Aaron Johnson and Prentis Hemphill in Conversation at SPL

On April 26th from 6-8:30pm at the Seattle Central Library residents will be treated to a conversation between embodiment facilitator Prentis Hemphill and activist-filmmaker Aaron Johnson exploring the role of tender and embodied storytelling in order to guide people to insight, awareness, transformation, and wholeness.

Aaron has created the Chronically UnderTouched (CUT) Project — basic strategies to bring a black body from being Chronically UnderTouched to a state of touch balance — as part of the lifelong journey of interrupting oppressive systems that make touch balance a radical action.

Prentis Hemphill has gained the public’s attention through their popular book What It Takes To Heal. The book poses the question, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center?”

This interactive event will engage the audience through an embodiment practice and a screening of Dark and Tender: A Film by the Chronically UnderTouched Project, which captures how the CUT Project restores the nervous system and creates healing by replacing violence, rough sports, and tough play with tenderness and intimacy amongst black men. Color of Sound, a 501c3 nonprofit, is the Producer and fiscal sponsor of CUT Project Short Film Dark and Tender and Tour.

Dark and Tender debuted at the Port Townsend Film Festival 2024 and was selected by six other international film festivals, including Cannes Independent Shorts, the Social Justice Film Festival, and the Seattle Black Film Festival.

On Sunday, April 27, from 9:30-11:30am at LANGSTON, in partnership with the Seattle Black Film Festival and The Seattle Public Library, Johnson will facilitate a Dark and Tender workshop. Attendees can ease into the practices introduced by The CUT Project in the short film Dark and Tender, to dismantle the Black Brute archetype and barriers for platonic closeness. There will be some singing, co-writing, co-listening as on-ramps to what's possible in longer Dark and Tender workshops. For this workshop, everyone is welcome, and Black masculine folks are centered.

Both events are free and open to the public. Donations are optional and go towards supporting the work of The Chronically UnderTouched (CUT) Project.

Aaron Johnson (he/him) is a public speaker, facilitator, and touch activist, fostering environments where Black-bodied individuals can express their full selves. As a founder of Holistic Resistance, Grief to Action, and The Chronically UnderTouched (CUT) Project, Aaron takes the time to hold the stories of Black people around homophobia, transphobia, and internalized racism. Aaron's journey began, as it does for many Black men, with lack of loving and platonic touch. Now, Aaron assists other Black men in developing holistic touch practices to move from a Chronically UnderTouched state into touch balance. Aaron aims to create spaces for Black people and People of the Global Majority (PGM/BIPOC) to connect with each other and the earth. He and his team are establishing retreats and workshops on Black-owned land in the Mojave Desert and beyond to promote emotional and physical tenderness, platonic connection, and singing, which enhances the healing process for those overlooked by mainstream society.Prentis Hemphill (they/them) is a writer and cartographer of emotions, an embodiment facilitator, political organizer and therapist. They are the Founder and Director of The Embodiment Institute and The Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast, Finding Our Way. For the last ten years, Prentis has practiced and taught somatics in social movement organizations and offered embodied practice during moments of social unrest and organizational upheaval. They have taught embodied leadership with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity and generative somatics. They served as the Healing Justice Director of Black Lives Matter Global Network from 2016 to 2019. Their work and writing have appeared in the New York Times, the Huffington Post. They are a contributor to ‘You are Your Best Thing’, edited by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown, ‘Holding Change’ by adrienne maree brown, and ‘The Politics of Trauma’ by Staci Haines. They live in North Carolina on a small farm with their partner, two dogs, two chickens while working on an upcoming book on healing justice.