Presence Collective is delighted that our teachers will be offering live webinars every Thursday. These sessions will include a teaching and practice designed to help support you during these challenging and uncertain times.
Join us Thursday, July 9th from 2-3:00PM PST (5-6:00PM EST) for a webinar with LaNicia Duke on “How to Talk About Race in Rural Communities.” Many states are thought of as "progressive" when they have big cities with diverse populations. Outside of those big cities are rural communities struggling with how to define social justice reform or have conversations about race because of the lack of representation of underrepresented communities. LaNicia will share insight from her experience as one of the few Black people living in Tillamook county and how she has helped her communities have courageous conversations about race.
These webinars are offered by donation. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
*Sliding scale language borrowed with permission from Rev. angel Kyodo williams.
$15 - Rebalancing: for those with more than enough financial resources (personal or institutionally supported) and a desire to support access for others to help rebalance systemic inequity.
$12 - Fair: for those with sufficient financial resources who can pay fair value for the experience.
$10 - Supported: for those with currently limited financial resources who will avoid further hardship while benefiting from access supplemented by the community.
LaNicia Duke grew up in Redondo Beach, California and is a fourth-generation preacher’s kid. She spent the first thirty years of her life fighting the boxes, some real, some imagined, she allowed herself and others to put her in before realizing she was meant to live “outside” of her comfort zone. After working for several Fortune 500 companies in the construction and engineering sector, LaNicia quit her career in 2009 to find and pursue her purpose.
With ministry in her blood, LaNicia sought to find an authentic and uncompromised spiritual relationship with the higher power she calls God. It was during this time LaNicia was able to realize she had the power to be transformed in mind, body and spirit. As LaNicia began to seek a new way of living, she founded Changed Living Ministries in 2010 and began teaching the lessons and tools of having a renewed mind and living authentically in a weekly conference call for women entitled “I am Eve” from 2010 to 2012. During this same time, she also began writing about her experience of inner transformation on her blog, iamchangedliving.com. As she changed internally and intentionally, LaNicia found everything around her began to shift and align with the new person she was becoming as she learned to live out the desires of her heart.
LaNicia moved to the north Oregon coast in September of 2014. After spending two years on the coast with no recognized celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and national holiday, she began hosting a series of weekend events in 2017 to celebrate and reinforce Dr. King’s central message of love and community. Out of this, The Love Coalition was birthed. Founded in 2017, The Love Coalition has been a leader in community engagement focusing on their mission to cultivate community where people can show up without labels, connecting to one another through the spirit of love, offering acceptance without judgment and acknowledging our differences in a healthy way where we can learn and grow from each other, all while having the freedom to be authentic without fear or bias.
LaNicia has actively been engaged in conversations around race and social justice since 1992 as a student at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, where she founded The African American Awareness Club to give a platform to kids of color in her school who often felt they didn’t have a voice in their school community. LaNicia also credits her social justice advocacy on growing up at the oldest established Black church in Los Angeles, First African Methodist Episcopal church founded by former slave Biddy Mason and pastored at the time by Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray.
LaNicia is also the owner Coastal Soul, whose mantra is “Seasoned with Love”. LaNicia is a private chef specializing in soul food using locally sourced ingredients and turns kitchens into soul food sanctuaries. Even though her fried chicken is a favorite, LaNicia’s cornbread is her signature dish. LaNicia, along with her husband John have just moved back to Wheeler, Oregon after spending the last year in Ogden Utah.
Whether LaNicia is cooking up a storm, presenting a workshop or leading a retreat, she inspires her audience to grow into a more intimate, honest and transparent relationship with themselves from their innermost being. LaNicia has the gift of assisting others in identifying the quintessential embodiment of spirit within them. Meditation, being still, and inward reflection are some of the tools she believes transforms our worship which help build the foundation for healing. Through knowledge gained from personal experience, LaNicia assists others in releasing their inhibitions and insecurities and living in true freedom.