Transforming Race

“We will never let the pain have the last word. We’re bigger than the things that happened to us and held us back. Our parents had a bigger vision… We will win this century in the name of liberty and justice for all!”

-Van Jones

Reporting in from Columbus, Ohio, where we spent Thursday helping to kick off the Transforming Race 2012 Conference, hosted by the Kirwan Institute.  This year’s theme is “Visions of Change,” and the tone was set by this evening’s keynote from Van Jones.  His call to was to embrace a “deeper patriotism” where “diversity is the solution to pretty much every problem we face in the new century.”

Melinda (pictured above on the left), Cynthia (right), and I (middle) made our first conference contribution by way of yesterday afternoon’s session on “Facilitation Skills for Racial Justice Work,” a fuller experience of which is available in our upcoming 2 day workshop in Boston in early May, Fundamentals of Facilitation for Racial Justice Work.  Follow more of the discussion today and tomorrow via Twitter through hashtag #TR2012 or #TransformingRace.