SEED: Supporting Emerging Embodied Discoveries

The SEED Program is a small co-learning group of emerging DYFIT leaders, who share both deep knowledge of the practice and a strong commitment to racial justice. 

Originally designed as an intensive curriculum anchored by 7 community workshops, SEED morphed in the time of COVID into a powerful digital co-learning space and project incubator. 14 emerging leaders moved together through a 7-month experience. In this world-changing time, we witnessed the surge of a global pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, local and national uprisings for racial justice, and a national election charged with the weight of unmasked truths and the urgency of climate chaos. We gathered regularly. We talked of ancestors, dance families, protecting our magic, asking for help, raising young ones, farming, writing, moving with our tender selves in times of depression and fear, showing up for grief, resting, moving through to the other side of futures known and unknown.

9 projects emerged from our process this year. These are also seeds, sleeping and sprouting and rooting all in their own time. It has been such a gift to share a creative process with one another that honors the timeline of aliveness, doesn’t expect germination to happen for all at once, and understands (celebrates!) that fruiting happens in mysterious ways.

Learn more about our projects below.

With support from Art In this Present Moment (St Paul Foundation) 

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, I came face to face with my identity as a mixed woman with black and white family: the ways I show up in spaces, the ways I minimize my experiences, and how I relate to blackness.

To stay grounded and move with intention in the movement toward liberation and systemic change, I have been listening to my ancestors and building a stronger connection with self through music, movement, and writing. This has blossomed into internal (frame)work necessary to continue processing past trauma, be present with current trauma, and further understand/research historical trauma.

We all must navigate moving through duality in our own bodies in some way. Whether we idenitfy as queer, mixed, bicultural, biracial, or not - we all carry frictions and "opposites" in our lived experiences, relationships, and/or ancestral lines that we learn to bridge (or not). We enter into conversation with each other as an act of vulnerable sharing, a window into our process of bridging dissonance in our own lineages and bodies through ritual, movement, and music.

With support from Art In this Present Moment (St. Paul Foundation) 

My SEED project was to be embodied and to have fun as I wrote my undergraduate thesis, a particular challenge during a pandemic combined with my academic burnout. Yet, I did my best! My biggest part of the SEED project was setting up daily phone calls with people to talk about my thesis and/or my feelings, and to also have time to listen to whatever they wanted to talk about. It was the biggest part because it involved asking for help from many people!

In addition to the daily phone calls, I set up a Padlet board to post pictures of my work spaces, songs that I was listening and dancing to, time lapses of my computer screen, and other odds and ends. Having a mindset of creation and documentation helped me feel connected to my body and to other people instead of being tunnel visioned on academic success. My project was not meant to be a "productivity hack" (in any case, it failed to do that -- I pushed back many deadlines!) -- it was meant to be a time and space for me to slow down and to notice my significance, my creativity, my intelligence, and my feelings.

Some beloved sources of inspiration for us this year: 

Poetry is Not a Luxury, by Audre Lorde

Blue World, by John Coltrane 

Octavia’s Parables Podcast, with Toshi Regan and adrienne maree brown

Write2Heal newsletter, by Mimi Zhu