International Black Summit Interview Podcast: Lorraine "Dr. Rain" Warren, PhD

August 14, 2022
Black Summit Interviews
Season 1, Episode #5 -  Lorraine "Dr. Rain" Warren, PhD

In this podcast episode, Glenn Greenidge and Grace Lawrence interview LORRAINE "DR. RAIN" WARREN, PhD  about how she effectively uses the Summit Tools and Distinctions in her career, in her life, and in the Summit. 

Dr. Rain's career as a facilitator, educator, and trainer in peace-building, dialogue, and conflict mediation has spanned over 20 years and has taken her to over 100 countries around the world, which include the continents of Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Europe  She was honored with the distinguished Legacy International Humanitarian Award in acknowledgement of having directly impacted the lives of over 34,000 youth and the Josephine “Scout” Wollman Fuller Award, by Psychologists for Social Responsibility, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the advancement of peace and social justice.

Dr. Rain is currently developing a project called, "Creating a World that Listens", in which she takes red chairs to public places and provides a peaceful space in which she simply listens to the issues and concerns of everyday people. Often, she asks them to respond to the question, "What would you say if you knew the world would listen?" She has had profound conversations with all races and ages of people from 6 to 93 years of age. This project was inspired by her research in Rwanda interviewing survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Many of the survivors stated that "over 800,000 lives could have been saved if the world had listened." She believes that the solutions to any community's problems lay within that community. In other words, "it's all in the circle."

Dr. Rain's first Summit was in 1992, Highland Park, MI., and she joined the Adult Facilitator Body that same year. She has held several accountabilities within the Summit Body which include Coordinator, Communicator, Administrator, Summit Historian, International Enfoldment Manager, Host, Leadership Council. Dr. Rain was designated a Senior Facilitator by the Original Five Facilitators of the International Black Summit, and has served as facilitator for several years, living her life through the Declaration, questions, and distinctions of the International Black Summit.

Dr. Rain holds a MA/PhD in Community, Liberation, Eco Psychologies, Masters degrees in Spiritual Psychology and Higher Education Administration. She completed her undergraduate degree at one of the nation's first HBCU's, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

For more information about the International Black Summit, please go to:

Website – blacksummit.org
Twitter – @blacksummit
Facebook – facebook.com/blacksummit/
IBS News Sign-Up – bit.ly/IBS-signup
IBS Annual Summit Event Registration – blacksummit.org/ase

The views and opinions expressed by the person interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the International Black Summit.

Transcript

[This transcript has not been edited nor proofread]

19:19:29 Welcome everyone to this session of the International Black Summits podcast Interview Series. Welcome.
19:19:37 This is an interview series that we created to provide an opportunity for both participants, current and past participants and people who have never heard about us to experience and learn a little bit about the International Blacks summit. in this series.
19:19:51 We interview current and past participants and facilitators of the International Black Summit and the Internet.
19:20:00 Black summit is an organization that was created in 1,991, and our purpose is to provide an opportunity for participants to bring into being their vision for the black community and the world.
19:20:13 Welcome. I'm Grace, Lawrence and my name is Glenn, Greenwich, and I'm. gonna read declaration of the International Black Summit, which was created back in 1991 at the first International Black Summit
19:20:30 the declaration of the International Black Summit, we declare ourselves, our community, and all communities, whole and complete.
19:20:41 There is nothing to do except B. We assert that we are responsible for generating community as possibility and distinction.
19:20:53 We listen for, and Grant being to the possibility and creation of unpredictable results.
19:21:03 Our conversation of about and for those of African descent is one of power, self, generation, abundance, responsibility, unity, and integrity. With the possibility of being.
19:21:20 We stand for the expression of our spirituality, ending the murders of our men, women, and children, building economies, responsible for funding our community, maintaining wellness of being in our bodies, providing human services, establishing
19:21:46 nurturing relationships altering the conversation of who we are in the media empowering our use, we declare that our community manifests itself in the world as a contribution in the transportation of the universe
19:22:06 Atlanta, Georgia, October, seventh, 1991, August, fourteenth, 2022.
19:22:18 We'll start with the moment of silence
19:22:25 Thank you. you're welcome, thank you thank you you know we have.
19:22:34 For those of you who have listened to some of our previous podcast sessions.
19:22:36 You may have heard that on occasion we have ended the session with the declaration of the International Black Summit.
19:22:42 This is the first time that we're starting our session really wanting to just ground ourselves in the declaration of the international slack summit that was created back in 1,991 So thank you for that
19:22:51 Glenn. we're welcome and tonight We will be interviewing a facilitator of the International Black Summit.
19:23:00 Somebody who has been in the involved in the summit for many, many years, and I'm just going to read about her.
19:23:06 Read her biography here, which I think many people will find extremely interesting.
19:23:12 So we're interviewing Lorraine Warren also known as Dr.
19:23:17 Rain, and Dr. Rain, her career as a facilitator, educator, and trainer in her peace, building, dialogue, and conflict. Mediation has spanned over 20 years, and has taken her to over 100 countries around the world, which include
19:23:36 the continents of Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Europe.
19:23:42 She was honored with the distinction, legacy, international, humanitarian award, in acknowledgement of having directly impacted the lives of over 34,000.
19:23:56 Youth, and the Josephine scout, Woolman Fuller, award by psychologists for social responsibility, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the advancement of peace and social justice, Dr.
19:24:10 Rain is currently developing a project called creating a world that listens in which she takes red chairs to public places, and provides a peaceful space in which she simply listens to the issues and concerns of everyday people, often she asks them
19:24:29 to respond to the question, What would you say if you knew the world would listen?
19:24:36 She has had profound conversations with all races and ages of people from 6. it's 93 years of age.
19:24:44 This project was inspired by her research in Rwanda, interviewing survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
19:24:54 Many of the survivors stated that over 800,000 lives could have been saved if the world had listened.
19:25:03 She believes that the solutions to any community's problems lay within that community.
19:25:10 In other words, it's all in the circle Dr.
19:25:14 Rain's first summit was in 1,992 Highland Park, Michigan, and she joined the adult facilitator body.
19:25:19 That same year she has held several accountabilities within the summit body which include coordinator, communicator, administrator, summit, historian, international involvement, manager, host and leadership.
19:25:36 Council. Dr. Rain was designated a senior Facilitator by the original 5 facilitators of the International Black Summit in, and has served as a facilitator for several years, living her life through the declaration questions
19:25:51 and distinctions of the International Black Summit. Dr. Rain Holes, an M. A.
19:25:58 Phd. in community liberation, ecologies master's degrees in spiritual psychology and higher education.
19:26:09 Administration. she completed her undergraduate degree at one of the nation's first historical Hbc.
19:26:18 Use historically black colleges and universities, which was Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
19:26:25 So, without further ado, we'd like to welcome Dr.
19:26:28 Rain. Lorraine Warren to join us here in our virtual studio.
19:26:32 We're really looking forward to this conversation dr ray if we could have doctrine spotlighted to join us on screen.
19:26:43 Right. You can start your video and i'm mute yourself. there you go go ahead.
19:26:48 Okay, and if she can be spotlighted, there she is.
19:26:56 Welcome. welcome. Thank you, Thank you, Glenn. Thank you. W.
19:26:59 Are you calling yourself Grace, Jackie? thank you grace Jackie Grace that?
19:27:07 Well, there are 2 Jackie lawrence's in the in the summit, as we know, and so i'm the one known as Jackie Grace, or Just Grace.
19:27:14 Okay, Okay, Well, that's something about the summer. We have been known to shift our names over the years.
19:27:23 Absolutely absolutely that's true that's true well welcome welcome I just wanna you know one of the things that we first typically ask people when we start these sessions is to just get a sense of your introduction to the international black summit
19:27:35 like. What was your first exposure? We know that your first summit was in 1,992.
19:27:41 Was that your first exposure to the summit, like, how did you?
19:27:45 How did you end up getting involved? i'm laughing because some people know this.
19:27:50 They know that answer to this question because i've shared it a few times.
19:27:55 But first I want to acknowledge my relationship with the people here, and as you were both speaking, I I it's just so many stories flooded through my mind of times that I've had with Tyra with Nancy with
19:28:09 pedal with Natasha Brown. brought brian at this last summit.
19:28:15 Joy If I don't know you well then you're new to the summit.
19:28:20 But you know those people who've been around you know Jay Grace Gwen.
19:28:26 Oh, my goodness, I can tell some stories about the international back summit, so I wanted to acknowledge the journey.
