Reverend Manish Mishra-Marzetti is offering two classes this term, “UU Warriors for the Human Spirit” and “The Imaginarium: Giving Life to Our Creative Spirits”. It is possible to register for both of these offerings, if time and interest permits, and one meets or can meet the requirements for inclusion in the UU Warriors cohort.
“Unitarian Universalist Warriors for the Human Spirit”
As we Unitarian Universalists live into an uncertain future, what are the values, stories, and teachings that we hold fast to? Why do those values, stories, and teachings matter? How do we integrate them meaningfully into our present day individual and communal lives as UUs, and how do we ensure that those values, stories, and teachings remain salient through the turbulence of tomorrow? UU Warriors will explore how each of us can be the wisdom keepers that humanity needs, through our lived experience and through the things we nurture and pass down to future generations. If these questions and possibilities resonate with you, being a part of the UU Warriors cohort may be right for you!
Please Note: This offering builds on the seminar Rev. Manish offered during congregational year 2024-2025. As such, this offering is primarily for, but not limited to, those who fully participated in the 2024-2025 seminar. If you did not fully participate in this past year’s seminar, but would like to be in the UU Warriors cohort, you may register and Rev. Manish will contact you. You will be minimally expected to complete certain readings from the seminar as a prerequisite for participating in UU Warriors.
As with Rev. Manish’s 2024-2025 seminar, UU Warriors will utilize core texts for the purposes of shared reflection, examining how these texts illustrate enduring values, stories, and teachings that we may hold fast to as UU Warriors and wisdom keepers.
For UU Warriors, the ‘work’ in between sessions will involve engaging with readings and ideas.
Meeting Dates/Timings: (All sessions will be zoom-based, approximately every other month @ 6:30pm-8:30pm). 9/17 (joint session with The Imaginarium), 11/12/2025, 1/14/2026, 3/11, 5/13, 6/10 (joint session with The Imaginarium).
Required Texts:
- Benjamin, Ruha (2024). Imagination: A Manifesto. W.W. Norton and Company.
- Chodron, Pema (2022). How We Live is How We Die. Shambhala Publications.
- Gumbs, Alexis Pauline (2020). Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. AK Press.
- Heart, Bear & Larkin, Molly (1996). The Wind is my Mother: The Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman. Berkley Books.
- Ruttenberg, Danya (2022). On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World. Beacon Press.
- Tea, Aiden Cinnamon & Ladybugboss, Dorothy (2024). Burnout from Humans: A Little Book About AI that Isn’t Really About AI. Available for free download here: https://burnoutfromhumans.net/
Homework in advance of 9/17/25 session: Please read Ruha Benjamin’s Imagination: A Manifesto (2024) in entirety.
The Imaginarium: Giving Life to Our Creative Spirits
In a time when it can feel like so much is uncertain and so much that was previously worked toward and achieved is being dismantled, how do we free our imaginations to sculpt, create, and dream of a future in which all can thrive? Creativity can be an act of resistance, an act of defiance, an act of expressing our inner knowing that the human spirit will not be stifled by autocrats, by uncertainty, or by fear. What will you choose to create? How will your love of humanity and all that exists find expression?
The Imaginarium will primarily focus on creative expression. Participants will engage in a full and deep reflective conversation during each session, and then take time in between sessions to creatively express one’s personal engagement with that conversation through any art form or medium of one’s choosing.
You can paint, draw, sculpt, carve, metalwork, collage, photograph, write poetry, non-fiction, fiction, lyrics, a play – you can engage in any creative act that gives life to your inner wisdom about the issues focused on in the most recent session. Participants will then share their creative project with one another in the next session, in small groups.
For The Imaginarium, the ‘work’ in between sessions will involve engaging with an artistic/creative form or medium of one’s choice, resulting in a unique creative response to the prior class session’s prompts and/or conversation.
Meeting Dates/Timings: (All sessions will be zoom-based, approximately every other month @ 6:30pm-8:30pm). 9/17 (joint session with UU Warriors), 10/15, 12/10/2025, 2/11/2026, 4/8, 6/10 (joint session with UU Warriors).
Required Texts:
- Benjamin, Ruha (2024). Imagination: A Manifesto. W.W. Norton and Company.
- Gilbert, Elizabeth (2015). Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Riverhead Books.
Homework in advance of 9/17/25 session: Please read Ruha Benjamin’s Imagination: A Manifesto (2024) in entirety.
To register for either/both UU Warriors and The Imaginarium, please click here. If you need support in registering, please contact the UUAA office at office@uuaa.org