Now, more than ever, we need each other. We need all of us, if for no other reason than we belong to each other.
We’re back—and this time, we’re blooming from the heart.
The ELLA (Emergent Leadership for Liberation & Action) Summit returns in 2026 with the theme Heart Bloom.—a call to root ourselves in love, community, and embodied leadership as we rise into what’s next.
Hosted by Ma Mukti, this Summit is an invitation to nurture our collective heart and bloom in the face of it all. Let’s gather to remember who we are and why we lead.
"If your heart isn’t in the work, nothing blooms. If your heart is in the work, everything changes."
rusia mohiuddin
Founder|Co-Director, Ma Mukti
Release. Ground. Reimagine.
The ELLA Summit brings together a national community of women and gender-expansive leaders who are holding the front lines of social, racial, economic, and climate justice. This gathering is not about performance or burnout heroics but about building leaders with the skill, presence, and strategic clarity needed for the long haul.
Heart Bloom is our theme because leadership grows from what we tend to, not what we rush. Over three days, participants will work with somatic practice, political insight, and real tools for navigating today’s conditions. This year, Karen Washington joins us as one of our keynote speakers to take us deeper into radical imagination as a discipline for movement strategy.
After another political cycle defined by intensity, volatility, and enormous hope for what can be, the Summit offers a rare place to decompress, recalibrate, and reconnect to purpose. It’s a pause that isn’t passive but rather a deliberate reset for leaders who need space to think clearly and move with intention again.
Summit Dates
The 2026 ELLA Summit will take place Friday, April 17th through Sunday, April 19th, 2026.
Women-led Expertise
We will be led, guided, and cared for by our WEL Embodied Coaches and a diverse group of leaders from across the country who serve on our Advisory & Planning Committee (APC). Together, they bring deep movement experience, somatic grounding, and the kind of leadership rigor that meets the realities our communities are facing.
Summit Location
The 2026 Summit will be held in downtown Philadelphia, chosen for its accessibility, energy, and history of collective struggle. It’s a place where leaders can gather with intention, ground in community, and stay focused without the noise of isolation or retreat settings.
Staci has been experimenting at the intersections of personal and social transformation for the last 30 years through the work of somatics, trauma healing, embodied leadership, and transformative justice. She is the author of "The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice" (North Atlantic Books 2019), which has been translated into German, and "Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma" (Cleis 1999, 2007), which has been translated into German, Japanese and Spanish.
Staci is an innovator in the field of Somatics, focusing on how it can bring transformative capacity to social and climate justice movements and help heal the impacts of trauma and oppression. She runs online and in-person programs and teacher trainings, and partners with social and climate justice organizations. She co-founded generative somatics, a multiracial organization dedicated to building social justice capacity. She serves as a senior teacher at the Strozzi Institute.
gina Breedlove (she/they/grace) is a sound healer, grief doula, vocalist, composer,
and oracle for Grace, born in The People’s Republic of Brooklyn, NY. gina began
her walk with spirit and sound at age 9, singing in her family's missionary Baptist
church near the Apalachicola River, in Florida. gina has toured the world as
featured vocalist with Harry Belafonte, Craig Harris, Sekou Sundiata, and Ronny
Jordan, to name a few. She created the role of "Sarabi," for the Broadway
production of, "The Lion King,” has worked on two Spike Lee joints, as an actor
and sound healer, recorded two records, "Open Heart," & "Language of Light," and
now her debut book, "The Vibration of Grace: Sound Healing Rituals for
Liberation," is available for purchase.
gina currently tours with her music and sound healing offerings, sharing the
medicine of Grace in every city she visits. She comes from red dirt, brackish
water, moss covered trees, and a lineage of women who lay hands, and source the
limitless power of sound as a healing modality.
Visit ginaBreedlove.com for more about gina and their work.
and oracle for Grace, born in The People’s Republic of Brooklyn, NY. gina began
her walk with spirit and sound at age 9, singing in her family's missionary Baptist
church near the Apalachicola River, in Florida. gina has toured the world as
featured vocalist with Harry Belafonte, Craig Harris, Sekou Sundiata, and Ronny
Jordan, to name a few. She created the role of "Sarabi," for the Broadway
production of, "The Lion King,” has worked on two Spike Lee joints, as an actor
and sound healer, recorded two records, "Open Heart," & "Language of Light," and
now her debut book, "The Vibration of Grace: Sound Healing Rituals for
Liberation," is available for purchase.
gina currently tours with her music and sound healing offerings, sharing the
medicine of Grace in every city she visits. She comes from red dirt, brackish
water, moss covered trees, and a lineage of women who lay hands, and source the
limitless power of sound as a healing modality.