19:28:31 We've all had together. it's been profound you know and I I really have love all of you
19:28:42 But getting back to my first experience of the summer I was actually invited to the very first summit I didn't remember that I wasn't proud to what it was, and at that time in my life I had a attitude it was
19:28:56 just like, you know, whatever and it was Byron Jones and Roosevelt Waldron, and a few others people who kept saying, Oh, my God, you should come to the summer!
19:29:11 You would be great for the summer you should come, and I was like No.
19:29:13 And then they kept asking me, and I said, Well, what is it?
19:29:17 And I said, why would I want to sit in a room full of black people for a whole weekend?
19:29:22 And I don't think I said black people and they kept bugging me and asking me, and I started saying, look, if you keep harassing me, i'm gonna in this recipe we couldn't block your phone But literally I
19:29:39 said i'm blocking you you know don't talk to me This is harassment.
19:29:43 Do not call me, and so I. It was the night before that summit.
19:29:49 The bus was gonna take off from New York, going to Highland Park, Michigan.
19:29:56 And I think Rosa gave up like don't call me anymore.
19:30:01 And Byron Johns called me, and he asked me to come to the summit, and I said, No, Byron, do not call me again. do This is harassment.
19:30:09 Do not call me again, and when I hung up the phone I was just overwhelmed with this profound, profound sorrow and grief.
19:30:25 I was just. I just felt this overwhelming sorrow, and at that time my pride.
19:30:31 I was like, Well, i'm not gonna call him i'm gonna I'll just start a pray and go please let him call me back.
19:30:37 Please just let him call me one more time, please. And the phone rang and he called.
19:30:43 He said. You know if anyone knows Byron, he I'm gonna ask you one more time.
19:30:54 Well, you come to the international black summit I said Okay, i'll come and hung up the phone, and that's why running around the room?
19:31:04 Yeah, so excited, And I did have no idea what I was coming to.
19:31:08 But I just know it was just something in me was like got whoa triggered.
19:31:15 That's a distinction so that's how I came to the summit.
19:31:18 The first time. Well, thank goodness, to bribe Byron for being so tenacious.
19:31:27 It was like you know how you have to tenderize the meat.
19:31:28 Keep pieces that was welcome to rise. Okay, do you recall what it was that had you be So you know, because you said you, you said, Am I really gonna spend this weekend in a room full of black people Now it's like
19:31:41 you can't take me out of this room full of black people don't send me, You know I just wanna stay here.
19:31:49 I mean what? What What was behind that resistance? Well,
19:31:56 For people here who've done the landmark forum? I said the same thing about the landmark Forum.
19:32:01 Why would I want to sit in the room with boys and white people?
19:32:06 I think it was some things that were conscious and some things that were unconscious, and at the time I was I I was working in corporate settings.
19:32:21 Very few black people, and I have started going once a week on the weekends.
19:32:27 The wholele. I would just go to Harlem and walk around, and and if I could describe it to you, I had a longing for a black community.
19:32:36 You know I have a longing for my community and I wasn't raised in New York.
19:32:42 I was just living there, working there. I had worked all different places around the country, and
19:32:52 I think I must have a experience. Some trauma yeah some of those stories that I have about black people.
19:33:03 We're in my cell conscious and I was afraid you know I was afraid I was never
19:33:13 I never can i've never any community that i've been in been regular.
19:33:19 I've always been out a little bit that is true you know so i'm I you know great up I I I wasn't really in my high school, and junior high school.
19:33:33 I wasn't I you know I was putting like a special group for accelerated learners, and we were like special you know.
19:33:40 So we we! It was just like a whole different school within the school.
19:33:47 So it was like these girls who were doing stuff that I wasn't doing, you know, and and smoking in the bathroom.
19:33:53 I was like, Oh, my God! and I got bullied a lot in school.
19:33:56 So I think I had gathered up a lot of trauma.
19:34:02 I I was raised in Florida until I was about 9 years old, and then we moved to Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, at the height of Dang Wars, and so I saw a lot of
19:34:14 they would say, you gotta get home early from school today because there's a funeral.
19:34:20 And when they had the gang funeral it was thousands, I mean thousands of gang members marching through the street, you know, and being a young kid, it was like traumatizing to me.
19:34:33 And so basically, when in my high school, I just made a path from home to school, couldn't play with the other kids because it wasn't like what I was raised with when I was raised in Florida I think from first
19:34:49 grade to junior high school I may have had one fight, and it wasn't really a fight it wasn't nothing, you know.
19:34:56 And then, you know the kids there. It was just different they didn't respect the adults.
19:35:01 So I think it was accumulation of internalized trauma, so so rain!
19:35:09 What was it like being at that first summit in Highland Park?
19:35:14 What What was it for you? Well, that for some it was a turning point in my life?
19:35:21 You know i'm market, as one of those turning points in my life. for me it was a powerful healing experience. and if you were at that summit you probably will remember the woman who cried because I think the first time I
19:35:38 started crying was when I walked into the Thursday night event, and it was about 300 black people, and I walked into the room, and I just everybody was so beautiful, and I just started crying, and I I I cried all night and Then
19:35:57 I walked into the summit room. I was crying again.
19:36:00 I was just crying and crying and crying and I the sensation I had in that summit was as if my skin was turned inside out.
19:36:13 That's how raw I sell I was present I was listening to every word that was said.
19:36:18 I was listening to all of the Shares and I just cry, I don't even remember eating, but I remember I throughout the the It was Thursday night event, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday just crying or crying myself to
19:36:35 sleep I was, I shared a room with a couple of women who we were friends in New York, you know, with the pedagogue and and landmark, and they would go out after the summit to hang out and party I didn't go
19:36:49 I just laid them a bit crying and they didn't even ask me what was wrong.
19:36:56 I I don't remember them asking me and I do remember, 2 things Valerie Andrew down no Valerie, right I was in the bathroom just crying my eyes out, and she was actually in my summit group she was one of
19:37:10 the people in my sonic group. And so she she came up to me, and she said, Are you well?
19:37:19 And I I look up. I said yes, and then I went right back to crying, and that summit it was a couple.
19:37:32 It was like all kinds of stuff happened at this moment. It was dynamic.
19:37:36 But there was one instance in the summit where this beautiful tall he's at least 6 4, maybe more chocolate black man.
19:37:45 He stood up, and he was weeping i'm mean he was doing the ugly cry with the nose and everything, and I was like shocked, cause i'd never seen a black man be that vulnerable and he was
19:37:58 weeping and weeping, and he said all I ever wanted was my mother to tell me that she loved me and oh, just like so move!
19:38:08 And the women were walking up to him, saying, I love you, I love you!
19:38:13 Oh, God you know and if if that wasn't enough you know i'm literally at that summit I think I saw a young man's body relying itself when he he he stood up and he was just sharing about how
19:38:29 he didn't feel like he was good enough you know he can He said.
19:38:34 I came home, and I gotta be my mom said Why, didn't you Get a a if she's I feel like it's nothing I could do, you know that would be that make me to be satisfied.
19:38:47 And at 1 point in the summit I remember her calling him up to the front of the room, and you know how some people stand there.
19:38:55 Show this sort of like hunched over. I literally saw his.
19:38:59 His mind straightened, cause she acknowledged him in front of the whole room.
19:39:04 And so you know, whoever was at that summit there was, there was many, many, many, many moments that were so I could keep.
19:39:13 I could tell a couple of more stories. There were many, many, many moments that were so spiritual, so dynamic.
19:39:21 It had. I felt like a energy and a presence in the room. and at 1 point,
19:39:26 Do you want me to tell another story? Well, let me. let me just give folks a context.
19:39:31 Who made it not have ever attended. So Thursday night is the opening event.
19:39:37 Where, whatever the host city is, they conduct an event to invite everybody to welcome them to the city and and acknowledge the city and acknowledge the work that's gonna start.
19:39:52 And then Friday, Saturday, and sunday are the days that you're actually in the annual summit event, and and part of that is that you get into groups.
19:40:02 So you get into groups of 5, and you work with that group of 5 like a support group, and and some of the groups actually still maintain communication.
19:40:16 1520 years afterwards. So So these groups are a bonding as you go through the as as rain, said the the spiritual aspects and the individual transformations that that incur and the enlightenment that
19:40:35 occurs inside of the weekend So certainly if you'd like to share another event from the first time. actually I actually have a question related to that first summit event, cause I think you know there's a lot that we want
19:40:51 to cover with you tonight, and so I I do want to make sure that we have the time to to get to all of it.
19:40:56 One of the things that you said in this first summit event was that you chose out of that first event to join the facilitator body, to become a facilitator and and do the training to become a
19:41:11 facilitator of the International Black Summit, and for those who are listening there are all kinds of opportunities to become involved in the organization.
