Body Liberation
Making & Imagining
with
Kimberly Dark
& Amber Karnes
New dates coming soon. Join the hotlist to be the first to know! Or you can purchase the recording of this event!
What to expect
Body Liberation: Making & Imagining will offer strategies for thinking about and making body liberation in current times.
Appearance hierarchy affects us all — whether related to body size, race, ability or social standards of attractiveness. Let’s work together on social change that changes our personal lives too.
This workshop looks at how we change our expectations and desires of our bodies over time, the intersections of fatness, aging, and disability, and is woven throughout with personal stories of what it means to be in a constantly changing body.
In this 3-hour online workshop, we’ll be exploring questions like:
💭 What are the implications of choosing to work with the body you’re in, rather than modifying it in some way?
⏳ How have our expectations of our values and our bodies shifted over time?
❤️🩹 How do we build a loving relationship with food, exercise, and aging?
🙅♀️ And how can we stop judging bodies so much (our own, and everyone else’s)?
Who is this for?
🌀 Anyone who’s experienced body changes, body limitations, or disabilities (aging folks, fat folks, disabled folks)
🧭 People who want to take stock of where they’re at with body image stuff after the past few years of massive change
🌱 Folks who want to age more consciously, accept the body they have and all the bodies they will have
🚫 Anyone who wants a break from society’s expectations of the body
🤝 Folks who want community around living well in whatever body they have
Why I created this event
Amber here. I am always interested in exploring body image, and how diet culture, fatphobia, and appearance-based hierarchy affect us. And boy oh boy, there are a few more things to talk about since the last time I taught or wrote on this topic (circa 2021).
We’ve been through Covid, the arrival of Ozempic, worse access to plus-size clothing, influencers being influencers (and all that entails), and many changes to the so-called “body positive” community online.
We all have “life before 2020” as a useful marker to contemplate our own body’s changes in weight, age, ability, and how we feel about that body. I wanted a place to explore these topics with my community and learn to ask better questions (or find the answers I’m looking for).
I picked Kimberly to collaborate with because she is one of my favorite mentors, thinkers, and writers on this topic. Her books, essays, and performances have always made me feel seen and understood. In 2019 I attended her Body Wise Professional Development retreat and learned so much about myself and through that, how to better relate to my students and better care for their bodies (and my own).
I was so glad Kimberly said yes to co-creating this event. I hope you’ll come explore with us: body liberation circa right now.
What They’re Saying
Just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this workshop! It was amazing! I loved the community building aspect, time for reflection and shares! You and Kimberly did such wonderful job of leading, guiding, facilitating and holding space! I laughed, I cried, I felt held!
-Cherie
Kimberly Dark is a fantastic storyteller, a skill she wields with quiet power… part educational conversation, part compelling performance art, the show tackles issues of gender, sexuality and societal expectations, with dark using her own experiences to guide the audience through a meditation on the invasive nature of sexism and homophobia… Time spent listening to Dark speak is well worth it… Even while you grapple with some heavy subject matter and big ideas.
Amber Karnes is a skilled teacher, listener, and a powerful facilitator of change. Amber is organized and synthesizes information in a way that supports groups in moving into a space of deeper learning and connection.
Kimberly, you are always brilliant, thoughtful and challenge us to be our best possible selves.
‘Thank you’ does not cover my appreciation of your intelligent, provocative wisdom.
How powerful community can be. It was so wonderful being around women who were committed (even at different levels) to achieving body peace.
I love looking at our bodies together and witnessing the power that we hold to heal ourselves and each other.
I think what Amber does is so important in holding space for us to find one another and lead us through example, wisdom, kindness, and humor.
💖 About Your Hosts
Kimberly Dark is a writer, sociologist and yoga teacher, working to reveal the architecture of everyday life so that we can reclaim our power as social creators. She’s the author of four books, including Fat, Pretty and Soon to be Old: A Makeover for Self and Society and Damaged Like Me: Essays on Love, Harm and Transformation.
Her essays, poetry and stories are widely published in academic and popular publications alike. She teaches for Cal State Summer Arts and travels to offer keynotes, workshops and lectures internationally and online. Her topics include social inequality, social transformation and the role of appearance and identity in our everyday lives. Visit Kimberly at kimberlydark.com.
Amber Karnes is a multi-disciplinary artist, community builder, marketing coach, yoga teacher, and micro business owner. She’s the creator of Body Positive Yoga and hosts engaging retreats, workshops, and learning experiences that help folks realize their personal power, come home to their bodies, and live out loud.
Amber writes and teaches about body liberation and self-acceptance and coaches solo business owners and artists how to untangle their brains about marketing and feel in control of their work. Her adventure retreats for 2025 include a surfing & yoga retreat in Mexico, an adult summer camp in Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains, and a beach week vacation in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Visit Amber at amberkarnes.com.
🔥 Join the Hotlist
New dates coming soon! Leave your email on the hotlist and you’ll be the first to know when enrollment opens.
🎥 Get the Recording
Want to watch the archive and work at your own pace?
Purchase the recording from our December 2024 event!
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the next workshop?
I will likely host this as a live workshop again in late 2025 or early 2026. Join the hotlist and I’ll let you know when I open enrollment again.