Holding Space: A Storytelling Approach to Trampling Diversity and Inclusion

by Aminata Cairo, Laura Rumbley (Editor), Dafri Studios (Illustrator)

Overview

In Holding Space Aminata Cairo presents her own, unique vision in the promotion of inclusion that far surpasses the standard diversity & inclusion approach. She grounds her work in indigenous knowledge, the blues aesthetics, holy hip hop, and Caribbean and black feminist theories. She engages her audience utilizing storytelling, with the ultimate goal of creating a new story, collectively. Hailing from her Surinamese roots, her Native American nurturing, and academic training she uses personal stories to explore the themes and steps on a way to a more inclusive community. She challenges the audience to take a closer look at themselves and each other, raising the question what it really takes to collectively create an environment of equality and validation. It is about us, all of us, is her message, as she forces us to feel, hear, and own that. This book is not a reading, it is an experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789083156101
Publisher:	Aminata Cairo
Publication date:	06/05/2021
Series:	Holding Space , #1
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Aminata Cairo is an anthropologist, psychologist, educator, storyteller, and "love-worker". She is an independent consultant "who works with people". She is the former lector of Inclusive Education at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. She was the first and only research professor of African descent in the Netherlands. Born in the Netherlands to Surinamese parents she left for the US at age 18 where she pursued her academic career. She returned to the Netherlands after 30 years and obtaining two Master's degrees and a Ph.D. In the Netherlands she utilizes her academic, community activist and artist skills to make a difference and has a special affinity for the stories that are overlooked, silenced or marginalized.

Table of Contents

19 Introduction

21 Kri Kra, Kri Kra

25 Holding Space

28 From Theory to Lived Story

33 Foundation

35 Ma Po Clearing the Space

38 The Path Between My Mother and Me

43 The Quiet Path of My Second Mother

47 Love-Working the Space

51 Singing the Space

55 Holding the Space in Spite Of

59 Bouncing Down the Path

63 Beginning

65 About the "D" word

70 The Other "D" Word

79 Positions We Cannot Escape

85 Consumption Junction

91 To Be or Not to Be Sustainability

99 Appropriation as Colonization

107 To Speak the Unspoken

112 About Community and Support

117 Seven Directions

127 Middle

129 Tokenism Stepping Stone

135 Fortress of Information

143 Power Language

150 "Gezelligheid"

159 Insidious Domesticity

167 Power of Silence

173 Gentrimiwah?

181 Validation

191 End

193 Aho Metakuye Oyasin

197 Safe Enough to Be Brave

203 Care

209 Courage

216 Humility

225 Listening and Connecting

232 Speaking

240 Seeing

245 Embodiment

251 Environment

256 Patience

263 Neutral

268 Cracking

274 Transforming

279 Allyship

285 The Assist

291 Honoring and Celebrating

296 Ceremony

301 Holding Space

305 Index

313 Sources of inspiration

323 Image credits