19:41:19 You can become, you can join the facilitator body to be trained to facilitate the sessions.
19:41:26 You can join and participate in the leadership body. in the administration.
19:41:31 There are a very, a variety of teams. You can be part of the Sunday Summit share team, you know.
19:41:37 Glenn and I are part of the podcast team, so there are different teams that you can become a part of
19:41:42 But you chose to become a part of the facilitator body out of that out of that annual somebody, Van.
19:41:51 And so just curious what what drew you to be to the facilitator body?
19:41:55 I don't think that for me. it was necessarily like I chose, I think spirit chose me.
19:42:01 I just found myself in the facilitator body. I think that was the first summit when they opened it up, because originally it was the first 5 facilitators.
19:42:14 Catherine Copper, Robin Randolph,
19:42:16 Perry Parks, who are all still here with us, and the 2 ancestors J.
19:42:22 Ken if young and Anthony randolph they were the original 5, and I think that was the first year that they open it up, saying, Well, who's interested in being in a facilitator body?
19:42:36 And you know I I said, Yes, Okay, So did you. Okay.
19:42:44 So you just found yourself, You you just found your body moving.
19:42:47 Yes, yeah, And I mean at that time I was a a facilitator, a trainer.
19:42:54 I travel all over the world, being with groups of people, I was also
19:42:58 Okay, course, leader for New York youth at risk, which is the organization that does.
19:43:04 Similar work they used to do. with the breakthrough foundation, the landmark foreign distinction with young people at risk youth.
19:43:14 But use at risk, through Claude, at Phaseeline, develop their own distinction.
19:43:19 So I was a course leader with New York youth at risk as well got it.
19:43:34 Thank you. So I guess, related to related to joining the facilitator body, and then having being a facilitator of the some of the International Black summit, or you know, many years, now one of the things that
19:43:40 we. we like to ask particularly facilitators, but also past participants who were never facilitators, are about your use of the distinctions in your life and in your career.
19:43:52 So when you look at the tools of the International Black Summit, the distinctions of the International Black summit, do you find that you have certain favorite distinctions or favorite tools?
19:44:05 And how do you use them like? How how have you found that you use them in your personal life or in your in your career?
19:44:11 The work that you do. Let me look a moment. I want to go back to that first summit because it was so powerfully facilitated.
19:44:28 And for me it was what I have been looking for, and the the black community that I grieved and long for. that was present.
19:44:35 Everybody was there. You name it in the black community everybody was there? and I think that we were sharing with each other from behind the curtain, like you see someone walking down the street, or You see someone But you don't really know
19:44:49 what's really going on with them and that's something you got a sense of what what's going on with people whether they were doctors, lawyers, you know homeless you know whatever everybody in the community was in that room can I just ask
19:45:03 you when you say everybody was there at that first event.
19:45:09 What does that mean? Mothers, fathers, uncles, professional people?
19:45:21 Some people who were used students. some people, millionaires, poor people!
19:45:30 The scale of the breast of the black community. and and we had some hustlers and and and and and there.
19:45:41 Yeah. And so a part of being in the facilitator body is making a commitment to live your life through the declaration.
19:45:52 The questions and the distinctions of the International Black Summit.
19:45:57 And so also, when you're in a facilitator body, you're in a group, and that's what you do in those early days of the facilitator body I know in my group, we literally met once the week,
19:46:13 for years, for years, and so we experience life with each other like anything that happened in with me.
19:46:23 My my group knew about it, and then the facilitator body knew about it, and also you had a chance to just grow to bump up against your strengths and your weaknesses to.
19:46:36 But in in the facilitator body is just like one big, happy family, you know.
19:46:40 You fight, you fuss, you love each other, you you support each other when when support is needed.
19:46:49 All of that. Well, all inside of the clearing, which was one of my favorite distinctions.
19:46:56 Inside of the clearing of the International Black Summit. so we use it in our lives.
19:47:02 If you were experiencing something on your job, Facilitate a group.
19:47:09 Talk about it, process it through one of the distinctions.
19:47:13 The declaration is something I read morning and night to clear myself, and and just stand in that declaration almost like a a prayer that I uttered in the morning and at night, before I went to bed no
19:47:32 out there. No, out there. That was one that I learned Bragg really brought forward in the summit that anytime. I see something out there that's triggering me upsetting me, or even maybe not triggering or setting me
19:47:50 if a reflection of what I have over here like that whole notion of when you point that one finger is is 3 point back at you.
19:47:59 And so then you got to reflect and look back at yourself like what's going on over here with me that i'm making that assessment over there.
19:48:09 So we rigorously work those distinctions rigorously.
19:48:12 Until now I almost feel like you know I have to think about it it's incorporated into my life into who I'm being so so you.
19:48:23 You. You gave a a couple, so you gave clearing. You gave no out there, and was pumping up against and bumping up against.
19:48:35 And and so these are distinctions that are used inside the international black summer.
19:48:39 So these are part of the tools to keep people present in their life, so that they're because sometimes we get off track and and these distinctions these tools are used for us to kind of get back on track, and be present to what
19:48:56 life is actually informing us. So go, so go ahead, go ahead!
19:49:03 Rain. So so so you're in the facilitator body, you were in a weekly conversation to clear yourself to clear any upsets, any things that were going on in your life that were you know that you were agitated by that you
19:49:20 might have been upset by or just were, you know. and noticing again, is another one of the distinctions.
19:49:28 So you may have noticed something inside of those that monthly up against, and and so forth, and you had an opportunity to to speak it inside of these tools and distinctions.
19:49:43 Now to some folks that may sound like therapy say a little bit more about why it's not that into something different, because we say it's not that if they're reputing but it's not therapy
19:50:04 you know no one's got Well, we do have some therapists who are part of the summit, but that's not where they're coming from.
19:50:12 We're using the this, the the distinctions and the tools and our being with each other, so you can imagine in your life.
19:50:19 If there's in your life like period, think about all the stuff you went through the last year that you have a group of people that you can talk to every week and clear and it might be. It's not necessarily a breakdown It could be like
19:50:35 Wow! i'm celebrating it I got a new job and now I have all of this money, and i've never had that before.
19:50:43 So Now i'm bumping up against like whoa my family?
19:50:46 Who's saying Well, who does she think she is she's got money Now give me some. So it it comes in so many different forms and so many different ways, so it could be a joyous or i'm i'm getting married for the first
19:51:01 time. and then so what are I do with that or i'm a minister now, and this is what i'm dealing with as a female minister in my congregation, like Whatever comes up in your life you have a
19:51:14 place to be with the declaration of the International Black Summit.
19:51:19 The purpose of the International Black Summit. some of the distinctions, we might say in our group.
19:51:24 So what have you been noticing about who you've been being in your life with your son?
19:51:30 You know you have a team, son, that you're raised and what have you noticed?
19:51:34 And as we go through the year with all conversations, lo and behold!
19:51:39 For profoundly those conversations that showed up in our group is a microcosm for the world, because those are the same things that the people who come to the summit might bump up against.
19:51:50 And so then we've cleared ourselves over the year so we can best facilitate someone if you dealt with having lost in your family.
19:52:00 There was one year that it's just like everybody has some profound loss.
19:52:04 I mean one person has so many lots people who transition in their family, and we got to the summit, and the first share in the room first time at the summit.
19:52:14 I've had so many lost books that's the your facilitator.
19:52:18 We got you like that, or whatever may be happening we've had people who have had.
19:52:26 I'll just say that hey? I don't tell everybody's business, though if you could think about something anyone could experience, If you have a facilitator body of so many people someone has experienced that or we've had a chance to clear
19:52:43 about that, and distinguish things, and when you get into that space or the summit.
19:52:49 It's a space that can hold all of it it could hold anything can hold any thing absolutely anything, you know like anything. There's a distinction there.
19:53:00 There's no right way to be so with my first time at crying, crying.
19:53:06 It was nobody like coding me to make sure I was all right, but that was how I was being crying.
19:53:12 You know people come from different faiths, so you might have.
19:53:17 Oh, my goodness, i'm not gonna say no night you might have someone who puts up an altar, and then you have people who like we don't do authors in my my my clearing we that's not our sweet
19:53:29 but they can both call exist in the same space? We have people who say you know, what's your religion?
19:53:37 You have people who are Jewish. Yup. there are black people who are Jewish.
19:53:40 You have people who are Christian muslim one time that some of the the person, said i'm a tree hugger you, you know.
19:53:50 That's why words of nature so it can hold all of that because, even though we might have the same skin tone, we are diverse.
19:54:00 You know we come from a whole lot of different points of view, a whole lot of different experience.
19:54:06 I was raised in the South. There are people who were raised in the North.
