UCSB Arts & Lectures Presents Therapist and Educator Resmaa Menakem Monday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Hall

SUMMARY

“[Menakem] activates the wisdom of elders, and very new science, about how all of us carry in our bodies the history and traumas behind everything we collapse into the word ‘race.’” – Krista Tippett, On Being

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Resmaa Menakem on Monday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Hall. Resilience can ripple outward, changing the lives of people, families and communities. A cultural trauma navigator, Resmaa Menakem connects individual and familial experiences to societal processes, helping people find paths forward from intergenerational racial and historical trauma. Known best for his New York Times bestseller My Grandmother’s Hands and his Guerrilla Muse podcast, Menakem helps us apply critical, empathetic and embodied thought to controversial topics. His work sets a course for critical understanding, healing and transformation of our ailing societies.

ABOUT RESMAA MENAKEM

Embodied provocateur, multiple-levels thinker and structural paradigm-shifter Resmaa Menakem (MSW, LICSW, SEP) is an author, agent of change, therapist and licensed clinical worker specializing in racialized trauma, communal healing and cultural first aid based in Minneapolis, Minn. As the originator and leading proponent of somatic abolitionism, an embodied anti-racist practice for living and culture building, Menakem is the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions and the Cultural Somatics Institute and is an educator and coach. Working at the intersections of anti-racism, communal healing and embodied purpose, Resmaa Menakem is the challenging yet compassionate coach we all need in this time of racial reckoning and near-global dysregulation.

Menakem is known as the author of the New York Times bestseller My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning, Monsters in Love: Why Your Partner Sometimes Drives You Crazy – And What You Can Do About It and The Stories From My Grandmother’s Hands, a children’s picture book with actor T. Mychael Rambo and illustrator Leroy Campbell.

Menakem has worked as a community care counselor for civilian contractors in Afghanistan as well as a certified military family life consultant; the director of counseling services for Tubman Family Alliance; the behavioral health director for African American Family Services in Minneapolis; a domestic violence counselor for Wilder Foundation; a divorce and family mediator; a social worker for Minneapolis Public Schools; a youth counselor; a community organizer; and a marketing strategist. Menakem is a senior fellow at The Meadows Behavioral Healthcare. In 2022 he established The AddiEun Foundation in Minneapolis. He is a key collaborator and facilitator for Education for Racial Equity and a sought-after public speaker and panelist. In 2023, Menakem released an on-demand, self-paced course in collaboration with Sounds True titled Healing Racialized Trauma: Somatic Abolitionism for Every Body.

Menakem has been a guest on Charlamagne Tha God’s Comedy Central TV program, Tha God’s Honest Truth, and radio show, The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy; Oprah; Sundays with Vernā; Krista Tippett’s On Being; Dan Harris’ 10% Happier, Eric Zimmer’s The One You Feed and many other major shows, podcasts and media.

ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES

Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.

Resmaa Menakem is presented in association with the following UCSB partners: Counseling and Psychological Services, Division of Student Affairs, Center for Feminist Futures, Office of Black Student Development, and Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Justice for All Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Eva & Yoel Haller, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation

Tickets are $20 / FREE for UCSB students (Current student ID required)

For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.

UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2023-2024 season.