Institutional Partnership Rate: Please contact MINKA Mystery School for Institutional Group rate.
Consciousness of Radical Equity Leadership Training (C.O.R.E.)
The new standard for established and aspiring practitioners, educators and leaders in every field prioritizing equity, safety and the evolution of humanity across the globe.
2024 - 2025 REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
One-time payment and payment plans are available above.
Partial BIPOC scholarships sponsored by MINKA brooklyn available here.
Application Deadline: February 5th, 2024
Elisa, Pilates Instructor & Activist, Brooklyn NY
“CORE has done for me what years of self care and anti racism training could not and that is, a true decolonizing of my thinking and practices.
I came to the course to learn but had no idea how much I would heal on a deep soul level. I often describe CORE as the missing piece because it not only is giving me tools to work with but also a brand new lens through which to look at my own practices, shift them and embody the principles both personally and professionally. This is not a course in DEI but a way to heal ourselves from generations of white supremacy which can only ultimately detox who we are as practitioners.
A true paradigm shift.
If you are truly looking to be a part of our collective liberation, it is paramount that our lives and practices embody this. If I had a wish, it would be for everyone I know to take CORE. ”
Our curriculum equips leaders with the awareness and ability to navigate the nuances and complexities of our evolving culture by exploring three essential categories:
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Historical context of race for deeper exploration, conversation and healing.
Identify ideologies that support toxic capitalism and explore ways to reduce dependency.
How to use the history and evolution of gender expression to inform our actions and accountability within our communities.
Framework to explore the conscious and unconscious legacy of race and inequality.
Tools to consider visible and invisible disabilities, able-ism, accessibility and the connection to power.
Pathways to center healing justice.
Resources to identify clinical red flags to practice with integrity.
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Commune with the natural world to access ancestral ways of thinking, knowing and experiencing reality.
Cultivate ways to honor your elders and lineages to increase understanding and decrease the erasure of indigenous and diasporic wisdom.
Explore your ancestral connection and continue to develop your personal practice.
Greater understanding of human energetic systems from various cultures and philosophies.
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Breath as a foundational tool for health and transformation.
Support understanding and navigating the dynamics of our evolving culture.
The tools to navigate individual and collective trauma.
Body regulation and orientation towards establishing a sense of belonging.
A responsible lens to engage with ourselves and our communities.
Expansion of our essential skills to hold transformational space.
A pathway to ensure our communities and clients receive intentional care.
A community of thought leaders with whom to explore, practice and generate a new paradigm with.
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Wellness | Healing | Spiritual Practitioners
CEO’s, Directors, Managers, Business Owners, Professionals
Government Officials, Medical Professionals, Religious Leaders, Public Servants
Social Activists, Educators, Teachers
Not for Profit | NGO Leaders
Those interested in applying the values of equity, healing and spirituality to their daily lives, communities and workspaces.
~ Jill, Transformational Coach, Kingston NY
“When I joined this curriculum it was an “a-ha moment” that this work was what I had always been trying to find as I dug deeper into my own path over the years. I’d always lived from the concept that personal is also political, and ‘as above so below’ but I don’t think I could have fully embraced this work until I followed the path that I had from personal development to trauma, to healing, to coaching, to leadership and now Radical Consciousness and Equity Leadership.
This program is truly unique and visionary in that it embodies a profound level of our growth toward universal consciousness and true equity.
Until we do this work around the subtle energies and structures that govern us, we can’t (as space holders for transformation) hold a space “for all”. This work is extraordinary in both personal and community consciousness development.”
Course descriptions & dates:
This is a 15-month course that includes intentional integration periods for coursework that supports the embodiment of each concept learned in the classroom.
Classes are held via Zoom from 11am - 2pm EST, unless otherwise noted.
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Opening ceremony and orientation, mandatory for all students. We will begin the process of learning with the community.
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Led by Baba Ifasami & Dorcas Davis
The first session of this course serves as a catalyst to co-create a healthy learning container; what does a truly healthy community for all require?
This integrative course draws together all of the key elements from the CORE curriculum. As a cohort, we will re-imagine and co-design the anatomy of a healthy community. We will weave together our understandings in a small group project that shares our collective vision for community.
