Soularize is a gathering for spiritual innovators, artists, leaders, and changemakers exploring what becomes possible when humane spirituality meets action.
Across traditions and fields, many people today sense the same calling: spirituality must move beyond private belief and into the work of healing communities and shaping a more humane world.
Soularize creates space for those explorers to find one another.
Rather than centering only on speakers, Soularize is a participatory learning experience where the wisdom of the community becomes part of the gathering. Through shared inspiration, conversation, cultural experiences, and collaboration, participants discover what becomes possible when imagination, compassion, and action meet.
Together we are forming more than an event. We are nurturing an emerging network of people who know we need one another for the work ahead.
People learn in different ways. Some learn best through conversation and ideas. Others through experience, art, reflection, or collaborative exploration.
Soularize honors these differences by offering four complementary pathways for learning throughout the gathering. Participants are invited to move between these environments as they shape their own journey.
The schedule is intentionally spacious, allowing time to reflect, connect with others, or simply follow the pathway that feels most meaningful in the moment.
Each day begins with the full community gathering for shared inspiration and reflection. Drawing from diverse faith traditions, artistic voices, and lived experience, these sessions include storytelling, music, and guided reflection alongside conversations in small pods. Guided by Dr. Laura Calderon de la Barca, Bayo Akomolafe, and a peer panel, these gatherings help frame the questions we explore together.
In the early afternoon participants continue the exploration through facilitated learning conversations focused on spiritual innovation and social change. These sessions emphasize dialogue rather than lectures, creating space to listen deeply, share experience, and explore complex questions together in a spirit of curiosity and shared inquiry.
Participants may also choose experiential learning opportunities either at the venue or across Chicago. Through music, cultural storytelling, art, history, and embodied practices, these small-group experiences invite participants to learn through the wisdom of culture and place, allowing the city itself to become part of the learning journey.
Later in the afternoon the community gathers for Open Space Technology, a participatory format where participants propose and host conversations that matter most to them. This collaborative environment allows new ideas, partnerships, and shared learning to emerge organically as the community explores possibilities together.
People learn in different ways. Some learn best through conversation and ideas. Others through experience, art, reflection, or collaborative exploration.
Soularize honors these differences by offering four complementary pathways for learning throughout the gathering. Participants are invited to move between these environments as they shape their own journey.
The schedule is intentionally spacious, allowing time to reflect, connect with others, or simply follow the pathway that feels most meaningful in the moment.
Each day begins with the full community gathering for shared inspiration and reflection. Drawing from diverse faith traditions, artistic voices, and lived experience, these sessions include storytelling, music, and guided reflection alongside conversations in small pods. Guided by Dr. Laura Calderon de la Barca, Bayo Akomolafe, and a peer panel, these gatherings help frame the questions we explore together.
In the early afternoon participants continue the exploration through facilitated learning conversations focused on spiritual innovation and social change. These sessions emphasize dialogue rather than lectures, creating space to listen deeply, share experience, and explore complex questions together in a spirit of curiosity and shared inquiry.
Participants may also choose experiential learning opportunities either at the venue or across Chicago. Through music, cultural storytelling, art, history, and embodied practices, these small-group experiences invite participants to learn through the wisdom of culture and place, allowing the city itself to become part of the learning journey.
Later in the afternoon the community gathers for Open Space Technology, a participatory format where participants propose and host conversations that matter most to them. This collaborative environment allows new ideas, partnerships, and shared learning to emerge organically as the community explores possibilities together.
Collective Change Lab, Senior Associate, Healing Systems Co-Lead.
Laura Calderón de la Barca, PhD is a psychotherapist and systems change practitioner specializing in collective, intergenerational, and systemic trauma. As Senior Associate at the Collective Change Lab, she advances healing as the key to transforming social systems. She is the lead author of Healing Systems, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (2024), which was the most-read SSIR article of the year. Rooted in her lived experience as a Mexican Mestiza reconnecting with her Indigenous spirituality, Laura bridges trauma healing, decolonial practice, and spiritual reconnection as pathways for changemakers. She teaches internationally, with particular focus on Latin America, and collaborates with global spiritual and social impact communities in events such as the Skoll World Forum (Oxford University) and the Wellbeing Summits (Bilbao, Bogotá and Saltillo). She has also facilitated collective trauma healing labs, support spaces for people of color and Spanish-speaking communities with Thomas Hübl through the Academy of Inner Science and the Pocket Project, and served as a panelist and host for the Collective Trauma Online Summits (2019–2023). She is currently working on a documentary about Healing Systems with the Collective Change Lab and Pirata Films, scheduled for release in mid-2026.
