https://youtu.be/1Whnr8eBHbI Hilary's Rights and Assumptions "Open cup or closed cup?" Hilary opens a phone call with these words, and I can hear her grinning. Closed cup means that, after my turn elaborating on a topic I'm working with at the moment, I don't require any commentary or questions: I simply need a safe space to… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Hilary
https://youtu.be/i_xkISGSV4s Nancy chose "Joy" as her Touchstone that very first year of the project, and when I asked after the details, she emphasized the necessity of making a "stubborn commitment to joy." I've turned this phrase over so many times in my head that there's a worn groove on my mental floor. What does it… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Nancy
https://youtu.be/fZmbRIzk2-s Na'la and Singing Her Own Song When Na'la and I sit down to talk, time loses all relevance. We've become so absorbed in conversation that she has literally missed flights. At our last gathering for Solstice, Na'la and I were crashed out on pillows in Brandy's living room, eyes barely propped open, but still… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Na’la
https://youtu.be/xcIdQPzXMf8 Majda: I Poet You Majda taught me about the sacred and the sacrifice. Driving up to a mountain retreat, the Harvest Moon nestled into the valleys between the peaks like an exclamation point, we wrestled with conceptions around time, space, and our own bodies. Majda explored why she felt so pulled up to the… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Majda
https://youtu.be/Zct5thtLctc Kate: Speaking to Herself as Kindly as a Child I'm sort of beside myself, wondering how best to introduce Kate to you, because she's like another aspect of myself. A wiser, more motherly, sass-tastic aspect of myself. After being run over by a Mini Cooper in 2006, I enlisted Kate's help to rebuild my… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Kate
https://youtu.be/I6oN9CI0xho Cackles and Compassion Brandy and I met during a Donna Mejia workshop, and it was her honesty-- her raw, unformed questions about what we were learning-- that entranced me. It was her divine cackle that left me draped over my steering wheel, wiping away laugh-tears. It's probably simplest to say that Brandy brings joy… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Brandy
https://youtu.be/4ZX1vcK4ua8 When DeAnna's infectious laugh reaches my ears, I am instantly at home. Once upon a time, I wound up in an intermediate American Tribal Style (ATS) workshop, led by Devyani Dance Company. I'd never studied the style, didn't understand the visual cues for the different moves, and had no idea how to "follow" another… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: DeAnna
https://youtu.be/GjM65yXVfx4 Present for a few key conversations and openly sharing her choreographic process for DABDA, a piece built around the stages of grief, Heidi joined the Enrichment Circle several years in. Of course, she and I go WAY back. In fact, I couldn't record a short introduction for her, since our shared history is so… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Heidi
Baraka's work in the world, her counseling practices that emphasize the power of the Circle, have crystallized much of The Enrichment Project. She has authored several books on creativity and leads a year-long investigation into creativity called Birthing Ourselves into Being.
https://youtu.be/4U4DjO89I1c Amanda's Shapes of the Day When Amanda pins you with her piercing dark eyes, there's simply no looking away. If Amanda had a fragrance, a friend reveals it would be clove, jasmine, and cedar wood: Amanda's energy does seem to waft out around her, wooded and deep. Amanda is attuned to all the energies that… Continue reading The Enrichment Circle: Amanda
