Youth On Fire: Birthing a Generation of Embodied Global Leaders

by Melissa Michaels

Like our planet, young people across the globe are heating up. As they come of age, some are boiling with outrage about the environmental toxins, unconscionable injustices, and social challenges they face. Some are setting their communities ablaze with gang warfare, bullying, hazing, or other destructive acts of violence. Others are barely flickering, having dimmed their light through self-destructive behaviors, lost in addictions or a variety of numbing habits that sublimate their life force. Many youth are simply invisible, lacking the encouragement of adults, disregarded or discarded with no opportunities on the horizon. Yet at the same time, there is an ever-expanding group of youth on fire. In positive ways, they are collectively ignited-illuminating the path from addiction into action, from fragmentation into integration, from isolation into community. Youth On Fire tells the timely story of hundreds of diverse young people rising from the ashes and dancing into inspired leadership and creative action-bringing light to people and places suffering around the world. The processes, protocols, and practices described within these pages galvanize individuals and communities on every continent. If you are a young person or working with youth as an educator, parent, rites of passage guide, mentor, counselor, somatic practitioner, or community organizer, this book is for you.

378 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2016

About the author

Melissa Michaels, Ed.D., guides individuals and communities through major life transitions. As a “soul midwife” and mentor to emerging leaders around the world, she has created Surfing The Creative, a rite of passage process that links somatics, youth development, and peace-building. Youth On Fire: Birthing A Generation of Embodied Global Leaders tells the story of this life-changing work as it has unfolded in diverse settings ranging from inner city schools to college campuses, and from refugee settlements to the United Nations.

Melissa is also the founder of Golden Bridge, a nonprofit organization dedicated to our collective renewal through the liberation of the creative Spirit. She is a first generation teacher of the 5Rhythms® and a registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist. Her doctorate in Education, Leadership, and Change is from The Fielding Graduate University. She also held a post-doctoral fellowship at Fielding’s Institute of Social Innovation.

Whether she is tending to individuals transitioning from one life cycle to another or to communities in the midst of major change, Melissa dedicates her life to dancing along life’s edges and guiding others as they do the same. Her forthcoming book, Threshold Dancing, will tell the story of how this body of work that she calls SomaSource weaves together the arts of body, heart, and soul to support the journey from birth through death and through the many mysterious, maddening, and miraculous adventures in between.

Reviews

[Chelsea Jewell]

Melissa Michaels gave the world an incredible gift with this book. It is not necessary to work in her field or with youth, to learn, grow and become inspired by this book and the magic within its pages. Thank you, Melissa for your work and your voice -- beautiful!