An Evening With Bayo Akomolafe (In-Person)

These tickets are for the In-Person version of this event. To buy tickets for the Livestream event.

Bayo Akomolafe is a posthumanist thinker, philosopher, poet, author and founder of the Emergence Network, a planet-wide initiative that seeks to convene communities in new ways in response to the critical, civilizational challenges we face as a species. Through Bayo's writings, speeches, and work he inspires new ways of thinking and being in the world, inviting us to ask questions that undermine everything we are told to believe.  

One of the concepts that often inspires those who follow Bayo's work is postactivism, which, according to Bayo, "...is my way of describing the flows and possibilities that proceed from the moment when things no longer fit." The moment when things no longer fit that we now find ourselves in—full of trauma, disaster, conflict, and uncertainty—feels urgent and leads most to calls for urgent global action, but Bayo and postactivism sense the generativity of slowing down, which is more than what humans do or can do.  
 
The thought project of postactivism proceeds from, and is deeply rooted in, Indigenous traditions around the world, and invites us to recognize that we are part of the more-than-human world—a necessary acknowledgement that might help shift our ideas of activism and justice outside of classical humanist framings, systems, and socialities. 

This postactivist approach both creates space for and lives within the spaces of breakthroughs, seismic shifts, openings, cracks, and fissures. These spaces and openings bring new flow, possibility, creativity, and inspiration for repair.  

Join us for a rich and engaging evening with Bayo as he shares more on postactivism and how this concept so imbued with possibility and creativity can be supportive of pathways to 'healing' ourselves, our children, our ancestors, and the more-than-human world—or better yet, going beyond healing altogether.  
 
Bayo Akomolafe, PhD, rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea Aanya and Kyah Jayden Abayomi, the grateful life-partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak, Bayo Akomolafe is the Founder of The Emergence Network, a planet-wide initiative that seeks to convene communities in new ways in response to the critical, civilizational challenges we face as a species. He is host of the postactivist course/festival/event, ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California. He sits on the Board of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality (US) and Ancient Futures (Australia).  

In July 2022, Dr. Akomolafe was appointed the inaugural Global Senior Fellow of University of California’s (Berkeley) Othering and Belonging Institute. He is also the inaugural Special Fellow of the Schumacher Centre for New Economics and the Inaugural Special Fellow for the Aspen Institute. He has been Fellow for The New Institute in Hamburg, Germany, and Visiting Critic-in-Residence for the Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles (2023).  

He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and has been Commencement Speaker in two universities convocation events. He is also the recipient of the New Thought Leadership Award 2021 and the Excellence in Ethnocultural Psychotherapy Award by the African Mental Health Summit 2022. In a ceremony in July 2023, the City of Portland (Maine, USA) awarded Dr. Akomolafe with the symbolic ‘Key to the City’ in recognition of his planet-wide work and achievements.  

Dr. Akomolafe is a Member of the Club of Rome, a Fellow for the Royal Society of Arts in the UK, and an Ambassador for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Learn more about Bayo by exploring his website or at Emergence Network. 

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Accessibility

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R ecording Policy

This event will be recorded, but access to the recording will only available to those who purchased tickets. All tickets (in-person and online) include access to the recorded livestream for two weeks. Access to the recording will expire on Thursday, March 28, 2024. CIIS Public Programs Members will have unlimited access to this recording.

Refund Policy

A ll tickets and donations for this event are nonrefundable. If you can no longer attend the in-person event, we encourage you to watch the livestream or the recording instead.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

First Unitarian Universalist Church & Center, 1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco, United States