The Liberatory Reconnection Collective
Dear Reader,
When I was a young twenty-something, freshly graduated from UCLA, I thought I had life figured out (lol). With a degree in hand and a head full of theory, I was confident that I had the tools to teach at a small alternative high school tucked in the Rocky Mountains.
That teaching fellowship quickly became one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Paulo Freire didn’t prepare me for what to do or say when students were triggered or dealing with serious trauma. I didn’t understand at the time that teaching wasn’t just about facilitating discovery. It sometimes meant I needed to explicitly teach a concept or piece of information that students hadn’t yet learned.
What I now know, and wish I had known back then, is that institutions of higher education carry deep contradictions.
These are spaces often praised for their rigor, prestige, and intellectual freedom. And in many ways, they are. I was surrounded by brilliant people and powerful ideas. But these institutions also uphold systems that prioritize disembodied intellect – often at the expense of emotion, embodiment, and relational wisdom.
Academia taught me to think critically about power, and gave me language for systems I had long felt but couldn’t yet name: white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, anti-Blackness. For that, I am deeply grateful. I met thinkers who cracked open my world.
But academia also gaslit me into believing that liberation was primarily (or even exclusively) an intellectual project.
I was trained to lead with my mind, to cite theory over lived experience, to debate instead of feel. My worth as a thinker was measured by how well I could perform, produce, and publish. Liberation was something you wrote about, not something you practiced. Healing was optional, if mentioned at all.
Looking back, I understand why so many professors could speak so passionately about liberation while replicating harm in their classrooms, departments, and relationships. Performance was often mistaken for integrity. And I, too, internalized that disconnection.
I learned to question my intuition. To flatten my emotional landscape. To distance myself from the wisdom of my body, ancestors, and the land.
It’s taken me years to unlearn that.
To remember that liberation isn’t something we argue our way into, it’s something we embody. It’s breathwork and boundaries. Grief rituals and joyful movement. Showing up in relationship with integrity, even when it’s hard. It’s learning to feel again.
There is power in the intellect, absolutely. I will always honor the thinkers who shaped me. But intellect without embodiment becomes disconnection. And we cannot think our way to freedom while bypassing the wisdom of our bodies and our communities.
This week, I invite you to reflect:
- When have you felt pressured to prove yourself through intellect alone?
- How do you know when you are feeling disconnected from your emotions, body, and/or intuitions?
- What is a small and manageable liberatory practice you want to commit to this week?
Here’s to unlearning the disconnection. To remembering that we don’t just need smart liberation – we need whole liberation.
In solidarity and with care,
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