Spiritual Activism: Dreaming Other Worlds

Social justice work requires us to imagine a world that doesn’t yet exist, and channel that into acts of creation. Join Shige Sakurai (they/them) and Ron Padrón (he/him) to discuss spirituality for social change. This workshop will discuss notions such as channeling the liminality of marginalized identities, past and present social justice demonstrations both implicitly and explicitly magical, justice work and ancestor work as intimately connected, and the idea of “spiritual activism” as put forward by queer Chicana author Gloria Anzaldúa. Attendees will be challenged to reflect on how their own identities and magic show up in social justice work.

About the Presenter:

Ron Padrón (he/him/his) is a gay Cuban-American folk witch from the swamps of Florida now living in the mid-Atlantic with his husband and their small cryptid dog. He has been a member the pagan community for nearly two decades with specific interests in divination, Queer Ancestor veneration and necromancy, hedge witchery, and social justice activism. He is the creator of White Rose Witching through which he manages a blog sharing Queer Ancestor Spotlights and rituals, and hosts workshops across a variety of topics. He has been a contributor to CoffeeTable Coven magazine sharing reflections on the politics of colonial witchcraft and examples of his personal practice of queer ancestor veneration. He has also presented locally at Hallowed Homecoming and as a guest speaker for local pagan groups, historic sites, and small museums.

Shige Sakurai (they/them) is a social justice leader with international and national accolades. They are a Unitarian Universalist with atheist, Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian heritages, and involvement in Druidry. Shige is the founder of International Pronouns Day and has spoken on issues of pronouns, activism, and nonbinary identities. Shige has conducted hundreds of speaking engagements in dozens of cities globally, including at or for 40+ universities, such as UCLA, Georgetown, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, NYU, University of Southern California, and University of Michigan. Sakurai has been interviewed by media around the world, including USA Today, Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, CBS News, MTV, El País, NHK, and France Télévisions.

*This class is part of the General Admission & Saturday 8/14/21 Day Pass registrations, if you are interested in attending all of the events during this festival, or all of the events offered on Saturday 8/14/21, please select the appropriate registration type on our Events & Registration page.*

**Attendees will have access to this recording until the end of 2021 - class recording links will be emailed to attendees within 7 business days of the conclusion of the festival. To protect the IP of our presenters, class recordings will not be downloadable.**

***Your class link will be emailed to you in your confirmation email. If you have not received your registration confirmation email within 24 hours please email info@salemsummersymposium.com***

****PLEASE NOTE: We cannot guarantee that any class registration within 24 hours of the class start time will be admitted to the livestreaming of the class. You will however receive the class recording link within 7 business days of the conclusion of the festival and will have access to the recording for the remainder of 2021****