A 7-Module Online Course with Harry Pickens
ALLIED
Bringing the Best of You to the Racial Justice Journey
Course Description
We are experiencing one of the most significant shifts in racial attitudes in the history of the United States. A greater percentage of white citizens than ever before are becoming aware of issues of racial injustice and desiring to become actively involved in the centuries-long movement for racial justice, healing and reconciliation.
Books on race top the bestseller lists. Protests for racial justice are more diverse than ever before. Corporations and institutions are abandoning racially-charged symbols, products, brands. Statues honoring Confederate leaders are being removed — at last.
In the midst of these significant shifts in public perception, many people who are white sincerely want to be part of a solution, but don’t quite know where to start. Ample resources exist that explore the history of racial injustice, and many experts provide instruction in white ‘allyship’. However, most of the available resources focus on external action — how to get involved in protests, political campaigns, and other mobilizations — and rarely focus on the inner work of racial justice-making — how to bring one’s best, most resourceful, resilient, and responsive self to this particular journey.
ALLIED: Bringing The Best Of You To The Racial Justice Journey addresses both the inner and outer components of the racial justice journey, and focuses specifically on supporting white changemakers who want to be empathic, empowered and effective allies.
Registration is now closed.
ALLIED has provided a framework for me to bring together racial justice, embodiment, awareness, and tools to help embody and create the world that I want to walk in.
I am experiencing a great sense of optimism. It has been amazing to learn all the tools, techniques, and concepts this program has
provided.
Course Modules
Module 1: The Journey Begins
Enter into a community of practice, clarify course outcomes, create and confirm agreements, self-assess readiness for the journey, align individual and collective vision and values, preview The Five Alliances.
Module 2: Historical Paradox
Cultivate your capacity to acknowledge and bear witness to the realities of racial injustice in the United States, past and present – without dismissal, deflection, denial, and/or dehumanization.
Module 3: Embodied Equanimity
Cultivate your capacity to be with the emotional experience of witnessing individual and collective racialized suffering and transform this experience through embodied compassion.
Module 4: Purposeful Clarity
Cultivate your capacity to discern clearly your optimal role in and contribution to the racial justice journey, grounded in 1) a compelling vision of the possible; 2) your core values, strengths, skills, delights, resources, networks, privilege, passions; 3) current and projected future needs; and 4) support of existing individuals, organizations, initiatives.
Module 5: Conversational Mastery
Cultivate your capacity to initiate, facilitate and navigate conversations relevant to the racial justice journey issues with clarity, compassion and courage.
Module 6: Unwavering Resolve
Cultivate your capacity to anchor your work in personal meaning and moral imagination, so as to remain grounded, clear, focused and committed to doing your part in support of the racial justice journey, in the face of challenges, obstacles, setbacks, and (temporary) defeats.
Module 7: Journey Synthesis
Celebrate individual and collective progress, clarify our next steps, and strengthen our sense of community.
Course Guides
Harry Pickens
Course Developer
Harry Pickens is the ALLIED course developer and facilitator, and creator of Race Sacred. He is an award-winning performing artist, educator, composer, author, workshop facilitator and life transformation coach. Currently, Harry integrates multiple careers of musical performance, teaching, and coaching with lifelong passions of reading, writing, practical psychology, applied neuroscience, and spiritual activism to help ordinary people live extraordinary lives — lives that are radiant with purpose, clarity, compassion, and contribution.
Michaela Cisney
Course Coordinator
Michaela coordinates course delivery to support participants’ intellectual, emotional, and spiritual learning. A transformational and intuitive coach, she draws from traditional wisdom philosophies, ancient healing arts, psychology, spirituality, a lifelong study of the rhythms and cycles of nature, somatic practices and disciplines, and her own ongoing experiences of personal growth and healing to help people discover and embody their innate power, purpose, and presence.
I look back on how I felt in the beginning of the course and I am proud of where I have come in just 7 weeks. It is insane to me that seven classes can change the way I go about my entire life. The lessons I learned from this course made me a thousand times more confident in my ability to aid in the journey for racial justice.
I’ve had a number of surprising insights as I’ve moved through this course… I think what has surprised me most is the sense of purposeful calm I feel coming to the end of this series. I feel clear about where my work is and where I can make the most impactful contributions to this movement right now.
Your Journey Through ALLIED
Our focus goes beyond delivering information to supporting transformation. On completing the ALLIED course, you will have transformed in five specific ways.
From Confusion to Clarity
As you get clear on what you can do, as you gain a clearer understanding of issues of racial injustice, and as you learn specifically how to engage in productive, respectful conversations.
From Avoidance to Active Engagement
As you develop greater confidence to initiate conversations and as you become aware of opportunities to engage in ways that harmonize with your core values and your innate abilities, strengths, and gifts.
From Constriction to Compassion
As you expand your capacity to bear witness to injustice and suffering without reactive emotional ‘hijack’ and learn to transform ‘negative’ emotions into active, engaged compassionate action.
From Emotional Edginess to Embodied Equanimity
As you get clear on how to stay grounded and centered in the presence of discomfort.
From Resistance to Resilience
As you learn simple yet effective tools to access and amplify momentum, inspiration, determination, perseverance, and grit; as you build supportive community; and as you align your daily efforts with an inspiring and compelling vision of possibility.
Course Commitment
Participation in this offering requires:
- Showing up fully for each weekly 90-minute live online session
- Completing approximately 1 hour of reflective practices between each session
- Committing 10 minutes daily to each week’s action practice
The total minimum time investment required is 3.5 hours per week. You will also have access to additional support materials and resources.
Course Investment
COURSE FEE
$497
One-time payment
SCHOLARSHIP RATE
$297
This course is offered on a sliding scale. I am deeply committed to sharing this work with all who will LEARN and USE this material. Choose your level of investment based on your specific ability to pay. If you need to split the tuition into payments, reach out to Harry directly using the contact form below.
Contact Harry Pickens
I’ve been surprised by how foundational this work is and how powerfully I am noticing it extend into my everyday life. Focusing on racial justice for this
work with the Five Alliances has been powerful in helping me understand that if I dig deep on this then I can transform how I am showing up in the face of many other forms of injustice.
In the concept of Historical Paradox, learning to hold the light and the dark in both hands has been really helpful. I realized I’d become super negative and pessimistic in the past few years and need to practice the discipline of hope more. I need to remind myself of the beautiful, good and joyful things in life and that I want that for all people.