FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
‘Stoke Your Woke’ Creators
to Facilitate Circle Session
Author, designer promote soulful exploration, deep listening
June 20, 2018
BEND, Oregon — What does it mean to wake up, to become vividly aware of one’s connection to nature and humanity? How does it feel to wake up to one’s place in a gravely unequal society? To the weight of one’s carbon footprint on a fragile planet? And when we awaken, what then? How do we manifest that experience in building a more just, sustainable world?
Carol Delmonico and Casey Davis, co-creators of the interactive journal “Stoke Your Woke,” will explore those questions at a circle session at the Downtown Bend Library, 507 NW Wall St., on July 25. The free session will run from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Participation is limited to 25. To register, click on the event in the library’s online calendar.
Using thought-provoking prompts, quotes and images, participants will reflect on what it means to wake up — and to put one’s woke to work. The session will provide a safe, encouraging space in which to write, share and listen deeply. Diverse perspectives will be heard with respect and empathy.
The facilitators will provide a cheat sheet on how to “Stoke Your Woke.” Books will be available for sale.
Written by Delmonico and designed by Davis, “Stoke” is an interactive journal meant to facilitate spiritual awakening and social transformation. The book is packed with questions that stimulate thought, discovery, revelation, discussion and connection. It’s designed to be used both individually and in group settings.
Beyond waking up to racism, patriarchy, economic inequality and the damage done by mindlessly squandering natural resources, Delmonico and Davis encourage their reader-participants to growup — to build a better world, to live their lives in accordance with their most cherished values.
The book was published in March. The creators have sold nearly 100 copies of their first run of 225. Copies can be ordered through stokeyourwoke.com.
Delmonico says “Stoke” grew out of her long commitment to promote understanding by encouraging sincere revelation and empathetic listening.
“I believe we can be better,” she says. “The way we can be better is together — in the depths of conversation, by hearing people speak their truth. We’re missing out on the people who haven’t been heard.”
The journal, and the associated circle sessions the teammates facilitate, prompt readers to reflect on the ways in which they contribute to the state of the world — and the state of the world to come.
“We have to think not just of ourselves but beyond our own lifetimes,” she says. “We have been enculturated to not think beyond the next six months, or the next year, when we make decisions. We have to think outside of our own time. That’s why we ask those two questions: ‘What would our great-grandmothers say?’ and ‘What would our great-grandchildren say?’ To get us to extend both backwards and forwards, so we can get a bigger view of life.”
Citing Ken Wilber, an author who has influenced her significantly, Delmonico says waking up is an intellectual challenge as well as a spiritual experience.
“What Wilbur says is that in the spiritual world, the ‘woke’ part is the experience of being woke — feeling connected to others, to the trees, to the universe,” she says. “But the intellectual part of spirituality requires taking action. It’s taking the experience and actually extending the mind out further. If I can feel that connection, what do I do to take that connection to change my own consciousness to see the world through a wider lens?”
Greater clarity is a spur to more mindful action, Delmonico says.
“It’s ‘wake up’ and then ‘grow up,’ ” she says. “Growing up means I have to take care of somebody other than myself. That’s adulting. That means being ready to sometimes sacrifice something for the greater good.”
No one can make that shift alone, she says.
“Growing up is hard work,” she says. “ ‘Stoke Your Woke’ is one way people can do it — one way to connect more deeply with themselves, to connect more deeply with a community who want to do the work with them.”
Delmonico and Davis are available for interviews in advance of the circle session.
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