Public Intellectual | Author | Hubert H. Humphrey Distinguished Professor of American Studies | Visionary Founder
Dr. Bayo Akomolafe is a Nigerian-born philosopher, author, speaker, and self-described “trans-public intellectual” whose work invites us beyond rigid ideas of right and wrong into more entangled, relational ways of being. Of Yoruba descent and shaped by early experiences of migration, loss, and encounters with traditional healers, his life’s inquiry centers on trauma, decolonization, ecology, and the sacred “in-between” spaces of uncertainty. A former lecturer and Special Envoy for the International Alliance for Localization, he has taught at institutions including Middlebury College and Pacifica Graduate Institute, and is the author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences and We Will Tell Our Own Story. As Visionary Founder of The Emergence Network and host of We Will Dance with Mountains, Bayo explores postactivism, ontofugitivity, and transraciality—offering poetic, provocative invitations to rethink justice, power, and hope. Living between India and the United States with his wife and children, he considers his most sacred work the daily practice of learning how to be with the world—confused, enchanted, and alive in the “meantime.”
President and CEO of Well-being and Equity(WE) in the World,
Somava Saha, MD, MS works to advance intergenerational well-being and equity on a foundation of racial and economic justice. A practical visionary, as President and CEO of Well-being and Equity(WE) in the World, Dr. Saha knows and shows that real system change is possible through relationships and system change. Through collectives like the Well Being In the Nation(WIN) Network, Communities RISE Together, and others, in the last five years, this work has led to the creation of over 11,000 jobs in 1009 communities experiencing inequities, entrusted these communities to lead change, and resulted in 195,000 more birthdays celebrated and millions more bedtime stories told—at a 30:1 return on investment. She leads the JUSTICE SQUARED initiative, with WE in the World as the national program office for this work. Previously, as vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Dr. Saha led 100 Million Healthier Lives, which brought together 1850+ partners in 30+ countries reaching >500 million people to improve health, wellbeing and equity. She served as vice president at Cambridge Health Alliance, where she led a health system transformation that won national awards for improved health, experience and cost for safety net communities. In 2012, Dr. Saha was recognized as one of ten Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leaders for contributions to improving the health of the nation. She was elected a Leading Causes of Life Global Fellow in 2016. She has appeared on panels with the Dalai Lama, Angela Davis, and been a featured speaker at a White House Summit on the economy hosted by Kamala Harris. Dr. Saha and her team at WE in the World aim to grow and be connected with a global movement of better ancestors that can advance intergenerational well-being and justice together.
President at Forum for Theological Exploration
Stephen Lewis is the president of the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) and creator and co-founder of DO GOOD X, a start-up accelerator for diverse Christian social entrepreneurs. He is an organizational change strategist and a leadership development specialist, focused on inspiring the next generation of faith-inspired leaders and entrepreneurs to live and work on purpose. Stephen is the co-author of Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose (2020) and A Way Out of No Way: An Approach to Christian Innovation (2021).
The daily themes help focus our shared exploration. The learning pathways give each participant the agency to engage in ways that meet them where they are.
One person may spend an afternoon in deep conversation.
Another may explore the city through art or culture.
Another may choose reflection or embodied practice.
Each path is part of the same journey.
By weaving together inspiration, conversation, experience, and collaboration, Soularize creates an environment where participants learn not only from speakers, but also from the city, the arts, and one another.
Soularize is not simply an event to attend.
It is an invitation to join a community of learners and practitioners exploring how humane spirituality can move from insight into action in the world.
Each day of Soularize explores a different dimension of the question:
What happens when humane spirituality becomes lived action in the world?
Guiding each day’s exploration will be voices whose work reflects the spirit of the theme-helping us frame the questions,
deepen the conversation, and inspire our collective imagination.
Dr. Laura Calderon de la Barca
Helping guide this exploration will be Dr. Laura Calderon de la Barca, whose work explores the intersections of faith, justice, and human dignity. Through her perspective we will reflect on the deeper questions shaping this moment and how spiritual traditions can help communities face uncertainty with courage and compassion.
Through music, dialogue, storytelling, and cultural exploration, we begin by recognizing the shared questions that bring us together.
Day One reminds us that meaningful change often begins with honesty, listening, and connection.
