27 December 2022

Happy holidays, everyone.

For many of us, the winter solstice and New Years celebrations signify a time of reflection, renewal, and potential. This new beginning moves us to contemplate our life's path, examining the things we wish to carry with us into the new year and what we wish to release to the past.
 
Over these past few years, we have collectively experienced a huge shift in consciousness around the concepts of equity and justice with particular events calling us to action, and a subsequent explosive emergence of an EDI industry. I truly believe that the way forward lies in an overall shift in leadership paradigms rather than allotting resources to credential leaders and organizations who have a demonstrated history of upholding oppressive systems.  This challenges us to move beyond box-checking and collectively commit to deconstruct what we have been socialized to believe are "leadership" qualities. I have observed that the sudden industry explosion has, in many ways, created more barriers to true equity by replicating oppressive systems and obfuscating processes of accountability in the name of "diversity".
 
That said, I have made the decision to officially close EUPHONY as of December 28, 2022, and shift my focus towards other projects, including restructuring Melanin Rising and directing more energy into my creative practices which examine stories of ancestral leadership, honor creativity as a sacred force for social change, celebrate plants and fungi as allies in our evolution, and explore technology as tools with the potential to aid in our collective liberation.

I will still be accepting consulting projects on a case-by-case basis and can be reached through my new website, www.naomigracechild.com

I want to thank each and every one of you for your role in my journey since I officially began this work in 2016 and the birth of EUPHONY as an entity in 2019. Although the expression has shifted, I hope you will continue to support my work.

With gratitude,
Naomi Gracechild