Posted on by Tenneson Woolf

Hosting Diversity

A month ago, Quanita Roberson and I were invited to offer a session on hosting diversity. It was a 2-hours convened by several skilled Art of Hosting Practitioners. About 60 people participated. The two hours included small group and large group process, some of it harvested above by the skilled listening of Jon Dorsett.

This video recording is 75 minutes with a few abrupt jumps when the recording stops while people are in small groups. Jose Barco was fantastic with his impromptu musical transitions. The video includes our reflection, our offerings of learning and encouragement to those learning to host difference, similarity, and healing when it comes to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

A few headlines:

  • hosting diversity isn’t an intellectual exercise; we are each required to go to the heart
  • hosting diversity requires a maturity and responsibility for one’s own work
  • “anti” is one approach to begin the conversation; what we are “for” is what carries us beyond
  • one of the gifts of community is to see our blind spots
  • internal power vs external power
  • rescuing isn’t the job; dignifying is
  • can’t enslave another without enslaving yourself
  • as hosts we are creating containers to encounter ourselves, each other, and our respective edges in relational ways
  • sometimes the most revolutionary act is an interruption of old engrained patterns

I’m glad to have offered what we did. To continue in the learning. And to have good colleagues and friends to inspire the path and practice.

Enjoy the listen / watch.

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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

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This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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