On African Ascendance, Body Acceptance, and Somatic Experience
Keywords:
African diaspora, embodiment, contemplative practice, embodied somatic practice, somatic movement practices, Black womxnAbstract
This article provides a brief background on a contemplative practice, a poetic narrative around the practice, followed by directions for the practice itself. The practice explored in this article centers the lived experiences and wisdoms of African ascendants (Dillard, 2012, p. ix). African ascendants refer to anyone who identifies or experiences the world as Black, African American, Afro Latino/a/x, Afro Caribbean or belonging to the African diaspora. Our bodies carry norms, cultural traditions, spiritual practices, and ways of being that have been demonized, othered, policed, politicized, and oppressed in a variety of ways. This practice is an attempt to marry ourselves back to our embodied experiences in a way that is gentle and communal. It brings together somatic movement practices (brown, 2019, p. 275) with narrative and storytelling.
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