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Led by Baba Ifasami
Discover ways to cultivate relationships with our collective and personal ancestors through study, family stories, rituals, and building/maintaining of altar(s). We also explore the living cultural histories and expressions of ancestral reverence which may be hidden in your daily life.
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Led by Sunder Ashni
We all have bodies. These bodies hold memory, experience a wide range of emotions and sensations. And living within these bodies in a context created outside of ourselves gives way to patterns and ways of moving and being to survive within that culture. In this course we will explore how the body can regulate and orient towards thriving, establishing a sense of belonging and restoring a knowing and felt sense of connectedness.
*This class can be waived for those who holds certification such as Somatic Experiencing, though we strongly recommend you participate in this course that has been built from a different perspective than the traditional educational model.
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This class explores how breath is essential to our life and healing, and teaches how to use breath in their daily practice. Instead of starting from a particular technique, this class will place strong emphasis on using the awareness of breathing to notice their nervous system regulation, learn the interconnection between breath and various systems within the body, and what it means to breath for health creation on a daily basis.
*This class can be waived for those who are certified breathwork facilitators (subject to approval), though we strongly recommend you participate in this course that has been built from a different perspective than the traditional educational model.
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Led by Stephanie Moreno
This course is a mix of lecture and personal exploration and reflection. We will explore western theories within a decolonized lens. What are Ethics? Are we practicing in integrity and what does that even mean? This class will engage in reflective exercises and share within the confidential therapeutic group space. Radical ethics will allow us to dive into our own personal beliefs, challenging ourselves and opening up space for healing.
*This class can be waived for those who holds state or federal level licensure (subject to approval), though we strongly recommend you participate in this course that has been built from a different perspective than the traditional educational model.
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** this module is on Friday evenings 6 - 9pm EST
Led by Aki Hirata Baker & Lindsay Fauntleroy
No one really means to go around and offend people, so why does it happen so often?
This class engages students in the concept of decolonization from the perspective of cultural appropriation. In this class, we will dive into how innocent appreciation for one can easily turn into cultural appropriation or even harmful offense to others, through our socialization in patriarchal and white supremacy culture as the norm.
This class will include lecture, journal prompts and small group work to move through some real life scenarios to build our internal thinking & feeling muscles for immediate and future use.
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** this module is on Friday evenings 6 - 9pm EST
Led by Lindsay Fauntleroy & Aki Hirata Baker
In this course we explore the unconscious legacy of anti-black racism that lies unexamined in our individual and collective psyche. Through examples from media and popular culture, we’ll get to know the archetypal lineage of the oppressor, witness, ally, and the revolutionary. This class offers strategies to support transformative dialogue around painful experiences of internalized and externalized anti-black racism.
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Led by Marshal Green
In this course we aim to build awareness around gender. Students will learn vocabulary & resources to aid in deconstructing the current binary gender narratives to expand our capacity to hold space for limitless possibilities for gender expressions.
This course also gives students support on how to find their footings in a rapidly changing & expanding landscape.
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This offering is a learning lab and skill share to decolonize our language and practices in the healing and wellness arts. We will explore and discuss identity, cultural appropriation, justice, and equity as wellness professionals through group discussion, mini breakout sessions and games. We will come together in the cooperative spirit of unity and love to consciously step out of old patterns, ways of thinking, being and operating that are not in alignment with who we truly are, or where we want to go. All are welcome.
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Led by Alison Reba
In this course we explore the intersection of disability & healing justice and aim to contextualize healing as a radical political act rooted in lineages and histories of movements for liberation. What does it look like to center accessibility and wellness in your practice? We will explore ableism and how it limits our capacities for healing justice.
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Led by Milta Vega Cardona, MSA, MPH, PHD(abd)
This course offers necessary historical information and context that allows us to examine the current understandings of race, racial dynamics and its effects on policy.
This class explores race as a social assignment (and how that may differ from self-identity); we will discuss ethnicity, race & anti-blackness.
