Speaking Engagements

Adinkra symbol for the power of love, devotion & faithfulness--Love never loses its way home

"Teeth & Tongue" symbol for complementarity, interdependence & friendship

This presentation provides a historical overview of gender and gender roles and how the global challenge to patriarchy, is forcing us to come up with new definitions and constructions of gender. It also provides a historical overview of the politics of gender in the African American experience starting from slavery to contemporary times and how this contributes to the phenomena of Feminized Men and Masculinized Women. Finally, it examines how early experiences in our families, particularly African American differential parenting styles, influence our ideas on gender and gender role expectations and the impact this has on our interactions in relationships. Singles and couples are encouraged to examine their own experiences and to develop balanced and healthy definitions and expectations for themselves and their partners.

Why does dating seem so easy for some and so difficult for others? Why is it that some people seem to have found the right person while others keep ending up with the wrong person. Is the person you are now dating the right person for you? Are you the right person for him or her? Is the person you are partnered with your soul mate or are you soul misfits? NAARI proposes that many have difficulty dating for one primary reason–they do not know how to date. And many are partnered with the wrong person for one primary reason–they did not go through the “getting to know process”and they did not use criteria that is right for them, to select the person they are with. This class provides strategies for dating and the getting to know process. It helps individuals and couples learn how to choose a partner and assists pre-married and married couples in exploring areas of compability.

"linked hearts" Symbol of understanding and agreement

"No one should bite another, outrage or provoke another" Symbol of justice, fairplay, freedom, peace, forgiveness, unity, harmony and avoidance of conflict.

TLC: Talking and Listening With Care: Communication & Conflict Resolution

What is your style of communicating? What is your partner’s style of communicating? How does you and your partner’s different ways of communicating impact on your ability express your thoughts and feelings openly, honestly and freely and resolve conflicts effectively? TLC–Talking and Listening with Care helps singles and couples examine their own communication styles and explore the source of these styles. Finally, TLC helps singles and couples learn to talk and listen in ways that regard and respect each other and work through conflict in a healthy manner.

Sexual Healing

Sex is often the basis of relationship formation? Why is this so? What do we mean by the "booty call" and is it a healthy approach to relationships? How might adaptations from the slave experience continue to persist in current African American male and female sexual interactions. How do conflicting messages from society impact on our sexual self perceptions, expectations, choices, expressions and interactions? My Body is a Shrine, seeks not only to create dialogue around these critical questions but to help single and couples examine their own values and approach to sexuality. This presentation examines how stereotypes from slavery, and those around race and gender for example, the "virgin/whore" dichotomy for women and "penis size" for men might impact on the ability of each to have healthy sexual interactions. It also explores prerequisites for a healthy sex life, e.g. knowing and being comfortable with one’s sex values, overcoming past negative experiences and recognizing, respecting gender differences in approach and needs and HIV/AIDS prevention. In addition, it explores ways for couples to deepen intimacy and spice up their sex lives.

"The Heart" Symbol of love, goodwill, patience, faithfulness, fondness, endurance & consistency

"The Moon & the Star" Symbol of faithfulness, fondness, harmony, benevolence, love, loyalty and femininity

How did African American women go from being goddess, creator, mother of earth, and queen mother, in Africa, to mammy, matriarch, and jezebel in white America and “bitch, ho and hoochie” in Black America? This class/workshop examines how these representations of African American women and other factors undergirded by race, class, and gender oppression such as hair, color, and body type, their marginaliztion in the economic and social class structure and fatherlessness, impacts on their self perceptions, and interaction in relationships.

An enclosed or secure house or compound "Symbol of brotherhood, safety, security, completeness & solidarity--protection against outside elements

African American males make up approximately 6% of the American population. Yet they comprise 50 percent of the prison population, their life span is shorter than that of white males, white females, and African American females, they have the highest death rate for the nation’s ten leading causes of death, including HIV, and they die disporportionately more than other groups from homicide and legal intervention. The marriage rate for African American men is less than that for the four sex groups, they have the lowest level of college graduation and their unemployment rate exceeds that of other sex groups. In the words of the famous R & B artist, Marvin Gaye, What’s going on? Economic marginalization, negative images and stereotypes, social profiling, fatherlessness and a host of other social factors contribute to these statistics. However, a most pernicious factor is African American internalization of Western constructions of masculinity. In this presentation we explore Masculinity. That is, what does it mean to men? What does it mean to women? How do these meanings impact male on perceptions of themselves and female perceptions of males? More importantly, how does these constructions of masculinity impact on male and female expectations and their interactions in relationships? Finally, African American men are encouraged to "unmask, " all the things they hide behind masculinity and to construct a definition of it that is healthy for themselves and their interactions in relationships.

©2003-2008 NAARI