Grounded Knowledge Panels
Notes From Witnesses
"I didn’t just witness… You brought us in the front door, into the metaphorical living room, and gave us a seat right in the middle of four spiritual giants. I felt absolutely invited, and very, very moved.” (February 2022)
“I was laughing, talking back to the screen and holding the laptop close to my face. I felt like I was in the conversation with you. What a powerful group.” (February 2022)
“I felt alive, refreshed, joyful, hopeful, and like like I was among heart-friends, old friends, like I was sitting at a long table enjoying a nourishing meal in person during this conversation. I feel nourished, loved, and known by like-minded friends.” (April 2021)
“I enjoyed the camaraderie and humor between the panelists. There were many examples of striving to learn alongside students, mentor them, and see them.” (April 2021)
“When I tuned in, it felt like coming home. Here were brilliant, deeply caring, deeply committed educators, letting their whole hearts show. This is what Education NEEDS to be.” (April 2021)
“No matter how many books I read, when I meet folks like you & you share from your life in real time, it opens me up in ways that books don't quite, b/c I fall in love with you a little bit during the panel & then I care very, very deeply about what is happening to you, my friends, & I want urgently to act for change right now in our community” (October 2021)
“It was so open and accepting and healing to listen to. I wish I could talk and be around this positive energy every day at work.” October 2021
“I found it inspiring overall - another reminder that I need to find a way to be better, to teach my children to be better. It was a reminder that my learning never stops.I simply wish for more. I could have listened for longer, and wish these panels happened more often.” October 2021
“I was emotional in the beginning. I felt waves of relief and gratitude washing over me as the tears fell. It felt good/healthy/vital/empowering to see a panel of people of color. I hadn't experienced this opportunity/format before and I felt honored to serve as a listener and witness.”October 2021
“I noticed feeling very emotional and tearful at times with empathy and sometimes shame at hearing personal stories and reflections about how race has shaped individuals lives-- racial bullying, being willing to die so that one could exist more freely in the world, “Vitamin B.” I also realized how much work the panelists had done and how deeply they had explored their own experiences and their cultural identities, and how community was so important. I also thought how little work I had done on myself -- how little confrontation of limiting beliefs, how much accepted or taken for granted-- and how that was a missed opportunity that panelists, perhaps having gone there to reconcile pain and trauma, were emerging in such deep, authentic ways that inspired me to do better.” October 2021
“I thought about how powerful it was to witness and listen deeply, and how open panelists had to be to allow for me to witness. That the invitation of the unknown or uncontrolled (drawing a prompt from the bowl) led to resonance across topics and surprising/new answers from the panelists themselves-- contributed to the authenticity and dynamic nature. Every panelist modeled such self-awareness and generosity in how they participated and how they took up space in the panel. Impressive.” October 2021
“When I tuned in, it felt like coming home. Here were brilliant, deeply caring, deeply committed educators, letting their whole hearts show. This is what Education NEEDS to be.” (April 2021)
“I didn’t just witness... You brought us in the front door, into the metaphorical living room, and gave us a seat right in the middle of four spiritual giants. I felt absolutely invited, and very, very moved.” (February 2022)
A Healing Exchange
A Grounded Knowledge Panel™ is a public conversation by a small group of people who have practical, authentic, and personal experience and understanding of a particular topic or question. While the Grounded Knowledge Panelists converse among themselves, the audience members (“witnesses” in the GKP model) observe the discussion, thus both groups—panelists and witnesses—bring a distinctive power and depth to the experience of speaking and listening.
The public Grounded Knowledge Panel™ comes about after several pre-GKP sessions in which we guide panelists through conversation to increasingly deeper levels of engagement with a theme or issue. We also help the panelists–through mediation and consultation–come to a mutual agreement regarding their level of safety, privacy, openness and discourse. In this way, and through a culture of consent, the public conversation is especially rich and meaningful.
A Grounded Knowledge Panel™ is a potent vehicle for the amplification of different perspectives and feelings, especially those that have been silenced or marginalized. A GPK creates the capacity for deeper engagement, healing, and community because of the profound need humans have to connect to each other through testimony and storytelling. Grounded Knowledge Panels provide a warm invitation into that connection.