19:54:11 You bumped up against that people from California people from Africa, Canada, like literally one woman.
19:54:19 We had set up and say it i'm from Russia Yes, I'm.
19:54:23 A black Russian, and I am talking about the drink all kinds of people can show up at the summit.
19:54:31 You know It's interesting, thank you thank you for sharing that it really reminded me.
19:54:35 Had me actually go back to the purpose of the International Black Summit. when we say the purpose of the International Black Summit is to provide an opportunity for participants to bring into being their vision for the black community.
19:54:49 And the world, and how I personally interpret that is it's all in about empowerment and so just to to you know, when you talk about the group and having a group and that group of 5 that you talk to every week continuing to
19:55:03 distinguish that from just having like a like you know.
19:55:08 Some kind of therapy group, or whatever it being different than that, because the tools and the distinctions provide every group member with the tools to listen.
19:55:22 The conversation and provide the person speaking with an app to their own self empowerment through the use of the tools.
19:55:33 So it's not a standard conversation so I just wanted that to be clear for anyone who's listening.
19:55:41 These these conversations are not the same as some kind of therapy group, or or that kind of thing they're they're not that they are.
19:55:48 They are very different and foundationally. they provide an opportunity for individual.
19:55:55 Our self-empowerment, and and through us the empowerment of our communities.
19:56:00 Yes, so so rain as a facilitator. Are Are you teaching people?
19:56:10 You know the answer to that? No. and how would you distinguish it from a teacher?
19:56:22 I would say, as a facilitator here, being with people whatever they come to in the summit, we have an opportunity for people to share, and people come up to the mic, and they just share whatever is present to them.
19:56:37 Sometimes we have specific questions that they answer, but they answer it specifically to what's going on in their own life, and our job.
19:56:45 As facilitators. i'm listening to anthony Randolph
19:56:50 At one of the facilitator ancestors.
19:56:53 Our job is to listen to people so intently that they can hear themselves.
19:57:01 Hmm! did you listen to people so powerfully. and be with people, so that they could hear themselves. So it's not really about a whole lot of processing or anything like that But it's also it's just listening and
19:57:20 a powerful place about the summit is we don't have a manual So they are many places where they have those manuals, and they're going word for word and that manual.
19:57:29 They're following the guy whom they got this one boom they got this one in the summit.
19:57:35 We have our distinctions, the declaration and we listen and so sometimes it's even listening for what the station is going up in the room and facilitating through that.
19:57:48 And so in my experience, and other facilitators may have a different experience.
19:57:53 When I have facilitated in the summit I feel empty like there's nothing there i'm just a clear space, especially if i've done my clearing in my work i'm sitting there and i'm just
19:58:07 listening is Sometimes I say, Spirit says this is what you need to say to that person.
19:58:16 And and Lorraine is saying, Oh, are you saying that?
19:58:21 No, no, no, I is no way. am I saying that to that person is this.
19:58:27 This is what you need to say, and I might see other facilitators struggling, and whatever, and i'm like.
19:58:32 Oh, God! and for me I start I start it's like the heat gets turned up, and I start burning, and then I have to get up and say what i'm giving in my spirit to say to that person, and when I say it
19:58:47 That's when that person has the breakthrough or sometimes someone might stand there and share, and i'm standing nose to those with myself.
19:59:02 You know they're sharing my story and when i'm looking them in their eyes and listening.
19:59:07 They get that we or that is something present there's something present that's like, Wow!
19:59:17 And they get that, I get them, and sometimes all it is is for a person to be gotten like, Wow!
19:59:25 It's the first time someone really listened and got me Now, if you have 30 or 40 facilitators, all of us have a different way of being all of us have a different way of listening.
19:59:38 All of us have different things that we might bring to the table.
19:59:42 And so when you have that room there's someone who's who, who could hear what maybe no other facilitator could hear.
19:59:53 And so sometimes in the summit, you know, we have maybe have 5 facilitators in front of the room, and the fill facilitators in the back of the room might hear it.
20:00:02 The front of room aren't hearing it so they pass a note to the front of the room, and then boom that person facilitates to that note, and then that person has a breakthrough.
20:00:14 It's a very dynamic space it's okay, very dynamic space.
20:00:20 And so we listen, you know, through the lens and the the the lens of the Declaration and the distinctions.
20:00:31 And there have been sometimes in the summit, where there was nothing to say.
20:00:34 It was just pure silence, pure silence. and then the next moment people are cracking up, rolling on the floor, laughing.
20:00:43 And then in the next moment everybody's the room is in tears because someone has stood up and share something so profound that everybody got like, Wow!
20:00:53 This is who we are. You know this is who we are, and I will say one thing that got this thing from me and many others in that that summit in 1992.
20:01:05 Was it? When you bring a group of people, a black African descent together, spirit will show up period, and we're being with each other, Spirit is gonna show up either in our speaking and our dancing in our just being with each other, like
20:01:24 who we be There's something that we bring to the world I say that, and I've been in a lot of different communities.
20:01:33 There's something that we bring to the world through. who we are through our bones and our ancestral blood.
20:01:43 Then no other people on the planet brings. and many of us have participated in the summit, and all these are highly trained people.
20:01:57 You know you list a transational training, and they not done it.
20:02:02 You know, Glenn, let what the sixth day for how many years?
20:02:08 That's why he could be so zen so we do 10 day.
20:02:14 Some of us have done 10 days silent retreats i've studied with maladoma ancestor Elder Melodoma Somay, you know we crossed over the rivers to Byron
20:02:26 Katie and Atlanta Forum, and some of us have studied with Barbara and Tier at the National Black Theater and Philadelphia. Fernando Flores who came before landmark so
20:02:41 highly highly trained, highly educated people and you don't know necessarily have to done all that stuff you know.
20:02:49 Sometimes that person who's the Rob person off the street is just exactly what we need.
20:02:54 I'm gonna give it to you like this from the streets baby, and that's the person who stands up and needs to facilitate the room.
20:03:02 The one thing I wanted to add add to that is that as a facilitator, you're in the experience as well.
20:03:10 So So the the the the process so we're not leading anything We're inside of the process with you as a participant.
20:03:19 So the facilitators and the participants are are are gathering together and and measuring this knowledge.
20:03:28 That's that's kind of bubbling up in the room. So we're listening. but we're also learning and gaining insight for ourselves as well as the people who are participants quote unquote but we're all
20:03:43 participants. Really, when when it comes down to we're just listening to space and directing that space, I hope yeah.
20:03:52 When the spirit moves you don't know who will move on and it's really a dance it's really a powerful dance, cause we've had someone who's not necessarily in the front of the room.
20:04:05 We we started to say there's no front of the room who stands up, and they say something, and that's the thing that moves the the to the next level of wherever we need to go.
20:04:18 No? well, hey? So for anybody who's listening to the the podcast or who's watching the the video on Youtube we actually do have a live audience with us.
20:04:31 You can't see them on the Youtube video but we have a live audience right now.
20:04:35 So that's who that's who rain might be calling out to some of our participants.
20:04:38 But I wanted to I wanted to ask you rank cause We've we've talked about a number of the distinctions.
20:04:46 We're not really getting into the distinctions right now, but we talked about bumping up against.
20:04:50 I think people can begin to get a flavor of some of what these distinctions might mean, and might do so bumping up against.
20:04:57 And we talked about clearing both clearing as a space and clearing is to clear yourself.
20:05:02 The verb We talked about noticing. We talked about no out there, and we began to talk about, or you began to talk about authentic listening.
20:05:13 And so I want to actually ask you about authentic listening in terms of training in that as a tool of the summit.
20:05:20 And then also you creating in your life a project around listening.
20:05:27 So can you talk about that a little bit? the the distinction authentic listening in the summit and your listening project?
20:05:34 Well, first, I will say, to really begin to get a foundation and grounding into the distinctions of the International Black Summit.
20:05:46 The prerequisite course is the place that you go if you've never been to the summit before, and that's the name led by Nancy Simmons and teresa powerful space to get
20:06:00 grounded in the distinctions and even you're just hearing the distinction.
20:06:05 You're gonna start to see things about it you can start to see things about
20:06:12 All of the distinctions that were mentioned now with my project.
20:06:17 Creating a world that listens, I have worked with communities for many years, even before I was at the summit, where that's what I taught peace, building, dialogue, leadership, and the core of the training.
20:06:40 Was about listening, and I
20:06:41 I I. When I went to get my doctorate, I went to Rwanda, and I listen to the stories of genocide survivors.
20:06:54 Now to get into this space where I could really listen to some of those stories.
20:07:05 I had to be cleared and that's something I distinguished.
20:07:07 It was very difficult to get a permit to do research in Rwanda and I.
