Already Free: A Weekend of Deep Looking and Transformation
January 16–18, 2026 | Sangha House NOLA
20–25 participants | 15 overnight | $10,000 Foundation for Louisiana NDORH Grant

Why We Gather
Grounding racial healing in contemplative and community practice.
We are always in a moment where honest conversations about race are necessary. Sangha House NOLA does not turn away from these conversations; they are the framework for our liberatory practices. Our vision, mission, purpose, and values are aligned so that this becomes who we are—the events we offer, the healing we do, and the lens through which our spiritual practice includes transformation and liberation.
As 2025 recipients of the Foundation for Louisiana’s National Day of Racial Healing grant, we are grateful for this continued support.
“On and off the cushion, practicing with intention, we embody a more just and compassionate world for all beings.” — from our Vision Statement
This transformational and impact retreat will ground our work for the year ahead, giving us what we need to move into 2026 with clarity, connection, renewed purpose, and deep gratitude for all that has been accomplished in 2025. It is for those who tirelessly show up to the work of deep looking, transformation, and healing, those who engage in racial healing and look deeply into its causes and conditions, healing themselves and others in the process.
This retreat will deepen and nurture the work they already do, allowing them to feel resourced, seen, and supported as they continue offering their time, skills, and devotion with open hearts. It acknowledges their ongoing care and uplifts their spirits, honoring the depth of their labor so that the work of Sangha House continues from a place of wholeness and shared strength.

What We Need
Rooting our practice in right relationship with land and community.
How we tend and listen to the land and its peoples is part of our daily spiritual practice, embodying the actions that sustain our interconnectedness. We practice with frameworks that deepen our capacity so that transformation and healing are possible, celebrating the ongoing work of dismantling and reimagining together.
Our core group carries this work tirelessly throughout the year. This funding will uplift and inspire the stewards who hold this vision, deepening our shared understanding of the land’s complexities and its call for healing, transformation, and the courage to be the change we wish to see.

What the Community Needs
Creating space for rest, renewal, and collective transformation.
The weight of systemic harm and the burdens of inequity continue to press upon our communities, and the call for rest, renewal, and collective healing grows ever more urgent. Through shared dialogue, rest, and retreats, we find joy and remember the excellence of our collective thriving as we transform our suffering. This collective work restores and inspires our communities and reaches outward to impact our neighbors, families, schools, places of worship, gatherings, and offerings, shaping the changes we wish to see.

What Sangha House Needs
Deepening our roots and evolving a model for others.
Sangha House seeks the support and collaboration of aligned organizations that believe in our capacity to bring our mission and vision to life as a lasting model of healing in action in Louisiana. Strengthening our roots will ensure the sustainability and permanence of this work in a region still healing from historical and systemic harm.
This support will allow us to deepen our annual healing retreat and evolve it into a replicable model that can guide and inspire other communities on their own paths of restoration and transformation.

Our Approach: How We Adapt NDORH Resources
Integrating contemplative, cultural, and land-based healing practices.
We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to engage in this work and to adapt the resources of the National Day of Racial Healing into our own practice in ways that reflect who we are, how we work, and how we serve our community.
Contemplative Practice as a TRHT Tool
Contemplative practice is a vital tool within Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation work and aligns with how we show up in the world. Our meditation practice helps us cultivate the capacity for deep looking and bearing witness to the causes and conditions that give rise to suffering and the intergenerational impacts of systemic harm.
Through mindfulness and deep listening, we create the foundation for dialogue and reflection on how we live in community and how these patterns appear in our daily lives. Mindful breathing helps us stay grounded in the present moment, while deep looking allows us to see clearly what we might otherwise turn away from.
These practices cultivate the inner capacity to hold truth, witness suffering, and remain present with the realities of racial and systemic harm. They nurture awareness, compassion, and courage, allowing us to meet one another and ourselves with understanding, accountability, and care.
Sacred Land Work
We adapt the NDORH conversation circles to include storytelling and the presence of the land. Our practice of walking meditation grounds us and connects us to listen deeply to the soil and its complexities, remembering and giving gratitude to those who have tended it and to its layered histories. Through our earth-touching practice and hands in the soil, we learn from and listen to the culture bearers who hold the stories, wisdom, and resilience of this place.
We honor the historical buildings that continue to reveal the spirit, memory, and truth of the land and its people. Some of the ways we do this include mindful movement, drumming, dance, and poetry as sacred expressions of remembrance, grounding, and liberation that bring the fullness of our cultural and spiritual practices into the circle.

