Reflections on EWOCC, Rebecca Walker and Healing Through Community

By Dyana Delfin-Polk, Graduate Student in Public Policy at Mills College 

&

Belen Mendoza, UC Berkeley Alumna in Ethnic Studies

Dyana

Healing present participle of heal (Verb)

Verb:
  1. (of a person or treatment) Cause (a wound, injury, or person) to become sound or healthy again: “a healing effect on the body”.
  2. Become sound or healthy again.

There are many definitions that society has developed to define what healing is: modern medicine, therapy, holistic healing, yoga, proper nutrition. The list can go on. But what is missing (for me, at least) is community. In other words, what is missing from many discussions surrounding the active pursuit of healing is the idea and the ability to heal through communion with other individuals with similar experiences. This is what EWOCC has become to represent to me, becoming sound and healthy again through communion with other women of color.

My most memorable EWOCC was one I actually was unable to attend myself. Rebecca Walker was the keynote speaker that year and the theme was “Intergenerational Wisdom: Celebrating Our, Past, Present & Future.” Several years prior, I had read Rebecca Walker’s book Black, White and Jewish: An Autobiography of a Shifting Self, one of the few books that had ever brought me to tears.

“I am not a bastard, the product of rape, the child of some white devil. I am a Movement Child. My parents tell me I can be anything I put my mind to, that I can be anything I want. They buy me Erector sets and building blocks, Tinkertoys and books, more and more books. Berenstain Bears, Dr. Seuss, Hans Christian Anderson. We are middle class. My mother puts a colorful patterned scarf on her head and throws parties for me in our backyard, under the carport and beside the creek. She invites all of my friends over and watches over us as we roast hot dogs. She makes Kool-Aid and laughs when one of us kids does something cute or funny.

I am not tragic.”

-Rebecca Walker “Black White and Jewish: An Autobiography of a Shifting Self,” page 24.

Her experiences growing up in mirrored not only some of my own multiracial experiences but also my parent’s separation in many ways. This book was first introduced to me in a club I had joined at UCB called the Mixed Student Union. The community I felt with these individuals, with women at EWOCC and reading memoirs of multiracial/ethnic authors me on a path towards healing much of the pain, loneliness and sadness I had felt and to some degree, was still feeling.  Previous EWOCC workshops had also allowed me to express some of these feelings in a safe space and in an empowering way. These discussions and the positive feelings I had at the conclusion of the conference added to my practice of active healing through community in a similar manner to how I felt when I read Black, White and Jewish for the first time.

Seeing that Rebecca Walker was to keynote the 2010 EWOCC made me that much more excited to be in this space, but as luck would have it, I was working that entire day. Needless to say, I was disappointed that I was unable to attend, but I knew that it was a conference that my very good friend Belen Mendoza would enjoy and having Belen there was the next best thing to going myself.

Belen

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. – Rumi

The first EWOCC I attended was thanks to my dear friend Dyana Delfin-Polk, in March 2010. I was motivated to attend the UC Berkeley conference in large part because Rebecca Walker would be delivering a keynote address, and Dyana had previously described to me her love and appreciation for her writings. I was present that day for the both of us. The Rumi quote represents to a great extent one of the most important lessons I took in during that Saturday afternoon.

My introduction to Rebecca Walker through this experience moved me and stirred in me a new sense of clarity. Hearing her words and perspective truly was life-altering and uplifting. So at the end of the conference I got in line to chat with Rebecca Walker during her book signing; I was grateful for the wisdom she shared and I wanted to thank her, because I had never before in my life been given such an empowering beautiful message quite like hers that day. I couldn’t wait to tell Dyana about the amazing keynote, and Rebecca Walker’s warmness when I briefly spoke with her. I was so deeply affected by the talk, I later continued to tell my friends about the powerful lessons I took away with me at EWOCC.

