Reimagining Cooperative Futures through West African Storytelling

April 21 @ 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM CDT

Reimagining Cooperative Futures through West African Storytelling

Tuesday April 21, 2026

Pacific time: 9am-11am
Mountain time: 10am-12pm
Central time: 11am-1pm
Eastern time: 12pm-2pm

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Join an experiential workshop to reimagine cooperative futures by taking a meditative journey through the past. Guided by community-builder Shanika Malcolm and inspired by West African storytelling.

About the event

Imagining our future often starts with journeying through the past. In the Ghanaian Akan culture of West Africa, this journey is called Sankofa — a symbol and principle that means “to return and retrieve what was lost”, reminding us that we must look back in order to move forward with wisdom.

In this workshop, we will reimagine cooperative futures as a creative and necessary exercise for community-building. Cross-cultural community-builder and storyteller Shanika Malcom will guide participants through an imaginative and meditative journey through the past and into the future.

We will explore how colonization, capitalism, and cultural disconnection have shaped modern community structures and how remembering ancestral ways of cooperation can inform more inclusive, regenerative futures.

Together we will think, move, discuss, and challenge ourselves to discover what it means to dream and build our future across differences and with relational integrity.

Through guided reflection, breakout conversations, and meditation, participants will:

Examine how we arrived at our current models of community
Reflect on what cultural knowledge may have been severed or silenced
Imagine cooperative futures rooted in belonging, diversity, and shared stewardship

As the intentional community movement evolves, Sankofa invites us to deepen the work and build futures that are not only sustainable, but culturally conscious.

This session is an opportunity to strengthen the foundation of cooperative community through remembrance and reimagination.

About your presenter

Shanika Malcolm

www.shanikaheals.com

Shanika Malcolm is a community builder, facilitator, and writer dedicated to reimagining cooperative futures through cultural remembrance and regenerative design. She is the founder of Revibe, an initiative exploring village-based living, intentional community, and ecological stewardship in Colombia.

With a background in circle facilitation, storytelling, and cross-cultural community work, Shanika bridges ancestral wisdom and contemporary cooperative models. Her work centers cultural repair, belonging, and inclusive leadership as essential foundations for sustainable intentional communities.

She has facilitated community circles, retreats, and educational programs focused on healing, cooperation, and regenerative futures. Through Sankofa-informed practice, she invites participants to look back with honesty and forward with imagination.

You can read more about her powerful personal journey — through grief, birth, healing, survival, and visioning the matriarchal future — in her published chapter in the book: Rebel Ma – Leading in the Time of the Feminine.

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Live Zoom Sessions

Nothing pre-recorded here! When you sign-up for an event with FIC, you’ll have the opportunity to view a live session on Zoom.

Affordable and Accessible

All our events are run on a sliding scale basis. Generous donations cover the costs for low-income attendees. FIC is committed to making our programs accessible to people of all walks of life.

Watch the Recording

You’ll receive the recording of your event to view for 60 days. So don’t worry if you can’t attend a live session. Watch or listen whenever it is convenient for you. Transcripts available upon request.

Registration