This festival is not for those who wish to gather information without an urgent need to change! Americans continue to debate the shape and extent of racism in society. Yet shootings of unarmed African-Americans, disproportional incarceration and poverty rates, and a continuing list of disparities remind us as the Church and as citizens that the U.S. must continue to press ahead with addressing issues of racism and white supremacy. Politicians are promoting bigoted ideas and organizations. Many whites have watched the crisis unfold and have said, “I didn’t know that was still happening…. What can I do?” Because so many people remain to be reached, we are organizing a third Racial Awareness Festival in 2018 (#RAF2018). Our long-term goal is to make this an annual event with festivals addressing racial awareness and healing nationwide.  Month by month, interest grows in the project.

Racial Awareness and Mindfulness 2018:  A Mini-Festival of the Arts, Awareness, Healing, and Justice intends to help people of goodwill reflect on the remaining reality of racism in our society through rhythm, blues, keynote, and practical exposure through experiential workshops with both African-American and white caucuses, as well as multiracial spaces, opening awareness of privilege and supremacy, and healing years of unresolved trauma.  This year’s keynote speaker is National Book Award Winner, Ibram X. Kendi, who will address “How To Be An Anti-Racist” in both keynote and workshop format following.  Potter’s House Books will be here as well! At the end of this one-day event, we hope churches, communities, and individuals will be more self-reflective regarding the impact of racism on their lives, and we hope they will be inspired to join anti-racism organizations, have their churches partner with others across the faith and racial divide, and or continue to engage with participants they meet at the festival throughout the year. If people sign-up to continue the conversation, we will meet monthly thereafter on the third Saturday.

The festival will offer perspectives from the arts, media, and workshop facilitators to help people engage with the reality of racism in a new way. We will offer music, media, Interplay modalities, an engagement group for whites only, and Emotional Emancipation Circles for African Americans.  At the end of the day, we will gather again to engage in a facilitated Intergenerational dialogue to discuss our ideas and experiences of race given our engagement in the festival context and to continue raising awareness of the struggle for both healing and justice.  All these methods offer opportunities for people to explore the reality of racism from a new perspective.

LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED.