Today on Wednesday, September 8, the world celebrates International Literacy Day. Proclaimed in 1966 by UNESCO, the UN writes that this day is a reminder of the importance of “for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies.”
In observance of this day, Change Matrix (CM) Founding Partners Suganya Sockalingam, PhD; Elizabeth Waetzig, JD; and Rachele Espiritu, PhD have compiled a list of their four must-read books this fall.
Suganya:
1.”Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces” by Karen Catlin
Reading this makes me realize that everyone can be an ally. It is not just the role that has been designated to our white Caucasian counterparts in our organizations, our systems, our communities. Ms. Catlin offers practical strategies to address inclusion and belonging every day, everywhere. This book can serve as a guide to leaders addressing equity because it helps us understand the “what” that gets in the way of diversity and equity in the workplace and learn ways to dismantle the privilege, power, bias, microaggressions, and “isms” that undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Elizabeth:
2. “Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age” by Juana Bordas
This book is centered on nine principles of an approach to leadership in service of a multicultural community. Based upon historic, collective practices in Black, Latina, and Indigenous cultures, Bordas offers a profound contrast to the white-dominated approach to leading from a more individualist construct to these principles focused on the community and motivated by justice. I recommend this book as it both affirms and informs our CM approach to leadership that is grounded in a shared approach, engages diverse voices, and seeks to identify and address adaptive work where beliefs and values are at the heart of the change. Our work is to explore ways in which we can continue to adapt our leadership and our support of leaders to be fully inclusive in service of our collective well-being.
Rachele:
3. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
and
4. Microaggressions in Everyday Life by Derald Wing Sue and Lisa Beth Spanierman
We strive to be trauma-informed and equity-driven in most of CM’s work and initiatives. As such, I am reading these two books that allow me to further explore the intersection between racism in America and trauma that our body experiences. Everyone in America, regardless of our background or skin color, has biases and therefore experiences microaggressions, and nearly everyone carries trauma in our bodies around the myth of race, microaggressions, and micro-assaults. Our bodies hold knowledge that goes so much deeper than our cognitive brains. We hold our biases, fears, our hopes, and our deepest emotions in our bodily structures — a complex system of nerves that connects everything together. I’m so fascinated by this. I’m looking forward to learning more about ways to mend trauma in our nervous systems and tools for healing that can be used in communities.