Visit ginaBreedlove.com for more about gina and their work.
“My grandfather was the founding father of the Bangladeshi Independence struggle. He was an organizer & a politician popularly known as ‘Jadu Mia’ (Magic Man). He would often tell his children, ‘The people are the source of all power!’
My mother raised her children with this as a foundation for understanding the world & what united peoples are capable of achieving.”
Rusia N. Mohiuddin, based in New York, is a master trainer, facilitator, coach, and strategist who pioneered the integration of somatics into an organizing framework. Her current mission, through Ma Mukti & Universal Partnership, has been developing a holistic model for social justice change work that places in its center the necessary transformation of social change agents. Rusia brings a unique style to creating pathways for individuals to bring their best selves forward when enacting social change in their organizations & communities.
Rusia founded a national organization, Ma Mukti (Mother Liberation, M2), in honor of her beloved mother Monsura “Mukti” Mohiuddin, aimed to serve women and gender expansive folks. M2’s mission is to cultivate new and profound ways of being with one another, cultivating cultures that values, respects, and empowers all women, particularly women of color, by creating spaces that promote individual and collective healing, transformation, and joy.
M2’s vision is for a future where women and gender expansive leaders—especially Black, Brown, Indigenous women of color—lead our movements with full resourcing, cultural rootedness, and political power. In this future, collective self-determination has taken root and movements thrive through sustainable leadership ecosystems that honor, dignity, care, and our collective humanity.
Rusia is authoring several books, one based on over 2 decades of organizing, that introduces a new model for social change in the 21st century. Drawing from experiences as a master trainer and facilitator, an executive director, and a frontline organizer, Rusia has piloted this new community organizing model, Embodied Organizing™, for the past four years and officially launched the program in 2018 with five organizations. To date, nearly 1000 organizers from over 74 organizations, across 32 states have been training to be Embodied Organizers.
Rusia has also developed a model for coaching social change agents, called Embodied Coaching™, that is based on her developed model of embodied leadership.
Over the last 30 years, Rusia has primarily worked in non-profit, community-based organizations and foundations across the U.S. Her organizing career started with 9 years as a street-level community organizer, & grew to leading organizations, notably helping to establish Families United for Racial & Economic Equality & co-founding the national intermediary, Social Justice Leadership. More recently, Rusia is currently the founder and principal of UP and the founder of Ma Mukti. Through this experience & her many years as a trainer, coach & consultant, Rusia brings a well-grounded expertise of basic to advanced organizing training as well as organizational & leadership development.
Karen is a farmer and activist. She is Co-owner/Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York. An activist, food advocate. A pioneer in the world of urban agriculture; in 2010, Co- Founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings. Karen has received numerous awards most recently the co-recipient of the 2023 James Beard Humanitarian Award and the 2024 Emerson Collective Fellowship. She has also been credited with the term food apartheid instead of food desert, to bring to the forefront the inequities seen in the food system. Mama K as she is known in the community, serves on the boards of the New York Botanical Gardens, Black Farmer Fund, Soul Fire Farm, the Mary Mitchell Center, and Green Workers Cooperative.
Ejeris Dixon is an organizer, writer, and strategist with 25 years of experience leading organizations within racial justice, LGBTQ, anti-violence, prison and police abolition, and economic justice movements. They are the Founding Director of Ejerie Labs where they focus on political education, supporting organizers, and building movement strategy towards creating transformative futures and curtailing rising fascism. Ejeris was the Founding Executive Director of Vision Change Win Consulting until 2024, where they focused on creating organizational development, community safety, and security practices for social justice organizations. Ejeris serves as the host of the Fascism Barometer, a podcast and learning hub that discusses fascism’s rise in the United States, and how to organize against it. Ejeris is also the co-editor of Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha, which became a finalist for the Lambda Literary award in LGBTQ Anthology. Ejeris is also a co-founder of the Progressive Safety Alliance a national network of leftist security providers working to educate and support social justice organizations through security and safety threats. Over the past twenty-five years Ejeris has directly worked on thousands of incidents of violence and directly organized around more than a hundred murders of Queer and Trans People of Color. Ejeris's writing, analysis, and advocacy have been featured in Truthout Magazine, Rolling Stone, Huffington Post, SPIN Magazine, the New York Times, The New Yorker, NBC, CNN, Ms. Magazine, and The Nation.