“There is no greater power a woman can have than to stand in truth, in the face of the angry and silencing forces whether they be male or female, black or white or yellow or brown, rich or poor, mother or father. When do you become empowered? When you feel empowered.”(RW)

I have a great appreciation for Rebecca Walker’s message about taking a deep look into ourselves and questioning the propaganda we have internalized in our psyches throughout the course of our lives. Propaganda within and outside of movements like feminism, propaganda about our selves, our bodies, the “correct” timeline about when to enter motherhood, the pressure to solely prioritize career and achievements at the expense of other innate wishes like nurturing a loving relationship, creating a family, having a child. Rebecca Walker, at once gently and firmly, urged us all to locate and release propaganda inside ourselves that no longer serves us or our needs. This bit in particular resonated and moved me in an amazing personal way. Gratefully, I continue to look within myself and around me through this lens, thanks to the heartfelt keynote by Rebecca Walker on this life-changing day.

EWOCC Entertainment- Spotlight on Rocky Rivera

EWOCC is proud to host Rocky Rivera as the headline entertainer at the conference reception!

Rocky Rivera is a Hip-Hop journalist by day, MC by night, who found international acclaim by winning a Contributing Editor position on MTV’s docu-series “I’m From Rolling Stone” in 2007. A dynamic perfomer who’s shared the stage with artists such as Zion-I, Blue Scholars, and Pacific Division, her all-lady crew consisting of DJ Roza and emcee Irie Eyez display a daringly different side of Hip Hop you have to experience to believe. Noted music critic Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation writes “My whole career has been about getting people to hear the stories that need to be heard, and I think her story really needs to be heard.”

Catch Rocky, DJ Rosa and Irie Eyez at UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Community Center following the conference! Reception featuring spoken word, DJ Black, Youth Radio’s Remix Your Life, and Mix’d Ingredients: 5:30-7:30pm. Rocky Rivera: 6:30-7pm.

Registration for EWOCC now open!

Registration for the conference is officially open! Click on the Registration page to register online, and for access to the scholarship form.  The online registration period begins today and ends on midnight Wednesday, February 22. 

Please visit our website regularly for conference updates and blog posts from the EWOCC planning committee!

In the meantime, check out footage from EWOCC’s 25th Anniversary:

 

25th Anniversary Empowering Women of Color Conference from John Hamilton on Vimeo.

WELCOME!

The 27th Annual Empowering Women of Color Conference (EWOCC), A Holistic Approach: Justice, Access, and Healing, returns on March 3, 2012  to the UC Berkeley Campus to honor the legacy of women of color in the U.S., celebrate the struggles of women of all ages, and provides a space for growth, empowerment, and practical tools for everyday life.

This year’s conference will focus on the mental, physical, nutritional, environmental, and spiritual wellness of women of color.

The conference will host Andrea Smith and Radmilla Cody as keynote speakers.          

  • Andrea Smith is of the Cherokee clan and is a longtime anti-violence and Native American activist and scholar who has published widely on issues of violence against women of color. She is co-founder of the Boarding School Healing Project and INCITE! Women ofColor Against Violence, a national grassroots organization that utilizes direct action and critical dialogue. She currently teaches in media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside. In addition to Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, she also helped edit INCITE!’s two anthologies, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex and Color of Violence. 
  •  Radmilla Cody is of the Tla’a’schi’i’(Red-Orche-on-Cheek) clan and is born for the African-Americans. Cody is the 46th Miss Navajo Nation from 1997-98. A survivorof domestic violence, Cody uses her personal experiences to advocate strongly against the epidemic of violence. As a biracial person she attempts to communicate positive messages about her dual identity as children who are biracial or multiracial still bearthe brunt of prejudice. Cody is the subject of a documentary entitled “Hearing Radmilla”, produced and directed by Angela Webb, which further explores her journey as an activist and performer.
  •  We will have a host of live performances including area DJs, spoken word artist, and musical ensembles. Rocky Rivera will headline the EWOCC reception in the Multicultural Student Center from 5:30-7pm. The conference will take place on Saturday, March 3, 2012 from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Conference events will be held in the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Student Union Building on the UC Berkeley campus. MLK is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of Telegraph Ave. and Bancroft Ave. Admission to the conference includes access to all workshops, speakers, breakfast, lunch and snacks, and live performances.

On-site registration will also be available at the conference.
Please note that on-site registration is cash or cashier’s check only.  

For disability accommodation requests and information please visit http://access.berkeley.edu. Contact ewocc@ga.berkeley.edu no later than Friday, February 16  in order to receive disability accommodations.