I’ve always strongly disavowed toxic versions of ambition. The human race was perpetually speeding in the fast lane when the pandemic forced us to collectively slow down. “Done” replaced “perfect.“ Go, go, go, became standing still. We slept in on weekends, championed carb-loading, and instead of tallying accomplishments and always asking “what’s next,” we curled up for much-needed soul rest. So is it any wonder that many of us can’t or won’t return to that frazzled pre-pandemic pace? Is it surprising that we reconfigured our definition of what’s energy-worthy and now, we flat-out refuse to reverse it?   This week, it’s my honor to welcome Salaam Green to help us unleash the healing power of writing. Salaam is a poet, master healer, creator of What Black Women Want You to Know, and founder of Literary Healing Arts, LLC.   With an uncanny ability to listen beneath the story, Salaam hears what you are NOT saying (and she’s so astonishingly accurate you’ll get shivers). Then, Salaam helps you reclaim your voice by creating your own poem, either through her guided writing or by producing it on your behalf.   As a prominent advocate for racial justice, Salaam has spoken at the United Nations, trained hundreds of leaders throughout the United States, and is a Community Village awardee.    Today, on top of sharing her expert healing wisdom, Salaam “cracks open” her heart to reveal her transitions, transformation, and future ambitions.  What You’ll Learn in this Episode: A train of handprints on the window Putting broken society back together Exhaustion, trauma, pain = everywhere The many different ways to listen Poetizing the story of your life Listen to the Full Episode Featured on the Show: Throughout this podcast, Salaam and I reference last year’s Wisdom Fusion Project — an eight-week intergenerational experience of women learning from women. The impact of it, on me and on the other participants, was truly transformational. And now, you can sample the journey – FOR FREE and at your own pace — in the new Wisdom Fusion Project Workbook.  Sundae’s Website Sundae’s Facebook Business Page – Sundae Schneider-Bean LLC IN TRANSIT Hub What Black Women Want You To Know Wisdom Fusion The Good Listening Project Dr. Martha Beck   Catch These Podcasts / Articles: Atlas of the Heart – Brene Brown         We’re delighted to be in the Top 5 of the global Best 30 Expat Podcasts! Subscribe: iTunes | Android Full Episode Transcript: Transcript Hello, It is 7:00 am in New York, 1:00 pm in Johannesburg, and 6:00 pm in Bangkok. Welcome to IN TRANSIT with Sundae Bean. I am an intercultural strategist, transformation facilitator, and solution-oriented coach, and I am on a mission to help you adapt & succeed through ANY life transition.   Just as a caveat for this episode: This was recorded in two parts. The first and April 2022, and the second in May just days after a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York at a local grocery store where ten innocent people’s lives were taken. This mass shooting was racially motivated and all of the victims were Black. This awful news that hit our airwaves has sent a ripple effect yet again throughout the globe on just how much racial healing we need and this episode now goes live in advance of Juneteenth reminding us of how important it is for the work to continue.   Sundae: So it is my heart felt pleasure to have Salaam Green on the podcast today. She is a Master Healer, creator of What Black Women Want You To Know and founder of Literary Healing Arts, LLC, where she s individuals, and organizations in using writing poetry, and storytelling to reclaim their voices and transform their lives. We have a lot in common on that respect. But what we do is so different and that’s why I’m so excited to have her here today. In her work as an advocate for racial justice, she’s spoken at the United Nations, and facilitated and trained hundreds of leaders throughout the south in the United States, including the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation, and the UAB Institute of Arts in Medicine. In addition to all of that experience, she’s a certified practitioner and trainer for the Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation process. A former Reimagining Justice and Women’s Policy Fellow and a Community Village awardee for Gender Justice work in the South. Salaam, it is my pleasure to have you us here on IN TRANSIT.    Salaam: Thank you for having me. It’s my pleasure to be here. I am super excited. Yes. Thank you.    Sundae: So Salaam and I know each other from our work together on Wisdom Fusion. For those of you who don’t know what Wisdom Fusion is, it’s an eight-week intergenerational experience of learning, and I can’t even find words for how amazing that was. But one of the things that I learned about Salaam during that is, she’s one of those people that, I don’t know, Salaam, if this resonates with you, but you seem to be one of those people that observes.   