Gathering, greeting spring, and meeting this moment

Hi friends,

As we witness the brazen corruption, outright authoritarianism, and continued antagonism toward people on the margins throughout our country and world, in the Bay, we are also witnessing the bloom of spring. We hold faith in its beauty alongside the outrage, because we know we need both to survive these times. As Pablo Neruda wrote, “You can cut all the flowers, but you can’t stop spring.”

Read on for updates on what we’ve been up to, who we’ve been in conversation with, and what’s to come.

You’re invited!

Free in-person workshop in Oakland The work of grounding in our interconnected freedom is not a philosophical exercise but a strategic imperative. On Saturday, April 5th, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m we are offering a free workshop on interconnected freedom for folks in the California Bay Area, with expert facilitators Mariah Rankine-Landers and Sarah Crowell. A recent workshop participant described walking away with a sense of, “Oh, this is how we're going to get through this administration. Or in fact, this will be how we pave our path to a different future.”  
Save your spot now. Space is limited.

Recent happenings

Sticking Together in Tough Times, with Dean Spade At the beginning of March, Mia had the chance to interview organizer, writer, and teacher Dean Spade about his new book, Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together. The room was packed with students, faculty, and Bay-Area community members who showed up for the event, sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Dean and Mia’s conversation brought the severity of our current conditions into sharp relief, while offering concrete ways to develop the relationship behaviors we need to engage in the activism and resistance this moment calls for.

Dean’s book reminds those of us engaged in justice movement work that the dominant cultural conventions surrounding love, sex, friendship, and family limit our capacity for connection, and that our behaviors in close relationships cannot be disentangled from our activism and resistance. During the discussion it became abundantly clear: if we cannot bring care, healing, and accountability into the relationships closest to us, we cannot bring them into our systems. And the stakes are too high to neglect this essential, transformational work.

A few key insights that surfaced through Mia and Dean’s conversation:

• The romance myth, which says that a committed romantic/sexual relationship is the most important one to have, undermines abundance and possibility when it comes to our relationships and to social change.
• We all experience knee-jerk reactions—we get triggered or activated. One of our key practices must be to notice ourselves enough to pause and create the space that allows us to respond instead of react.
• It’s time to grapple with the fact that things are worse than we think they are. The apocalypse is here, it’s not coming. And we need each other to face it.

Check out the book for more brilliant insights and tactics.

Celebrating Black Liberatory Futures, with The Lupine Collaborative

At the end of February, Next River co-hosted an intimate gathering with The Lupine Collaborative (TLC)—an organization advancing climate justice by resourcing Black women, non-binary, and transgender people to build narrative power in the environmental space.   The event, supported by Shifting Systems Initiatives of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, was a moment for folks to come together and ground in the spirit of joy, beauty, and possibility as a matter of survival, while eating and drinking delicious creations by Comfort Collective.

Darren Isom, partner at The Bridgespan Group, moderated a conversation between Next River Executive Director Mia Birdsong and TLC’s Founder and Managing Director, Grace Anderson. They contextualized this historical moment in the long-arc of history and future-building. The discussion illuminated that now is the time to tend to the soil—the cultural conditions in which all of our work must live and grow. If we want that work to thrive, we need to transform the composition of the soil: the stories we tell, the storytellers we elevate, our common beliefs, and shared practices.  

Both Next River and The Lupine Collaborative work to make the soil richer, more nourishing, and more compatible for the abundant future we’re all striving for to take root today. Finding ways to connect and collaborate with aligned thinkers, dreamers, and practitioners is some of the most joyful and meaningful work we get to do as an organization. We’re grateful to everyone who made this experience possible.  

Meet our new teammate!

We are delighted to introduce the newest member of our team, Ana, who will be partnering with Mia to lead operations as Managing Director.

Ana Tellez (she/her/ella) is a program builder, an organizational development nerd, and a facilitator of process. Her jam is supporting organizations to navigate change in service of social and racial justice—from advancing health equity in local government to establishing a network of community colleges and private universities to collectively tackle the racial wealth divide in their region. She thrives when setting up the people and resources infrastructure so we can do hard things in the collective.

Ana hails from Mexico City and grew up in the Midwest. She loves finding opportunities to dance, introducing her kiddos to all kinds of movies and live music, and participating in immigrant rights advocacy in her community in the Bay.

What are you most excited to bring to Next River? I am thrilled that I get to caretake Next River’s organizational needs so that the team can cultivate the research, narratives, and practices required to bring the future we seek into being. I am bringing a sharp focus on culture building alongside a technical knack for program management to meet our goals.
What makes you feel free?
I feel truly free when I feel grounded, safe, and an innate sense of belonging. Walking through the town of Buenavista de Cuellar — which is in Guerrero, Mexico, and is the region where my family originates from for at least the last six generations — is where it feels easiest to access this feeling these days.

Ana’s Current Inspiration

I’m in my auditory learning era, so here are two examples of what’s reverberating in my ears lately:

I’m revisiting Scene on Radio’s Season 4: The Land That Never Has Been Yet, co-hosted by John Biewen and Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series covers the story of the United States with a lens on its relationship to democracy.

The Land That Never Has Been Yet

Scene on Radio host/producer John Biewen :Over the past few years, the survival of the United States as a democratic republic has become a topic of national conversation—Trumpian authoritar

Scene on RadioCéline Keller

I’m deeply relishing the layers of Bad Bunny’s latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which has a balanced mix of bouncy beats and a sweet dose of nostalgia for roots and origins.