#thefreejoyexperience

[rememberebonyjanice]

When @theamonyee and I created The Free Joy Experience, we genuinely just took our two works and merged them together and said, "I talk about Freedom. You talk about Joy and Pleasure. This work is about to be THE FREE JOY EXPERIENCE." And here we are, 6 months and 2 cohorts later and whew! Liberation and pleasure have been centered in this healing work and we have been made so glad. What you must know for sure is that this work isn't actually from or for us. (1) This work is brilliant. It is from spirit. Ask anyone in our cohorts and they will tell you how much we center spirit in everything we do. But also, (2) this work is for Little EbonyJanice and Little Thea Monyee. For the life of liberation and joy we always deserved and still deserve. Because we don't have linear minds ("The upward black resilience spiral." - Thea Monyee, 2020) we know that the thing we are healing is eternal, a circle, forever. It is healing for what was, what is, and what is to come. That's why we put little Us on this The Free Joy Experience sweatshirt because the world seeing us as soft is equally as important to us as the world seeing us as strong is equally as important as the world seeing us as sure. We are all of these things. That's what you get to be when you're really free. That's what you get to experience when you walk towards the joy. That's what the earth deserves. Remember your inner free joy self with us. bit.ly/TheFreeJoySweatshirt #TheFreeJoyExperience https://www.instagram.com/p/CI8wFZmlhEk/?igshid=1wuudep3h2y5i

[rememberebonyjanice]

Part of the reason that @TheaMonyee and I don't have a practice of asking the white ppl (and those in proximity to whiteness) that are currently participating in this iteration of The Free Joy Experience to call each other out or in is because, in ways, that creates room for this idea of "white exceptionalism." There is a real need for white people and those with proximity to whiteness to realize they everything in a white supremacist society supports the idea of their exceptionalism and superiority -- rightness. And if you come into a situation thinking you are right, you will never learn how other people are experiencing life in drastically different ways and from drastically different cultural perspectives. Therefore - your rightness and exceptionalism is often violent to other peoples identities. It is important to note that - even in your goodness - white supremacy has created an idea and an ethic where your rightness is more right than the rest of the worlds rightness and therefore... "I've always been good to you people" can still be two shakes from a violent outburst and 27 seconds past calling the police on or reporting your neighbor for something you just don't understand. After the "Sustainging Joy In Your Antiracism Work" lecture - people asked Thea and I for this "I Don't Want To Be A Karen" lecture because there are a group of "well meaning" white folk that want to be more than well meaning. 1. This lecture is to support blk body experiencing folk with language for how we survive a "karen" experience. 2. This lecture is for those of you calling yourselves allies -- needing support NOT leaning over into your inherent Karen ways. 3. It's Thea and EbonyJanice. SO there will be joy. Register today at bit.ly/karenlecture 👀👀👀 #TheFreeJoyExperience is changing in the coming months so... I would be there if I were you because we won't be showing up in this way again after this lecture. bit.ly/karenlecture #TheFreePeopleProject (at New Orleans, Louisiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFuj6rtF3P8/?igshid=nple03ahmun7

[rememberebonyjanice]

I genuinely think about this tweet from @yahya often: “Black Family, don’t feel guilty for laughing and feeling joy today. We need that too!” And I think about it so often because we are never not grieving something. It’s always something. And white supremacy is set up in such a way that there is comfort in our discomfort. So whenever we are laughing or in pleasure - there is nothing for white supremacy to stand on since its foothold is on our forever grief. But we deserve laughing and joy and dreaming and play too. We just do. And @theamonyee and are so committed to #BlackJoy that we realize we were called to continue this healing conversation around white folks, their ancestral healing, and their work around a sustaining relationship to black folks in joy more than in trauma. Black people - we deserve these laughs and grins and deep exhales. That is our work. White folk... it’s your work to figure out why you have never invested serious time, energy, or resources into anything more than our pain? This LIVE will give us some context and some tools for how to move forward. Sustaining Joy is the only way we survive. Be there! #TheFreeJoyExperience #ShapingTheShift #TheFreePeopleProject (at New Orleans, Louisiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEelgpFpumf/?igshid=1pbhhnpmrtkcq

[rememberebonyjanice]

Manifestation use to feel like a mystical magical otherly/out of body experience. You had to know the right words, face in the right direction, stomp four times and then maybe it might come to pass. And then I realized that I create my life with my words. I say it out loud and then I walk in the direction of whatever I spoke. @theamonyee and I dreamed “The Free Joy Experience Dream Retreat.” We didn’t even talk about it a lot we just said, “This is what we need. This is what it would look like. How can we start walking in that direction.” And here we are... ending this weekend with SOOOOOO much expansion. It’s actually really amazing how we came one way and are nonhyperbolically leaving as different people. The thing I love about my work with @theamonyee is that everything is spirit centered. God is in every single thing we do! I suspect that’s the reason why #TheFreeJoyExperience Cohort 1 and our Resource Library that we haven’t even officially launched yet is having such success because we are the vessels and God is getting Glory! Our “Sustaining Joy In AntiRacism Work” lecture is now available exclusively in our Patreon. You can access it for an indefinite timeframe at Patreon.com/thefreejoyexperience I’m so grateful for the way we spoke in the direction of healing, joy, pleasure, dreaming, and ease and whew!! God has proven that we can change the world - starting with each other’s! 🖤🙏🏾 #TheFreePeopleProject (at Sedona, Arizona) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEACa-dJ0kA/?igshid=eih9idgh18fl

