Emergent Strategy: Social Action as Result of Collective Reading and Critical Reflection

• In Event: Communal Possibilities: Critical Reflections in Three Breaths

Abstract

After a full year of living through a pandemic while attending college remotely, the Fall semester of 2021 arrived with a return to what many referred to as a “new normal”. Yet, as classes began it became clear that there was a collective feeling of burn out, grief, and the need for some time to pause, reflect, and find connection with one another. As the Coordinator of the Peer Mentoring Program in the department, it felt especially salient to use the semester with our peer leaders, who are on the front line with students, to do just this.

The book, Emergent Strategy, by adrienne maree brown supports a deeper inquiry into our current relationship with change and how we can learn from surrounding nature to create radical transformation; this seemed like the perfect fit to support our peer leaders and staff as we began to make sense of living through a pandemic. Through collective reading and weekly dialogues, we engaged in practices that pushed us to embody our learnings, sit with discomfort and the unknown, and embrace our differences. We spent time reflecting on the healing tools and practices we already hold as well as what we still wanted to learn. It became evident that through the creation of a container where we could reflect on experiences of trauma, support each other as we worked through pain, and celebrate each other as we sat with gratitude, our community strengthened as well as our feelings of “ease with what is” (brown, a.m., 2017). Closing out the semester with final presentations that asked peer leaders to reflect on their relationship to change and how this relationship shifted through collective reading, students spoke of hope, ability to adapt, and the importance of having time to pause and connect. Just as nature takes its moment to hibernate before blooming again, this experience reminded us of our need to slow down, collectively process, and heal when our bodies and minds are telling us its time.

Author

• Gabrielle Cuesta, John Jay College - CUNY