Eleanor Hancock: Before We Were White
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good.
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Director and co-founder of White Awake, Eleanor Hancock directs all of White Awake’s activities – from curriculum development and implementation, to organizational vision and strategy, to management of the daily functioning of the organization. She plays an integral role in the development of White Awake’s online courses, which engage hundreds of people in the work of White Awake each year. Her leadership grows out of years of experience as an academic, activist, artist, educator, and mom.
Eleanor holds an MFA from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, where she began a study of whiteness in the context of performance art, identity politics, and critical postmodern theory. She has trained directly with Joanna Macy in facilitation of the Work that Reconnects, served on the Steering and Accountability Team of the DC Chapter of Showing up for Racial Justice, and contributed to the work of the SURJ National Faith Leaders team.
Interview Highlights:
Eleanor’s background and how she first got involved in this work
How her organization, “White Awake,” first got started
A discussion of some of the key learnings from “Before We Were White,” one of White Awake’s core offerings
Why it is important for white folks to learn about the pre-Christian, earth-based, Indigenous European traditions of their ancestors
Her new course, “Solidarity and Intersectionality”
Help these ideas reach more eyes & ears:
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.