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Led by Lindsay Fauntleroy
This course offers a deep dive into nature's sacred gift of medicine for emotional, mental and spiritual health. We explore the Anima Mundi (Soul of the World) and the role of humanity in the interconnected web of the natural realm. Through an in-depth exploration of various consciousness states, we’ll experience ancestral ways of thinking, knowing and being that inform how to heal our relationship with the planet and all of her creation.
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Led by Omar Freilla
What is capitalism and what ideologies support its toxic manifestation?
This class explores the possibility of an emergent economic system through a presentation of historical examples of alternatives to capitalism. We’ll discuss how to reduce our own dependency in the capitalistic system, as well as how to take solid steps towards and alternative economy.
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Led by Aki Hirata Baker & Manu Del Prete
This class is created for those who are energy healing practitioners or curious to understand more about energy and how it can enhance their current practice. It is also designed to demystify the old ways of looking at energy and spirituality based on fear and binerty thinking by introducing examples from various cultures as well as actual examples from the facilitators years of practice and teaching.
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Led by Baba Ifasami & Dorcas Davis
In this second section of the course, students will integrate by drawing together all of the key elements from the CORE curriculum. As a cohort, we will re-imagine and co-design the anatomy of a healthy community based on the learning from the last 16 months together.
This session also serves as a Graduation Ceremony in the community.
— Beck, College Professor, Brooklyn NY
“I can talk forever about how grateful I am to have found Minka of all places -- for my healing, for my unlearning, for my becoming, for my sense of community -- and how
this is the space that allowed me to align my social justice work and my spiritual practice.”
FAQs
C.O.R.E.Leadership Trainings is designed radically different with the deepest possible transformation as our North Star.
We understand this brings up many questions; and we have compiled some frequently asked questions here for you.
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Believe it or not, this was the most common questions we received from our community; and we believe this is a very honest sentiment we can have to face the deep work of equity and healing.
To do the work of ‘living equitable life’ or ‘decolonizing our life’, we must take often a sobering level of accountability. This is a vulnerable work that brings up many feelings that we often try to avoid: fear, shame, guilt, judgement, and so on.
This is actually the root of the decolonizing work; we live in a colonized, White Supremacist, and patriarchal society; and this means we all carry the tendency towards this normalized idea of avoiding the discomfort at the expense of others suffering. Moving away from the emotional discomfort, in this framework, is what perpetuate the injustice in the world.
We are doing radical work to course correct these behaviors within ourselves and within society at large. It is expected to be uncomfortable - and we will build common language, practice and a space for us all to grow with all that come up.
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This program is for anyone who wants to actualize the healing world where liberation is lifted up as the goal of humanity.
In a tangible sense, those of you who would be a great candidate for this program is likely to be feeling a fair amount of grief over how the humanity is doing at the moment, and wanting to learn how to create a more sustainable, kinder and life-affirming world. Some of you maybe filled with questions like, “how does an equitable world look like?”, “what kind of alternative system are there for us to divest from inhumane system?”, “how can I support my community that are under constant stress of oppressive system?”, or “this cannot be the only way to live, right?”
This work is especially suited for those who hold space for people in their growth, such as:
- Wellness | Healing | Spiritual Practitioners
- CEO’s, Directors, Managers, Business Owners
- Government Officials, Medical Professionals, Religious Leaders, Public Servants
- Social Activists, Educators, Teachers
- Not for Profit Leaders
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Many of us are at the stage on this journey where we carry much intellectual information. We are now asked to embody of the principles we would like to actualize in the world. This practice must be relational as society is a relational field; and this is why we learn together with others who hold this dream for the world.
We understand this calls for our vulnerability - which is critical for us to create a container of growth where we agree to do this work together. In practice, we learn to be accountable for ourselves through the mirror of others, and only through this practice within the container, will we learn to do this for the world at large.
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Embodiment and integration takes time. When we talk about subjects such as, equity and decolonization where so much of our behavior is rooted in our subconscious, this is especially true. For the work to be effective, we need to allow our nervous system to settle within the new information, and the new version of ourselves that emerge from the field of new information. We are inviting in those who are truly committed to make the change within their lives, and in the world we live in.