20:07:14 Is it's a long story that I won't get into but I spent a couple of months there before I got my permit just being with people going back and forth to the office.
20:07:25 They would say, Oh, you gotta come in. We have a question to ask you.
20:07:29 They would ask the question, and then I said can I have her permit, and not today. i'm not the one who's gonna So that went back and forth.
20:07:36 I I the place that I lived in the morning I heard there was a prison like off across the hill, and I heard the men singing.
20:07:52 Praise him, raise him! Praise the Lord! did I go so every morning, and then I would hear cause I stayed in a castle like Rectory Place.
20:08:03 I would hear that pre singing hymns. Then in the evening I would hear it was a Holiness church.
20:08:10 I was here hear them singing gospel music. so I was surrounded by this energy of, and at the time I didn't know what was happening.
20:08:19 I was so surrounded by that energy, and I will walk the streets the dust, and just be with people and talk to people very careful not to ask them questions or appear like I was doing research because I could get me kicked out of the
20:08:34 country, but they did a fabulous job of clearing me, because if I had gotten off that plane and interviewed people the next or the second day, I would have never had the experience that I had, if I had not had the years of training with
20:08:50 the International Black Summit. I would have never had the experience I had if I had not done my own work, like really years of just being with people in distinguishing listening.
20:09:05 I could have never have had that experience. And so what I did was sit with people and listen to their story.
20:09:14 Their entire story, and some of the stories were very profound.
20:09:18 Like many other people I interviewed, they would start with saying I was 9 years old, and you know my research was many.
20:09:32 Years later. they were grownups, adults, but they say I remembered everything vividly.
20:09:39 I was young enough to remember young enough to remember it, and I was small enough to hide, so a lot of them would tell me like they would hide behind a tree, or they would climb a tree when the killers came and they will watch
20:09:53 as their whole family was killed, and many of the families would go to one compound.
20:09:59 So it'll be all these people in one house they would you know safety and being together, and that's how they were killed and the kids climbed the tree and watch install to be able to sit with someone and listen to I mean
20:10:16 graphic stories. Oh, the human cruelty! I felt like I was prepared, and some of the people in the facilitator body they remember, cause I was writing the email Oh, my God help me! Oh, my God!
20:10:36 I was writing emails for them I don't know I don't know, you know God.
20:10:39 Oh, my God, you know, like you know and so that was a way for me to clear myself will reach out to the facilitator body because I was kind of like by myself.
20:10:50 I didn't have anybody to clear or to talk to but every now and then I would just empty out, and could be able to speak to the facilitators, and, as Grace said earlier, I I I actually how that project got
20:11:06 started. I had a dream, and in the dream I was in a beautiful green fill, and I saw 5 red tears in a circle, and the voice that you are the stand in their circle, and listen to people.
20:11:22 And so it was quite a while before I I remember the dream.
20:11:25 It was very vivid. it was almost like I woke up.
20:11:27 It was like, Wait a minute. Where am I? And so one thing led to an another, and I presented that project at the Global Conference for transformation with landmark education as a poster right?
20:11:42 Gloom. Yes, and that was very successful, and that was sort of like the place I saw to kicked it off, and from there I just started going to my local farmers market put up the chairs and listening to people and you
20:12:03 could imagine. cause i'm sure we have people here tonight who work in community.
20:12:10 So you could imagine some of the stories that people have about what they're going through and and what their life experiences and like.
20:12:18 And so, just sitting up chairs in the farmers market listening to people, they told me all of it, and some of the stories I heard.
20:12:26 I couldn't believe that people were telling me these stories. and they just met me for 2 s, and there were a couple of instances when they should sharing was so deep that
20:12:40 This farm is. Martin had about 20 tables in a circle with people selling stuff.
20:12:45 There are a couple of instances that we were so close in talking that we looked up, and all the farmers had packed up and left, and we didn't even know they had packed up and left so listening is a very profound
20:13:01 space, and I, I will say that my ability to listen comes from a lot of different places where I was able to practice and bring consciousness, even being of a passionate meditation, silent retreat for 10 days being able to just sit and just be and not
20:13:27 have any judgment. the distinction No right way to be, you know.
20:13:32 People could share anything, and I mean after some of the stories I heard in Rwanda I I know that I could listen to anything, and I know that I can forgive anything.
20:13:44 I met this woman who live next door to the people who massacred her family, and I asked, How can you live next door to the people who massacred your family?
20:13:57 Elegant women very set up, Tom, is she thought about it?
20:14:06 And she said, You know, sometimes I wake up in the morning and i'm angry.
20:14:12 Sometimes I wake up in the morning and i'm just fine just, but every morning I wake up I call my neighbor, cause we gotta attend the garden, cause that's the garden that feeds this community, and she said when I look and
20:14:27 she said, When I really sit and look She said blood is on all of our hands. So we have to build for the future, she said.
20:14:39 I can't look back she said, some days I it's almost like I can't get up, but I get up cause I can't look back because i'm building for the future and and the people that I interviewed were people
20:14:51 in that category. I interview people who the requirement is that they had to have gone through the genocide, and then they had to have come through the genocide and made a decision to make be a contribution to their community and
20:15:07 So all of the people I interview were these grassroots leaders.
20:15:13 Who you would never talk, see in the newspaper or magazines, or anything like that.
20:15:18 But they were people who had a a commitment and a bit to fulfill inside of their community and their commitment to to having their community and their country.
20:15:30 Get to the other side of what happened there, you know.
20:15:38 Ran. I just wanted to let people know the dynamics of it.
20:15:40 So basically there are 2 chairs facing each other, and rain sat in one and had them sit in the other, other chair, and the red share and allow them to say whatever was there.
20:15:56 So she's done it in Rwanda she's done it in Florida.
20:16:01 She's done it. Lots of different places places but the point is be able to powerfully listen.
20:16:07 People where they're coming from, and what they're up to empowers them, you know.
20:16:13 We talked a lot about trauma earlier, on and and sometimes, and I think I think the woman that you talked about in Rwanda was one of the first times that she had even shared some of the things hadn't shared
20:16:28 it with anybody, and and the first time to share it was with you because you had a space for her to speak what she had never spoken to anyone in the world.
20:16:40 Many of the people I interviewed. They had never shared their story in its entirety with anyone, and some of them have never shared their story at all with anyone amazing.
20:16:54 And can you imagine that, after all of those years that to hold that, and so and so it's similar in the summit.
20:17:02 When people feel like there's a safe space either in their small group, or in the big room where they can share, and people listen.
20:17:11 Then it's it's healing I was gonna say it's therapeutic but it's not therapy.
20:17:16 Okay, it's it's really dealing if you go to any, all the traditional communities that still practice in a traditional way.
20:17:31 They listen to each other. You know i've studied cultures where there was a conflict in the community.
20:17:37 The whole community came and sat in a circle, and it was a silent What did they call it?
20:17:46 Silent conflict resolution. They sat together in circle in silence, and when the person was complete they got up and left, and one by one, and nobody ever said a word.
20:17:58 Hmm. Well, when you are complete, that means you were. You were clear that this conflict was over for you.
20:18:06 You could get up and leave so the way. that some things are handled, you know, traditionally, you know we have other ways of doing things that aren't the Western way.
20:18:21 And so the summer isn't necessarily the Western way didn't we have a whole thing about time in the summit.
20:18:28 Just starts when it starts. It may not look like what you think.
20:18:34 Starting. looks like, but it started and i don't I don't want to get into a whole nother distinction of self generation.
20:18:45 But I gotta do the prerequisite talk to Nancy and Teresa.
20:18:49 So you know i'm clear that the work that you do your listening project is inside of your vision, Unclear.
20:18:56 So I wanted to ask you rain what's your vision your vision for the black community and the world.
20:19:03 Why did you ask me that question? it's inside of the purpose of the Hmm.
20:19:19 How do I put this
20:19:24 You know i'm still working that out for myself because whatever I think about.
20:19:32 I think it comes from the past notion. of what it meant to be in the black community, and what that was, and what it meant to be in the world, and what that was so I've expanded.
20:19:54 I've expanded, and so you know how I was raised the community that I was raised in.
20:20:00 I can remember as a kid. I feel safe. It was beautiful.
20:20:04 I felt like I was in in a natural environment. Nature was present.
20:20:10 I was involved with the church, so there was the church family.
20:20:16 We had neighbors that talk to each other, and brought each other vegetables and switch with the gardens. kind of stuff, you know.
20:20:23 My dad. He ran the first food bank before they were calling the Food Bank feeding people who needed whatever they needed.
20:20:31 My mom was a spiritual mother in the church, you know, raising her, all of them raising their children together.
