Hello Beautiful Humans!

We had a Ball last week in Bushnell Park at Bonanza 2025 and got to meet many KCC folks in real life; thanks for stopping by!

Kamora's Cultural Corner was literally on the corner of the Community Village and our area was full of art, conversation, community and connection. Khalik Jackson (LionsPassion) held down the information piece for most of the day and Jessee Munez Poland came and offered free tarot readings.

Lots of folks stopped by to share joy, get a light-up bracelet or ring or hear about who we are and what we’re doing. We held space, celebrated everything that there was to celebrate, and reminded folks that Black Art Heals and community is not a service — it’s a way of life. As a matter of fact, Syreeta White was running the Saturday food giveaway at Sterling Street during Bonanza and we were able to send some folks over to her for dinner!

And, if you were saw my Facebook Live from the next morning - “Hartford's gonna Hartford.”

Our youth showed up in full force, and while their presence was beautiful and powerful, it was clear that they need more: more joy, more structure, and more love-based engagement that centers them and their well-being.

So, as a member of Hartford's America 250 team, I've created a proposal for centering our youth and our City and our many diverse communities that can get us talking and shifting the narrative on how we address youth 'exuberance' (I love this word in this context!)

If you're inclined, please take a few minutes to look it over and think about it. Over the next few months we’ll be talking about what we saw, what we learned, and how Kamora’s Cultural Corner is preparing to support America 250. What I'm sharing here is the beginning of what I hope will lead to a wonderfully historic and phenomenally enjoyable event! (Next year's Hartford Bonanza will be Connecticut's America 250 statewide celebration) not just as an event, but as a moment to address and change how we view and engage with young people in this city. If you would like to meet or discuss this further, please contact me at Kamora@Kamorasculturalcorner.com

Tomorrow Saturday, July 13th, we welcome a volunteer group from Freedom City Church to the Sterling Street Sanctuary and Nature Reserve from 11am–1pm.



They’ll be supporting our food giveaway and helping in the garden — and it’s their first time with us!

If you’ve volunteered before or just want to connect, bring water to drink and come join us and help us welcome and introduce them to our Beautiful and Brave Space.

On Monday, July 15th at 6pm, we’re inviting all KCC members and volunteers to join us at Sterling Street for a conversation with Lissette Andino from Eversource.

She’ll be discussing Eversource’s new Electric Discount Rate as part of their “Let’s Talk Energy” community engagement effort.

Starting on Wednesday, July 31st, I’ll be offering a free Somatic Abolition & Mindfulness

Drop-In Series through a partnership with the Hartford Public Library.

We’ll start at the Park Street Branch on July 31st and conclude at the Albany Branch on September 10th.

Each of the seven sessions will focus on one chakra, beginning with the Root Chakra and culminating with the Crown Chakra.

Sessions are intentionally designed to foster community care, reflection, and somatic practice as resistance and liberation work. Participants will be guided through the VIMBASI method and will experience a reflective walk in our labyrinth. Come settle in, breathe, and learn some practical ways to navigate the world that we live in while creating the one we imagine.

Fall Book & Somatic Abolitionist Discussion Group – Registration Now Open

Our 12-week series, “Finding Cultural Humility within My Grandmother’s Hands,” begins September 24th and meets weekly through December 17th.

We can’t think our way out of the ism’s, we need to check-in with our bodies and minds and slow down. We can easily temporarily change behavior, but the revolution of transformation is in the pause when we can reflect and connect.

We cannot just study and think our way through the effects of racism; the charge and effects of race are contained in the body. Somatic Abolitionism is a living, embodied philosophy—a way of being in the world. It is a return to the age-old wisdom of human bodies respecting, honoring, and resonating with other human bodies.  

This series brings together community members familiar or interested in somatic abolitionism to read and work through My Grandmother's Hands together as a group as well as in smaller cohorts .

Many of our members and clients have read the book, but truly it is in relationship to one another, in a communal space, where we are able to utilize our individual gifts and privileges with others that allows for a much deeper emergence of the true healing potential that can live through us and extend into our communities.

This year we’re excited to add a fictional companion to our fall series: James, the 2024 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism winner. James is recommended but optional for the class.



I’m proud to have served on the selection committee that named James the first novel ever to receive this honor. Traditionally this prize has recognized a work of non-fiction; last year Dr. Bettina L. Love won for her book Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal and two years ago I was honored to interview/have a conversation with the 2023 winner, Dr. Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice. The Stowe Prize recognizes authors who write books that illuminate a critical social justice issue through their writing. It is my belief that when empathy and imagination are essential, fiction can help us feel and imagine what we need to shift in how we see the world.

Member and couple discounts available, please ask.