Ann Beeson
I believe we can call a more just and joyful world into being.
In a time of growing despair and deep uncertainty, I support people and communities to cultivate joy, belonging and collective thriving through shared learning, reflective practices, creative organizing and ritual.
Why this work now
More than ever, there is a deep hunger for meaning-making and connection in community.
Together, we can cultivate wise hope and life-affirming ways of being and doing.
Existential crises threaten our planet. Racism and xenophobia threaten our humanity. Loneliness and despair threaten our mental health. These overlapping crises erode our trust in one another, fueling anger and violence. As traditional civic and faith institutions decline, many of us feel unmoored. We long for community and care as we navigate the uncertainty and systemic injustice of these times.
Our yearning for community is deeply connected to our longing for justice. But greed, hate, materialism and hyper-individualism are hindering efforts to build a beloved community. Discerning a way forward requires our collective creativity and imagination.
Together, we can cultivate wise hope and life-affirming ways of being and doing. We can nourish the healthy soil needed for a more just and joyful world to take root.
How I work
For people, teams and communities.
I work with people, teams, and communities who want to cultivate joy, belonging and collective thriving for all beings and the planet.
Together, we will
• Deepen relationships of mutual care
• Build resilience to navigate turmoil and transition
• Restore balance and life-affirming practices
• Reconnect to nature and place
• Engage in projects to imagine a more just and joyful world
My work includes
Individual & team coaching
Transitions
Gatherings for joy & belonging
Retreat design & facilitation
Creative social change programs
Teaching, speaking & writing
Grounded in experience
Thirty years at the intersection of law, policy, culture and social change.
SPLC
Every Texan
Open Society Foundations
ACLU
Human Rights Watch
For more than thirty years, I have worked as a civil rights lawyer and nonprofit leader, holding executive roles at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Every Texan, Open Society Foundations, ACLU and Human Rights Watch. I embrace a wide range of creative strategies for social change, drawing on my background in law and anthropology.
To expand my practices and tools for serving in these times, I am completing a two-year chaplaincy graduate program through the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe that is grounded in the socially engaged Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh.
I see my work as creative community chaplaincy — nurturing the conditions for a more just and joyful future to emerge.
Nurtured in community
Co-creating signposts of belonging.
We live in a time of disruption and emergence. This moment calls us not only to alleviate harm but to cultivate new forms of community. Together, we can create spaces that serve as signposts of belonging and incubators of liberatory futures.
Through my monthly newsletter, The Pollinator — wanderings of joy and justice, I explore practices and reflections that sustain us in times of emergence rather than destruction.
I live in Austin, Texas, where I host gatherings that invite people to laugh, sing, grieve and share stories in community. I'm a devoted volunteer at the Festival Beach Food Forest and the SAFE Alliance, an enthusiastic singer (and occasional songleader) in Sisters in Harmony Austin and Singing Resistance Austin. I'm an Advisor to Social Resonance Lab and a proud alum of the Rockwood Leadership Institute.
Join me
Subscribe to The Pollinator.
Each month I share practices, reflections and questions to cultivate wise hope. Join me as I explore ways of being that might sustain us and the planet.
