Decolonizing the Body | Kelsey Blackwell in conversation with and Jezz Chung.

Powerful, body-based practices to help you reclaim confidence, dignity, and self-worth.

As a woman of color, you are more likely to experience oppression, discrimination, and physical or sexual violence in your lifetime. In addition, your family may have experienced generational trauma and systemic racism going back for centuries. This old and new trauma can manifest in both the mind and body. However, there are ways you can free yourself from this trauma, build confidence in yourself and your abilities, and restore your powerful sense of self.

Written by a woman of color for women of color, Decolonizing the Body offers proven-effective somatic, body-centered practices to help you heal from systemic oppression, trust the profound wisdom of your own body, and reconnect with your true self. And by slowing down, cultivating a daily ritual, and setting strong boundaries, you can reclaim your inherent dignity and worth—as well as those aspects of yourself that you may have cast aside in an effort to survive.

With this empowering guide, you’ll discover:

• How bodies are colonized through systems of oppression
• Why slowing down is essential for healing
• How to listen to what your body needs
• How to create a space for ritual in your daily life
• How to strengthen feelings of capability
• How to cultivate community—starting with yourself

To decolonize the body is to become whole again, and to come home again. Let this book be your guide on this crucial journey.

About the Author: Kelsey Blackwell, MS is a cultural somatics practitioner and author dedicated to supporting women of color to trust and follow the guidance of the body so we may powerfully radiate our worth, dignity and wisdom in a world that sorely needs this brilliance. As a facilitator, coach, and speaker, she has brought abolitionist embodied practices to such diverse groups as riders on Bay Area Rapid Transit trains to students at Stanford University to the offices of LinkedIn. She works 1:1 with clients as well as leads the eight-week group program, Decolonizing the Body. Kelsey is the author of the viral article, Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People, published by The Arrow Journal. She is a Certified InterPlay Leader, Strozzi Certified Somatic Coach, and holds a master’s degree in Publishing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. In addition to being impactful, Kelsey believes working towards personal and collective liberation must also bring joy. She lives in San Francisco, CA.

About the Conversation Partner: Jezz Chung is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City, exploring the intersection of personal transformation and collective change. With a background in movement, performance, and community facilitation, Chung blends elements of their personal history as a neurodivergent, queer, Korean American into their work.

They have been featured internationally in Paper Mag, Vogue Italia, and Spain’s El País, they’ve written for Washington Post and i-D, and were named a Pride 30 honoree by Logo TV and a mental health advocate by Made of Millions. They have a book with Chronicle Prism due Spring 2024 titled THIS WAY TO CHANGE. You can follow their journey @jezzchung on social media.