Charis and Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Prentis Hemphill in conversation with Alicia Garza for a discussion of What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World. From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level.
As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with one another, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.
What It Takes to Heal asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?”
In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.
Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of the Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast Finding Our Way. Their work and writing have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, You Are Your Best Thing (edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown), and Holding Change (by adrienne maree brown).
Alicia Garza: Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve -- to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. An author, political strategist, organizer, and cheeseburger enthusiast, Alicia founded the Black Futures Lab in 2018 to make Black communities powerful in politics. In 2023, the Black Futures Lab conducted the Black Census Project -- the largest survey of Black communities in US history. Alicia is the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, an international organizing project to end state violence and oppression against Black people. The Black Lives Matter Global Network now has 40 chapters in four countries. She currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Movement Infrastructure and Explorations at the JPB Foundation. Alicia is the co-founder of Supermajority, a new home for women’s activism, and a Senior Advisor to the President at the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Alicia has become a powerful voice in the media, contributing expert commentary on politics, race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. Her work has been featured in Time, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian. She has received numerous accolades and recognitions, including being on the cover of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World issue (September 2020), named to TIME’s 100 Women of the Year list (March 2020), and is a 3x recipient of The Root’s list of 100 African American achievers and influencers. Alicia has received the Sydney Peace Prize, Adweek Beacon Award, Glamour’s Women of the Year Award, Marie Claire’s New Guard Award, and was honored as a Community Change Agent at BET’s Black Girls Rock Awards.
Alicia’s first book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, was released October 20, 2020, with One World (Penguin Random House.) She shares her thoughts on politics and pop culture on her podcast, Lady Don't Take No. Alicia warns you -- hashtags don’t start movements. People do.
