Mission Statement

Heart Light Action uses mindfulness awareness meditation and other contemplative practices in community-based educational settings to help people working for a better world realize their goals.

Vision

Bringing together people from diverse backgrounds, Heart Light uplifts conviction in the unconditional worthiness and potential of all human beings.

History

Heart Light began in October of 2023. It builds on earlier projects such as Bornworthy Arts (2008) which taught meditation, writing and leadership skills to incarcerated youth; Community Lab for Intentional Practice (2017) for community-based activists working on various issues including climate justice, anti-racism and mutual aid; Freedom Schools 360 (2018); and Abolitionist Restorative Justice Workshops (2019) which worked with people from various backgrounds focusing on ways to identify and repair the harm of institutional racism.

About Heart Light Founder and Lead Teacher, Dr. Damita Brown

Dr. Damita Brown specializes in practical applications of meditation practice to help people interrupt and dismantle racism and other misuses of power. As an undergraduate her scholarship focused on theories of power she worked feminist theorists Christine Distefano and Nancy Hartsock among others taking a deep interest in social change movements, Black feminist thought, postmodernism and socialism. Her decision to earn a doctorate was motivated by a desire to write about and apply her activism which began when she was teenager with her participation in a boycott of her junior high at age 13. Since then she has worked in CIvil Rights, environmental justice, LGBTQ rights, peace in the middle east, books not bars to end mass incarceration and access to health care movements. In graduate school she studied with Angela Davis, Donna Haraway, Clifford James, Cedric Robinson, Bettina Aptheker, David Anthony, June Jordan and Barbara Epstein among others. Brown holds a doctorate in History of Consciousness. She has taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, Mills College and numerous community-based settings.

During the last few years of her graduate work Brown began meditating. Her studies in Buddhism include attending Dharma retreats with HH the Dalai Lama, Thich Naht Hanh, Pema Chodron, Judy Lief and others. She has been practicing within the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Chogyam Trungpa for over 25 years.

Working within academic, non-profit, collective and co-op arenas, Dr. Brown developed and applied the contemplative social action approach at the institutional and interpersonal levels. In 2008 she shared the Born Worthy Workshop with incarcerated youth in California where she taught meditation, leadership and writing skills. In 2018 she developed the Community Lab for Intentional Practice (CLIP) which has been used in Iowa City Iowa and Madison, Wisconsin. She has applied the CLIP framework to support anti-racism among Climate Change activists and in restorative justice and abolitionist circles. In 2017/18 Brown developed Freedom School 360 which revamped that civil rights tradition invented in the 60s to address the harm of the Trump regime.

She teaches the 8-week course How to Practice Contemplative Anti-Racism online. In 2023 Brown created Heart Light Cards: Contemplation and Activities for Ending Racism in 2024 which provide a way for anyone interested in addressing how racism impacts them and taking responsibility for its impact of Black and Brown people to host anti-racism gatherings in their own homes. Currently she is working with a team of Black meditators to lead the first annual Our Power, Our Peace: Black Meditation Retreat which will be held in late April, 2026. She teaches (with a teaching team) the 8-week course How to Practice Contemplative Anti-Racism at least once a year.

Heart Light Advisory Board

Christopher Brown supports community-based education for adults and provides training in Life and Personal advancement strategies. He also facilitates the “Getting Ahead” curriculum as a part of the Bridges Out of Poverty program. In San Francisco, California at Delancey Street Foundation Brown served as a mentor, and trained people who wanted to make a positive change in their life while at the same time making a change in his own. Some of his specialties are fishing and writing poetry. He is happily married to Theresa Brown for 10 years.

Nandi Seboulisa is an inspired world traveler, activist, thinker, musician, ceramics worker, mother and longshoreman. Over the years they have been an activist in social justice movements dealing with racism, transphobia, police brutality, inequality and more. As a trauma survivor, they also lead workshops and support groups that help people find alternative coping skills in dealing with trauma and other problems. Currently they are active in their union to help overcome racism in the shipyards of the Northwest. Nandi has served on teaching team for two Contemplative Social Action courses. They have served on the Heart Light Action Board since 2023.

Michael Speraw is a longtime practitioner and 1st generation student of Chogyam Trungpa.  He has been a dedicated Shambhala community leader and mentor for over 40 years. He is also a successful businessman and father. Michael is happily married. He is an avid surfer and an excellent cook.