20:20:40 So my experience of community was community. And then we moved to Philadelphia.
20:20:45 There was still like a sense of community, but it was different.
20:20:49 It was a little harder, you know it wasn't as soft and nurturing, but they had block parties, you know.
20:20:55 They had times when it Saturday, so everybody blocked off the street and do a paint your stoop and plant flowers, and have music and all of that stuff going on, everybody doing it all at the same time.
20:21:09 So there was like a sense of community and now it's for me it's different.
20:21:16 I don't know some people may still have that but with the gentrification and I and i'm seeing it all over the country.
20:21:26 The communities are kind of like broke it up even here in Tallahassee.
20:21:29 The place that you would call that people would quote unquote called the Hood.
20:21:35 They totally moved all the people out and put them in different places, and that place is being totally torn down, and they're building condos, you know, in Brooklyn, where I live when I lived in New York I mean I went
20:21:51 there recently, and it it, you know I would. It was like brown slones.
20:21:57 Some of the brownstones are still there, but they have these huge high rises.
20:22:03 So anywhere. You look you're seeing these huge high rises Harlem, you know I knew that something was changing in Harlem when I walked down the street at one o'clock in the morning, and I saw these 3 white
20:22:16 teenagers just laughing and like Oh, my God and they weren't, scared
20:22:26 So. so I have to re a my thoughts and concept of what it is to be.
20:22:37 And coming. You you know It's interesting as Somebody who grew up in Canada, and still lives in Canada.
20:22:43 You know my my parents are Jamaican, and so my my notion of the black community on television, you know, growing up and seeing black.
20:22:53 The black community and Tv shows, and I was like well where's that like we don't have.
20:23:00 We don't have that here, like what what's that like, you know. So so to to even have that in your history se feels feel one feels what I feel you know feels wonderful to be able to have had that and you know
20:23:16 now that you say that I think that was what was my grief. when I came to the first time in 1992.
20:23:25 That that was I didn't experience that anymore. had an experience community.
20:23:31 So I think that was my internal and I think maybe It's a big, maybe, that that's what many people of African descent walk around with that grief.
20:23:44 So for me. the summit was like you know some people share their first time going to the Continent when they see all black people running the banks and the supermarkets, and it's all they just like Oh, my God, you know
20:23:56 black people, cause I never cause when I was growing up it was like the church.
20:24:02 So you saw big masses of black people doing stuff together in my world.
20:24:08 In my early professional life, when I was working in corporate world, I went in a room with no whole bunch of black people.
20:24:15 At one time. Usually I was the only black person in the room and and to a certain extent, even now a lot of the places that I go, and some even some of my friends who work corporately a lot of times they're the only
20:24:34 one, and I i'm like asking myself how can you not have a personal color in here, and I see that as a missing as a breakdown.
20:24:43 So I think. Yeah, I think I just I just distinguished something that was in the background, that's now in the forefront that that was that grief that I felt in that 1992 summit and
20:24:57 i'm a person who i'm a very i'm a highly sensitive person. so sometimes I feel other people's energy, and I thought about it a few years ago that in that summit the reason why it was so intense for me is I
20:25:11 was feeling the energy of everyone there, and so sometimes I I feel that at the summit, and I just have to just sit and just, you know, be with it, and I can look and see what's going on with people you know and I just
20:25:30 use that to support the facilitation of the space in a respectful way, and inside of the distinctions of the summit facilitator body.
20:25:43 But it's a very very powerful space it can be a very powerful space, you know.
20:25:50 We've talked a lot about that first summit event that you attended back in 1992 and I'm just curious.
20:25:59 Was that your favorite, like somebody event, or in terms of annual summit events?
20:26:02 If you look back and you you know have looked at an identified one or 2 favorite annual summit events.
20:26:16 Oh, you'd like to try to ask somebody to pick their favorite child. i'll tell you I have a favorite child, you know.
20:26:21 I think most most people don't have any children for those most of the people who ask that question.
20:26:27 If you ask anyone, they will say their first summit was their favorite one, or the most powerful one, and for me it it was just like that summit.
20:26:39 It was so many pieces of it that shifted my being that
20:26:47 I will never forget it. There was so many aspects of it, the shift that my listening of black men, you know, a black women of black use of the community, you know.
20:27:01 I was like I was cleared by the ancestors.
20:27:04 Okay, Do you have a second place? Oh, my God!
20:27:12 Oh, my God! can you? oh! in the South Africa!
20:27:19 Oh, my God, Jamaica. Oh, my God now you're just gonna start listing and let's just like, come on like the stuff that happened in Kenya, the stuff that had where's Petal stuff to happen in South
20:27:35 Africa, Jamaica. Oh, wow! Did you attend the annual somebody vent in Brazil?
20:27:47 That was my favorite. it's just like you can if you think about all of the summit events.
20:27:56 There's always something that was like the they grab you like them of that summit.
20:28:05 Well, let me ask you this rain. You know we we dwell in a question or inquiry New York summit. Jesus.
20:28:14 Wow! if if there are there any particular years where the inquiry declaration, compelled you.
20:28:29 Well, any any any, of. them come to mind that that you would that you could remember that are more outstanding than maybe some of the others that you know I can't really say that because I feel like each year there's something
20:28:48 that's brought flow within that summit that is very powerful. So in Kenya it was the whole.
20:29:01 They had a a Harambi, a romantic Yes, I remember.
20:29:05 That was distinguished, profoundly distinguished, and wow! and and community was distinguished, and family was distinguished.
20:29:17 You know we have people stand up and say you're not black you American, We are Africans. you're not African.
20:29:27 If you want to call if you want to call yourself africa maybe you're West African, cause they're loud we're more reserved here in kenya, and then you have people go to the mic dark dark
20:29:47 woman from California. You don't get like no you don't get to tell me that i'm not black.
20:29:55 That's not gonna work light skin light eyes when they have a told me that I want black.
20:30:05 I wanted to right. Come over there, You know and then, the elder, you know different versions of our self expression, and I think that some of the kings their mind was long.
20:30:19 They were like. Oh, we're sorry we're sorry welcome home.
20:30:24 We got it. Welcome home! and then a youth stood up and just blew it out of the water when he said, So you say you're African.
20:30:32 You say you are a family? Why are you standing in the Hotel cause when our family comes here they don't stay in the hotel.
20:30:40 They stay with us and that's the 47 it was either 43 or 47 people who checked out at a hotel and moved in with families.
20:30:51 And there was one couple. It was like a mirror family husband, wife, and daughter.
20:30:56 They left their daughter in Kenya after the summit, to be with our family.
20:31:06 So I mean that kind of thing happened, like, you know, and we were treated like the quick kings and queens.
20:31:14 We are. There was one woman who she invited us to the home for a feast, and there was a per procession of my side that made them hallway, and we walk through there, and they would assumeing to us while we were
20:31:34 like. Wow! Well, she said, the bus, so how how can you say that summit?
20:31:45 The The one summer was better than that, and in south Africa the journey we took on Thursday night they said we completed the middle passage. we completed the middle passage.
20:31:58 That's something. It was like whoa some of the people were going to some of the truth.
20:32:07 This is South Africa, They were going to the truth and reconciliation hearings, and just hearing about all of that trauma.
20:32:14 And then people coming into the summit to process it. some of the what they call street children coming to the summit, and I just never forget.
20:32:24 This young man stood up, and he said, I thought that the only way that we could. he thanks. and South Africa was through violence, he said, Now I know there's another way.
20:32:37 I was born today, he said. I was born again out of my participation in the summit, because I have a new life.
20:32:45 How do you say that? you know, Compare like one summit is better than that summit is better than that summit.
20:32:58 Lots of you know i'll i'll say that what i'm present to right now is marine Warren, the Summit historian, because I know that you were the summit historians for you know a number of years and
20:33:13 I was not at the Kenya summit I was not at the South Africa summit, so as usual.
20:33:21 This history i'm present and you share it so vividly you know that i'm really present to that being a natural role for you, summit historians.
20:33:31 So thank you for for well, when I share 2 i'm very careful not to share somebody else's story.
20:33:38 But i'm just giving you a sense of you know what happened in those summits that were so powerful where you had leaders just stand up and say, Look, you know that question who must I be to transform the black community in the world?
20:33:56 You know who am I being in the blacker yeah I i'm out of integrity.
20:34:01 You know, i'm out of integrity. with my my family with my congregation with my job, and so so I can point out there and say it's those people.
20:34:13 But really it's me well rain no no we got a cat at least one or 2 funny stories.
20:34:27 Funny summit stories. I know you have a bunch of them preferably the clean ones.