Moreover, this is very emotional work for all of us. Working with emotionally challenging materials with sense of urgency does not equate to real learning at the root level; this doew not allow materials be embodied, and often creates a dangerous sense of competency that is rooted only in intellectual understanding rather than the deep knowing that can come from sitting with the material and applying it in our own lives.
We include time for integration, along with a 2-month summer break within this program for spacious learning. Item The idea of learning something in a short amount of time ‘efficiently’ comes from the White Supremacist ideology of ‘urgency’, and ‘quantity over quality’. This program upholds its integrity by being the antithesis to the principle we are moving away from.
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This is a sacred growth container; and we ask our students to invest their time to nurture themselves within it, while also growing in community together. As we grow, we have the unique opportunity to see each others humanity in ways only time and space can offer.
Though this is a ‘15-month’ program, our program is built to focus on the integration. This means that our program is built with spaciousness for processing in mind. Here’s what it actually looks like:
- Each module meets TWO Saturdays per month, and each session is Three hours, followed by a few weeks for integration and course work.
- The course work is strongly focused on self-reflection and integration, instead of the rigorous and academically focused - this means we are asking students to ‘live their life’ with the given materials instead of laboring over it on the computer and books.
- July and August is our Summer Break to build our resources for ourselves.
There will be a few students joining from the partner education organization, who are already a part of the sacred container we respect and work with. This exception is made through the partnership we have built over the years in aligned work.
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Breathwork, somatics and ancestral work are the resources and tool kit we build upon in order for us to be in the laboratory together with safety in mind. We each are building these skill sets, so we can co-create a space of safety within ourselves - allowing our learning space to be safer too.
These tools are also the way for us to continue our work outside sustainably. Without resources for self and community nourishment, we are utterly unprepared for the long road ahead towards liberation. Without proper resources and nourishment, we can create the energetic field of lack and fear–allowing what we manifest out of this energetic space to mimic where it originates from. In order for us to create an abundant, peaceful, kind and liberated world, we must first cultivate what we desire within. We offer these tools as some of the building blocks towards this effort.
Working within the decolonial process is not easy. It can be emotionally challenging to face deeply ingrained patterns of injustice within ourselves and the society. It is triggering for all of us, even for those who have been doing this work for a long time. After years of investing time and energy in working towards social change, one thing that has come to us is the need for the balance within ourselves in order for us to show up to create harmony outside in the world.
In a way, finding information regarding justice is not hard in this informational age if there is a desire - and we see this happening in various places. Contrary to what White Supremacy teaches us, learning, especially types of learning that requires us to change the way we think, react or respond within the relational field does not happen in the vacuum of self learning. It requires people of various experiences to come together, and ‘rub against one another’ in order for us to understand how our normalized behavior is not supportive towards social change. This learning container simulates the social network with those who are dreaming to create a harmonious future; this is a laboratory of future making.
If you are certified in certain modalities, you can submit a request to be excused from selected modules for consideration.
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Every session is recorded and can be accessed for a 4-week period.
For certification, students are required to submit a one-page reflection for each class when absent from any live sessions.
For certification, you are asked to be present for at least 16 of the 21 live sessions.
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We meet twice a month, 3 hours each time for live online sessions via zoom.
It is usually on Saturday 11am - 2pm EST, except for some modules offered on Friday evenings from 6pm - 9pm EST.
Outside of the zoom live sessions, students are encouraged to engage with each other in the Mighty Network portal, Signal–private group chat and IRL if they reside in the same location.
Outside of the zoom live sessions, students are engaging with the faculty through course work.
We have a teacher’s assistant assigned to each faculty, and they also can support in making sure that communication is happening smoothly.
MEET OUR FACULTY
BIPOC & allied leaders with over 100 years of combined experience.
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Aki Hirata Baker
(She/They)
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Alison Reba
(They/Them)
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Baba Ifasami
(He/Him)
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Dorcas Davis
(She/Her)
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Lindsay Fauntleroy
(She/Her)
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Manu Del Prete
(She/They)
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Marshall Green
(He/Him)
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Milta Vega-Cardona
(She/her)
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Omar Freilla
(He/Him)
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Stephanie Moreno
(She/They)
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Sunder Ashni
(She/Love)