May 10 & May 11, 2022
9am HST / 11am PST / 1pm CST / 2pm EST (1.5hr)

In the midst of exhaustion, pain, grief, anger, and systemic, compounded violence from the parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and AAPI Hate, it is time to create space + time, gather strength, and renew energy, for leaders and advocates, by and for AANHPI organizations and communities. Whether it is your first time with Story Circles, or you have been in several Story Circle sessions, each one is different because of what calls us together in the present moments.

Storycircles is a 2-part session that will take place across 2 days — we encourage you to join us for both!. Please make sure to register for both days, below.

These sessions are designed with intentionality, in recognition that between the parallel pandemics of COVID-19 and AAPI hate, many AAPI advocates, families, communities, and organizations have not had the space + time to honor their own exhaustion, pain, grief, and anger. The story circles will give voice to the diverse individual experiences of careers, and make space to heal from the collective trauma of the pandemic.

Mindful and upholding that each and every one of you hold many responsibilities in your very full home/ work/ community lives, no homework is needed to prepare before joining this Story Circle session!

Outcomes:

  • Ground in y(our) whole selves, create breathing space;
  • Unleash creative thinking, reflection, and action practices;
  • Deepen our interconnectedness both within and across ourselves, families, communities, organizations, coalitions.

About the facilitator:

Beckie Masaki has worked in the field to end gender-­based violence for 40 years. In 1980’s, she co-­founded one of the first programs in the nation that could meet the language and cultural needs of Asian survivors of domestic violence and trafficking, Asian Women’s Shelter (AWS) in San Francisco, continuing on to serve as the founding executive director for over twenty-­one years. Beckie has been a co-­founder and staff of a national cultural resource center, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender­ Based Violence. She is also a movement-maker in the Move to End Violence (MEV), starting with the 2009 advisory group, first cohort, and currently co-­leads the Communities/ Building the Power of the Margins and Mending the Arc practice groups as part of Resonance, the MEV alumni network. Beckie has extensive experience in providing multilingual, multicultural services to domestic violence and human trafficking survivors and their children, innovative program development, prevention, community building, policy and institutional advocacy, training, technical assistance, and cultural change work.

Beckie is committed to make her best contribution to the movement for race + gender justice as part of an interconnected network of intergenerational, diverse leaders in a new era of shared leadership, shared power, and co­-creation. She lives and works through an intersectional approach that builds the power of the margins and is marked by collective power, collaboration, creativity, and love.