Video & Recap: Meeting the Moment

Welcome Story from Fern Renville, a Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, Omaha, and Seneca-Cayuga storyteller, theatre director, and playwright. Keynote with Autumn Brown, a mother, organizer, theologian, artist, and facilitator. Facilitator, Sarah Tran provides leadership coaching, facilitation, training, and consultation to community organizations, philanthropic foundations, businesses, and government entities committed to advancing racial justice and equity.

Meeting the Moment, the title of Communities of Opportunity’s gathering event on September 22, was in response to the current and complex moment of time we find ourselves in. This specific moment is shaped by 18 months of a global pandemic with ongoing economic and social impacts; the protests for racial justice during the Spring and Summer of 2020 that connect to a long lineage of civil rights movement actions; the deepening ideological divides between communities; and the impacts of ongoing climate disasters.

COO’s community partners, and broader community, continue to respond, resist, and reshape the current system and communities that we live in and we are inspired by the models of mutual aid, solidarity, and care that have arisen during this last year and half. COO’s intent with hosting this gathering centered on ways that we could uplift and honors the work that is being done, the personal impacts of this moment, and the opportunities for transformation that communities most impacted by injustice are leading.

An Abundance of Grace: a conversation with Sean Goode (CHOOSE 180), Leonie Smith (East Point Peace Academy), to explore our how movement actions can support healing and what grace looks like in the context of restorative justice work and healing from the trauma of systemic racism. Facilitated by Jackie St. Louis.

We are so thankful for the generous space that all of our speakers, panelists and moderators helped to create, and for the meaningful connections that were able to occur because of it. And a big thank you to all who participated for bringing your stories, wisdom and expertise that held and maintained the intentions for the day. For those who were unable to join us, the full program with session descriptions, speaker bios, and related upcoming events may be found here.

You can access video recordings with transcripts from the Meeting the Moment keynote, panel sessions, conversations and storytelling in our event video playlist here.

Over 250 community partners joined the event, a majority of whom engaged throughout the day. This engagement generated a palpable feeling that those present were leaning into the themes for the day and supported real moments of curiosity, care, connection and vulnerability, as well as a sense of being and belonging with one another. Staff and partners reflected back to the gathering’s planning team how the event lifted up the ways in which we can commit to and engage with one another -- as both a way to bring justice to our communities and also to recognize the gifts, wisdom and strength that already exists in our communities here in King County and beyond.

Participatory and Democratic Organizing Examples: Case studies from membership-based organizations and participatory processes, and other shared and democratically organized group examples.

Conversation with Arista Burwell-Chen (FEEST), Elle Jennings (Surge Reproductive Justice, Lavender Rights Project, and member of The Royal House of Noir) and Matthew Hayashi (Headwater People).

These complex and challenging times have required many of us to shift our work to respond and to clarify what commitments we center in order to deepen our progress toward collective and transformative change. We know that central to our commitments to equity and strengthening anti-racist work we must center Black leadership and Black-led solutions; equally we must participate in the on-going reflection and practice to address and dismantle anti-Blackness. The Community Advisory Committee for this event centered the topics of addressing anti-Blackness and building community throughout the planning of this event. Each session at Meeting the Moment was asked to address this in their conversations or workshops to both thread and center the important work of dismantling throughout the day.

Relatedly, this moment also reminded us that our relationships are central to our survival and ability to create change. We are grateful for their co-creation of this event and willingness to share their time and expertise with us. And because the work of dismantling anti-Black racism and building communities of belonging is on-going and continual we hope that this planted seeds of conversation, connection and practices that will continue to grow over time.

We acknowledge and extend our gratitude to the many community partners who supported the development of the vision, themes, and agenda for Meeting the Moment. The members of the Community Advisory Committee who came together over 6 months to support the program design and implementation were instrumental to the positive outcomes of the day. Thank you Curtiss Calhoun, Riley Irish, Emijah Smith, Folake Oyebola, Steven Sawyer, Gloria Ramirez, Tepatasi Vaina, Larissa Reza, and Violet Lavatai for making Meeting the Moment so special.

Collective ownership and anti-displacement models: This session will explore different scales of collective ownership, anti-displacement, and cultural preservation models from Kimberly Deriana (yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective), Inye Wokoma (Wa Na Wari), and Curtiss Calhoun (Africatown Community Land Trust) and facilitated by Patty Julio.

The planning team for Meeting the Moment was also inspired by national thought leaders such as adrienne maree brown, who reminds us that we are interdependent upon each other and the earth; Ejeris Dixon, who reminds us that conflict has the potential to create and generate deeper relationship and alignment; john a. powell, who inspires us to build a more just and inclusive society; and Meeting the Moment’s keynote speaker Autumn Brown, who shows us the power of liberatory facilitation to strengthen our work for systemic change.

Central to the development of Meeting the Moment was COO’s work and relationships with so many community partners -- and the knowledge, wisdom, and learnings shared with generosity, and the myriad ways partners are creating new paths, and returning to practices, that bring us together for mutual well-being. We hope that the conversations held at Meeting the Moment will continue to build opportunities for us all to work in greater partnership to create more equitable, just, and loving communities.

COO intends to continue to provide spaces and opportunities for these conversations in the coming years - including through the Cultivating Community Speaker Series, Learning Community supported cohorts such as the Community Real Estate Stewardship Team, and further opportunities for building critical connections, sharing learning and knowledge and sustained in-depth capacity building. We look forward to leaning further into the work (the challenges and the joys) with each of you.