Bayo Akomolafe
This exploration will be guided by Bayo Akomolafe, whose work invites us to rethink the ways we approach change, complexity, and social transformation. His perspective challenges conventional narratives of progress and encourages us to notice the subtle, relational ways that transformation unfolds.
Participants will explore the landscape of change through conversations, artistic expression, and cultural experiences that reveal how people across fields and traditions are shaping new possibilities.
Day Two invites us to see that we are not alone. A wider field of creativity and transformation is already unfolding.
Somava Saha, MD, MS
This conversation will be shaped by a panel of our peers - leaders, practitioners, and innovators from within the Soularize community who are already experimenting with new forms of collaboration, spiritual practice, and social engagement.
Together we will explore how the insights and relationships from the gathering can continue to grow into meaningful action.
The gathering concludes before lunch, sending participants back into their communities with renewed clarity, connection, and purpose.
Dr. Laura Calderon de la Barca
Gathering: What is connecting us? What problems are we seeing? What are we holding
alone that we can better hold together? How can we take care of ourselves and one
another?
A dedicated space to build meaningful relationships through guided and organic conversations. This is where ideas deepen, connections form, and the community begins to take shape.
Experiential Learning in the City Participants may also choose experiential learning opportunities either at the venue or across Chicago. Through music, cultural storytelling, art, history, and embodied practices, these experiences invite participants to learn through the wisdom of culture and place. Chicago itself becomes part of the learning journey.
Small, interactive sessions led by practitioners and innovators exploring real work in the field. Rather than presentations, these are participatory conversations designed for shared learning, reflection, and practical insight.
Stephen Lewis
A participant-driven session where anyone can host a conversation around a question, idea, or challenge they care about. Open Space invites emergent topics, collaboration, and co-creation in real time.
A quiet, reflective start to the day designed to center the body and mind. These optional sessions offer space for stillness, intention-setting, and personal grounding before the day begins.
Bayo Akomolafe
Surveying the Field: Where are we seeing hope and effective action? What is happening in the field of spiritual innovation and changemaking? Where do we see cooperation, collaboration, and mutual learning?
A dedicated space to build meaningful relationships through guided and organic conversations. This is where ideas deepen, connections form, and the community begins to take shape.
Experiential Learning in the City Participants may also choose experiential learning opportunities either at the venue or across Chicago. Through music, cultural storytelling, art, history, and embodied practices, these experiences invite participants to learn through the wisdom of culture and place. Chicago itself becomes part of the learning journey.
Small, interactive sessions led by practitioners and innovators exploring real work in the field. Rather than presentations, these are participatory conversations designed for shared learning, reflection, and practical insight.
Stephen Lewis
A participant-driven session where anyone can host a conversation around a question, idea, or challenge they care about. Open Space invites emergent topics, collaboration, and co-creation in real time.
Surveying the Field: Where are we seeing hope and effective action? What is happening in the field of spiritual innovation and changemaking? Where do we see cooperation, collaboration, and mutual learning?
A quiet, reflective start to the day designed to center the body and mind. These optional sessions offer space for stillness, intention-setting, and personal grounding before the day begins.
Small, interactive sessions led by practitioners and innovators exploring real work in the field. Rather than presentations, these are participatory conversations designed for shared learning, reflection, and practical insight.
Somava Saha, MD, MS
Organizing for Action: How do we sustain and resource one another? What does it look like to continue building momentum as a larger community? What do we need? What is ours to do?
Soularize 2026 is excited to be hosting this year's event at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois. Fourth Presbyterian is a welcoming environment for all faiths and people regardless of sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, physical or mental ability, mental health, educational background, economic situation, religious background, or documentation status.
Address: 126 E. Chestnut Street (at Michigan Avenue), Chicago, Illinois 60611.2014
Is your organization, foundation, or institute interested in making a positive impact in the world of Spiritual Changemaking? Soularize 2026 is looking to partner with a few key sponsors and organizations to help underwrite the cost of tickets to make this valuable in-person event affordable.
Email: shayna@soularize.org
Join a global movement and gain a renewed sense of purpose. Expand your horizons with fresh ideas from beyond your usual circles. Build the meaningful relationships that sustain long-term work. Grow through shared wisdom while contributing your own.
Use Soularize as a built-in retreat for your team. Showcase your mission to aligned leaders. Discover new partners and resources. Meet emerging changemakers seeking communities where they can contribute and belong.
Imagine an event where you’re not just a passive listener
From Evangelicalism to Ecumenism: The Evolution of SoularizeThank you to
A new month of amazing spiritual celebrations, memorials, and holidays!
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