The Three Black Men Project: A New Film, the Continuing Journey, and Embodied Liberation

by the Center for Healing and Liberation (CHL) team

The Three Black Men project began in 2022, when CHL Director Victoria Santos had the intuition to bring together three visionary men who she knew from healing and racial justice circles—Orland Bishop, Bayo Akomolafe and Resmaa Menakem. Resmaa is a somatic abolitionist and the celebrated author of My Grandmother’s Hands, Bayo is an internationally respected philosopher and professor, and Orland is a visionary teacher and spiritual guide.

When the men first met, there was instant mutual appreciation, plenty of laughter, and a vivid sense of possibility. The idea for a journey was born—a journey that would explore Blackness, ancestral connection, and emergent possibilities for healing and action. 

The Three Black Men project soon took shape, and in 2023, our group traced the Transatlantic slave route in reverse. Traveling to cities in the US, Brazil and Ghana, the men convened gatherings that centered collective inquiry into liberation. From the start, this was a journey of community, walked step by step by all who assembled on three continents for shared exploration.  

Now a new feature documentary film, Three Black Men, takes audiences on the journey with us. The film is directed and produced by Sienna McLean-LoGreco, edited by Charles Little II, A.C.E., executive produced by Victoria Santos, and produced by Kurt Schemper. Viewers join the three men as they face the pain and promise of our world, and uncover the shining thread that connects ancestral power, contemporary justice movements, and not-yet-imagined futures.

Our next step is to bring the medicine that this film carries to the world. We will be widely sharing the film at film festivals, convenings, and community gatherings, inspiring people to enter into new conversations and new approaches to healing. 

We recently launched this phase of the project with public events in Seattle. The first was a public conversation at Town Hall Seattle in October called Healing, Liberation, and the Journey of Three Black Men. Resmaa, Orland and Bayo, along with Sienna and Victoria, shared reflections and insights from the journey. 

Over 460 people joined us for a curated film preview of Three Black Men, followed by a conversation moderated by Seattle artist and civic leader C. Davida Ingram. An African drumming group kicked off the evening with waves of pulsing rhythm, and the crowd responded with joyful movement. When C. Davida brought Resmaa, Orland, Bayo, and Sienna onstage, the audience’s roar of appreciation was followed by rapt attention as the group watched a 12-minute film excerpt, encountering the Three Black Men journey and themes of ritual, grief, and ancestral weight.  

The ensuing conversation with Bayo, Resmaa and Orland was an unhurried exploration of embodied healing, collective memory, and Black futures. Listening to three of today’s most visionary thinkers on racialized trauma, Blackness, and spiritual healing, the audience was riveted, with audible emotion rippling at times through the hall. There was a sense of hearing truths that listeners had known but not yet articulated. Post-program, people lingered in small clusters of passionate discussion. 

One attendee reflected, “Listening to Victoria, Resmaa, Orland, Bayo, and Sienna, I felt like I was with people who had gotten a taste of quantum peace and meaning, even as the way the world hurts right now was so present.”  She found the film excerpt “gorgeous, supple, intimate. I feel excited for what this work of spirit and art will activate in the world.”  

She also reflected that “The Three Black Men reality (more than the film or events) to me is a call into mystery that speaks the truth of what humans have done to each other and then, as a response to that wounding, reaches into the infinite for ancestral wisdom.”

The second Seattle event with Orland, Bayo and Resmaa, held at Washington Hall in November, was an immersive daylong called A Day of Embodied Liberation. It was curated especially for those committed to healing, justice, and liberation—healers, activists, artists, space holders, community leaders, and those carrying the weight of ancestral memory and generational care. Approximately 70 people took part.  

This was a gathering of kin—a sacred offering for those who have been holding so much, for so long. We stepped into a collective pause to tend to our nervous systems, honor our lineages, confront inherited trauma, and envision new portals to liberation beyond supremacy, speed, and survival.  A day to slow down, move through the body, engage in ritual, and be in dialogue with the facilitators. 

Aaron Johnson led the group in song before the sound of Chris Evans’ powerful and tender cello swelled through the room from her seat beside the community altar. We invited everyone to fully be themselves, without pressure to perform. For two hours, participants contributed items to the community altar. The whole day included somatic practices, courageous conversation, collective ritual and restorative practices. 

In one participant’s words, “People were hungry for slowness.” Another shared that “It was satisfying to take in from Bayo and Resmaa how they have been changed by this experience. It was also expansive and thrilling to hear from Orland about how the stars wish to shine through us.”

We are grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey so far, and we invite you to follow along (and sign up for film updates) at: https://www.threeblackmen.com/

As we go on living in these times, and as we approach 2026, the Three Black Men project continues moving forward… so that the stars can shine through us.

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Photo credits: Michael B. Maine: https://www.michaelbmaine.com/

Center for Healing and Liberation (CHL): https://www.centerforhealingandliberation.com/

Three Black Men: https://www.threeblackmen.com/