Engaged Liberation

Lihi is a moroccan-brazilian somatic practitioner, breathwork facilitator, and poet, who has quickly begun to crack open parts of my knowings and unknowings in profound ways.

Iin this chat I asked her why I forget so many things related to my healing, my truth, my liberation - as Thich Nhat Hanh says “forgetfulness is big problem.” Why do I keep returning to separation?

born and raised in northern California. She is steadily curios about what we inherit, what we become, and what it means to belong.

Lihi told me, “Life is about remembering and forgetting, remembering and forgetting. That’s the whole point,” she says. Remembering and forgetting. “Why?” I ask. “I don’t want to forget, I feel better when I remember. I feel like if we all remembered, we would love more and harm less.”

“Then stop forgetting,” she says, “and remember. Until then, you are right where you need to be.”

Lihi’s ongoing curiosity about what we inherit, what we become, and what it means to belong is absolute gift to us all.

She leads beautiful retreats and somatic experiences - check them out here. And on her IG here. And check out her beautiful book - The Self, Reframed - here.

Lihi invites us to have a deeper relationship with the body and the many ways we experience ourselves, creating space for curiosity, embodied presence, and a more intimate understanding of what it means to be human.

Engaged Liberation is a labor of love. If you love it, support it for less than $5/mo. Thank you!

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Sara Sadek is a liberation-based writer, educator, mother and maker whose work reimagines how we raise and educate young people in connection and freedom. She writes weekly essays on her Substack Sara Sadek's Field Notes about motherhood, parenting, and liberating our creative practice, and is working on an archival memoir-in-fragments. Her writing has appeared in Motherly, Mutha Magazine, and HTH Unboxed.

Sara's served as a public school teacher in West Harlem, co-founded a cooperative forest preschool, trained as a doula, facilitated new parenting circles, advised political and arts & culture-based organizations, and is currently co-founding Wyla, a magical spelling app for kids—whose prototype she built in co-creation with her own 10-year-old to help her daughter's words catch up with her prolific imagination. She lives on the Ohlone land known as San Francisco with her two kiddos, her co-parent, and their incredibly cute dog.

Engaged Liberation is a labor of love.

But it is labor. If you love it, support it for less than $5/mo. Thank you!

Engaged Liberation is you-supported. Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Joanna Riquett is mindfulness practitioner and student of the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition, she is drawn to the edges of attention, where art and practice dissolve into each other, where mystery becomes a teacher, and where the texture of everyday life reveals unexpected depth. We almost met in person when she was organized a retreat through the desert of Morocco with nuns and monks of Plum Village, sadly, I could not make it- next time.

This conversation was beautiful, mind expanding and heart opening, and cut way too short - due to a bit of a personal crisis that arose, which came up in the middle of the question, “why do you practice?” For Freedom from our own mind, and a clear relationship to what is, and to remain in presence even in chaos and the unexpected.

Enjoy! ps. If you find medicine here, consider buying me a coffee and/or supporting me for just $2.75!

Engaged Liberation is reader-supported. Consider supporting.

Not too long ago I got to tell a story about what it means to be misnamed in America—and still be essential to it: how Latino, Brown, and bodies of Culture communities have built, powered, and continue to shape this country, while often being reduced, misunderstood, or erased. I explored the shift from being treated as passengers to claiming our place as architects of the future, and why naming ourselves, correctly and unapologetically, is an act of power.

I’m sharing it here because this conversation isn’t just for that room, it’s for all of us navigating identity, value, and belonging in a world that still gets our names wrong.

Engaged Liberation is a labor of love. But it is labor. If you love it, support it for less than $5/mo. Thank you!

Engaged Liberation is you supported. publication. Consider supporting.

I loved this chat, I know you will too. Veronica is a creative force. We get into being mirrors, journaling, living our parents dreams, being our parents dreams, and getting into the ugly - being our ugly and messy.

Make sure to check out all things To Get To The Mango Tree and let us know what you think about all this genius and beauty and these gems.

Engaged Liberation is a labor of love. But it is labor. If you love it, support it for less than $5/mo. Thank you!

Engaged Liberation is reader-supported. Consider supporting.

“People can envision the end of the world, before they can envision the end of capitalism, why do you think that is!?”

This was too short of a conversation. You are going to love every bit of this. You will be lit up by it.

I promise you - a part II is coming soon. Make sure to check out How To Cure a ghost and all of Fariha’s beautiful work. And let us know what you think in the comments on all the powerful and medicinal gems. What should we chat about in Part II?

Engaged Liberation is a labor of love. But it is labor. If you love it, support it for less than $5/mo. Thank you!

Engaged Liberation is you-supported. Consider supporting.

We all need a little help! And Mark Pagan is a great conduit to joyfully and lovely finding a community of people who are not shy to ask for help. I have known Mark and his beautiful work for years. Was so honored to sit down and chat all things from consumption, to good gift giving, to the wildfire of this country, to doing less and loving more. Check it out and enjoy!

Engaged Liberation is reader-supported. Consider supporting.

If you find medicine here, buy me a coffee and/or support me for just $3.75!

& buy a copy of Brown Enough (one for you, one for the homie, one for the neighborhood library) and listen to Season 3 of the podcast!

A life dedicated to liberation can take on many different forms. It really depends on the circumstances of the day. Sometimes liberation will look like needing to love more, yourself, or someone else. Sometimes it will require listening more or actually listening. Beginner's mind listening. Sometimes it will require turning off your phone - actually turning it off off, not airplane mode. Sometimes it will require a nap and doing less. Sometimes it requires the dedication of doing more, much more. The practice and perseverance of right action. Sometimes it requires me to be still.  Sometimes it will require me to speak up. Liberation dictates from us what it needs in the moment. I let liberation permeate me, overcome me, overwhelm me, and then direct me. That’s liberation in action.

If you find medicine here, buy me a coffee and/or support me for just $3.75!

& buy a copy of Brown Enough (one for you, one for the homie, one for the neighborhood library) and listen to Season 3 of the podcast!

Gabriela is a brilliant mind, think, journalist and creator who brought me so much joy during our convo this week. Together we chat optimization - speeding up to slow down, loneliness, enjoying the loneliness, coming back to self.

Make sure to check out her Substack, Irregardless, also her Instagram, and her incredible youtube show. She’s a real one!

If you find medicine here, buy me a coffee and/or support me for just $3.75!

& buy a copy of Brown Enough (one for you, one for the homie, one for the neighborhood library) and listen to Season 3 of the podcast!

Engaged Liberation is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is the Unedited interview with Indya Moore from the Brown Enough podcast (season 2). It felt important to share this with the Substack community, as this is one of our most beloved and listened to episodes. With so so many gems! In this convo we chat Hollywood, being a revolutionary, mushrooms, joy, and more.

The edited version can be found wherever you listen to podcasts.

Indya Moore is an American actor and model. They are known for playing the role of Angel Evangelista in the FX television series Pose. Time named them one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. Currently starring in Jim Jarmusch Father Mother Sister Brother.

If you found some medicine here, consider buying me a coffee and/or supporting me for just $2.75!

ps. Now’s a perfect time to buy a copy of Brown Enough in Paperback (one for you, one for the homie, one for the neighborhood library) and listen to Season 3 of the podcast!

Engaged Liberation is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.