About Loving Practice
Loving Practice was founded in 2022, and is an exploration of what bell hooks calls a loving practice. We see loving practice as the mundane daily work needed to nurture interdependence and ultimately co-create a liberated future.
"Loving practice is not aimed at simply giving an individual greater life satisfaction; it is extolled as the primary way we end domination and oppression." - bell hooks, All About Love
Mission
To create more human organizations.
Vision
We envision a world where everyone is safe, cared for, well-resourced, and thriving.
Guiding Principles
Our guiding principles are not a promise of who we are, but who are becoming.
Responsibility
We are responsible for doing the work of liberation wherever we are.
We will not settle for convenient systems that lead to further harm. Instead, we will build our capacity to maximize our well-being - even in the face of barriers.
Intentional Practice
Wherever we labor is the most accessible place to practice liberation in deeply radical ways.
This work is an invitation to get clear about our values and the world we want to live in, and to show up with consistency and intention to live out those values and bring about that world.
Creating Alternative Systems
We are transitioning away from patriarchal racial capitalism toward something new and different. We see the possibility of what can come from this.
The places we labor don’t have to rely on harmful, extractive, punitive practices to respond to and address conflict/harm. Together, we can create alternative systems that enhance our well-being.
Our goal is to cultivate communities where people express mutual concern for one another, and are able to move toward, practice, and uphold liberatory values.
Satisfying Material & Non-material Needs
Part of our work is to foster critical connections that scale our impact and distributes the work of systems change.
Together we have everything we need; it is only on our own that we experience scarcity.
We are exploring what it means to prioritize safety and belonging within our communities - even for/with people we don’t particularly like.
Leadership Development
A leader is anyone willing to get engaged.
We enhance our leadership skills and capacity by seeing what emerges when we prioritize mutual care within all our communities.
Presently, you can find us learning, thinking, writing, and educating on the topics of navigating conflict, cultivating belonging, and fostering collaborative environments across difference.
👋🏾 Welcome, from Kiana Gabrielle
Hey there - I'm Kiana (they/she) and I'm a queer socially-anxious spiritualist, researcher, and educator who spends a lot of time thinking about relationships as the place where liberation happens.
This work is informed by my experiences as a pervasively lonely survivor of childhood abuse who sought out community in movement spaces and saw similar harms replicated within them. Fortunately, my background as a Black feminist scholar taught me that healing happens in community, and I've set out to embody (and share!) that wisdom.
Loving Practice is a collaboration between Spirit, beloved community, and myself.
I'm deeply honored to share it with you.