A free wellness event will set four hours aside to build community in the name of rest.
The BIPOC Soul Live, Learn and Lead Power Summit, coming up Sunday, is intended for entrepreneurs who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color). Event host Nicole Rials said it’s also geared toward leadership roles, both in communities and families, and their daily demands.
“As welcoming and diverse as Lawrence is, you still have many of our leaders of color who are leading in predominantly white spaces,” Rials said. “And that’s always going to be something that’s worthwhile addressing.”
Owner of K.N. Rials Therapy & Consulting LLC, Rials is a licensed social worker of more than 20 years who most recently provides therapy services to primarily first responders. She founded Life Restoration Ministries Foundation in 2007, a faith-based agency rooted in racial equity.
The summit continues a series of “BIPOC Soul” events LRM Foundation presented over the past two years. Rials said the motivation is to relate through affinity spaces and grow away from mental health care stigma.
“We have always created spaces for each other,” Rials said. “That’s been part of our heritage and our ancestors, so creating space for each other is nothing new. The challenge now is to do it in the midst of, just, this chaotic world and the chaotic pace that we have to be able to slow down.”
Rials will moderate a panel of six business owners and wellness educators, including three based in Lawrence: Carter Gaskins, owner of Gaskins Photography Collection; Derek Kwan, executive director of the Lied Center; and Quincy Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kansas.
Panelists also include Michael Odupitan, CEO at Omni Circle Group in Topeka; Angelica Crowley, licensed social worker and owner of Elevate Mindcare Studio in Topeka; and Gabe Munoz, founder and executive director of The Toolbox in Kansas City.
“I’m hoping to really use this platform, too, to show the wide range of mental health services that are out there and available,” Rials said. “I hope people come and get refreshed and restored and revived to go back out there and keep doing great things.”
Followed by the panel discussion, participants can network and roam around wellness stations.
Rials will demonstrate essential oil recipes, and limited spots will be available for a free chair massage by Chantel White, owner of Cute and Cut in Lawrence, and a free scalp analysis by Shannon Collins, owner of Mane Purpose Salon in Gardner.
The summit is set for 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24 at the Lied Center Pavilion, 1600 Stewart Drive.
Participation is free, but registration is required via this Google form.
Event partners with K.N. Rials Therapy & Consulting and LRM Foundation include the Lied Center, Network Kansas and Capitol Federal.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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