Events

Reclaiming Joy – Holding Lightness in Troubling Times

Save My Spot
September 20, 2025
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
EST

Date: TBD

Event Format: 

ZOOM
FREE

A Community Healing Circle for Joy, Resilience, and Collective Care

Because of the depth and response from our last gathering, we’ve decided to extend this offering with a second circle focused on joy.We are living in a time of profound strain—both locally and globally.
As a human family, we are facing deep and layered challenges: political division, anxiety around displacement and immigration, systemic racism, and economic instability. It is real. It is heavy. And for many, it is deeply personal.

As a community, we are collectively holding so much.

And still, even now, we believe that joy matters.
At Sankofa, we hold that joy is not a luxury—it is a form of resistance, a source of resilience, and a way to remember our wholeness in the face of fragmentation.

This Healing Circle is a space to gather, breathe, and reflect. Together, we will name what is hard without rushing to fix it, and we will make room for lightness, laughter, music, and moments of connection that remind us of what is still good, still sacred, and still alive within us.

This is a space for:

  • Honoring the emotional toll of today’s world
  • Reclaiming joy as an active, grounded healing practice
  • Connecting through music, storytelling, and shared ritual
  • Holding sorrow and lightness at the same time
  • Practicing community care without bypassing truth

Come as you are. Bring what you’re carrying.
Leave with a little more breath, a little more strength, and the reminder that joy still belongs to you.

  • Thulani DeMarsay, PhD

    Thulani is the visionary founder and Chief Impact Officer of Sankofa Institute. As a person in long-term recovery, she is deeply committed to supporting others on their journey toward recovery. A seasoned facilitator, Thulani excels in group dynamics and in creating experiential learning environments that fosters individual and group transformation.

    For nearly a decade, Thulani served as a senior facilitator and consultant for the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS), where she delivered training programs, provided mentorship, and coached the statewide facilitation team. She also developed comprehensive training materials and played a key role in the creation of the statewide recovery coach learning community. Additionally, Thulani served as the lead consultant for the Recovery Education Collaborative (REC) in Boston, MA where she was responsible for strategic planning, project oversight, workplan development and DEI initiatives.