Create More Possibilities

…for yourself, your people and future generations to come.

Hey hey, I’m Petra Vega!

Pronouns: She/Her/Ella

I’m the Liberatory Leadership Coach, Facilitator, Radical Social Worker and Emergent Strategist. I help BIPOC and Queer leaders become a force for collective liberation.

As dreamers of liberation, we know our futures are intersectional so here’s a list of the social identities that inform my perspective on doing leadership differently:

        • Queer

        • Cis-Woman

        • Black Puerto Rican

        • Living on the stolen land of the Munsee Lenape, currently known as Pelham Bay, NY

        • Light-skinned

        • Mostly Able-bodied

        • Likely ADHD and Autistic (#SelfDiagnosisIsValid)

        • Mostly stable mental health (this meme best describes my relationship with this particular social positionality and I’m in a commitment to tend to my overactive baby amygdala)

        • Small Fat on the Fat Spectrum

        • Bilingual (learned Spanish at home and English in school)

        • First generation college and graduate student (which has given me access to economic privileges I did not grow up with)

        • U.S. Citizen 

I’m also super curious, introverted, love coming-of-age stories and dating shows and have the most fun at food festivals with my fiancé.

You might be curious about why I do this work and whether I’m the right coach or consultant for you so I think it’s important to share a little about why I decided to build this seedling of an idea to do leadership differently.

Long Story, Short Longer

So I grew up poor (shout outs to EBT and Section 8) as 1 of like 10 people of color in a predominantly White neighborhood in west bubblefuck upstate New York. Looking back, I had no sense of class at that time. I didn’t understand why I lived in an apartment complex when my friends down the road had homes with backyards. I grew up in a household where I was told what shoes girls should be wearing and how I sit like a boy. Even then, I rejected traditional gender expectations about how I should behave or what I should wear without having a sense of gender. I also heard things like “calladita te ves mas bonita“ which means “you look prettier when your mouth is shut”. I hated that shit but again, had no sense as to why.

To protect myself, I built all types of walls to keep people out. I thought if I just didn’t engage with people, I no longer had to hear them and then they couldn’t possibly hurt me right? Wrong. The walls didn’t stop me from experiencing or internalizing the evils of White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy (thank you bell hooks!). So you can imagine how difficult it was for me to break out of this conditioning when I realized that not being seen or heard by others wouldn’t actually help me. The only thing that actually allowed me to feel more power to change things was getting out in the world and doing something. Even then, I knew things didn’t have to be this way.

 

I went away to college and thankfully, became politicized. From my very White Women’s Studies department, I learned that the personal is political and that our lived experiences are much more connected to power than we imagine. From my heteronormative Black Studies department, I learned that the most transformational changes have historically happened at the intersection of relationships, political education and collective action. All of this pushed me to show up differently. I called out my racist, transphobic classmates for being harmful in public. I found a political affinity group that helped me level up my analysis and capacity. I cut off my relaxed hair as a first step to embracing my lineage. And I began organizing Take Back the Night’s on campus.

You might be wondering how I was able to tap into my liberatory power? It’s simple, kind of. I had to take a risk, every day. But first, I had to get sick and tired of being sick and tired (thank you Fannie Lou Hamer!). I was tired of having all these things I wanted to say and do with no will or skill to put what I wanted into action. To begin, I had to break up with the idea that I wasn’t good enough, or that I didn’t matter or that I couldn’t make change. That was bullshit and it didn’t serve me (and I bet it doesn’t serve you either!). Next, I had to figure out how to break down the blocks that were holding up these lies I believed, bit by bit. So I went back to what always brought me comfort when I was younger—quotes. I found the quote, “Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes” which I tapped on my laptop so I could see it all the time and I challenged myself to say at least one thing out of my comfort zone each day. And to help me along, I told my community to encourage me when I hesitated, hold me accountable for how I wanted to change and show me love when I needed it most. That’s it, kind of. You make a decision to change and then each day you try again and again to show up in alignment with that change.

Since college, I’ve learned how to build power with parents and neighbors, challenged toxic workplaces, led a variety of trainings. My favorite have been on leadership development, social justice, and coaching. At the same time, I deepened my understanding about how trauma, oppression and healing lives in the body. Most recently, I taught social workers-in-the-making to trust the people, interrogate the savior complex within us helpers and healers and seek to heal ourselves in order to heal the collective. Today, I take all of that lived experience, education and practice and direct it into helping leaders-in-the-making live a more liberated life in your relationship to self, others and the world-at-large.

Leading by example is complex and confusing, grab a resource below to make it easier.

“Change is fucking hard.” 😞

Whether you’re looking at personal or systemic change, you could probably use some new approaches and strategies to make it LESS hard, LESS alone and LESS forced. 

