Courageous Conversations and Talking Tools: Two Public Offerings
Well, we made it to the last month of 2016.
It is so hard to sit with the discomfort of not knowing where we are going.
I'm feeling it.
My clients are feeling it.
We are entering a season where the sun comes up later and sets earlier.
Let us surround ourselves with the support we need and offer what we are able.
Since the election, I and many others in our country have been revisiting questions that center on the intersectionality of our humanity, the need to work together as one united people for social change and justice.
Who and what do I want to protect?
What am I willing to give up for the safety of others?
When do I put my body on the line?
We are gathering together for social justice, whether it's by the millions, hundreds, dozens, pairs, or within ourselves. We are gathering together in the streets, in our organizations, in our communities, in our families, among our friends, and within our own heads and hearts.
If you are seeking community or community-building skills, here are two publicly available offerings I am involved with. The first is a resource you can tap into at any time. The second is a workshop I am giving.
Courage For Racial Justice Potlucks are self-organizing conversations in New York City aimed at creating racial justice and building community. You can sign up to host a conversation or join one. We especially want to see more conversations where white people can do internal and external work that will lead to racial justice and create spaces where we can bring our questions, worries, insights, awkwardness, wondering, and ideas.
How Can We Work Better Together? is a full-day experiential workshop on participatory facilitation and leadership methods I am giving on December 16 in New York City. This highly interactive workshop will give you simple tools that will help make your meetings more inclusive, participatory, productive, and action-driven.Last month, I had the great privilege of joining over 2,000 organizers, educators, artists, and many other leaders at Facing Race, the "largest multi-racial gathering" for racial justice movement making. We met up just two days after the presidential election. It was an amazing place to grieve, breathe, resist, and plan together.
Here is some food for thought I gathered there:
Look up with love.I believe we'll win.
-Rinku Sen (Executive Director of Race Forward)
We're not all being attacked in the same way, but we're all being attacked.
-Alicia Garza (co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter )
We are living through a civil war and a reconstruction at the same time.
-Jose Antonio Vargas (journalist, founder of Define American)
We are less alone now than we've ever been. This is a big woke machine.
-Van Jones (political commentator and social justice enterprise founder)
Beautiful example of self-organized, post-election sharing at Union Square subway station in New York City