We Honor Louisiana’s Specific History
Rooted in truth-telling and the healing of memory.
We honor Louisiana’s specific history by bowing in reverence to the sacred grounds of Bulbancha, the Place of Many Tongues. This land holds the layered legacies of Indigenous nations including the Chitimacha, Houma, Choctaw, Tunica-Biloxi, Natchez, Biloxi, Atakapa-Ishak, Caddo, Coushatta, and many more who continue to tend this land with wisdom and care. It also remembers the maroons who sought refuge in the swamps and cane fields, creating free Black communities rooted in resistance, survival, and spiritual strength.
The people of African descent who were brought to Louisiana through the transatlantic and domestic slave trades came from across the world, from the Bight of Benin, Kongo-Angola, the Bight of Biafra, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, the Windward Coast, the Gold Coast, and Mozambique. Among them were the Bambara, Mandinga, Wolof, Fulba, Nard, Mina Fon, Yoruba, Chamba, Ado Fon, Kongo, and many others whose brilliance, culture, and resilience continue to shape the story of this region.
The economies of sugar and cotton, cultivated through forced labor, fed global markets while extracting the lives and futures of generations. The Haitian Revolution reshaped this land, carrying the fire of freedom that still lives in Louisiana’s Creole languages, rituals, and rhythms. We remember the 1811 uprising along the German Coast, when enslaved Africans and Afro-Creoles rose in courage for freedom, echoing the call of the Haitian Revolution. The 7th Ward stands as a testament to Black self-determination and Creole brilliance, a living lineage of artistry, education, and collective care.
This land remembers the trafficking and forced labor of African and Afro-Indigenous peoples, the histories of displacement, forced removal, and survival, and the sacred creativity that continues to rise from it. Our practice begins here, in truth-telling, remembrance, and reverence. Through contemplative practice and racial healing, we listen to the land and to one another, acknowledging both harm and brilliance. We commit to the long work of repair, balance, and collective liberation, honoring all who have shaped this sacred ground and continue to call it home.

What This Makes Possible
Strengthening the capacity for community healing, leadership, and shared transformation.
Immediate (January 16–18):
15 Core Group members deepen their practice through TRHT frameworks and contemplative work.
20–25 people total experience the full weekend.
40–50 community members attend Sunday’s public gathering and learn about ongoing TRHT work at Sangha House.
Everyone receives Ruth King's Mindful of Race to continue the practice.
Seeds planted for ongoing work.
How we will measure impact:
Reflections will be gathered through circle dialogue, community journaling, and storytelling documentation. Participant feedback and collective reflections will be used to assess growth, healing, and next steps, ensuring that the work continues to evolve in reciprocity with the community’s needs.

Budget Breakdown
Stewarding resources with transparency and intention.
Documentation & Shared Learning: $400
Community journaling materials, photography, and storytelling documentation for Foundation for Louisiana shared learning report.
Adjusted Contingency: $300
Total Budget Remains: $10,000
All other categories remain as written.

First Year / Ongoing Impact
We held our first Already Free retreat last year, sustained by our own community in a small yet deeply impactful way. This experience affirmed the power of coming together to witness, heal, and transform. With continued support, we will make this an annual gathering that strengthens our capacity to serve, teach, and hold space for collective liberation.
We will continue serving 150–200 people each month with renewed clarity and compassion. Our Core Group will integrate what they have learned into every circle and offering, deepening Sangha House as a trusted home for racial healing and contemplative practice in Louisiana.
We strengthen trust and collaboration with the Foundation for Louisiana and others who align with our work, building lasting relationships that sustain community transformation. This work restores belonging, reduces isolation, and builds intergenerational resilience across the 7th Ward, ensuring that healing continues to ripple outward for years to come.

Economic and social ripple effect:
This work strengthens the living networks of care that hold the 7th Ward and affirms our staying power as a community rooted in service, trust, and love. It restores the flow of collaboration among neighbors, families, and local partners, weaving relationships that sustain community life. The practices we cultivate in mindfulness, deep listening, and shared stewardship support social and economic resilience by fostering belonging, stability, and collective responsibility. Through this, we nurture the cultural and spiritual foundations that allow our community to heal, thrive, and continue shaping a liberating future together.

In recognition of July as the National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Acknowledging the unique mental health challenges that people of color face as they go through their daily activities of living. Exploring management options to help empower them in living life successfully. Theme is “ Thriving Through Life’s Transitions! “

Join us for an evening of dialogue, desserts and doodling. The event is free and open to the public.

Voices in the Dark Repertory Theatre Company presents "Anne & Emmett," a reading directed by Tommye Myrick with Catherine Holmes, Mosiah Chartock, Australia James, and Jim Holmes. Free admission.

Join us for a free community event featuring breathwork and meditation, yoga and dance, food and more.

Transform your story into community power! Join us for an evening of connection, healing, and shared experiences. Enjoy dinner on us, bring the kids (free childcare!), and connect with neighbors. Spanish interpretation available.

Join us for community conversations around racial healing and progress in the community through collective engagement and action. This will not only be a conversation but a chance to utilize your energy and efforts for strategic actions toward progress. Food will be served.

Join us for a day of racial healing!

We'll have conversations, games, color stations available for you to unplug, connect, and heal.

In partnership with Our Voice Nuestra Voz and Dream House Wellness Foundation, this event is intended to build solidarity and love amongst our communities.

We invite you to join us for the National Day of Racial Healing: Towards Equity and Racial Justice in Health

Join the DC Department of Health for a Creative Coffeehouse event grounding and honoring the National Day of Racial Healing. This day is a time for us to reflect on our shared values, history, and culture. Let’s work together to create the canvas for #HowWeHeal from the effects of racism. It's an opportunity to unite, share stories, and inspire collective action to build common ground for a more just and equitable world.

The National Day of Racial Healing calls on colleges and universities across the country to engage in activities, events, or strategies that promote healing and foster engagement around the issues of racism, bias, inequity, and injustice in our society. Students, faculty, staff and community members will come together to discuss how to create a more just and equitable world.