Lineage

“Lineage is both important for me to name, and impossible to track.”--adrienne maree brown

Family
Darlene Heuring (or Mops), my mother; Bill and Annis Heuring, my grandparents (their memory is a blessing); and all those unnamed or unknown

Partner
Jayden Phillips

Chosen Family
Colleen and Chris Wallace and Their Children, Caitlin, Big Dog, and Meghan; Emily Squires and Jess Perlitz and Their Children, Cohen and Ocean

Friends
Candace Glass, Christie Huck, Dylan Bracken, Kristen Trudo, Leila Flagg, Merlene Gilb, Sayer Johnson

Mentors, Sources of Transformation, and Teachers…some are repeated from above…and some I’ve never met: bell hooks, Candace Glass, Christie Huck, Deborah Bourbon, James Baldwin, Kim Brandon, Mary Randlett, Maya Angelou, Merlene Gilb, Morgan Keenan, Namadeva Acharya, Paul Foster Case, Rabbis Susan Talve and Randy Fleischer, Toni Morrison, and other who prefer not to be named

Teachers…those with whom I’ve worked, taught, and/or led and those from whom I’ve learned

Students…those I have taught from middle school through graduate school or have worked with in other ways and those from whom I have learned

Organizations, Institutions, and Other Experiences
Art2Life, Big Bend Yoga, Blessed Sacrament Elementary School, Central Reform Congregation, Critical Analysis of Race and Education Institute, Crossroads Anti-Racism Organizing and Training, Crossroads College Preparatory School, Honoring All Voices, Maryville University, National SEED Project, Parkway School District, Pathways, Klingenstein Heads of Schools Program (Columbia University), Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, Southeast Missouri State University, Southtown Yoga, Washington University in St. Louis, Webster Groves School District

Land and Labor

I express gratitude to the indiginous peoples and enslaved Africans who were stewards and builders of this land while also remembering the enduring legacy of colonialism, diaspora, and enslavement of the US government.

I acknowledge that I grew up in and currently occupy the traditional ancestral lands of the Wahzhazhe (Osage), Myaamia (Miami), Illiniwek (Illini), Chikashsha (Chickasaw), Ugahxpa (Quapaw), Sac and Fox, Shawnee, Otoe-Missouria, Baxoje (Ioway), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), and Ochethi Sakowin (Oglala Lakota) tribes.

I also acknowledge the enslaved Africans whose unpaid labor built Missouri during the colonial era and beyond with a legacy that continues to impact the lives of Black US Citizens today.