Fall at Ujima Wednesdays: In Us We Trust

We’ve been taught to count our wealth in dollars while forgetting the currencies that first made us human. Perhaps democracy is not only lost through stolen votes, but through forgotten values. Join us for our fall Ujima Wednesday Workshop series, In Us We Trust, to remember and rediscover the hard currencies that shape our lives–and the holy currencies that shape our souls.

We define “holy currencies” (borrowing from Eric Law and the Kaleidoscope Institute) as the essential, non-material resources—such as truth, time, gracious leadership, place, and relationships—that shape our souls and build the foundation of a healthy community. In contrast, we define hard currencies as the finite, external instruments—such as cash, equity, and debt—that the dominant economic system uses to measure and control value. 

Through the lens of trust, we aim to explore how we can reclaim wealth that cannot be bought or stolen, and to acclaim a wealth that cannot be bought, cannot be stolen, and only grows when it is given away. Perhaps we have been richer all along.

9.9: Talkback: In Us We Trust | RSVP

Donna Bivens, Justin Merrick & Robert "ROB." Kelley-Morgan

We begin September with a collective reflection on our Fall 2026 workshop series theme: In Us We Trust, exploring the concepts of holy and hard currencies. Through a conversation on wealth, relationships, interiority, and trust, we’ll build from our summer series on Mutual Aid and open the questions that will guide our fall workshops.

9.30: Time and Place | RSVP

Amanda Everich

Join Amanda Everich, Community Facilitator and Education Manager for Black Farmer Fund, in a discussion on how we utilize resources, including land, when we are thinking of time and place. 

Amanda will explore the history of Black farmers’ and their ongoing existence in the USA, and  the history of the Black Farmer Fund. She will share resources, explore the process of socioemotional to concrete investments, and discuss what belonging and land stewardship looks like today. 

10.7: The Currency of Relationships and Gracious Leadership | RSVP

Ernesto "Eroc" Arroyo-Montano & Justice Roe Williams

Our relationship with each other as currency, is about more than what we earn, spend, or save, it is deeply connected to how we understand worth, value, power, and responsibility. Who taught us what we are worth, and what becomes possible when we reclaim the power to define that for ourselves?

Using the four I’s of Relationships and Oppression, we will explore how our personal, generational, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural experiences have shaped what we believe about money and our own worth. We will then use the four I’s of Liberation (Identity, Inclusion, Integrity, and Imagination) to explore how we can transform our relationship with money, redefine wealth beyond accumulation, and move toward practices rooted in dignity, reciprocity, community, and collective care.

10.14: Truth and Wellness | RSVP

Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD

What does it mean to understand wellness as a currency, something we create, exchange, protect, and sustain together? At a time when our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being is shaped by environmental harm, economic precarity, disaster, and the uneven distribution of public resources, this workshop asks us to consider wellness as both a personal practice and a collective resource.

Join us in a discussion on wellness as a currency. Reflecting on what people are going through right now. The day to day attacks on people's physical wellness (environmental factors). Disaster relief that’s often withheld (or misplaced), which are tax payer funded. Who actually ends up on the scene? The holistic healers.

10.21: Talkback/Transition to Hard Currency | RSVP

Dr. Erika Brown and Dr. Jared Ball

What are some hard truths around money? Join us for a talkback with Dr. Erika Brown and Dr. Jared Ball on what hard currencies are and how we live, interact and navigate the world today.

Referencing Dr. Jared Ball’s The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power, and his two part Mythbusting march workshop series, Dr. Ball will revisit the myths we've picked up along the way, and why. Join us as we transition from holy currencies, and practices of bartering to hard currencies.  

Watch our March Mythbusting workshop videos here.

11.4: Trust | RSVP

Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Amaha Selassie, Jamila Medley

What does it mean to build financial systems rooted in trust? This conversation examines trust as both a financial and relational practice—from the legal structure of trusts and the foundations of investment to the faith, reciprocity, and relationships that allow communities to invest in one another. 

Together, we’ll ask: What is Black trust? How has trust operated within Black economic life, and what becomes possible when we trust one another more? Through excavation, re-education, and conversation, we’ll consider what lies beneath the supposedly “objective” criteria of finance, and return to investment’s fundamental premise: a relationship of trust.

11.18: History of Money | RSVP

Chris Desan

Join Christine Desan, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and author of Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism, in a discussion on the history and mechanics of hard money:  how finite, external instruments like cash, equity, and debt have been used by the dominant economic system to determine  and govern value.

Stay tuned, more workshops to be announced! In the meantime check out what we've been discussing this year on our Together: Organizing for Financial Governance Power playlist on YouTube.