THE SUBVERSIVE PRACTICE
Subversive Sojourns
Receiving the inheritance our ancestors built.
Journeys for leaders, anchored by one immersive day in a city where freedom was practiced before it was permitted. We walk the ground where our ancestors built a third way. We make art. We share a long, beautiful meal. And the cohort keeps holding us, in gatherings before and after, so we go home changed and stay changed.
WHY WE SOJOURN
Our Ancestors Left Us Blueprints
Long before this moment, freedom communities across centuries and continents were quietly answering the same questions we are asking now.
How do we share power?
How do we take care of each other?
How do we resolve what cannot be resolved?
How do we stay free?
The 1838 free Black community of Philadelphia built a housing system, a financial system, an employment system, and a network of safe passage. All at once. The Maroons of Jamaica refused enslavement and built sovereign communities in the mountains for generations. The Beguines. Palmares. The Saramaka. The Zapatistas.
Different centuries. Different continents. The same blueprint, drawn again and again.
We do not need to invent a third way. We need to remember the ones our people already made.
When the present feels impossible, the ancestors are a lighthouse.
THE SHAPE OF THE DAY
A Sojourn in Four Movements
The day is the embodied heart of every Sojourn. Around it, each cohort travels a longer journey together, gathering virtually before we arrive and after we leave.
Morning
We witness.
A guided tour through the sites where the story was made. We stand on the ground where our ancestors built something against the odds.
Midday
We rest.
Lunch on our own or together. A pause to let what we just witnessed settle.
Afternoon
We make.
Art together. Paint, paper, collage, prompts. We process what came up through our hands before we try to find words for it.
Evening
We gather.
A long table. A beautiful meal. The real conversation about what we want to build next.
HOW OUR INTENTIONS GUIDE WHAT WE BUILD
Every Sojourn is created to witness ancestral blueprints.
Each Sojourn happens in a place that holds a story worth walking through.
Each one is created with a collaborator rooted in that city, someone who knows the ground and the people.
Each one invests in the local businesses that make the day possible. The tour company. The museum. The caterer. The bookshop. This is part of the practice.
Each one is anchored by a theme that connects the community's story to a question we are all carrying right now.
Each one is intentionally small. So the conversation can be real.
WHAT YOU TAKE WITH YOU
Three things, carried with you.
People.
Most participants are local to the city. The relationships you build can keep building after the day is over.
Ideas.
Inspiration that travels home and shows up in your work weeks later. The kind of thinking that only happens when you put your body in a new place.
Lineage.
The sense that you are part of something already underway. That what you are trying to build has been built before. That you are not alone.
THE 2026-2027 SEASON
The Sojourns are traveling.
WHO IS AT THE TABLE
This is for leaders who are tired of being told the choices in front of them are the only ones.
People who want to think alongside others who are also trying to live like another world is possible.
Anyone who has ever read about a freedom community and felt a quiet jolt of recognition. Yes. That. More of that.
You do not need to be an expert in any of this. You need to be willing to walk, to make, to eat, and to talk honestly with the people at the table.
A NOTE FROM ALLI
I am building Subversive Sojourns because I am so inspired by the people who have created freedom communities across history. And I want to walk through their stories with you.
This journey is about intentional witnessing and honoring the people who came before us. In the cities where the work happened. With the people who carry it forward. Over food. With our hands in paint. Telling the truth about what we want to build next.
If that sounds like something your spirit needs, come.
— Alli
The next sojourn is in Philadelphia
Friday, August 28. Sovereignty and Solidarity.
Want a taste before you commit? Join us for Freedom Fridays, a free live series running July 10 through August 7