Salaam: Yes.   Sundae: And you might not say much but man when you did say something it was like *mic drop* Every. Single. Time. So it’s been wonderful. And one little fun fact that we have in common with each other is both of us went to, for at least some period of time, the University of North Dakota, right?    Salaam:  Exactly. What is that about? Absolutely. I am In the south of the United States, and yeah University of North Dakota, absolutely.    Sundae: Any woman who can put up with the level of cold and snow in the University of North Dakota is a resilient woman.    Salaam: *laughter* I agree. I agree.    Sundae: So thank you for ing us here, the podcast IN TRANSIT, I can’t think of a better way to describe how our global energy feels right now, right? What are you feeling right now in of what’s going on globally?    Salaam: Oh, that’s such a great question and I can go back to the Wisdom Fusion that we were a part of, there are no words to the beautiful way in which it was handled and just a beautiful people we met. I think in the world today community is what I’m feeling. I’m feeling like there is this hunger finally, for community. I don’t know if it’s because during the pandemic, we were isolated and we were told not to be in community and that’s trauma. And so, I see the collective trauma of what community – the lack of being in community has done for people. So I see that we are in transit right now. As you were saying so beautifully, moving back into the space of community, the communal healing. Bonfires are getting ready to be spread across the world. They are campfires. There are women in their kitchen, who are getting ready to open up the oven and baking our bread. We are really beginning, I think right now to look at circles or squares if we’re still online, but community, yes.    Sundae: I didn’t realize I was going to bring this up but I notice I have tears in my eyes when I think about it, this idea of community, there have been times where I’ve watched individuals in crisis, let’s say health crisis. There’s a diagnosis or a tragic loss and a family. And I’ve seen two things happen depending on the cultural context, depending on the energy that was going on in the moment, but one group of people isolate, actually go on their own. It’s almost like everybody goes in their own apartment by themselves and feels pain. And I’ve watched other people do the opposite. So come together in that circle, and be in community to share the pain. And on one hand, I absolutely I know we need to give everybody the space to grieve and work through their own process in a way that is unique to them. Absolutely. And I also think there’s wisdom in centuries of practices that we’ve seen, how do people heal best? When experiencing pain. And I hear you, we’ve been forced to be separate, but there’s been pain and trauma through the pandemic and all that we’ve seen in The US with this racial reckoning, that you can’t unsee through, thanks to the media, that has made it so hard to look away from, right?    Salaam: Absolutely.    Sundae: So where do we go from here? I know this is at the center of your work right now. Why are you using your precious energy and attention to focus on racial healing right now?   Salaam: Because I cannot look away. I cannot look away as a Black woman who lives in the south in Birmingham, Alabama, the center of all things civil rights. Also from areas, such as Selma, Alabama, where I grew up going across the Edmund Pettus bridge and I grew up with the whole pedagogy around civil rights and civil rights leaders. I the first time my mother took me and my brothers to a protest. There was – and I know sounds like a great field trip, right? We’re going to a protest, but even as a little girl, maybe six or seven years old at a protest, it did something to me then. I wondered two things: Why were the people protesting? And why were the people behind the doors, who wouldn’t let certain people inside of the doors locking people out?  And it’s so important for me now to say, “How do we connect the people behind the doors and the people who are on the sidewalks?” We both are wounded. We both need healing. I only believe, for me, the way that that healing will occur is if we are in relationship with one another. It’s called ing. So ing is when we put our back together, ing, the membering part is where we put the of society back together. The of ourselves back together. So that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing now. I cannot not see it, but I cannot not feel it, Sundae. I feel it. I feel it in the friendships I have with people who look different than me. I feel it in the friendships with people who look like me;