Belvie Rooks

Belvie Rooks' work weaves the worlds of spirituality, feminism, cosmology and social justice with a passion for dialogue. As an educator, she is the creator of a ground-breaking, project-based educational curriculum--based on Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry's, The Universe Story--entitled,  Hey Listen Up: A Sense of Self-A Sense of Place. Hey Listen Up is a multi-media based curriculum that encourages youth, particularly,  from marginalized urban communities, to explore an expanded sense of who they are within the unfolding evolutionary context of family, community, bio-region and the larger universe.

The learning process is grounded in an exploration of personal story, engaged dialogue and community service. One of the most exciting  results of Hey Listen Up has been that students become active participants and co-creators in re-envisioning a planetary future that privileges their lives, their communities and their stories. In the process, they learn that their vision and their voice matters.  In short, that they matter!  She is also the host of a new California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) dialogue series,  ConverZations That Matter: Exploring the Boundaries of Race, Class and Gender in the 21st Century and Beyond.  

http://www.ciis.edu/News_and_Events/Event_Calendar/ConverZations_That_Matter.html

She is also co-founder of Growing a Global Heart, a project to plant a million trees along the Trans-Atlantic Slave Route in West Africa and the Underground Railroad in the U.S. to honor the millions of lives lost during the slave trade.  

www.growingaglobalheart.com

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in anthropology and an MA in Inter-disciplinary Studies in Education and has taught and lectured at a number of colleges and universities including, the State University of New York at Old Westbury, University of the District of Columbia and University of California, Santa Cruz.