Our Wild Minds

Black Brilliance Circle

Next Cohort Begins in Fall 2024 (Dates TBA)


A mind-body-heart exploration of living
as a gifted Black adult



Join Waitlist




6-Month Live Course Begins June 2023


A mind-body-heart exploration of living as a gifted Black adult


Weekday Cohort Begins:

Friday, June 30th 11am - 2pm EST

Weekend Cohort Begins:

Saturday, July 1st 12pm - 3pm EST


Registration closes June 16, 2023



Curious about Black giftedness?
Read this essay! 👇🏾

By Kaitlin Smith 19 Feb, 2023
Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s autobiographical play “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” singer Nina Simone released her song “Young, Gifted, and Black” in 1969. First performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival, the song became an anthem of the Black Power movement. The track was taken up and reinterpreted by artists ranging from Donny Hathaway to Aretha Franklin and, as it permeated collective consciousness, gave expression to something that dearly needed to be articulated: that Black youth ought to know that they are wellsprings of intelligence and capability, even when the world around them denies this.

Key Themes

  • Foundational concepts from the psychology of intensity, creativity, and giftedness
  • A critical history of (racialized) intelligence testing and its consequences
  • The politics of (Black) giftedness, barriers to identification, and what’s at stake
  • Unique contours of intensity, creativity, and giftedness in Black
  • The intersections of racial trauma and gifted trauma
  • Existential depression, Black existentialism, and Afropessimism
  • Black history, thought, speculation, and creativity as resources for healing and thriving
  • Posthumanism and Black belonging in a more-than-human world
  • Nature connection practices to foster Black belonging and aliveness
  • Honoring the reality of Black brilliance amidst denial and dehumanization
  • Resourcing the self and allowing ourselves to shine in authentic ways

Curious about Black giftedness?
Read this essay! 👇🏾

By Kaitlin Smith 19 Feb, 2023
Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s autobiographical play “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” singer Nina Simone released her song “Young, Gifted, and Black” in 1969. First performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival, the song became an anthem of the Black Power movement. The track was taken up and reinterpreted by artists ranging from Donny Hathaway to Aretha Franklin and, as it permeated collective consciousness, gave expression to something that dearly needed to be articulated: that Black youth ought to know that they are wellsprings of intelligence and capability, even when the world around them denies this.
By Kaitlin Smith 19 Feb, 2023
Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s autobiographical play “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” singer Nina Simone released her song “Young, Gifted, and Black” in 1969. First performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival, the song became an anthem of the Black Power movement. The track was taken up and reinterpreted by artists ranging from Donny Hathaway to Aretha Franklin and, as it permeated collective consciousness, gave expression to something that dearly needed to be articulated: that Black youth ought to know that they are wellsprings of intelligence and capability, even when the world around them denies this.

Logistics

  • Course meets once per month June through November 2023 for 3 hours per session
  • Each session will require the advance completion of reading, viewing, and/or listening, as well as the submission of responses to specific prompts for the consideration of the group and instructor
  • Cost of the 6-month course is $900 and can be paid in monthly installments

Facilitator

Kaitlin Smith, MSW trained in psychodynamic and behavioral psychotherapies at the University of California San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and Smith College School for Social Work. Kaitlin is currently a PhD student at Harvard University in History of Science where her research interrogates some of the conceptual foundations of psychology and its intersections with African American Studies. 


In addition, Kaitlin has completed certificate programs in Ecopsychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute (2021) and Gifted Psychology with psychologist Jennifer Harvey Sallin through Intergifted (2022).

FAQs

  • Is this a therapy group?

    No. Though the facilitator (Kaitlin) has undergone clinical training as a psychotherapist, this course is not meant to reproduce what happens in a therapy group.

  • I'm currently in crisis and seeking support. Is this an appropriate space for me?

    The design of Black Brilliance Circle isn't conducive to delivering the type of support that a person in crisis needs most. If you're going through this, you're encouraged to connect with a mental health professional (here is a great resource for this) to address any acute challenges that you may be facing. Once you have more mental and emotional bandwith available to partake in a non-clinical community learning experience, please consider reconnecting with us here!

  • How do I know if I'm "gifted" or "twice-exceptional"?

    This is a difficult question to answer, but this essay touches upon this topic and captures how giftedness and twice-exceptionality are conceptualized within the Black Brilliance Circle course.


    It is worth noting that there are some organizations (e.g. MENSA) that admit members based on IQ test while some other organizations are exploring qualitative measures for locating various forms of intelligence and their degree of expression in individuals. Though these tools can be useful for capturing dimensions of a person's functioning, the project of crafting a definitve science that can reliably index another's intelligence(s) and interior landscapes is a fraught enterprise riddled with inevitable blindspots in the facilitator's (Kaitlin's) view. 


    For the purposes of the application process for this course, the central criterion is whether the applicant is likely to gain from the course's offerings at this moment in time based on the self-description they submit. This posture honors the reality that human beings possess multitudes that often resist definitive classification via existing identification methods and focuses only on ascertaining course-participant fit.

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