Magical moments and evolving connections mark cohort commissioning in St. Louis

In this interview, Barbara Gunn Lartey and Alex Jones of AFSC St. Louis Peacebuilding share about a commissioning ceremony in October 2026 that was the culmination of AFSC’s Embodied Liberation cohort. 

Please tell us about the commissioning? How was it received? 

Barbara - We’ve received feedback organically and anecdotally. We were trying to figure out how to culminate this Embodied Liberation experience -- and what is the charge moving forward. So we framed this as a commissioning celebration. There were so many really powerful elements. 

One, we gifted the cohort with a CliftonStrengths assessment of your strengths. Oftentimes we are led to figure out what’s deficient in us and how to shore those up. Clifton asks us to see what’s genius about us and lean into that. They focus on five strengths. 

What we found is that some of the cohort members were frustrated with this assessment and wondered why they needed to do it. Yet this was different. It ended up being an epiphany for people. “This is the reason why I do this!” Or, “I never thought of that as a strength, but rather as a quirk.” Or, “I thought this was just a random personality trait.” 

But this has always been an aspect of who you are. And now you have some language to frame the fact that you’re empathic, or that you have a unique ability to see things in a progressive, futuristic way. 

Another offering was our use of the sunflower as a motif. We chose the sunflower because it bends toward the sun. But at a certain point, it just stands still. As I was thinking about the strengths, who we are as a people, the work we’ve done as a cohort, especially if you have many gifts, talents and interests, you lean into this one or that one. 

But at a certain stage in life, you get very clear about what your lane is, what your purpose is. And that’s where your focus goes. That became the frame for our commissioning experience. 

The Rev. Christopher Goodwin, founder of Cove514, is a close friend and partner of St. Louis. As part of our ceremony, Chris debuted a video about him being really at home with himself, embracing and embodying his path and his truth. 

It was moving for me because I’ve known the brother for nearly two decades, so I know his journey. He’s a reverend and a creative. His father was a prominent national pastor. Imagine Chris’s journey of being gay in a Black church. 

His video was like a homecoming to self: “This is who I am.” He invited each cohort member to also experience their own homecoming to self

This was done with a mirror exercise that included several questions, including “What’s getting in the way?” and “What would you like to do?” And you have to speak to yourself in the mirror.  

This moment was so palpably powerful. As facilitators, you have your schedule planned ahead, but every now and then you need to pivot when there’s that kind of presence. 

There were a couple cohort members who were reticent to complete this experience. We supported them with that decision. I encouraged them to consider it as a gift. They ended up completing the activity, and they were different on the other side of it. 

The photographer and videographer who were with us from day one each said emphatically that everyone in this space looked, resonated, and showed up differently than they did on July 27, when our Movement Monday journey together began. 

This was a transformation and an evolution. That is essential if we’re going to lean into healing justice work in St. Louis. 

Another of many magical moments during the ceremony was the presentation of the certificates. We produced certificates that were framed with Ghanaian cloth, and they had gold flecks. Each one had a baby’s breath from Movement Monday 1 that captured the evolution. 

Another magical moment was watching how Chris, Alex and Romel White, a younger cohort member, were vibing to consecrate the space. They did it so beautifully that others who were part of the administration of the building came into the space because they wanted to see it.  

Our commissioning ceremony was held at the Northside Movement Center, which was inaugurated this spring. It’s an incubator space for activists and organizers. To have our ceremony there was extra special. 

Alex - I want to emphasize that mirror exercise. Chris was a great facilitator, and his video touched a lot of people. It hit home in a way that I saw people actively being touched by his affirmations of love towards himself. 

When it was their opportunity to do it for themselves, as Barbara said, two people were reticent. I remember one of them telling me, “I don’t know if I’m ready or if I can do this.” In that moment of feeling unready, it wasn’t just “I don’t feel like doing this.” You could see her emotions – almost like, she was scared to face herself and give herself that love and grace. 

Watching people touch those deep and vulnerable parts of themselves was really moving.  

I also participated in that exercise, and it really was very reflective. The first question was, what are the things holding you back? What are you focused on that’s diverting love and attention from yourself? 

It was really deep into their personal experiences and taking that moment to liberate themselves from the things that were diverting that love and attention away from themselves. 

Chris led an exercise of us writing down what we wanted to let go. We gave it to Chris, and we let it go. 

The second part of that exercise is writing a letter to yourself. The purpose was to speak power into yourself, to remind yourself of who you are, what you deserve, and what you owe yourself. 

Barbara: Here’s another magical moment that shows how organic everything was. There was an unanticipated somatic practice. Three or four people asked to be physically supported. What should that look like? Where should we stand? 

