A Personal Journey: Building Narrative Power for Racial Equity

A Free Workshop, Open to All UUSS Members and Friends

When:   Saturday, October 26, 2024, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Where:  UUSS, Fahs Room
Bring:  Your lunch, a journal or notebook, a pillow, and anything else you would like to have for your comfort.

Beverages and Snacks will be provided throughout the day!

Space is limited so please register by October 21st: Click Here

Narrative is Power. Through writing, expressions through art, and sharing our own Personal Racial Narratives we will stimulate an exchange of thoughts, feelings, progress and change. We will discover how to use engaged mindfulness practices to meet the challenges of facing our own beliefs around race with an open heart. We will increase capacity for new ways of being with and minimizing color-related suffering. The ability to imagine a world that is different than the present is the beginning of any movement for change: to be able to communicate the world one imagines to others and have it feel possible is the power of narrative.

The stories we tell, the perceptions that take root in our minds, and the clichés we repeat, all play a significant role in shaping our views and, ultimately, the practices, policies and systems we support.  Racial narrative change rests on the idea that we must change how we organize and interpret our understanding of race. Storytelling has always played a significant part in challenging the status quo.

Through an essential Mindfulness-and-Compassion based approach, we will engage in the inner work required to communicate courageously and confront racial injustice as we heal. We will begin to develop and practice a Racial Equity Skill Set to empower us to speak about race, including whiteness, bias, privilege, and act from a place of understanding.

Workshop Leader: Hope Sandler (she/her/hers) is a physically disabled, LGBTQ+, culturally Jewish, neuro-affirming coach, pioneering body image educator, mother to Chinese and Caucasian children. She works for community, interdependence, and home for all of us.