Grace Okerson, Student Collaborator

Grace Okerson was a second year Master of Arts in Public Ministry student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, with a concentration in racial justice. Using her passions of dismantling white supremacy and prison abolition, she was invited to imagine and curate a communal healing space for SBI.

The need to create a space for communal healing as part of SBI’s programming, emerged at the onset of COVID-19 and during the wake of civil unrest in Chicago and nationally. In response to the urgency of the times that we find ourselves in and in an attempt to care for those most impacted by the profusion of social ills, the need for a space to heal has become more pressing than ever before. 

The communal healing space that Grace curated, aimed to work collaboratively with community healers to offer events that intentionally create space for healing, restoration and equipping activists, organizers and comrades in the struggle for justice and abolition.

Working with Haji Healing Salon, Ashé Living, and other community partners, various healing modalities were intentionally selected with an emphasis on embodied practices, inviting participants to connect more deeply with themselves and interrogate what tensions and trauma resided within them.