Download the Shaping Change Workbook

“Can I give you some feedback?”😧

Feedback is essential for growth but not enough of us have any sense of how to do it without traumatizing each other or without reinforcing oppressive systems of what is and is not “acceptable”.

Download the Feel Good Feedback Guide

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The question now is: Do you want to come with me? Because here’s where we’re going.

Imagine a world where…

.…when we fuck up, we’re able to see it as an opportunity to model that no one “gets it right” all the time instead of avoiding or explaining it way

 

…we’re aligned and resourced enough to disrupt oppression, in real time, instead of walking away from the fuckery feeling phony, regretful or inauthentic

…we ask ‘what is this emotion trying to take care of for me?’ instead of pushing through it all and betraying our intuition

…we no longer feel constrained by time instead we honor our limits, our negotiation skills are on point and we no longer define our worth based on how much we get done today

…we shape an ecosystem that cares about whether folks are nourished, that encourages breaks so others can step in and that learns from wins and failures

…we seek counsel and integrate feedback from others because our leadership is grounded in the collective, not individualism

…we are more committed to the truth than to keeping the peace

…the people we lead are so inspired by the way we care for ourselves that it gives them permission to take better care of themselves

…we are able to validate the intensity of the emotions we’re feeling AND challenge the meaning we’re making from it

…we are able to accurately assess danger and what’s at stake so that we can speak boldly, unapologetically and with conviction

…we can clearly discern what’s in our locus on control to do, instead of believing it’s our role to do all of the things

…we feel the relief of taking our bra or binder off (literally or metaphorically) because we feel at home in how we show up instead of conforming to someone else’s definition of leadership or liberation

I’ll ask again: Do you want to come with me?

via GIPHY

Taking deep breaths like Molly? Let me show you all the ways we can create more possibilities together.

Yes, show me what we can do together

via GIPHY

Feeling the Bern? It’s all good. The stars may not be aligned right now but let’s stay connected in case things change, okay?

Join the possibilities pod (my weekly emails)

Coming to see whether I’m new to all this Liberatory Leadership stuff? Nah, keep reading.

My Receipts

  • BA, Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies + Black Studies

  • MSW, Master’s of Social Work

  • LMSW, Licensed Master Social Worker

  • SIFI, Seminar in Field Instruction

  • GS, Generative Somatics Transformation in Action 1 + 2 / Embodied Leadership

  • TRACC Movement Trauma Healer Training

  • 10+ years of community organizing, facilitation, capacity building and program management in majority poor and impoverished, LGBTQ+ and Black and Brown communities

  • Decades of reclaiming my power through the use of my voice, boundaries, relationships, energy and beliefs

Short Bio

Petra Vega (She/ Ella) is a Queer, Black Puerto Rican from a tiny town in Upstate, NY who grew up believing that she should be seen and not heard at home and in the world. After learning about the multi-layered systems of oppression that were operating within and outside of her, Petra began doing the inner and outer work of questioning, healing and disrupting. This work allowed Petra to resist her upbringing and reclaim her voice as power. As the Founder of Create More Possibilities, LLC, Petra mentors BIPOC + Queer nonprofit leaders in speaking up during crucial moments and meetings, without self-doubt dictating their worth, expertise or efforts. As a Liberatory Leadership Coach, Emergent Strategist, Social Justice Facilitator, and Radical Social Worker, Petra weaves an anti-oppression lens, healing tools and playful possibility into WHO and HOW we lead.

Long Bio

Petra Vega (She/ Ella) is a Queer, Black Puerto Rican from a tiny town in Upstate, NY who after years of being told she should be seen and not heard at home and in the world, decided to reclaim her voice. With over a decade of experience in creating positive, transformative change, Petra has learned to build power with parents and neighbors, challenge toxic workplaces into care-centered spaces, and deepened capacity through a variety of trainings on social justice, trauma-informed care, leadership development and coaching.

At the same time, she has grown in her understanding about how trauma, oppression and healing lives in the body. As a Licensed Master in Social Work (MSW), Petra has trained dozens of social workers-in-the-making to trust the people as experts in their own lives, question the savior complex that lives within us helpers and healers and to heal ourselves in order to heal the collective.

Today, Petra is building her company, Create More Possibilities, LLC to help marginalized nonprofit leaders in transforming the self-doubt that is fueled by internalized oppression into self-trust that is fueled by liberatory power, a process she calls Liberatory Leadership. This form of leadership creates an environment for shared decision-making, generative conflict and feedback, radical transparency, reciprocity and intentional adaption. As a Liberatory Leadership Coach, Emergent Strategist, Social Justice Facilitator, and Radical Social Worker, Petra weaves an anti-oppression lens, healing tools and playful possibility into WHO and HOW we lead.