Collective Liberation Series

The Collective Liberation Series was founded in 2020 as a means to generate discussion around coalition building, community organizing, and activism. The series invites artists and activists in conversation to share their stories and experiences working to bring about more just and liberated futures. The Collective Liberation series focuses on the power of intergenerational storytelling to offer a roadmap and a blueprint for grassroots community organizing as a means to envision a way forward.

WCC Collective Liberation Series 2024

WCC Collective Liberation: Alternative Futures and Debunking Prison Myths

Are you interested in learning about coalition-building, prison abolition, and the relationship between education and incarceration? Then join the WCC Collective Liberation team for a panel on Alternative Futures and Debunking Myths About What Prisons Can Offer.

We will be hearing from Alesha Monteiro, Statewide Policy Coordinator for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, and Romarilyn Ralston, Executive Director of Project Rebound. Alesha and Romarilyn will bring their lived experience with carceral systems to an honest dialogue about rehabilitation programs, prison spending, the tensions between abolition and reform, prison-based education efforts, and so much more! We will be looking at how we, at Stanford and beyond, can challenge misconceptions about incarceration and build a reimagined path to justice together.

Event Details

When: Wednesday, February 21st at 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Women’s Community Center: Firetruck House, 433 Santa Teresa Street
Spots are limited! Please RSVP by filling out this form so we can get a head count for food.

Past Collective Liberation Series Events

Collective Liberation Series 2021

Join the Women's Community Center for our upcoming workshop series,

Collective Liberation: The Politics and Practices of Envisioning a More Just Future

We would love to see you for any / all sessions.

Ancestral Grief Rituals Using Healing Art Practices with Marcia Lee and Ahmane' Glover

Grief is a sacred transformation that says, "slow down and notice - I know not what I see." This is an invitation to shed, shift and surrender as you're held in community. Join us to lean into our ancestral wisdom to co-create a grief rituals that gives attention to reality as it is, our own experiences and feelings, and co-create space for transformation. This will be an interactive space. We invite you to be creative in how you think about art, i.e. what can you find in your living space? Please bring art supplies that are speaking to you in this moment.

Friday, April 2nd from 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. PST
Closed Captioning will be provided
Registration Required, Please RSVP here!bit.ly/ancestralgriefrituals

Alternative Futures: Taking a Step When You Can't Yet See the Staircase with Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife

Carroll Fife is the Councilmember for Oakland’s District 3. After decades of public service and recent work as a non-profit director and community organizer, Carroll was called to run for office by the people with whom she organizes every day. One of the founding members of Moms for Housing, Carroll has fought both in the halls of power and in the streets to protect the human right to housing. As Councilmember her priorities are to divest from police to invest in community, get every unsheltered person in Oakland into housing as quickly as possible, and create progressive tax structures to correct social and racial inequities.

Monday, April 5th from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. PST
Closed Captioning will be provided
Registration Required, Please RSVP here!
- bit.ly/alternatefutures

Joyful Somatic Breathing with Dr. Aziza Knight and Schantell Puameole Taylor

Dr. Aziza K.S. Knight intelligently fuses art, intuitive spiritual coaching, manual touch bodywork, assisted harmonic breath, and Reiki in her integrated healing practice. More commonly known as “Dr. Zee”, she has been studying and practicing spirituality, the arts and health sciences for the duration of her lifetime with an academic background in psychology, reiki, chiropractic, and grief & bereavement counseling and ministry.

Schantell Puameole Taylor is a seeker and keeper of Hawaiian culture, protector of land, and advocate for culture-based education. She has studied and practiced Hula, lomilomi, cranial sacral, chi nei tsun, aroma therapy, acupressure, wellness consulting, breath work, esthetics and yoga.

Sponsored by Stanford Office for Religious & Spiritual Life, Institute for Diversity and the Arts, and the Black Community Services Center.

Friday, April 16th from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. PST
Closed Captioning will be provided
Registration Required, Please RSVP here!
- http://bit.ly/somaticbreathing
If you need a disability-related accommodation, please email Alicia Lewis. Requests should be made by Monday, March 29th.

Collective Liberation Series 2020

Intersectionality: Foundations of Black Feminist Thought

This session focuses on understanding the importance of doing justice work through an intersectional lens, and ensuring that when we are creating movements, we are centering those whose marginalized identities are compounded, so as to ensure that any solutions or outcomes reached meet the needs of the most disenfranchised among us.

Thursday, February 6th, 2020
1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
WCC Main Lounge

Care and Interdependence in Justice Work with A-lan Holt

Freedom is meaningful only insofar as it lifts us all, especially those of us who have been done the most harm. In times of violence and polarization, art heals and brings people together, and can articulate new ways of finding community and freedom. In this workshop, we will explore how we make and sustain community, especially in the face of threats from within and without. We will do this especially through examining how artists and culture workers of color develop and advance practices that build mutuality, criticality, renewal, trust, and joy in the face of ongoing racial injustice and cultural inequity. This examination will be coupled with creative and mindfulness practices centered in joy and renewal.

Thursday, February 20th, 2020
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
WCC Main Lounge

The Art of Coalition Building w/ Cat Brooks and Kaiden Roberts

This session focuses on coalition building across identity groups and movements in an effort to harness the collective power of the people. In this discussion we will be exploring what it means to be in solidarity, effective ways to practice allyship, and how we practice interdependence to build strengthen our movements.

Friday, February 28th, 2020
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
WCC Main Lounge

If you have any questions regarding the Collective Liberation Series, please feel free to reach out to Alicia Lewis.