Speaker Series: Conversations

Join us as we create space for thoughtful dialogue, explore the differences that enrich our community, and practice engaging with one another in ways that add depth and value to our conversations.

Join us as we create space for thoughtful dialogue, explore the differences that enrich our community, and practice engaging with one another in ways that add depth and value to our conversations.

Topic 1: Can We Get Along?
Speaker: Chisao Hata

Rodney King’s iconic question, “Can we all get along?”, still resonates today. Despite decades of social justice movements, police brutality and divisions persist in the United States. How can we connect with each other during these times? What holds us back from connecting with each other? How do our personal experiences contribute to barriers or have the potential to break them down? Join facilitator Chisao Hata as she holds space to examine individual questions on race, cultural values, and what brings us together and what separates us.

Topic 2: How do you “do” community?
Speaker: Kerry Driver

We all belong to many communities—that is, groups of people with common interests—depending on where we live, the work we do, how we spend our leisure time, political and religious beliefs, and so on. In some communities, finding agreement is easy; in others, especially those that represent many different experiences and points of view, members must work harder to find commonality. It may be easier to find a location for your next book-club meeting than to achieve consensus about a road project at your neighborhood association. In such contexts, are we “doing” community wrong? Are we celebrating diverse points of view and our common effort to find solutions together? If not, why not? What stops us from engaging in more diverse communities?

Topic 3: Talking values across divides
Speaker: Lowell Greathouse

“How can I be me without making it difficult for you to be you?” This question gets at the fundamental challenge of being in society together. We live in a contentious political world, and it’s difficult to talk about our deepest values and beliefs in safe, civil, and respectful ways. In 2021, the Pew Research Center found that nearly six in ten Americans felt that political conversations with those you disagree with are generally stressful and frustrating, as opposed to being interesting and informative. If we avoid such conversations, we lose opportunities to form a community with others that reflects our best selves. How can we learn to share our values in ways that bring us together rather than push us further apart?

Funded in part by Oregon Humanities Beyond 250 project.