Congratulations to Grant Recipient, Sage Xaxua Morgan-Hubbard!
The Embrace Change Self-Care Grant for BIWOC Leaders
I created this grant because I was tired of encountering countless BIWOC leaders every week who are being worked to the brink of their wellbeing–juggling 10 jobs, paid, under-paying, and unpaid. They are the caretakers, they are the pillars of their communities, they are the essential workers, the teachers, the artists, the glue that holds us all together.
This pandemic has laid bare the disparities all around us and the toll of years upon years of over-work that we are conditioned and expected to do could not be more dire.
For too many WOCs, taking and making the time for self-care, rest, and rejuvenation is way more difficult than it sounds.
There are so many other competing demands on time, attention, labor, and finances. I wanted to try to make it a tiny bit easier.
And so, inspired by the Radical Reset grant (10 $1,000 grants for WOCs for a weekend of rest), I decided to create a version of that grant as well. Though I wish I could extend it to cover more recipients, I have started with one $2,000 grant to cover a week of rest for a BIWOC leader this summer.
I couldn't be prouder that in this inaugural year, the recipient of the Self-Care Grant is Leadership Accelerator graduate, and member of the Embrace Change Speakers Bureau, Sage Xaxua Morgan-Hubbard.
Sage Xaxua Morgan-Hubbard, (MA+ with PhD coursework in Performance Studies), is a full-bodied Black, Jewish, Native, Multiracial, Queer educator, public speaker, mother, consultant, and dream midwife who co-curates inclusive diverse public spaces for living and learning for all people. An award-winning poet, social justice artist and activist, she has worked at four Smithsonian museums, coordinated family-friendly protests and taught students of all kinds from autistic preK students to adults in prison to nursing home bound octogenarians. She specializes in having difficult conversations in interesting and embodied ways, honoring both the joy and value in everyone's life story and experience. Sage loves aqua aerobics, her Shiba Jindo puppy Broccoli, and her middle name Xaxua, an onomatopoeia meaning the rustling of the leaves in the wind. She lives in Providence, RI with her two spirited children and husband but will always be a Washington, D.C. Chocolate City native Mixed Mama and named her two one-woman shows accordingly (Chocolativity and Mixed Mamas).
Congratulations, Sage!!
Sage’s reflections from her Self-Care Week:
I was so honored to be the inaugural Embrace Change Self-Care Grant recipient but, to be honest, at first I didn’t want to accept it because I didn’t feel like I was worthy or that I could afford to take the time away and didn’t deserve it unless I was doing something…“productive.”
And yet that was exactly the point.
As an overworked mother of two kids under 8, I had decision fatigue and burnout. I didn’t know where to go or what to do, so I found a last-minute, local, tiny Airbnb and the plan-less staycation I took ended up being perfect. I went to a cute town, found a 🏳️🌈pride parade (at 3pm on a Thursday organized by local high school students!), saw my spirit animal (a turtle who reminded me to S L O W down).
I did yoga, collaged art, read a real paperback book, had ice cream, smoothies, and went out to a solo dinner. I even went to the beach by myself and got to see my first star observatory (geeked out on telescopes) and realized how small my problems are in the vast, vast universe. 🌔
This grant forced me to take the time and space I needed to rejuvenate. Cynthia said the only requirement was that I take at least one week away to be alone and take care of me.
I didn’t realize how much time is in a day when you don’t have to work two jobs, make three meals, and dress and transport two little humans and a dog.
I want all women of color especially to have this space: you don’t have to stress, just keep it simple and chill.
After 3 years of a pandemic, I didn’t want to “people,” I just needed to rest. It was the only way I could have survived this no-Roe less rights summer.
Sometimes you need to embrace rest as the critical and radical life change in order to refill your cup, spirit, and hope wells.
– Sage Xaxua Morgan-Hubbard
sagexaxua.com