Spring edition of The People’s Gathering will encourage attendees to ‘Double Down on Justice’

The People’s Gathering conference is a day-long Zoom-based professional and personal development experience offering a supportive space to engage in frank and open dialogue about race and racial disparities systemically present in work, school, and everyday life.

“The consciousness of this country is shifting,” said Melannie Denise Cunningham, PLU’s director of multicultural outreach and engagement and the founder of the People’s Gathering in a ResoLute magazine feature. “Where we are right now in our nation’s history and our national rhetoric, we need to learn how to talk about race. Most of us learn about race on our own, and that can be really difficult.”

“At this 12th convening of The People’s Gathering, participants will be challenged to  double down on their sense of outrage and speak to it,” Cunningham said. “Double down because it’s too late in the day, to be stuck in the same old place. Fighting the same old battles, around power and privilege and wickedness in the public space. The conversation will examine what it means to double down on becoming an anti-racist leader.”

Featured presenters for the morning session are PLU Professor of History Dr. Beth Kraig and Dr. Tessa Sutton, the assistant superintendent of equity, diversity, and inclusion at the South Bend School Corporation in Indiana.

Kraig’s discussion, “Taking Stolen Goods Seriously,” will focus on how teaching history, in particular about racism in the United States, has become complicated, and even controversial.  Sutton will advise participants on staying centered despite the tumult of the modern world in her presentation, “The Way Forward: Six Practices to an Intercultural Growth Mindset.”

In the afternoon, participants will participate in small group race dialogues and the final session of the day will feature report outs from each group and discussion with Dr. Karen Johnson, office of equity director in the Washington State Governor’s Office.

The People’s Gathering recently won the 2022 NASPA Region V Innovation Program Award. Given by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the award recognizes an institution or individual that has developed and implemented an outstanding, innovative program.

The People’s Gathering: A Revolution of Consciousness
A virtual event
March 30, 2023 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Free to PLU students, faculty, staff and alumni; $125.00 for members of the public
Registration and information:  https://www.plu.edu/continuing-education/tpg/