Happy Black History Month Reader!
My friend Necole reminds me to keep saying that everywhere I go, so there you go. Now you've been reminded too.
A little over a month ago (for my 53rd birthday), we gathered for the first HUMAN. Stories.
I've been sitting with what it takes for people to speak honestly in a room full of other people. Not just the courage to tell a story, but the conditions that make it possible to tell it without bracing for harm. That doesn’t happen by accident. Someone has to decide to create that kind of room, and others have to decide to trust it.
Frameworks only matter if people can feel them in real life. I want the HUMAN framework to live in the same mental space as the tools people already use to make decisions (like SMART goals). Not as language to memorize, but as a practice to return to.
HUMAN. Stories. is one way that practice shows up. Honesty in what gets said. Urgency in choosing to speak now. Meaningfulness in why the story matters. Accountability in how we listen and respond. Nuance in letting stories be complex, unfinished, and human.
This is the work I keep trying to do. Creating rooms, moments, and platforms where people do not have to perform their humanity. They can just show up with it.
I’m sharing the full video from that first gathering below. It captures the voices in the room and the spirit of what we are building together.