Pioneering authors, Ella L.J. Edmondson Bell and Stella M Nkomo, co-authored the book Our Seprate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity. The book profiles Black and White women and their career paths, while seeking to explain the ways in which their experiences, understandings, and coping mechanisms are similar, and in what ways Black women must learn different skills.
This ground-breaking work, inspired me to create The Learning Circle. The Learning Circle is a dialogue-based group that brings 12 - 16 womyn of color and white womyn together to discuss the ways in which race, gender, and class impact our professional lives. Using Our Separate Ways as our primary text, engage in facilitated dialogue about the personal and political realities of building a healthy and successful career - asking: What does it mean that Black and White womyn often fail to create effective connections and allyship in professional settings? How does privilege and alignments with power, disempower some and create greater opportunities for others? How do we each choose to navigate our different in the workplace? What solutions have we found for staying sane, grounded, and production? What don't we understand or know about one another?
For more information on how to join The Learning Circle, please email izetta@gmail.com. If you would like to participate in The Learning Circle, you can purchase the book here. The Learning Circle is a D.C.-based group. Members should meet in person. For those interested, and located outside of the D.C. metropolitan area, please contact me for information about how to gather The Learning Circle in your area. Learning Circle participants will gather at the end of February - marking the last week of Black History Month, and the first week of March - marking the start of Womyn's Herstory Month.
Posts
