Decolonizing and Unsettling Consent
with Tunde J.O, Dr. Roger Kuhn, Adam Nicholson, and René Rivera
4 Sat. sessions - April 19, May 3, May 17, May 31
11 AM - 6 PM ET / 8 AM - 3 PM PT
on Zoom
Are you:
looking for ways to deepen your understanding of consent?
seeking tools to improve your footing in relational practice?
desiring to step into more authentic agreements and relationships?
This may be for you.
The practice of consent is a key component of forging right relationship with ourselves and others.
That said, for many of us, this path to deeper fulfillment, joy, and integrity is blocked by the briars of harmful power dynamics that systems of oppression create. Untangling our beings, our beliefs, and our behaviors from these systems is integral to continuing on this path.
This class is an invitation to explore and re-examine the ways in which we practice consent, create communities, and hold our relationships.
Over 4 sessions we will experiment, question, and explore the ways in which we can decolonize and unsettle ourselves, our practices of consent, and our relationships. This class is experiential and you will be invited into embodied practices to notice, feel, and share.
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Oppressive systems thrive in the darkness, where we are unaware of the impact of colonization and settler mentality and how these land directly into our bodies and nervous systems.
In this state, a person could do their very best and use the right tools and still come to agreements of consent that are outside of integrity; even using consent itself for the purposes of manipulation, exploitation, and harm (even of loved ones).
Depending on our lived experience we may be in direct kinship with self, other, and land that allows us to enter into agreements that honor all parties.
Or we may have work to do to reweave these connections to have more access to joy, pleasure, and connection.
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model how spaces can be created and maintained in ways that honor our bodies, desires, and limits
pursue new perspectives on what integrity and consent mean to each of us
question our practices of consent as they are held within ongoing settler systems
create a care-full container for processing the pain of living in oppressed identities
face the discomfort of processing living with privilege
Find freedom in the wild, messy, nuanced connections that come from our authentic feelings, needs and desires beyond the structures of oppression.
Co-dream of new possibilities for healing and liberation.
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leave with new perspectives on how you want to be in relationships that are disentangled from colonial and capitalistic systems.
refine what integrity means to you and how you want to create and maintain it in your life.
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seek to decondition from systems of oppression to create more authentic agreements and relationships.
are just starting their journey or well into it. We want to create a collaborative space where we can learn from and be present with one another.
desire attunement to how some practices of consent can result in manipulation, gate-keeping, violence, hurt, and harm when we do not question the systems and power dynamics present in our groups and relationships.
are curious or passionate about the intersections of consent, social justice, and decolonization/unsettling.
want to explore how models of consent can be expanded into groups and communities without replicating or maintaining the threads of the systems of oppression they exist within.
We have a map for our process but we are also holding this as an emergent and fluid process. As facilitators, we are here to create the space, support learning, and foster accountability. You always get to choose how you participate.
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In this class we will be exploring the concepts of decolonizing and unsettling; however, each person’s work may differ.
Decolonization is inherently tied to the land and those bodies who have been impacted either through invasion of the land or the forced servitude to work the land for others. In the lands we now call the United States, decolonization impacts Indigenous people (including Indigenous people of what is now referred to as Latin America and Canada) and Black people (including those who identify as African American).
Unsettling is tied to those who have immigrated to the continent of North America and who benefit from the historic and ongoing genocide of the Indigenous people and the indentured servitude and exploitation of enslaved peoples and their descendents.
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To take responsibility for your desires and limits.
To notice what you need to show up with vulnerability and authenticity.
To bring awareness to the power dynamics within you and the group.
To be curious, willing to unlearn, and able to hold compassion.
To ask for what you need to feel trust and safety.
To engage with the course content as it applies to your lived experience.
To be present as you are able (physically, emotionally, and energetically).
The facilitators
Tunde J.O.
Dr. Roger Kuhn
Adam Nicholson
René Rivera
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Tunde J.O. (Maer/Mer, She/Her) is a facilitator and coach with a focus on identity, consent, and dismantling systemic oppression. She helps clients recognize their individual relationships to power, and then offers tools for addressing their histories and socializations so they can make strong choices and take needed steps toward their own (and therefore our collective) liberation. Maer also supports organizations and collectives in recognizing and removing barriers to healthier culture and connection through consultation, facilitation, and training.
Tunde, also an educator, and visual/performing artist, holds a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, is a certified Diversity Facilitrainer with NCCJ St. Louis, a certified Big Leap Coach through the Hendricks Institute, a certified Urban Tantra Practitioner, a STARLING Healer, and a Wheel of Consent facilitator in training. In mer free time, Tunde can be found exploring the world through taste/flavor and taking copious pictures of delicious food, captivating skylines, and pets (mers and yours if you'll let mer).
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Dr. Roger Kuhn is a Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigiqueer soma-cultural sex therapist, sexuality educator, writer, activist, and musician.
Roger’s work explores the concepts of decolonizing and unsettling sexuality and focuses on the way culture impacts and informs our bodily experiences.
He is a community organizer of the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit powwow, and a board member of the Two-Spirit & Native LGBTQ+ Center for Equity. His first book, Somacultural Liberation, is available in both paperback and audio. His music can be streamed on all digital platforms.
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Adam (they/them) is a facilitator, consent educator, and coach based in Tennessee.
Their 1-1 and group work center around how we can create, negotiate, and maintain heart-centered groups and relationships with clarity and ease.
Adam’s work brings a unique focus to the power dynamics and systems that impact conflict and obstacles in our relational spaces and believes that fulfillment, ease, and settledness can only come when we bring awareness and curiosity to them.
They are influenced by many teachers and thinkers including Paul Muller Ortega and his guidance within the Shaiva-Sakta, contemplative lineage of tantra; Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent; Resmaa Menakem’s Somatic Abolitionism; and many other teachers who center social justice, integrity, and the importance of our responsibility to ourselves and our communities.
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René Rivera is a meditation teacher and restorative justice facilitator working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer Latinx trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, as a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. He offers classes and retreats for many Buddhist centers and groups, with a focus on supporting LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC practitioners. He leads trainings on how to create spaces that are inclusive and accessible to transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive people. René is a facilitator in training for the School of Consent and a restorative justice facilitator, working to heal sexual and gender based violence.
Applications, registration, and payment info
A group like this requests your time, energy, presence, and money.
These all represent barriers to entry and if you’re someone who lives in a body that is traditionally marginalized and intentionally exploited, those barriers are usually greater.
While we do our best to create and hold groups that bring awareness to power, privilege, and rank – we know we alone cannot dismantle systems of oppression that exist in our cultures, groups, and interpersonal relationships.
In an effort to ease at least one of those dynamics, pricing is based on a sliding scale.
$400 - for folks at or below a living a wage
$500 - can afford occasional treats
$600 - stable income or access to financial support
$700 - stable income and able to put some aside in savings
$800 - have investments and can afford travel/vacations
Register here: one payment or two payments
After you submit your application, Adam will be in touch with you about payment, registration, and next steps.
Class is limited to 50 participants
50% of the seats are reserved for BIPOC, trans, and disabled folks
10 seats are reserved for folks indigenous to these lands and connected to their communities in what is now called the United States, Canada, and Latin America