The Labor of Love
Hi and Welcome to KAMORA’S CULTURAL CORNER!
I’ve been doing this thing called life for a bit now and somewhere along the way developed a life mission of “existing to create spaces where families are free to love their children”, which sound wonderfully lofty, and is, but requires concrete work; a great deal of this work is the soul work that doesn’t have a funding stream. This is where you come in.
As someone who worked in the non-profit world for a VERY long time, I realized that the that need to prove to funders that your work has been effective often created places where we had to do work that might not make life-long changes, but would definitely fit nicely into the 12 month grant cycle.
Over the last few years, Kamora’s Cultural Corner just happened…on my back porch, I live on a corner, it just happened. From my own workshops and trainings and consultations, it became real.
Anyway, in 2019 the Kabbalah House reached out and offered me the chance to give the KCC a physical location (outside of my back porch) and I jumped! AND I couldn’t do it by myself. Luckily, while I’ve been doing this thing called life, my path has crossed, intersected and joined with amazing humans. I was able to pull together a truly diverse group of humans from all of my various communities and look forward to bringing in even more wonderful humans who are looking forward to Holding Space & Building Community!
SO now we are here, ready to jump up and do the damn thing!
What is the damn thing? A lot. We approach cultural humility through a Black Queer perspective and create and navigate Brave Spaces with the intention of building and supporting organic community connections. How do we do this? Just watch. You’ll love what you see!
At Kamora’s Cultural Corner we meet you where you are in order to help facilitate the difficult conversations that far too many of us find are getting in the way of authentic relationships.
While all of our engagements are unique. Our core workshops focus on cultural humility, race and racism, diversity, inclusion, queer family dynamics and coming-out, all with an intersectional lens.
We work with individual, families, and other groups interested in being part of a society where we don’t share all of the same values and beliefs, but where we are all committed to a healthy and diverse society.
We will design the workshop or program that will facilitate the growth you are looking for or we might just have a conversation that will get you there.
For more information or to schedule a consultation, please email: Kamora@Kamorasculrualcorner.com
Our Individual Memberships allow you to get in where you fit in
Your Corporate or Non-profit membership will allow your corporation to participate in our community programming including workshops and activities that will lead to the creation of organic, inclusive environments that we will support. Depending on your membership level you will have opportunities for private consultations, use of meeting and activity space, custom trainings, monthly Cultural Humility conversations and regular group trainings.
Corporate/Non-Profit Memberships
FAQ
What is cultural humility?
Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are.
Why is your approach from a black queer perspective?
Because we are Black and queer. LOL, we are naming our approach as an Afrocentric Black and Queer approach in the understanding that the majority of community spaces are Eurocentric white cisgender heterosexual spaces, without the words attached.
Here at the KCC we name our approach because:
A) We’re proud of who we are, where we came from and how those paths shaped us.
B) As old current and emerging research (and every day observations) shows, not only do Black children thrive when cared for and educated by other Black folks, ALL students benefit from education provided by Black teachers.
C) We believe that all people can benefit from participating in and being exposed to new and diverse ways of being. In Black queer culture you will find love and acceptance and an understanding of extended family that extends beyond our queerness and through our Blackness. We’ve played with gender and sexuality since we’ve been and be it Mom’s Mabley or Bessie Smith or RuPaul or Billy Porter, we push the envelope beautifully and with style.
What do you mean by brave space?
Brave Space is where we need to be in order to do the real work of creating community. Safe spaces are necessary places of refuge and we see the KCC as providing that much of the time. However we are stepping into Brave Space by inviting all of the various individuals within our larger communities to come and engage with each other; to share ideas, beliefs and concepts with the understanding that other folks in the rooms and spaces that we create may have vastly different ideas and even core values. Brave Spaces allow us to challenge our own fundamental beliefs by listening to and engaging with other human beings.
Is Kamora's Cultural Corner a non-profit?
NO! The KCC is located in Hartford, CT; a mid-sized capital city with far too many state and federal buildings as well as churches and non-profits are exempt from property taxes. This is not a problem unique to our community, this is an issue for every capital city in our nation and we see the negative effects in our schools, in our infrastructure and in the dwindling city services. We could not, in good conscience come in and remove more property from the tax rolls while saying that we are supporting and building community.
Taxes in our capital city are extremely high, so we actively solicit sponsorships and donations. Please contact us if you are interested in discussing ways to help us support community without removing tax dollars from our community.
How does a membership benefit me and my community?
Welcome to practicing Brave Space! Membership at the KCC means having access to members only events created to being diverse cross-sections of humans together. It means supporting and receiving discounts and benefits from our community partners. It means strengthening the connections with our community partners.
Members get to engage with our community partners through book clubs, community meals and conversations and movies designed to further our work in strengthening community. The connections and collaborations that are already being created between our members and partners are beautiful, and we’re just getting started!