20:34:34 I don't know. So so give people a a taste of a funny story, or or an occurrence, or a insight that you got that that you know, just as you tickle leaving today.
20:34:50 Well, the 1 one I will go back to Kenya.
20:34:54 Okay and in Kenya I won't say any names.
20:34:59 But if they were here they would say their name. you know somebody had a challenge with the ATM.
20:35:09 And their check not being deposited on time. So they were.
20:35:12 Deficient and phones is somehow I don't know how it got into the room that you know that someone needed support.
20:35:23 And then, when that person need to support somebody else need to support and somebody else is.
20:35:27 And so then they started the Save the Black America fund the African American Fun, and they It was this gentleman.
20:35:38 I don't know his name, but he was so funny he was the person who led the Harambi, and it was like a auction, but not really an auction.
20:35:54 So basically they were asking people to come up and make contributions.
20:35:58 And so when you came up a major contribution, he will hold it up and say, Is this all, and do any better than that?
20:36:08 We need to. We need to help these black Americans out.
20:36:12 And then so people would. So you, when you came up to give something you had to announce how much you gave.
20:36:18 And so he was just joking and laughing with people, and then he said, Okay, you don't have any money.
20:36:24 What do you have? Some people are like? I have
20:36:32 And everybody who came up. hey? He just made so much joy, so much fun.
20:36:38 Everybody was taking care of. By the end of it everyone was taking care of but it.
20:36:45 That probably was one of the most joyful experiences I had in the summer, cause we were holding our stomach laughing.
20:36:54 But you know in the summit there's always laughter and i'm must give my props to chicago.
20:37:00 Yes, you can you got a notification? she's such an extraordinary person?
20:37:06 I remember, as in the people who are there. If you can imagine 300 people sitting in the room.
20:37:14 Right. so occasionally, what is she? About 5 feet 5 foot, one or 2?
20:37:19 She came, she she! the summit was kind of like settled people were sharing. Socasia walks down the middle of the aisle with a huge bit.
20:37:31 I mean it was a Do you remember that, Lynn I used gigantic church hat on?
20:37:38 She slowly walks down the middle of the out, and everybody just like broke down laughing.
20:37:45 I mean the way she did it. Oh, my goodness so you just never know what's how the laughter is gonna show up and the dancing and the music and music is all part of it. and I just wanna underline it
20:38:00 this is this was the same summit that they said that you're not really black folks, so so that's where the conversation started.
20:38:09 But then there was so much love and bonding space in Kenya, that that we had the Harambi and and all of this fun about the poor black Americans that didn't have any money and and and and
20:38:26 fundraising and the Africans of fundraising as well.
20:38:32 You know it's, it's it's and and it speaks to the the transformation that occurred inside of the space inside of the relationships.
20:38:45 So you know, we talk about nurture and relationships in the Declaration.
20:38:49 We talk about funding our community in the declaration, you know.
20:38:53 Supporting our youth. You know all of these dynamics keep showing up every annual summit event.
20:39:03 So all the stuff that we talk about and we're gonna repeat the declaration at the end of this conversation.
20:39:09 But all of the dynamics come into play during the annual summit event as well as the courses the prerequisite.
20:39:20 There's a community course that they're that we're designing as well.
20:39:25 So those elements, and the vision coming into play the whole thing about it, too.
20:39:30 In the summer you you don't know where your breakthrough or where your profound moment will come.
20:39:41 And i'm just hesitating because I don't want to take nobody else's story. so you never know
20:39:48 I I think I could call out Natasha Brown when I was the first time I think this was Natasha's first summit.
20:39:58 Natasha is here, so she can she can ring her hand if it's okay for you to share Hmm.
20:40:14 When she stood up and started singing, Hmm! yes. I saw the Underground Railroad as auto Civil Rights movement.
20:40:26 I saw the middle of passage. It was just like her, Tony, and her voice.
20:40:31 I was just like Wow! I spelled the magnolia trees.
20:40:39 I was like, Lord, My, I was done. I was like I could get up right now.
20:40:45 Pack myself. my slammet is over i'm done you know and
20:40:53 It's interesting you know Sometimes it can be very subtle and I think it was Birmingham Alabama.
20:41:03 I'll call out Elsie randolph for the Thursday night event.
20:41:07 We had all of these civil rights. Icons share their story so powerfully, share their stories, and I could sense in the room that they I I felt like they still heard.
20:41:23 They felt proud. What I was talking to i'll feel and I was like I got it.
20:41:31 I'm. i'm making a connection right here in this moment the grief. Hmm!
20:41:37 Cause I could get. I was left like incomplete.
20:41:39 I felt like they shared their story, and I felt like perhaps maybe these are people who have.
20:41:50 They've done so much for the black community in their youth. They were the people who were on the streets holding signs getting holes down by water holes, you know, fighting the power .
20:42:09 And now they're elders, some of them on 6 incomes, some of them not some of them.
20:42:16 Okay, some of them. not okay, So they get a chance that's They end up in the summit and be listened to like this.
20:42:23 Is my journey. some of them you couldn't get them off that stage. It's like, Okay, your time's up they they couldn't stop because they had so much they wanted to share, and I was like wow I saw something I never saw
20:42:38 before the press. Maybe some of those people still are walking around with that trauma, Some of them still live in the black community, and the very people.
20:42:53 I think I shared this with Natasha. The very people who they fought for could be the people who take their life.
20:43:03 Hmm: Yeah. And so they have no idea who when they walk by an elder.
20:43:12 They have no idea who they're walking by and who that person was for them, and why they have some of the privilege they have, because of that elder that you walk by and saw the discount.
20:43:26 Yeah, Wow, that's a that's but a a deep look at that perspective, you know, and i'm just looking, cause i'm about to ask you what might also be a deep question as we look to wrap up i'm not
20:43:43 sure if Glenn has another question. but the question that I have for you as we wrap up is whether or not you have one or 2 wishes for the world right now.
20:44:02 Well, I don't know about you but in in many ways. The the Covid situation has cramped my style, cause I used to travel like I would be gone at least 2 out of the country at least.
20:44:15 Maybe 2, 3 times at least one at least definitely once a year, and I haven't really traveled because of covid and
20:44:25 I actually am having a a breakthrough here tonight out of just being with you all in and sharing that I would love to look at that summit purpose.
20:44:44 The purpose of the International Black Summit is to provide an opportunity for participants to bring into being their vision for the black community in the world.
20:44:54 That I need to not need to I want to really look at that and see what I stand with it. because many times to be honest with you when they say what is your vision for the black community?
20:45:08 I didn't have one now what is my vision for the world
20:45:21 It really has something to do with creating a world that listens.
20:45:28 Because I feel like there's so much power in the listening.
20:45:32 And you know some people will say, i'm an expert I am when I am listening.
20:45:44 What I I but it's it's something really powerful about just listening and listening.
20:45:50 Doesn't necessarily mean you're always quiet I mean we saw some demonstration in the past summit where the the the the and I won't say people or not, but I I my assessment is the listening was so powerful
20:46:11 that that person saw who the other person was, and the other person got that that person got them.
20:46:20 So then they could listen, and here a possibility of contribution, and that was for me.
20:46:31 That was pure listening, that if I could listen to you so profoundly that whatever there is for me to say to you to have you get a possibility, bam, that's powerful, and then sometimes you know in the
20:46:52 summit is facilitation. The person says would have to say they sit down, and no one said a word to them, and they got something for themselves, so it's no right way to be in the summit is no right way to
20:47:06 facilitate there's no formula and there's listening.
20:47:12 There's no formula and it's not we we've lost. we fight, we disagree we're human, profoundly human, and I think there's a spirit of care you know I wouldn't wish any
20:47:33 harm to anyone. anyone you know just wanting everybody to be well so that's a vision that everybody's well, everyone's taking care of.
20:47:48 You know the the vision of the expression of our spirituality?
20:47:55 Yeah, ending the murders of our men, women, and children, building the economies responsible for funding our community, maintaining wellness of being in our bodies, providing human services, establishing nurturing relationships, altering
20:48:14 the conversation of who we are in the media empowering our.
20:48:18 You got it something like that for the world. You you know that everybody gets to express their spirituality.
20:48:27 No one has to walk around feeling afraid you know that they're gonna get stopped or murdered above by people got money.
20:48:36 People are healthy, you know. people have the services that they need it's all good.
20:48:42 Was there ever a time when it was that way and we were we?
20:48:49 We moved away from that I don't know
20:48:56 Rain. What would you say to someone that hasn't done the International Black Summit?
20:49:05 Good never done this on it. What would I say about what?
20:49:10 What? what would you say to invite them, or to
20:49:14 Let them know what they might get out of the summit so I'm looking I'm.