Meet the Minds Behind Heart Bloom
These are some of the voices grounding our practice, expanding our strategy, and calling us into the future.
How can somatics be used to abolish the structures which keep us dispossessed and sick?
How One Woman Turned a Passion for Farming Into Her Life’s Work 7:47
Karen Washington was always involved in New York City’s farming community. But when she retired from her first career at 60, she made her dream of operating a large-scale farm a reality.
The Rituals & Medicine of Grief 40 mins
Author, grief doula, sound healer, vocalist, and composer, gina Breedlove (she/they/Grace) is from the People’s Republic of Brooklyn N.Y. gina is an oracle for the medicine of Grace and grief, and travels the world sharing the good news of grief-letting as a path to liberation.
Transformative Justice and Community Accountability 10:47
How to address harm within our communities, without relying on state violence? Listen to Ejeris Dixon’s take on transformative justice and community accountability.
Centering In Urgent Times 9:15
A Live Practice for every day life led by rusia mohiuddin, founder|co-director of Ma Mukti.
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL!
right now we have a deep discount for each tier. grab your spot now at a discounted rate!
Save Up to 15%
Supported Fee
LOVE EXTENDED
$1500/ person
- For individuals
- Small/Emerging Orgs
- <$500k Org Budget
- Fee Support Needed
Fair
BALANCED FEE
$2000/ person
- At Cost Fee Level
- For Folks with Institutional Support
- $500k–$1M Org Budget
- Well-funded Orgs
Pay It Forward
RE-
BALANCING
$2500/ person
- For Funders/Foundations
- Funder Supported Fee
- >$1M Org Budget
- Established Organizations
- Exceptionally-funded Orgs
All Members
5% Discount
$1425/ person
- Discount for EL Summit
- 1 Free Spot in ELLA Program events
- 5% Discount On All 2025 Program Fees
- Overall $1500+ Savings
All Members
10% Discount
$1800/ person
- Discount for EL Summit
- 2 Free Spots in ELLA Program events
- 10% Discount On All 2025 Program Fees
- Overall $2500+ Savings
All Members
15% Discount
$2125/ person
- Discount for EL Summit
- 3 Free Spots in ELLA Program events
- 15% Discount On All 2025 Program Fees
- Overall $3500+ Savings
Host Committee
Host Committee
Host Committee
Host Committee
Host Committee
JENNIFER CHING
Executive Director, North Star Fund
MANUELA ARCHINIEGAS
Executive Director, Communities for Just Schools Fund
NOEL DIDLA
Co-Steward, Deep South Solidarity Fund
MUSTAFA SULLIVAN
Executive Director, Coalition for Educational Justice
The 3-day gathering will bring together frontline leaders, organizers, artists, healers, and cultural workers from across movements to:
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Ground in somatic and political practice,
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Center joy, healing, and connection as necessary tools for change, and;
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Build power, deepen strategy, and vision liberation together and make it actionable through the RISE Campaign.
April 17th, 2026
DAY 1: Deep Grounding
Lunch
Welcome Remarks
Cultural Opening
Somatically Intelligent Leadership
M2’s Leadership Tenets Breakouts
Dinner with Affinity Groups
Regional Networking
Game Night & Karaoke-Off
April 18th, 2026
DAY 2: Release & Reintegrate
Opening Circle
RISE Campaign Meeting
Grief Releasing Part 1
Lunch
Grief Releasing Part 2
Grounding In Our Values
Dinner & Joy Celebration @ ONE ART Community Center
April 19th, 2026
DAY 3: Radical Imagination
Opening Circle
ELLA Program Gallery Walk
Radical Imagination Session 1
Radical Imagination Session 2
Closing Circle: Activating Radical Imagination
Lunch
Celebration of Joy @ One Art Community
Special Community Dinner
Legacy Women NYC
Special Performance
Dancing for Movement & Revolution
Silent Art Auction to Support M2
Arts & Crafts for Introverts
Libations & Snacks
Our sponsors make it possible for frontline leaders to access the tools, practices, and community they need to lead from a grounded place. Their support strengthens the conditions for real, long-term transformation through shared commitment to justice, leadership, and sustainable movement work.
Our core partners are the organizations that walk beside us in the work. They are rooted in community, committed to justice, and deeply invested in building leadership that lasts. Their collaboration shapes the Summit, strengthens our collective strategy, and ensures that what we build reaches far beyond a single gathering. Together, we create the conditions for leaders to grow, heal, and take powerful action in their communities.
What They’re Saying
(shared with permission from the Summit evaluation)
