Ashley Thomas
Ashley K. Thomas is a researcher, facilitator, and coach standing with communities healing for liberation and decolonization. She is the co-founder of 'Retreat + Reimagine', a collective respite space to reimagine our movements and to create community care for Black transwomen, Black non-binary folx, + Black cis women change agents in transformative movements in Southern California. She also serves as a Project Manager at USC Equity Research Institute where she conducts research on building governing power in disinvested communities, supporting transformative movement culture, and creating inclusive and equitable economies. She is also a liberatory coach supporting individuals and organizations to reconnect to collectivist power and craft radical cultures of being together. Ashley has spent nearly 15 years in movement work, building power with communities of color, particularly for women of color, as experts who can create innovative solutions to our collective challenges.
Presentations from Facing Race 2022
Restorative Justice for our Movement
“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?… Just so’s you're sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you’re well.”― Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters. What do just liberating practices of healing look like? What are the curiosities as well as the contradictions we bring to this question? Can we foster the psychological safety of having these conversations honestly and foster collective healing? Moments in our history of struggle have given us an inkling of what might be needed as well as the danger to our community if we do not answer these questions. Join us as we work together to explore what is needed today as well as for future generations.
Moderator(s): Everette R. H. Thompson-François Speakers: Ashley Thomas, Toni-Michelle Williams, Sendolo Diaminah