[rememberebonyjanice]

Cleopatra Comin Atcha. 🇯🇲 ——————- I saw some nonBlack folk on twitter arguing that AAVE isn’t credible. It isn’t valid. It isn’t real. 😶 Like people from Chile saying that the word “Chile” is lazy and clogs up their feed when searching for information on Chile. 😒 Moving forward I would appreciate if people would just say, “This is antiblack but Imma say it anyways... with my whole chest!” Cause chile, really?????? 🙊😂 I don’t argue on the social media’s tho. I’m Coral from Real World: “I don’t wrestle. I beat (redacted) up!” 😩😂 So since I know my rage abt antiblack racism can manifest as me ready to punch and kick and bite and nunchuck... I close out of those threads and go search for the joy. Because the only way to sustain my work as a Free Woman and a Black Girl Joy expert is to exist inside a model of AntiRacism education centered around JOY! Here are me in Jamaica in my bliss and my JOY! Next Sunday August 9th @theamonyee and I are coLecturing On this topic. This lecture is for you if: - You need language to process your own antiblack behavior. - You are a so called ally but you disassociate when things get too heavy. - You are a POC needing to confront your own complicit behavior in an antiblack society. - You are a Black Person looking for the work your soul must have - which is liberation by way of Joy! We are teaching and sharing our own theory and practice around AntiRacism activism which does not come to resist but shows up in pursuit of easeful freedom found through joy, dreaming, and imagination. Visit bit.ly/SustainingJoyLecture to register for this discussion. In conclusion, Afr Amer Vernacular English is a real, valid language. And your rejection of it is antiblack. It’s such a language that if you know it you know what Cleopatra Comin Atcha means. And if you don’t... you don’t. But diminishing the language because you don’t understand it is just racist. And the first step to healing is acknowledging that when black folk say words that you don’t know it’s ok to just say, “I need to learn more.” But you know.. Whew Chile! It be like that when you don’t hv no joy! #thefreejoyexperience (at Somewhere in Jamaica) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDZ7TMHJUaH/?igshid=r03u58ia3fqt

[rememberebonyjanice]

Thank you to @dianesanfilippo for making space and bringing our conversations on sustaining joy in anti-racism work to her IG page🤍🤍🤍 @theamonyee and I will discuss The Free Joy Experience (shout out to Cohort One!), more on the Black Tax, and cutting up per usual😉 If you weren’t able to join us for The Free Joy Experience this round, sign up for our upcoming Sustaining Joy In Anti-Racism Work CoLecture, for allies and folk in other marginalized bodies. We can’t sustain change without joy, so let’s dive deeper into the HOW. - (1) IG LIVE @dianesanfilippo tomorrow at 12noon PST/3pm EST - (2) Sustaining Joy In Your AntiRacism Work (Link in bio) bit.ly/SustainingJoyLecture August 9th at 6:30pm EST #decolonizejoy #thefreepeopleproject #thefreejoyexperience #ShapingTheShift #BlackLivesStillMatter #catsofinstagram #hamilton #yoga #asana #mindfulness #wellness #fashionnova #beautyinfluencer #petsofinstagram #heroes #decolonize #feministas #fashionblogger #jesussaves #spirituality #hashtag #humor (at New Orleans, Louisiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCw3OI8pYyB/?igshid=11ktoy1dpaeeh

[rememberebonyjanice]

In the midst of this pandemic and social change, many of US are still going to work within systems that undervalue, underpay, and outright abuse us while upholding white supremacy. The toll this takes on our joy and our dreaming is unacceptable, and must be confronted. Today we will discuss Modern workplace plantations, the myth of Black worker fairies, and the harm and delusion of perfectionism. Join us today at 12pmPST/3pmEST for a healing discussion around the Black Tax and radical shifts that must be made to address and eradicate work place racial trauma. #thefreejoyexperience #dreamyourselffree #ShapingTheShift @shapingtheshift @theamonyee https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJb9S9pB2c/?igshid=1ektr6zngi5h3

[rememberebonyjanice]

We have received so many beautiful and thoughtful applications for “The Free Joy Experience” which is focused on spiritual justice, creating programming, curating content, and holding space for community building around racial healing through ancestral accountability and expanding white consciousness and imagination. @theamonyee and I are going LIVE tonight to all about what a 100% decolonized model of healing will look like and it starts at, “Welcome.” If you are a white person or a person with white privileged wanting to consider yourself an #ally, you still have thru July 19th to apply at www.thefreejoyexperience.com because we understand that you can’t fully engage in justice work, unhealed. Use that page and that form to leave more. Also, refer back to “The Free Joy Experience” & “To Be Clear” IG TV Lives with me and Thea Monyee from the last week or so. They will be required viewing at some point Anyways, if you participate, so it’s the best place to start! . . . Join us to night at 7pm EST #ShapingTheShift #TheFreePeopleProject #TheFreeJoyExperience https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbcCgjJLR1/?igshid=gswrqdgnzxbv