Reckoning with White Femininity and Anti-Blackness: Towards Humanizing Relationships and Solidarity

Why are we creating this space?

Since 2022, alongside the 100+ people who have participated in the virtual version of this workshop, we have been…

• getting curious about embodied patterns in our relationships with Black women and Black gender expansive people; pivoting to more authenticity and honesty about these patterns as a foundational practice toward solidarity

• building vulnerable, transparent, risk-taking relationships in which we examine our own toxic white femininity and how that is impacting our relationships

• continuing to grieve the ways that white femininity has been shaped with anti-Blackness at its core…and learning from how the unraveling of this feels in our own bodies

We see, as best we can, the harm that Black women and Black gender expansive people experience in relationships with white women and white gender expansive people. We understand the ways white femininity is and has long been used to terrorize Black people of all genders. We have felt shame and despair when we have not shown up as powerful, reliable co-conspirators alongside Black women and Black gender expansive folks. We deeply long for more ways of being and doing that allow us to be in authentic relationship with Black women and Black gender expansive people. We see possibility in ourselves, and in our white siblings/peers to be powerful forces of solidarity and mutuality in our work to support the liberation of Black women and Black gender expansive people - which in turn will be the liberation of all us, together.

Our Intentions for the Series

• To experience being in community with white women and white gender expansive people in ways that affirm our humanity instead of stoking perfectionism and competition

• To deepen our shared understanding of anti-Blackness & toxic white femininity

• To explore current patterns in our relationships with Black GEP and Black women as they relate to anti-Blackness & toxic white femininity

• To nurture seeds of self & systems awareness that continue to grow & support our healing and transformation

Live Session Dates *2025*

Wednesday, February 5 (12-2:30 ET / 11-1:30 CT / 10-12:30 MT / 9-11:30 PT)

Wednesday, February 12 (12-2:30 ET / 11-1:30 CT / 10-12:30 MT / 9-11:30 PT)

Wednesday, February 19 (12-2:30 ET / 11-1:30 CT / 10-12:30 MT / 9-11:30 PT)

Wednesday, February 26 (12-2:30 ET / 11-1:30 CT / 10-12:30 MT / 9-11:30 PT)

**recordings will be made available to participants after each session**

Registration Fees

There are three payment levels for this workshop. After covering costs, profit from this workshop will be donated to a Black feminist organization.

CROSS-CLASS SOLIDARITY $650

Please consider paying this amount if you are comfortably able to meet your basic needs, own the home you live in, have paid or pay for private education, travel recreationally, have access to financial savings and/or investments, have reliable work or do not have to work to meet your needs, have inherited wealth, and/or have increased earning privilege due to your race, gender, or education. This rate is a pay-it-forward rate that makes it viable for us to work with more people who need a lower rate.

AT COST $390

Consider paying this amount if doing so would be an investment, but not create hardship for your household. You might choose this rate if you are able to regularly meet your basic needs and have some expendable income, can travel every couple years without burden, and have some debt but are able to pay it regularly. This is the rate we need most people to contribute in order for this offering to be sustained.

LOW INCOME $120

Consider paying this amount if you have limited expendable income, have little or no access to financial support from family, have significant debt, and little or no access to savings. This is a discounted rate.

NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.

Email info@jenwillsea.com with questions.

Our Team

Ellen Tuzzolo, Lead Facilitator

Ellen Tuzzolo (they/she) is a white, queer mama, of Southern Italian and Irish ancestry, based on Narragansett, Pokanoket and Wampanoag land. Ellen is most fired up by undermining systems of oppression and breaking down barriers that prevent people from seeing and caring for themselves, each other, and the earth. After growing up as queer and gender expansive in a tiny mostly white town in Massachusetts, Ellen was politicized while supporting organizing and advocacy efforts to end mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline in Louisiana and Alabama. After this experience, they realized it was time to expand capacity to work towards racial justice within their communities of white people. Their passion for working alongside other white people socialized as female, deepening into practices of solidarity and mutuality, grew through their involvement with the White Noise Collective. As a facilitator of multi-racial spaces committed to both popular education and outdoor education, Ellen has held space for thousands of youth and adults to understand and challenge systemic racism and other forms of oppression. Ellen is currently a consultant with VISIONS, Inc. and Partners for Collaborative Change. Ellen serves on the board of The People’s Port Authority, is a proud founding member of the Providence chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), and loves spending time outside with their family, learning how to tend to beautiful and edible plant friends.

Jen Willsea, Lead Facilitator

Jen Willsea (she/her) is an Atlanta-based and western New York-raised queer mama, garment sewist, quilter, and dreamer of a future beyond white supremacy. She has been honing her craft of antiracist facilitation for nearly 20 years, apprenticing with elder practitioners before launching her independent practice in 2018. Her awakening to what whiteness has meant for the last 400 years (and in her own life) began as a young activist in San Francisco in the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop (now known as the Anne Braden Program) in the early '00s. Since then, Jen has slowly and intentionally built the skills and relationships required to do antiracist facilitation in a deeply embodied and wise way, as a cisgender white woman. Jen is a facilitator of multiracial organizational transformation at Liberatory Power Consulting Group and VISIONS Inc., a student of what decolonization means for white antiracists at the Decolonize Race Project, and a coach/facilitator for white leaders who are committed to showing up as strong, reliable, trustworthy white antiracists. She writes From Whiteness to Wellness on Substack. Jen previously was the co-chair of the Board of Directors at Resource Generation, and one of the founders of The Black Mecca Project. She also finds joy in being wild and silly with her children, showing love through cooking/baking, and learning how to roller skate.