What it Takes to Heal with Prentis Hemphill

Join us for a community event with Prentis Hemphill in conversation with Malkia Devich-Cyril for a discussion of .

From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level. As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with one another, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.
asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?”
In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.

Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of The Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast Becoming the People. For the last ten years, Prentis has practiced and taught somatics in social movement organizations and offered embodied practice during moments of social unrest and organizational upheaval. They have taught embodied leadership with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity and generative somatics and served as the Healing Justice Director of Black Lives Matter Global Network from 2016 to 2018. Their work and writing have appeared in the New York Times, and the Huffington Post. They are a contributor to “You are Your Best Thing”, edited by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown, “Holding Change” by adrienne maree brown, and “The Politics of Trauma” by Staci Haines. They live in North Carolina on a small farm with their partner, child, two dogs, and two chickens.

Malkia Devich-Cyril is an activist, writer and public speaker on issues of digital rights, narrative power, Black liberation and collective grief. Devich-Cyril is also the founding and former Executive Director of MediaJustice — a national hub boldly advancing racial justice, rights and dignity in a digital age. After more than 10 years of organizational leadership, Devich-Cyril now serves as a Senior Fellow at Media Justice and is a contributing writer to various publications including The Atlantic, Wired Magazine, TechCrunch, The Washington Post, Truthout and We Will Not Cancel Us — a book by adrienne maree brown, among others.

In 2002, Malkia Devich Cyril helped coin the term “Media Justice”, and in 2019 declared that one significant goal of the Media Justice movement was to “fight for a future where we are all connected, represented and free.”

For more than 20 years, Devich-Cyril has championed the media and technology rights of communities of color and other under-represented groups to demand and win equity in a digital age. Devich-Cyril remains a veteran leader in the movement for digital rights and freedom, and in the movement for Black lives.

As the newly widowed spouse of comedian and editor Alana Devich-Cyril, who died following an intense two year battle with advanced cancer, Malkia Devich-Cyril now works to transform the public narrative on grief and equity in America.

Host or Publisher Prentis Hemphill