A Space That Starts With My Commitment to Speak and Be Easy

Holding space for parents, educators, and co-founders to interrogate our indoctrination

It occurred to me that liberation will always appear uncomfortable to the indoctrinated. And because we tend to skirt discomfort, we remain vulnerable and complicit in preserving ways of thinking, relating, and educating that are steeped in systemic and systematic harm. These harms represent what many of us, as eventual or existing parents, educators, and founders/co-founders, recognize and, in some ways, reject.

I should know because I could legitimately rock all three of those labels of parent, educator, and founder--I used to, in fact. But through my decade-long practice of intentionally unlearning and reconnecting, I shifted from unexamined indoctrination to active disruption, and found a path to liberation.

This path was full of people with experiences that shaped my own. These spark-igniters taught me how to shed old skin, release old labels, and change how I live and be with children, with myself, and with my work in the world.

If you asked me a decade ago what it meant to live, parent, facilitate, or build something, I might have given a robust chuckle followed by a few raw core truths. 

Today, after journeying through chapters of parenthood, decentering school, and disrupting monoliths in small and large group academic and corporate spaces, I've observed and examined this: Neither rigor, eloquence, the right book, nor the right teacher will save you or me from failing our children and not being able to fully see and hear each other in relationships. 

As an unschooling advocate and equity-centered organizational strategist, I saw, both in my own world and in the folks with whom I worked, barriers that got in the way of our capacities to speak up when we needed to, and to feel ease and trust with our processes and partnerships.

Running parallel to those barriers lived several invitations to unravel threads and unlock stories that lived unchallenged in our thoughts and actions. I want to contribute to more movements that encourage and facilitate these invitations.

Mainly because looking back to a nearby past, I see that both the barriers and invitations for me to trust that I was safe enough, good enough, and supported enough to allow myself to speak and be easy in my life have been my deepest education. 

And from the soil of those barriers and invitations, The Deep Lounge Place grew roots, a trunk, branches, and now fruit.

The Deep Lounge Place (DLP) is my moving meditation in support of parents, educators, and education entrepreneurs.

It is a where I tap into the six+ senses and my forever love of Deep House and Lounge music, in service of people who are raising children, educating families, and building safer spaces for learning and community-building to happen.

DLP is a unique membership offering that embodies more of my interests, passions, and language nestled at the core of what it means for me to speak and be easy.

The experience, mostly offered through paid and free experiences that are accessible online, includes a variety of musical, unschoolish, well-facilitated sessions and tastings that draw on the vibes of gatherings centering on food, music, and natural learning. 

In the words of Sophia from the Golden Girls, 

"Picture it"... a cozy, dimly lit lounge with dark colored walls and weighted deep red velvet curtains draped floor-to-ceiling throughout the space, creating a series of private yet open vignette seating areas. Each seating area represents an eclectic collection of second-hand furnishings and accessories that come in and out of focus through the flickering flames of candles and wall sconces. As you settle into your space, the soul-filled sounds of Afrobeats, Jazz, R&B, and House music spun by Philly’s best DJs become your evening's soundtrack, all while aromas of Soul Food light bites fill the air.

DLP is already live, because this post is the first public sharing of how I got here, and where I'm heading. 

I've also started a library of multi-media resources that offer insights into the types of learning experiences that DLP will embody and invite. More on that soon, along with the related Happy Hour events and various virtual tastings brewing for the months ahead.

Near the end of the year, I'll be hosting a live event to bring together the amazing thought leaders, spark-igniters, visionaries, and change and space-makers who visit Deep Lounge Place.