Books for Changemakers: Resmaa Menakem - My Grandmother’s Hands

Books for Changemakers: A drop-in book club to resource you and fellow change-makers. Dive or dip into important and inspiring resources and ideas, connect with kindred spirits and explore your inner wisdom.

Facilitator: Agnes Otzelberger

I came across this book last year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, when it felt like a painful, unhealed, festering wound had been laid bare for the world to see and reckon with, with so many more than before willing and hoping to heal it but unsure how. I encountered a lot of rage and grief, but also confusion and resignation, a fear that the trauma of racism is too deeply rooted in society for it to be transformed. What I love about Resmaa Menakem’s book is that, without offering false hope of quick fixes, it lays out a practical and compassionate pathway towards individual and collective healing.

He does so by turning the ideal of working through racism and racialised trauma in society into a lived, embodied practice. Our history of colonialism and racial oppression are not just narratives held in our minds but a reality we all live and breathe, a reality that ‘quite literally lives in our bodies, cells and the expression of our genes’. And therefore it is in our bodies that we can locate, become aware of, and shift it. Important work for changemakers which I would love you to join me to explore together. 

To take part in this session please:

1) read the book, or

2) listen one (or both) of these interviews with the author: 'Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence' and 'Towards a Framework for Repair', or

3) enrol in Resmaa Menakem’s free, short e-course  

… and join us on 5 October at 17:30 CEST for our first Books for Changemakers book group. See you then! 

About Agnes Otzelberger

Agnes is the founder of The Good Jungle, supporting changemakers in showing up for the world they want. Working on the connection between 'inner'/personal and 'outer'/system change, she offers training and support to those struggling with emotional burnout, vicarious trauma, moral injury, grief, despair and related challenges resulting from their work in a change making role. She also has a particular focus on transforming the not-for-profit world’s complicated relationship with money in order to unleash people’s most creative, powerful work in service of people & planet. Agnes lives in Brighton, UK.

Read more about the Books for Changemakers project and discover our upcoming Books for Changemakers events.

Books for Changemakers is part of the Tools for Changemakers programme of Initiatives of Change Switzerland. Discover here more Tools for Changemaker events.