila Billing is a gender and development consultant and co-founder of We Are Feminist Leaders.

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Ayisha Siddiqa Picture

Ayisha Siddiqa is a Pakistani Climate justice advocate. She is a co-founder of Polluters Out and the Executive Director of Student Affairs at Fossil Free University. On Sept 20th, 2019 she helped mobilize and lead over 300,000 students onto the streets of Manhattan demanding their governments take climate action. Her advocacy focuses on climate justice and racial justice for BIPOC. instagram.com/ayisha_sid

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Cinzia Arruzza Picture

Cinzia Arruzza is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research and author numerous publications including Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto.

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Willow Defebaugh Picture

Willow Defebaugh is the Cofounder and Editor-in-Chief of Atmos.

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Sister Euphrasia (Efu) Nyaki Picture

Sister Euphrasia (Efu) Nyaki is a psychotherapist offering alternative forms of preventative health care and holistic healing to adult and adolescent women and their impoverished communities in northern Brazil.

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Sabine Lichtenfels Picture

Sabine Lichtenfels is a freelance theologian, author, and co-founder of Tamera and the GRACE Initiative for a Future without War

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Pat McCabe Picture

Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker.

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Ebyän Chimba Picture

Ebyän is a Nubian-Italian speaker, activist, and multidisciplinary artist. She weaves worlds through her writing, dance, and storytelling pieces that inspire, heal, and revolutionize. Ebyän abides by the wisdom written in rock, wood, water, and in our hearts, reclaiming the animist spirituality of her ancestral heritage.

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Sylvia V. Linsteadt Picture

Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, poet, scholar of ancient history, animal tracker, and artist.

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Minna Salami Picture

Minna Salami is a Nigerian, Finnish, and Swedish feminist author and social critic currently at The New Institute. Her research focuses on Black feminist theory, contemporary African thought, and the politics of knowledge production

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Indra Adnan Picture

For over twenty years, Indra Adnan has been writing, consulting, network-building and event-organising on the themes of future politics, conflict transformation, the role of the arts and integral thinking.

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What our students say

For the first time, I decided to choose what I wanted to learn and the way I wanted to learn it, on a topic which meant a lot for me, as a woman growing into her womanness. That is how I ended up participating in the Reimagining Women and Power class. It allowed me to access and explore stories, perspectives, testimonies in a safe space. Most of the speakers touched me in really special ways, tapping into deep emotional wounds or putting words on feelings I couldn't express before. I reached new levels of vulnerability and deep active listening, as well as meaningfully connected with participants despite the online setting. Anwulika did an amazing facilitating job and I got so humanly enriched by all participants' sharing. I am still feeling the impact of this class on my perspective and I am still following some inspiring speakers and participants' Instagram. I am looking forward to participating in another Advaya's class and I recommend it a lot around me. Thank you for the work you're doing at Advaya !

by Chloé Bernardino

What You'll Learn

  • How can we collectively cement a future that centres and celebrates the feminine as well as all aspects and expressions of life?
  • How do we avoid reproducing the same systems and problems of the past (and present), and instead create fertile ground for new forms of life?
  • How do we create joy and possibility in spaces, systems and with people that are responsible for our suppression and trauma?
  • Where does our power come from? What enables us to reclaim voice, choice and agency?
  • What possibilities emerge for constructing regenerative systems, narratives and relationships when we do?

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