Garrison Institute to Host Mindfulness Retreat for Black Women Leaders

The Garrison Institute built The Assignment around a simple premise: Black women leaders needed a retreat that made room for rest without asking them to perform. The three-day mindfulness gathering, held April 24 to April 26, 2026, centered on reflection, community, and a slower pace that organizers said could help participants step out of constant urgency and reconnect with inner wisdom.

The program was designed with a practical leadership focus, not a vague wellness pitch. Along with guided meditation, seated and moving practice, mindful walking outdoors, noble silence during meals, singing, chanting, dancing, reflective writing, and small-group sharing, the retreat included a personalized leadership insight assessment. Organizers said that assessment helped participants understand their strengths, stress responses, and communication patterns. No prior meditation experience was required, and every activity was optional, making the container accessible while still intentional.

Kim-Monique Johnson led the retreat as facilitator. The Garrison Institute described her as an executive leadership coach and mindfulness teacher who works specifically with Black women in leadership and brings decades of experience in nonprofit and C-suite roles. Her background matched the retreat’s emphasis on the realities many participants faced, including code-switching and racialized stress, and on building leadership from clarity rather than self-doubt.

The retreat also fit squarely within the Garrison Institute’s larger mission. The institute says it provides refuge, reflection, and restoration for thousands of people and works in an emerging field that applies contemplative practices to social and environmental change. It has used retreat programming to connect inward practice with outward action, including a BIPOC retreat framed around rest, healing, resisting harm, and building Beloved Community, as well as a separate retreat for women of color. The institute also hosts an online BIPOC meditation sangha, extending that community-building beyond the Hudson Valley site in Garrison, New York.

There was financial backing behind that direction as well. A 2026 grant record said $7,300 was awarded to support BIPOC and Women of Color retreats. For mindfulness practitioners watching where the field is headed, The Assignment showed a clear shift toward identity-specific programming: not one more generic leadership weekend, but a retreat shaped around the lived experience, burnout, and professional demands of Black women who lead.