What we do
We are devoted to getting free, and that is work we do together.
To leap into a future rich with collective wellbeing, we must pick up the mantle of freedom from our abolitionist ancestors. Not the individualistic freedom of America’s founding mythologies, but the interdependent liberation described by Fannie Lou Hamer, who reminded us: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
We know we belong to each other in our boldest political imaginings. But unless we are tapped into the reality of our interdependence, we risk continuing to direct our energies at short-sighted, reactive, and siloed approaches that will fail to bring us any closer to the world we deserve.
Freedom’s Revival is Next River’s foundational body of work, laying the bedrock for a transformation in America’s cultural beliefs in, aspirations for, and behaviors of freedom over the long term.
Research
Freedom’s Revival: Research from the Headwaters of Liberation
Freedom’s Revival: Research from the Headwaters of Liberation is an inquiry into freedom and its possibilities. It seeks to explore the freedom that is central to all our struggles for justice, equality, and our planet’s survival. It seeks to recover a freedom unlike the one that has taken root in the United States.
Elements of Interconnected Freedom
Mutuality - The collective cares for the collective.
Pragmatic faith - Trusting the universe to care for us, as we care for others.
Embodiment - The body remembers the way to freedom.
Transformation - Becoming the people who can build a free world.
Next River developed this field guide in collaboration with Ground Works Consulting.
Workshops
Freedom’s Revival Workshops
Rooted in research, our Freedom’s Revival workshops provide a dynamic and immersive experience of interconnected freedom to reawaken a sense of possibility and shift our thinking as we navigate this moment and move toward a future that meets the moment while also being deeply accountable to ourselves, our communities, our constituents, and our descendants.
Upcoming Experiences
Experience our Freedom’s Revival workshop first-hand. Join our free online workshop on
Tuesday, October 14th at 6pm PT.
Sign up now to reserve your spot.
Our Offerings
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An adaptable, accessible format ranging from 60 minutes to two hours
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That in the room magic with 90 minute, half-day, full day, or multi-day options available
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In-person experiences complemented with a series of virtual workshops
Our modular workshops introduce the framework of interconnected freedom and its four elements: mutuality, pragmatic faith, the experiential, and transformation. The workshops lean into somatic practices and connected experiences that help participants to unearth their own inherent knowledge of interconnected freedom, attune to it in their lives, and locate their work within it.
Each workshop is tailored to the specific needs of the participants and collaborators and includes a pre-assessment to shape our design and delivery.
The format is designed to be adaptable to in-person or online experiences that can happen across different timelines.
Reach Out
Reach Out
Our Facilitators
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Lead Facilitator
Aáron Heard (she/they) is a Queer, Black artist, facilitator, and peace being committed to our collective liberation through the intersection of art, healing, and education. Rooted in love and community, Aáron is grounded in purpose, leads with enthusiasm, questions with a critical curiosity, and prioritizes learning, reflection and growth. Aáron is passionate about facilitation experiences and processes that invite participants to connect with their bodies and spirits in nourishing, healing, and transformative ways. When she isn't facilitating, you can find her playing drums, writing poetry, or painting.
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Curriculum Designer + Facilitator
Mariah (she/her) is sought out for her ability to design responsive curriculum centered in creative inquiry. Mariah’s work invites the educational system to redesign its purposes with the role of the contemporary artists at the forefront of how young people can develop the capacity for imagination, innovation, perception, and critical thought that will bridge and build a society that we all deserve. Mariah leads with conviction that if you tend to your heart, tend to the art that motivates you, and lead with love, that our schools can dissolve the oppressive systems they uphold and become the sanctuaries we all need to fully bloom and become. She was particularly motivated to co-found Studio Pathways after co-creating Rise Up! An American Curriculum inspired by the musical “Hamilton, An American Musical,” to transform teaching and learning through creative inquiry. Mariah is the former director of the Integrated Learning Specialist Program and the School Transformation Through the Arts grant at Alameda County Office of Education. She is co-founder of Canerow Kids and a founding board member of Chapter 510. She is a former classroom teacher with 20 years of service dedicated to improving the landscape of learning for our children.
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Facilitator
Sarah (she/her) brings movement to the movement. She is a dancer and choreographer who has taught dance, theater, mindfulness and violence prevention for over 35 years. She founded and co-directed the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, which was the subject of two documentary films, and won the National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Award. Sarah has facilitated arts integration, violence prevention, cultural humility and team building professional development sessions with artists and educators since 2000, both locally and nationally. She is the recipient of many awards including the KPFA Peace award, the KQED Women’s History Local Hero award, and the National Guild for Community Arts Education Milestone award. She is a four-time finalist for a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater Education.
What People Are Saying
“I felt validated, inspired, and awakened.”
“Every one of your co-presenters has completely changed the way I thought about something fundamental in my life. They (and you) communicate in a way that helps me believe that it is true, without the burden of verification. You all just give me new ways to be...and I share those ways with everyone I speak with in my community and in my work life!”
“It's a privilege and a burden to be in such an incredible space with such incredible people. The burden I carry now is to make sure I bring some of that imagination, emboldening, validation, and spirit to and for others who were not in that magical space. Thank you. I hope to be an extender of this magic.”
“This was an incredible workshop. Please, please keep running them. I'd definitely come back.”
Experiments
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In an unfree society, freedom must be made.
Next River is applying the principles of interconnected freedom to homeownership, through the research and development of a collective homeownership model called Finding Home. This work begins with a research and design phase to create a collective homeownership pilot for a group of Black women, guided by their experiences, dreams, and desires.
We have completed the first phase of research with The Maven Collaborative and are proud to share the initial findings here.
If you would like to support the future of Finding Home, please email: freedom@nextriver.org. -
Next River is committed to supporting brilliant leaders and pathfinders paving the road toward our collective liberation, by removing the friction and barriers to get the resources they need to do their work. The fellowship is designed to create space for ideas to form and grow. With the emphasis on time for exploration and reflection rather than deliverables, this fellowship provides financial support for solo practitioners to advance their projects in whatever forms they deem valuable. The Future Finders Fellowship supports visionaries materially, so they can move us all forward spiritually into a future that sustains and heals us.
If you are interested in supporting this fellowship please email hello@nextriver.org. -
Next River is proud to select Mariah Rankine-Landers—interdisciplinary artist, educator, and co-founder of Studio Pathways—as our first Future Finder.
Mariah’s project, Conceptual Practice in Relational Repair and Wealth Return, is a body of work on relationship-based repair between White-identifying wealth holders and Black women entrepreneurs, artists, and visionaries.
This project is rooted in Mariah’s expertise as a curriculum developer—with the creation of a learning journey and set of practices that can be put to use throughout a reparative process. The work, however, also extends far beyond pedagogy to comprise a transformative narrative of restorative repair in the United States.