20:49:18 I'm looking at you know somebody's invited me I don't know anything about the summit.
20:49:22 What would you say to that person? Oh, I wanna come to the summit.
20:49:31 Who are the speakers
20:49:36 I said, you are the speaker, you know I was.
20:49:41 Say in the summit, you might be the person who stands up and shifts everything for the entire room.
20:49:50 Therefore the entire planet. So in the summit we listen for what's in the space.
20:50:02 What's in the space don't be afraid to come go to the prerequisite.
20:50:08 You'll get up to speed like you've been there for 30 years.
20:50:12 You you, you know you get foundation and grounded in the distinctions, so you can listen authentically to the conversation.
20:50:22 Going in the room, and if you have something to say stand up raise your hand and say it, don't be the fear not because whatever you say might be the very thing that's ne often that person sitting there quiet sit in there quiet especially
20:50:40 when it's on alignment conversation i'm like please. whoever spirit is talking to would you please say something so we could go home to 5 o'clock in the morning, and the person is trembling.
20:50:52 Oh, oh, I got something to say, and they stay in it opens the whole room up, and then it's like freedom.
20:50:59 It could be a child. it could be an elder anything in between that you know.
20:51:05 What are you have the offer what are you bringing and maybe that's the space to just be that, and say that and I'm and I'm just being led to say i've been in this space too.
20:51:23 You know people who are triggered by the summit There's something to stopping them from coming there's like I went to the Simon.
20:51:30 I ain't coming on more of those people blah blah blah and i'm not coming back to the summit
20:51:38 Wow! what's your vision? Yes, what are you up to in your life?
20:51:45 You know. What could you bring that could shift everything and there's nothing to do except B. I was so happy to come to the summit, and I have any accountabilities?
20:52:01 Because the last time that I went to I had about i've I've lost count of how many accountabilities I I will never do that again, and I came to the summit I have my group.
20:52:11 You know we talked. I have fun. I was playing around. I have fun.
20:52:16 Oh, and it was virtual. So I was home, you know, and I I I wanna shout out to these brothers that I saw in the summit.
20:52:26 Well, it was Brian, powerful sharing, and then, as of the summit, I went.
20:52:33 Look, I look you up and i'm i'm putting his i'm taking the liberty to put full elements united Youtube channel.
20:52:43 Please everybody, Go and join that you. They have profound conversations about consciousness and black men, and that's who we have in the summit people who are our our elders in the summit, people who are out in the community making things
20:53:00 happen so you're you're with a you know some people say that I've invited to the summer over the years, they said, Oh, wow!
20:53:09 I've never been in a room full of so many positive black people, people who were up to something so in the summit over the years we've had. People have get married.
20:53:19 We've had people get divorced we've had people start businesses by themselves, or some time together.
20:53:26 We've had a couple of summit babies when we were in person a virtual Wow!
20:53:33 But you know. so all kinds of possibilities have happened through.
20:53:38 People coming to the summit. and I and I, I will say another thing. my for myself, and I know some other people have similar experience.
20:53:51 Participating in a summit. Accountability is a growth and leadership.
20:53:54 Opportunity. so you get a chance to be triggered.
20:53:57 You get a chance to bump up against things you also get a chance to develop leadership, you know, and as far as I can see, it's still wide open for you.
20:54:09 To come and make your contribution, and just develop yourself as a leader, and also bring to the summit your gift.
20:54:16 And what you have to contribute, and and really this is going back to your question, Grace.
20:54:26 I don't know when it will happen
20:54:31 But I see that the summit the international black summit will become a household name, that it will be known around the world like Facebook Youtube like any entity that's in the world making a contribution that it will be it's
20:54:57 time has come, and it's time will come and so I feel like those bodies that can be facilitators that can be leaders in the administration, and the development of the summit.
20:55:16 The conversation and the building blocks that have it operate effectively as an organization will be.
20:55:25 I hate to use the word need it? will be called for and So that's what I would say if people you feel yourself in your spirit to contribute in any way.
20:55:37 It's a wonderful training ground, and it's a wonderful ground to to contribute and to provide a service to the black community.
20:55:47 And and that's why i've participated in the Summit for so many years.
20:55:53 I hear my High School English teacher, Mrs. young that's how she said her name.
20:55:56 She said, Oh, always, Miss Warren, have a spiritual institution that you participate in.
20:56:05 Have a what was the other one spiritual institution have a institution where you're developing yourself.
20:56:12 Your your knowledge and your wisdom, and have a institution where you are contributing back to your community.
20:56:20 So for me. The summit was a way that I can contribute back to my community.
20:56:29 I've always followed that high school English teacher Miss Zhanga.
20:56:34 I've always been involved with something This is This is young. This is young, and we thank you drain, and we thank you, Dr.
20:56:47 Rain Warren for being with us this evening Thank you so So much for for spending this time sharing with us, having fun laughing with us tonight, and and just really giving some food for thought for me as somebody who's being a Participant in the in
20:57:01 the international black summit giving me information that i'd never i'd never heard before.
20:57:08 New perspectives. and for people who are who are fresh and who are learning about us new, giving them an opportunity to hear perspective on the international black summit.
20:57:17 So if you're listening and you do want to find out more, you can find out more about us at our website. www dot black summit dot org www dot black summit dot org rain of Dr.
20:57:31 Rain might have interested you in finding out about our courses the prerequisite course which is not only limited to the annual summit event.
20:57:39 We do have, and can have prerequisite courses at any time of the year.
20:57:43 So you can find out about that on the website. We also have the power community transformation course.
20:57:49 You can find out about that on the website as well as
20:57:56 Our primary annual summit event each year. So go to the website.
20:58:00 Find out more. or if you want to ask about it, you can contact us through the contact page and actually identify by clicking on which topics you want to hear back from us. on.
20:58:08 So we hope you'll be in communication with us and so now, as we close out the podcast.
20:58:17 I just wanna thank rain knowing her all these years.
20:58:22 Thank you for the many contributions, that I know about and so many more that I have no idea you've you've shifted the consciousness of the planet. and you're you're a caregiver to your mom
20:58:38 there's so many things that you contribute to your family to to your nieces and nephews over the years I've gotten to know you and appreciate who you are as as a as a leader as a
20:58:56 woman as a black woman that is not afraid to say what's necessary.
20:59:04 And and what may not necessarily be in vogue.
20:59:08 But needs to be said, and you'll say it and and so thank you for your partnership.
20:59:14 Thank you for the love that you are to all of us.
20:59:19 And and to the black community International Black Summit and the world.
20:59:24 And it is so great to have you again love and blessings to you, and all that you touch appreciate you.
20:59:34 Thank you, and I will say my closing words is that the summit is not about one person.
20:59:40 The summit is about community you know any good i've contributed to the summit, or anyone has contributed to some.
20:59:51 It's been done in community it's been done inside of the collective.
20:59:56 Oh, what we contribute when we are all together, everybody does some part, some part of it, and hey!
21:00:07 It's all in the circle I know one of the things I appreciated over the years. I could pick up the phone and have a clearing conversation with so many different kinds of people, with so many different skills.
21:00:20 So come on, come on and check it out join us come, join us, and if you're if you're not listening and participating, live, and you'd want to join a future, podcast recording live you can do that and find out about
21:00:33 that on the website as well, because we're going to close the podcast recording out.
21:00:38 Now we're going to continue offline and have A.
21:00:42 A. A. Q. A. session. So audience members get to to join and ask questions.
21:00:48 Now, but that part won't be recorded so join us in the future, if you'd like to do that thanks for being with us, and at that first international black summit in October, the seventh 1,990
21:01:07 one as a collective of the people that were There so without further ado, the declaration of the international black Summit. we declare ourselves, our community, and all communities whole and complete.
21:01:27 There's nothing to do except B. we assert that we are responsible for just generating community as possibility and distinction.
21:01:38 We listen for, and granting to possibility and creation of unpredictable results.
21:01:48 Our conversation of about and for those of African descent is one of power, self, generation, abundance, responsibility, unity, and integrity.
21:02:08 With the power of being. We stand for the expression of our spirituality, ending the murders of our men, women, and children, building economies, responsible for funding our community, maintaining wellness of being in our bodies, providing human services
21:02:34 a establishing nurturing relationships, altering the conversation of who we are. in the media empowering our use, we declare that our community manifest itself in the world as a contribution in the transformation of the
21:02:59 universe. Atlanta, Georgia, october seventh, 1991.
21:03:06 Today's date is august fourteenth 2022, and one of the traditions that we do is we have a moment of silence, but we include to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west, and
21:03:22 wherever people of black African descent reside we're gonna take a moment of please