Agenda | Othering & Belonging Institute

[microsite] event schedule

October 18, 2021

Art print of banners and posters arranged to read "Belonging Made Me Stronger. I will fight to belong. For all my people to belong."

Oct

Learning Lab: Cultural Strategies for Belonging: Learning from Doing 2019-2021

What is a cultural strategy for belonging? How do we center leadership, voices, storytelling, practices and knowledge of people and communities through cultural power forged through love, resistance, survival and joy?

Oct

Learning Lab: Bridging to Build Power: What does bridging look like in the real world?

What does bridging look like in the real world? What does bridging have to do with movement building or with building power? Hear about how leaders are bridging communities and movements to find connections and belonging.

Illustration of a laptop computer with abstract shapes

Oct

Learning Lab: Movement Building in today’s digital world: Winning strategies and virtual tools from organizers on the ground

Reaching people where they spend their time is crucial for organizing communities and engaging a base. How are organizers integrating digital strategies into successful campaigns? What does a robust digital organizing program look like? How do organizers and communications staff work hand-in-hand to develop narratives and turn online engagement into real life action?

Illustration of a large hand tearing a chunk of earth from the landscape; a river runs through a farmland on a gently sloping hill.

Oct

Learning Lab: Climate Crisis Solutions and Belonging

A deep look at the climate crisis at this moment and how do we amplify imaginative solutions built on not leaving people behind, but on bringing everyone in? How do we co-create structures that strengthen our connection to place, ensure thriving ecological systems and health, equitably distribute power, and value the dignity of all work?

Oct

Opening Conversation: The Risk & Possibility of Bridging

An exploration of bridging- The idea of bridging is not new- but in this moment of heightened polarization, deepened mistrust, and "breaking" across identity lines of all kinds it is now more critical than ever. In this conversation, OBI Director john a. powell and philosopher Judith Butler will discuss what we mean when we say "bridging," including what it is, and what it is not. They will make the case for building risky bridges—and argue that perhaps the risks of not bridging are greater than the risks.

Portraits of Akaya Windwood, ALOK, and Joy Harjo set in abstract shapes

Oct

Panel 1 - The Risk & Possibility of Bridging

Even short bridges can feel risky in this moment of polarization, political purity, and physical and emotional estrangement. In this panel, we will hear leading activists and culturemakers reflect on what it takes to build risky bridges across lines of difference—especially when facing pushback or ostracization from our own "side." Join Akaya Windwood moderating an emergent conversation with leading thinkers and culturemakers to discuss how and why taking risks and building bridges are important and necessary for our social movements to be successful.

Oct

The Space Between Us video and Networking

A dark room is lit by the glimmering blue lights of a disco ball and warm reds of neon signs; underneath, people mingle and dance

Oct

DJ Dance Party

October 19, 2021

Oct

Sound Healing, Mindfulness and Movement Session

Medicine woman Gina Breedlove will guide us on a sound journey through our body, using the vibrational power of our own voice. We will learn or deepen the practice of using sound and intention for personal sovereignty, agency, and dominion of our thoughts, words, actions, presence. Vibration of Grace™ sound healing supports us in making our body a site for freedom.

A grid of portraits of speakers; the portraits are set in oblong circles on a blue-green-purple gradient background

Oct

Panel 2 - On Good Conflict: What If We Called In, Rather Than Called Out?

Outrage and conflict have long offered an easy way to build political power for advocates on both the political right and left. While moral outrage is a critical motivator for change, being kept in a constant high state of tension and conflict by these forces has also served to divide us even further into smaller like-minded groups without the will or skill to courageously cross differences and build power for transformative social change.

Oct

Panel 3 - Finding Belonging in a Climate of Loneliness, Conspiracy, and Mistrust in Government

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the very real threat that disinformation, entrenched individualism, and low trust in institutions pose in tackling a deadly global crisis. While the arrival of multiple Covid-19 vaccines earlier this year seemed to suggest a hopeful resolution to the crisis, low rates of vaccination—driven in large part by both political leaders' strategic public skepticism and targeted disinformation online—revealed a much deeper problem around lack of faith in government and the enormous reach of conspiracy and fake news more broadly.