Belonging without othering: the story of our future
john a. powell, one of our nation’s longtime leading experts on civil rights, structural racism, poverty and democracy was a keynote speaker at the 2023 National Bioneers Conference. His videotaped address will be featured at the 2023 Central Coast Bioneers Conference, to be held on Saturday, September 23rd at the Octagon Barn in San Luis Obispo. Western culture has for the last several centuries built a society founded on three strong separations: our separation from ourselves, our separation from the other (or the person we call the other), and our separation from the Earth. But, according to powell, the reality is that we’re not separate. We’re deeply connected to each other. Our challenge is that in order to emerge from the existential crises we face and to birth a far more humane civilization, we now need to look deeply at ourselves and our social structures to overcome the separations that have been inculcated into us for so long and rediscover our fundamental connection to each other and the entire web of life.
Following powell’s talk, Julie Lyman of R.A.C.E. Matters, will talk about the work that organization is doing on the Central Coast to create a community of belonging by offering artistic and cultural experiences. For more information or to register for the conference, click here.