For one of the reticent people, Chris had us lock arms behind them, as if to say, “I have your back.” At first it was very gentle, but the more the layers were peeled back, the more I had to steady myself. Imagine engaging yourself in such a beautifully vulnerable way. 

But that could only have happened because of the work we did throughout Embodied Liberation, including Black August. During each week of Movement Mondays and Thriving Thursdays, the cohort was in a place of deepening their connecting and relationship. But over that Black August weekend, they had to co-exist, making meals, etc. There was chaos, and there were dynamics to navigate. 

That replicates exactly the dynamics when we’re healing personally and in the community. So there was already that evolution of connection. 

By the time we got to the activity with the mirror and the commissioning ceremony, it became less about – “I’m uncomfortable because of the others” – but rather, “Am I ready for myself?” 

The moment was heavy. But after it was completed, the celebration abounded. I think we even played the Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. 

With the commissioning of the certificates, we had envisioned a more formal experience. But the moment required exhaling and exaltation, joy and laughter and fun. 

Next steps 

The commissioning was a challenge to create an event going forward as a cohort using our strengths in real life. It could be a political education event, a cultural event, an organizing event addressing, for example, Bill 888, which adjudicates young people as young as 12 as adults. Or it could be data centers or whatever they want. 

But it's time-bound, to be completed before October 2027. We encouraged them to think through all the layers of what it means to create this event as a cohort. 

That was also quite a moment because the cohort is incredibly diverse, cross-generationally, educationally, socio-economically, etc. Some have been systems impacted.  

There was a moment when one of the cohort members offered to address issues endemic to the trans community. From the perspective of AFSC, we would respond, “Of course!” 

But I have to constantly remind myself that there are people who are just not exposed to those conversations. They had no idea that trans people are as marginalized as they are, that their lives are as assaulted as they are. 

Because of all the work the cohort had done, that conversation occurred during the commissioning ceremony as opposed to during week 4 of Movement Mondays. 

This is why I strongly believe in embodied liberation through an intergenerational lens. That’s a cornerstone of St. Louis Peacebuilding. 

Alex: I want to lift this up, as well, because they are an incredibly diverse cohort. It was so interesting to see that all their ideas were inter-linked. And how they rallied around Romel, who is part of AFSC’s Emerging Leaders for Liberation (ELL). He had a project and wanted to do something related to art therapy in the community. 

People had all these different ideas, such as making sure that young Black girls ages 8-14 have proper sex education. Another said they want to support young people within the system who are transitioning back into society after incarceration. 

These things, on the surface, might seem different. After listening, I thought, “Oh my gosh, I can see this connecting here.” All these things overlap in ways. 

Another member of the cohort, as Barbara said, wanted to do work around trans folks and sexual health. If you’re not thinking from an intersectional approach that sees how all these larger systems are connected, you might miss how all these things relate. 

They came together and had all of these ideas. They were like OK, we’re going to make an event, we’re going to create a project that has these different ideas. 

Romel was talking about how he envisioned the experience he wants to create. And they all said, “Yes, let’s do it, let’s work on this and support you.” One person said they knew someone and could get a space for this program. 

Another said it could be a series of events. So watching the wheels turn of how people were trying to connect and continue to extrapolate these ideas, and not just think that by creating one event they’ve satisfied the program. We all have these visions that may look different, but we’re going to connect them. 

Barbara: And they align with St. Louis Peacebuilding’s traditional lane of late – to impact the school-to-prison pipeline. Their ideas, one way or another, engaged youth and focused on how to equip youth to empower themselves. 

People might ask, why can’t we just go into a place and do the work? Why do we need to set the stage in this way? This is one way for us to model beauty in our own lives. We put a flower in a vase to remind ourselves of the beauty of nature. 

We have to think extravagantly. We wanted to show the cohort that we deeply appreciate the way they leaned in week after week and did some mighty work, including but not limited to the commissioning ceremony. 

I’m still metabolizing the experience for myself. I’m glad we were able to put a punctuation mark at the end. Embodied Liberation 2026 has happened! 

Another colleague of mine is going to connect with each person individually to delve deeper into their strengths and how they envision embracing them in their lives, particularly in the work with St. Louis Peacebuilding. 

And Chris will do the same, connecting with each cohort member as well to unpack the mirror or whatever conversation they want to have. 

It’s a nontraditional approach and may not be the norm at AFSC. We maintain that the work is internal. Yes, there are societal systems, but the work is here. And when this happens, now I’m in a better frame of mind or more empowered position to affect the change I want to see. 

We gave the embodied liberators these fun swag bags with actual sunflower seeds and playdough in it, symbolic of being flexible and malleable in life. 

Later in the spring, we’ll follow up on Embodied Liberation with whatever project they choose.