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

Join us for a conversation between Prentis Hemphill and Aaron Johnson exploring the role of tender and embodied storytelling 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.

This interactive event will also engage the audience through an embodiment practice and a screening of Dark and Tender: A Film by the Chronically UnderTouched Project. Dark and Tender captures how the Chronically UnderTouched (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 and Tour.

Dark and Tender debuted at the Port Townsend Film Festival 2024 and was selected by four international film festivals, including Cannes Independent Shorts, the Renaissance Black Film Festival, and Baltimore International Black Film Festival.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

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

Color of Sound is a nonprofit 501c3 organization located in Port Townsend, WA just two hours northwest of Seattle. Color of Sound is dedicated to improving the lives of people of color in the PNW and beyond through racial healing, housing and land access, restorative justice, and economic development. Color of Sound's first project is the Chronically UnderTouched (CUT) Project's short film, "Dark and Tender."

Dark and Tender: Aaron Johnson and Prentis Hemphill in Conversation

Film Screening, Embodiment Practice, Q&A and Community Sing at Seattle Public Library