Bayo Akomolafe, Pat McCabe, Matthew Monahan, Baljeet Sandhu, Julian Corner, Taj James
Liberating Wealth in Prophetic Times
We are living through prophetic times—what some call the metacrisis, others name as a rupture, others see as an opening. What does it mean to navigate this moment with wisdom? And what role does wealth play in this transition? This panel—which was a public offering on the final day after a 5-day private retreat at Commonweal—brings together cosmologists, system architects, scholars, and funder-activists to explore:
How do we make sense of where we are and what is being asked of us in these times?
What is the role of wealth holders and funders in this time of unraveling?
How might wealth be liberated from extractive systems and reoriented toward life-affirming transitions?
Moderated by Lynn Murphy. Artwork: Llama del la tierra, Aguita del Alma by Alixa Garcia.
Bayo Akomolafe, PhD
Bayo, 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 EJ, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, self-styled ‘trans-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 (along with Professors Molefi Kete Asante and Augustine Nwoye), Bayo Akomolafe is the visionary founder of The Emergence Network, a planet-wide networking project and inquiry at the edges of the Anthropocene that seeks to convene new kinds of responsivities, sensuous solidarities, and experimental practices for a posthumanist parapolitics. He is host of the postactivist course/festival/event, ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’ and curator of Dancing with Mountains, the educational consultation. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California. He sits on the Board of many organizations. bayoakomolafe.net
Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining)
Pat is of the Diné Nation (often known incorrectly as “Navajo), and was also adopted into the Lakota Spiritual way of Life. She is a mother, grandmother, activist, artist, and international speaker. She identifies as a “radical bridger” of worlds and paradigms, with a focus on sharing from her own deep inquiry into Thriving Life Paradigm: “How do I become that being, that human, whose presence and way of being supports and causes all other life to Thrive?” She calls upon her lived experience from her indigenous cultures to make hypotheses and proposals to “Modern World Paradigm” as all of humanity is faced with its current crisis of relationship, with ourselves, with each other, and with the Earth.
Matthew Monahan
Matthew is the founder of Ma Earth (maearth.com), an emerging initiative to bring more funding into community-led nature protection and restoration. He is also a co-founder and steward at Biome Trust (biometrust.earth), a philanthropic foundation devoted to ecological health and education, and Mangaroa Farms (mangaroa.org), a regenerative farm and forest project in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Matthew is passionate about advancing the tools of money in service to life.
Baljeet Sandhu
Baljeet is a Punjabi-British knowledge weaver, community organiser, and equity designer with more than 30 years of experience in social and economic justice, innovation, and systems change work. She is a lifelong devotee of collective liberation work, fuelled by a commitment to unlearning dominant systems, in continuous guidance from the wisdom of her Elders from the Global South and working-class communities across the UK. Baljeet founded the Centre for Knowledge Equity to serve as an ecosystem space for practitioners creating life-affirming alternatives for the future. Before her knowledge ecology work, Baljeet was an award-winning UK human rights lawyer and policy adviser for numerous UK government, UN, and EU agencies.
Julian Corner
Julian has been CEO of the UK-based Lankelly Chase Foundation since 2011. Lankelly Chase is a 60 year old social justice foundation that was the first in UK philanthropy to test systems change approaches. It has since been in a process of deep inquiry and evolution which culminated in 2023 with the announcement that it would end its work within 5 years and redistribute its assets. Lankelly Chase’s intention is now to “make space to reimagine how wealth, capital and social justice can co-exist in the service of all life, now and for future generations.” Julian’s previous roles have been in government, the not-for-profit sector and academia.
Taj James
Taj is a father, poet, practitioner, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. He is the Founder and former Director of the Movement Strategy Center, Curator at Full Spectrum Labs and Principal at Full Spectrum Capital Partners. Taj thrives building community around the shared questions that matter most in our lives: how can we build the relationships and express the love needed to transform our world?
Moderator Lynn Murphy
Lynn is the co-director of Transition Resource Circle and co-author of Post Capitalist Philanthropy, Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse. She is an educator, strategic advisor, and organizer among funders and activists, with a focus in the geopolitical South. She began her work in philanthropy as a senior fellow and program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she focused on international education and global development. She resigned as a”‘conscientious objector” to neocolonial philanthropy. She holds an MA and PhD in international comparative education from Stanford University.