Original text, audio and photo from Shift in Action Web site.
“In Search of Other Ways of Knowing” is an audio piece that tells about writer, poet, and activist Dedan Gills’ experiences in Africa. Interviewed by his wife, writer Belvie Rooks, Gills talks about the wider perspective traveling to Africa has given him about community and his life as an African American.
Dedan Gills is a Los Angeles writer and poet, as well as a State Certified Addiction Specialist. He is also an Anger Management and Conflict Resolution Facilitator who works with at-risk youth, the homeless and people in various stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and abuse. Dedan is widely recognized as a highly skilled and compassionate facilitator. He also has extensive background and experience in: Anger Management Workshops and Groups; Non-Violent Communication; Relapse Prevention; One-on-One Counseling and Group Facilitation.
For six years was a resident of the Los Angeles Eco-Village, one of the country’s oldest urban, intentional environmental communities and was the co-founder of the group’s conflict resolution committee. He also has a certificate in permaculture—an ecological design technique for creating sustainable human environments. Dedan is a member of the Los Angeles Permaculture Guild and studied under the tutelage of permaculture “guru” Larry Santoyo.
An active member of the anti-war and Black Student movements of the 1960s, Dedan–at the time–thought of himself as a revolutionary. He now likes to refer to himself as a “soulutionary”, which he defines as a one who explores new paths by using the wisdom of the soul, guided by compassion and mercy instead of confrontation and dogma.
Listen to In Search of Other Ways of Knowing.
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