MORGAN CURTIS on Transmuting Ancestries of Exploitation /327

Detail of painting titled “Tree of My Life” by J. Stella (Public Domain)

Rising against growing wealth inequality and resource consolidation, guest Morgan Curtis asks how we might, rather, shape our world in reciprocity, mutual aid, and intentional community. This week, Ayana and Morgan dive deep into the need for repair, healing, and acknowledgement as we face the historical roots of modern inequity. 

Morgan centers her work by listening deeply to the call for radical change – a call coming from the earth, from Black and Indigenous organizing, and from the spiritual imperative of reparations work. Attuned to this, Morgan asks: how can we grow when we don’t push away harm and instead learn to face and acknowledge it? Reparations work and wealth redistribution demand acknowledgement and accountability alongside concrete action. Pointing listeners towards specific organizations working on reparations work, Morgan details the logistical and spiritual realities of redistribution and highlights the ways power over such resources must also be redistributed.  

This heartfelt and expansive conversation calls for us to unlearn the ways racial capitalism has taught us wealth should be passed down. Perhaps the world that we are longing for is one where abundance is not wealth, but rather right relationship - with land, with ancestry, and with each other.

“As we get out of the way, as we move our resources, our prayers, our energy towards the leadership of those that our ancestors harmed, we can move into a place where maybe one day all of our descendants can share this planet in a better way.”

— Morgan Curtis / Episode 327

Photo of Morgan Curtis by Brooke Porter Photography

Guided by the call to transmute the legacy of her colonizing and enslaving ancestors, Morgan is dedicated to working with her fellow people with wealth and class privilege towards redistribution, atonement, and repair. As a facilitator, money coach, organizer and ritualist, she works to catalyze the healing of relationships with self, family, ancestors, community, and the land, enabling the surrender of power and control so that resources can flow towards racial, environmental, and economic justice. She is in the process of redistributing 100% of her inherited wealth and 50% of her income to primarily Black- and Indigenous-led organizing and land projects. Morgan is a resident of Canticle Farm, a multi-racial, inter-faith, cross-class, intergenerational intentional community in Lisjan Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA). She is currently a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, where she is studying the spiritual dimension of the reparations work required of white people.

♫ The music featured in this episode is "Creek Song" by Andy Tallent, "Base Pay" by Handmade Moments, and "Pearl River" by Ela Spalding.

Episode References

BRONTË VELEZ on the Pleasurable Surrender of White Supremacy, Part 1 /139

Weather Reports: The Climate of Relationships and Intersectionality 

Morgan’s letter to her descendants:  Post-pandemic, post-revolution

Radical Redistributive Resource Library — Ancestors & Money Coaching 

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver, Library of Congress 

Morgan Curtis

GuEST Recommendations

Read a curated list of resources from Morgan:
Radical Redistributive Resource Library — Ancestors & Money Coaching 

For young people with wealth or class privilege, look up Resource Generation.

For people interested in researching their family histories towards healing the legacy of enslavement, go to Coming to the Table.

For those interested in supporting the movement for reparations, check out the National Grassroots Reparations Campaign.

SUBSCRIBE & Listen

Subscribe to For The Wild RSS →
Listen on Apple, Spotify, or another platform →

For The Wild is a gathering place for ideas and solutions ensuring that the growing body of work that we steward remains accessible to the public. If you want to see us continue, or perhaps are especially moved by the episode you are listening to today, please become a monthly sustaining member through our Patreon or consider making a one-time donation directly to us through our website. To stay up-to-date on our work, sign up for our newsletter.

---