A public conversation by a small group of people who have practical, authentic, and personal experience and understanding of a particular topic or question.
Dr. Valerie Joseph, Ph.D.
Director and Owner, Grounded Space Consulting
Smith College AEMES Mentoring Administrative Director
I am a fearless approacher of interesting strangers, a bemused receiver of unsolicited secrets, a generous appreciator of unusual and usual stories. I love to have conversations with all kinds of people and I am insatiably curious about who we are as human beings and why we do what we do. I follow closely the worlds of social justice, mediation, movement therapy, anthropology, African and Caribbean Diasporic studies, and Critical Race Theory. I’ve operated all my life on a need to know basis, which for me means that everything about which I have an energetic fascination, I simply need to know more.
Donna Mejia, M.F.A.
CU BoulderAssociate Professor
Chancellor’s Scholar in Residence for the Crown Wellness Institute
I am a multi-heritage artist and scholar fascinated by our emerging global citizenship, and the individual ways we navigate and heal our beautiful and complex world. I am devoted to the generous sharing and upliftment of our inner lives in tandem with our pursuits, relationships, and choices. I follow closely the worlds of artful expression, cultural collisions and diplomacy, pedagogy, African and Arabian Diasporic studies, mindfulness and contemplation, stewardship of our ecosystems, trauma-informed somatics, yoga, and brave truth-telling. I find myself utterly in love with our world, and eager to witness and learn from everyone I encounter.
“I was laughing, talking back to the screen and holding the laptop close to my face. I felt like I was in the conversation with you. What a powerful group.” (February 2022)
Panelists
Our panelists have distinguished themselves as individuals who are extraordinarily devoted to the compassionate and dignifying upliftment of others, especially those in under-served, under-valued, and under-seen communities. Their leadership, communication, and work ethic have brought forth critical under-truths that question and challenge conventional understandings and strategies for change. Their breakthroughs have galvanized incredible transformations in and beyond their own communities. The Crown Institute is honored to support the GKP framework and is deeply aligned with the intent and skillful attention given to both speakers and witnesses. It is a powerful model of communal healing and reflects the values that guide all of the Crown Institute work.
Witnesses
Our post-event survey is a continuation of the intentional and curated experience. Our questions to witnesses are full of significance, and include highly personal prompts. Interestingly, by taking this approach, we have received up to a 70% return rate on some programs and very generous, lengthy, and detailed comments. Our communications to witnesses before asking them to complete a post- event questionnaire takes a special tone:
Thank you so very much for attending Wednesday’s Grounded Knowledge PanelTM and listening deeply to our panelists. We received unsolicited comments from witnesses who appreciated the vulnerability and candor of our panelists. We understand that sitting with silence while panelists speak from their hearts constitutes a kind of communal holding among courageous individuals. We also value your perspective. We would be honored to hear from you about your witness experience during the panel, and any topics you would like addressed in the future through this format. We would appreciate your responses to our questions. Please note that unlike customary post-event surveys, the Grounded Knowledge Panel survey is not anonymous, and therefore constitutes a mutual, sacred trust.
A Grounded Knowledge Panel is an opportunity to explore issues that momentarily unsettle us and press us to evolve as a community. There is healing work to be done, and sharing the effort elevates us to our highest collective potential. Please share your thoughts with us.
Past Grounded Knowledge Panel™ Themes
In the Shadow of Violence: Enacting Hope, Healing, and Futurity during the Attacks on CRT (7/10/23)
Code Switching: Negotiating the Field of Black Survival, Assimilation, Cultural Memory, and the Liberation of Being Real
The Arts as Relationship, Restoration, and Resistance (4/25/23)
Activators of Change, A Visit with Community Leaders (9/29/21)
Compassion and Dignity in Education (April 8, 2021)
Emerging Masculinities: Evolving Beyond Toxic Conventions, Binaries and Paradigms (3/9/21)
What I learned from the Toughest Conversation I’ve Had (11/18/20)
Negotiating Cultural Collisions in the Classroom (9/17/20)