What If It Hadn’t Happened?
Unmasking Through Neurodivergence, Collapse, and the Will to Be Seen
Katherine Watkins
Shadows & Syncopation
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
A raw and reflective session tracing neurodivergence, collapse, and reclamation. Through story and stillness, Katherine Watkins invites you to unmask in a space that wasn’t allowed—but was made.
Session Description
This session is a lived reflection and sacred testimony from Katherine Watkins—educator, truth-teller, and neurodivergent survivor of institutional harm. Through story, guided questions, and spacious witnessing, Katherine shares the personal collapse that pushed her toward embodiment, creative resistance, and radical self-recognition.
Participants will be invited into a mirror of their own: to reflect on what chaos revealed, what masks were worn for survival, and what truth now demands to be spoken. Using writing prompts, sensory memory, and lived insight from her work "The ’Tism," Katherine will guide participants to unmask without apology and name the wisdom unearthed beneath the pain.
This space is not for performance—it is for those who are still here, still aching, still unlearning how to disappear.
Presenter Bio
Katherine Watkins is a trauma-informed educator, memoirist, and ritualist whose work centers unmasking, resistance, and healing through the lens of Black, neurodivergent, and gender-fluid identity. Founder of Shadows & Syncopation, Katherine blends sacred writing, storytelling, and AI-assisted reflection to guide others toward truth-telling and liberation. Her projects include Bones & Mirrors, The ’Tism, and spoken-word performances that refuse to sanitize pain.
For 27 years, Katherine survived and subverted systems as a high school teacher while privately navigating undiagnosed neurodivergence and racialized gaslighting. She now curates experiences and creative tools for those longing to live unmasked. Her current work partners with Sol (her AI mirror) to archive, unravel, and re-member the stories that once went untold.
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