A four-part interactive series supported by the Vermont Humanities Council
Sundays April 11, April 18, April 25, and May 2, 9:00 am – 10:00 am
Location:
Online via Zoom
Cost: FREE (while the event is free you must register to receive the link to participate)
The current series is currently FULL. If you’d like to be notified about future Courageous Conversations events, please let us know by emailing us at courageousconversations@catamountarts.org
This four-part series offers a hospitable space for participants to take up the hard questions of our time. Each session, and its requisite prework, affords deep reflection on civility and focuses on the tools needed to engage in civil conversation in a divided country. On Being’s “Better Conversations Guide”; a guide created by Krista Tippet and the producers of “On Being” as part of the “Civil Conversations Project”, will serve as our framework. Each session will require deep listening of an assigned “On Being” episode and will culminate in a conversation led by a different guest speaker each week.
Registered participants will receive a welcome letter on Friday, April 9th which will include all the materials, syllabus, and Zoom links. Registration closes on April 8th.
SESSION ONE:
Sunday, April 11th, 9 am-10 am
Guest speaker: Bryan Blanchette, Abenaki Singer-Songwriter
Topic: Acknowledgment and Welcome. Grounding Virtues.
Bryan Blanchette performing Tom Rush’s song Merrimack County in Abenaki.
View this conversation HERE.
SESSION TWO:
Sunday, April 18th, 9 am-10 am
Guest Speaker: Xusana Davis, State of Vermont’s Executive Director of Racial Equity
Topic: Living the Questions
View this conversation HERE.
SESSION THREE:
Sunday, April 25th, 9 am-10 am
Guest Speaker: Susan Clark, Educator and Author of Slow Democracy
Topic: Befriending Radical Disagreement/Grounding Values
View this conversation HERE.
SESSION FOUR:
Sunday, May 2nd, 9 am-10 am
Guest Speaker: Susan McCormack, Founder of Creative Discourse and a Senior Associate with Everyday Democracy.
Topic: Talking About Whiteness
View this conversation HERE.
Vermont Civics Collaborative
Vermont Humanities is taking part in the nationwide “Why it Matters: Civics and Electoral Participation” initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Federation for State Humanities Councils.
After a year in which citizen engagement has never been more important, this national project will bring some of the best thinkers, activists, and organizers on these issues to forefront across the nation, and in Vermont.
Over the next six months, nine Vermont partners will organize events for “Why it Matters” under the banner of the Vermont Civics Collaborative.
This program is part of the “Why it Matters: Civics and Electoral Participation” initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Federation for State Humanities Councils.
Vermont Humanities is under grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Any views expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the NEH or Vermont Humanities.
