Date/Time
Date(s): Feb. 22 - Mar. 29
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm (Wednesdays)

**This class meets on Zoom**

Parenting is a path which brings challenges, joys, and countless opportunities to both teach and learn. In this interactive class community, we focus on the broad strokes of intentional and caring parenting, clarifying “what am I doing here?” and creating space for and reflection on the ways we would like to show up in our families and in our lives. Our weekly themes include cultivating a spirit of optimism (about your child(ren) and yourself), creating a vision for your family, compassionate speaking and listening, understanding and balancing needs, and planting seeds of joy and gratitude. This class includes supportive meditation practices and is appropriate for anyone at any point along the parenting adventure, whether or not you have prior meditation experience.

Together, we aim to build a community of support for parents who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

Teacher Bios:

Atia Sattar

Atia Sattar is Associate Professor (Teaching) of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Writing at the University of Southern California. Atia has practiced mindfulness for 10 years and started the BIPOC Mindfulness Practice Group at USC in 2018. Her writings on Mindfulness have been published in Tricycle and Lion’s Roar.

Stephanie Renee Payne

Stephanie Renee Payne teaches both upper division and lower division writing courses. Payne developed an upper division writing course featuring food and culture, which offers students experiential and collaborative learning using the city of Los Angeles as an extended campus. Class themes include the diverse food cultures in Los Angeles, social justice issues such a food insecurity and homelessness, as well as inequities within the shared space of USC’s campus and the larger South Los Angeles area. Payne’s aim in collaborative and experiential learning is to fosters within her students a consideration of others within multiple environments to produce thoughtful, rich, and probing writing that is relevant in a 21^st century context.