Movement Sustainability as a Resourcing Practice

In 2013 I attended my first Making Money Make Change, Resource Generation’s annual member retreat. It was the first time I was in an organizing space with other wealthy people, all of whom shared a vision for social change and wealth redistribution. My lack of organizing experience made me feel pretty out of place, even as I felt so happy to be in a place where I could be honest about many different parts of my identity. Alongside the theoretical and systems analysis that were critical to our work together, I was longing for more space to touch in with my body and emotions (Beyond the dance floor the final night...the parties were epic in those days!)

I was luckily invited to attend a workshop led by Cara Page, who was the Executive Director of the Audre Lorde Project at the time and whose ongoing work has been essential in building a healing justice framework and practice into social movement. Her workshop held space for more embodiment and presence than any other space that I had been in that weekend,. It was a turning point for me, one where I saw donor organizing and my previous work in trauma and recovery come together. 

In Cara’s workshop I was introduced to Susan Raffo’s 2011 article "Resourcing: Fundraising as a part of supporting and building community”. Raffo’s article illuminates the way that participating in social justice movements brings to the surface ways that we have all been harmed by racial capitalism. Specifically focusing on fundraising, she speaks to the way that colonization, racism, scarcity, and community harm are always present in the exchange of money, whether we make it explicit or not. A lot of this tension can show up in the way we relate to others, and the ways that we relate to resources themselves. The possibility for repair along with the presence of unresolved personal and collective trauma is present in each moment of exchange. 

So what are the ways we can bring healing into these often tense and complex exchanges and relationships? Raffo writes: 

I use the term “resourcing” to encompass a way of thinking about getting what we need—beyond money. It’s actually a biological term and refers to how the body, through the nervous system, takes care of itself. Over time, resourcing has also come to mean how the collective body, or community, takes care of itself.

Resourcing is the ability to feel nurtured and calm within yourself or your community, to feel good. If trauma is a raging river, then resourcing is the ability to rest and regenerate, the quiet beach along the side. The greater the legacy of trauma, the harder it is to resource. This is as true for the individual body as it is for the greater community. Resourcing is a kind of safety net that is needed for the body to release trauma. Without resourcing, we cannot release and then move away from the trauma.

I have been reflecting for years on the question: What does it mean to sustain and resource ourselves? Our physical bodies, our spirits, and also our social movements for liberation. Resourcing on all the levels is critical to the health of our own bodies and spirits, and to the ongoing work of liberation.

Many of us resource social movements in various ways; through our labor, our art, our financial giving, our community building and often through all of the above. As we do this rewarding and often draining work, it is critical that we find ways to sustain ourselves. Although the resource of money has a great deal of complexity and charge, many resources carry a level of neutrality and can connect us to a larger story of our lived experience. Finding what resources us is essential to each one of us maintaining our sense of balance, dignity, joy, and sense of connection to community, spirit, or purpose. And the more we reach for and share our various resources, the more the whole can be nourished and sustained.

Over my career I have worked on many aspects of resourcing, and have always been anchored to Raffo’s definition. As we are called to resource change, we often give our resources outwardly and need to resource ourselves in turn to have any hope of sustaining ourselves, our communities and our movements. 

This idea of both resourcing and sustainability has led to develop and teach Movement Sustainability, my weekly movement and dance practice. I offer Movement Sustainability as a resourcing practice, a place to get in touch with our bodies, to touch in to pleasure, to be anchored by music, and to feel a spark of aliveness that can often get lost as we hold big work in the world. As we become more in touch with our bodies, the easier it is to be present with the complexity that arises in building multi-racial and multi-class movements for change.

In "Resourcing", Raffo writes: 

Individual resourcing is what happens when we are able to bring our awareness and to accept something that feels nurturing, safe, pleasurable…This sensing and feeling and being the “good” thing is resourcing, and we can’t heal or change without it.

When so much is hard, finding ways to touch into the “good” can propel us into new phases of our work, our relationships, and our sense of meaning inside of so much uncertainty.

If you are looking for another way to resource yourself so you can be more supported in the work that you do to live with purpose and care for the world, I’d love to have you in a class. It would be an honor and joy to support and resource you for the work ahead. 

Curious? Let’s move together: 

Ongoing in person: Mondays @ 8:30 CT at the St Claude Yoga Center in New Orleans. Register here. 

Fall sessions online, through December 2nd: Tuesdays @ 10 CT on zoom. Register here. 

Playlist and Practice : 

Each week I share the playlist with online attendees. Here’s this week's playlist for you to play with. Find time to listen and move. One way we explore movement possibilities within my class is to practice letting different parts of your body move you through your space. Choose a track you like and lead from different parts. A sequence I like to do: Feet, hips, heart, arms, and focus/head. See if there are ways your body wants to move you, rather than directing the movement through your mind. See what arises. I’d love to hear what moves you, or anything you discover.

Movement inspirations: 

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Thermal Drift (2022). 

Yoann Bourgeois Trampoline Dance

Mayor-Elect of NYC Zohran Mamdani hitting the club.

Sending love, beauty, and resource your way,

Willa