March 2026 Issue 2
- Cultures Connecting
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Leading Equity in Shifting Times Workshop in May
Equity leadership is evolving.
Across the country, formal DEI roles are being restructured, renamed, or eliminated. In many organizations, the work has not disappeared, it has simply become more complex. Some leaders are carrying equity efforts under a different name. Others are navigating pushback, policy shifts, or heightened scrutiny. Many are doing this work while also holding their primary roles.
In this moment, clarity, strategy, and community matter.
This workshop, Leading Equity Work in Shifting Times (formerly Equity Leaders), brings together equity leaders, formal and informal, who are committed to sustaining belonging-centered organizational change even in shifting political and institutional climates. Participants will learn directly from Cultures Connecting’s seventeen-plus years of experience supporting hundreds of organizations through multicultural organizational development, resistance, and long-term culture change.
Facilitators: Dr. Caprice Hollins & Ilsa Govan
Date: Thursday-Friday, May 7 & 8
Time: 8:30-12:00pm PT / 11:30-3:00pm ET
Location: Zoom
Visit the link below to learn more and to register!
Advanced Microaggressions for Leaders Next Month
Have you been thinking about attending our Advanced Microaggressions for Leaders workshop? In case you were wondering about its benefits, Kristen B shared this with us shortly after participating last year,
This strategy-based workshop is designed for supervisors, managers, and leaders who want to improve their ability to lead their staff through difficult conversations. Participants will:
Increase their confidence in engaging staff in difficult conversations.
Learn strategies for facilitating group discussions.
Develop skills for engaging in deeper discourse when challenging situations arise.
If you're unsure what microaggressions are, this course includes enrollment in our e-course Microaggressions: What are they and Why are they Harmful. Participants will also receive the Beyond the Workshop Guide for People Leaders designed to reinforce and deepen the skills introduced during the workshop. Join us on April 9 & 10 at 8:30-12:00pm PT / 11:30-3:00pm ET on Zoom. Register today!
Finding Joy When the World Feels Hard with Dr. Sethi
"The practice of joy is reclaiming how to be safe in a moment, even when the world is not safe."
-Dr. Tanmeet Sethi
Integrative family physician, author, and global trauma worker Dr. Tanmeet Sethi has spent decades sitting with suffering — in disaster zones, in exam rooms, and in her own home after her son was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease. That convergence of personal pain and her years as a doctor is what led Dr. Sethi to realize that happiness and joy are not the same thing. This became the foundation of her book, Joy is My Justice.
We were fortunate to interview Dr. Sethi to talk about the difference between happiness and joy, joy as a form of resistance, and how harmful systems of oppression use the suppression of joy to gain more power. She also provides three steps for learning how to practice joy when the world feels hard, as well as the importance of self-nourishment over self-care. Finally, we discuss the importance of gratitude as a tool for widening our lens when grief has narrowed it.
Visit our blog to read our interview, which feels especially important during these challenging and painful political times. You can also follow Dr. Sethi's work through her Substack and Instagram. Purchase her book here or anywhere books are sold.
Attend Between Borders and Belonging Art Show
Our Project Manager, Judy Lee, is curating an art show in April through May at The Fishbowl, a nonprofit QTBIPOC centered community gallery she helps manage. The theme is Between Borders and Belonging and explores the complex emotional arc of grief, resilience, and joy in the immigrant journey. This exhibition aims to move beyond mainstream headlines to center the personal, lived narratives of those who have crossed borders.
Unlike traditional art shows, The Fishbowl's Communal Group Shows provide wood panels for purchase at sliding scale pricing, which then guarantees participation in these shows. These shows are designed to eliminate gatekeeping in art and to increase accessibility and inclusion. This particular show will be donating proceeds from art sales to NW Immigrant Rights Project, La Resistencia, and Puget Sound Sage.
The show opens on Friday, April 3rd from 5:00-8:00pm at The Fishbowl at 424 2nd Ave W. in Uptown (lower Queen Anne), Seattle. You can also attend the first community event for this show Paper Dolls to Free Families in partnership with Tsuru for Solidarity this Sunday, March 15th. This event will provide healing arts in support of Tsuru's campaign to call on our elected officials to end family detentions. Drop-in any time between 1:00-4:00pm at The Fishbowl. The event is free and all materials will be provided.
Social Justice Film Festival 2026
The 2026 Social Justice Film Festival runs from April 16-19 at Pacific Tower. They are kicking off with a special screening of Firebreak, a documentary on the intersection of climate change and social justice. The Price of Plenty, on the impact of pollution on Lower Yakima Valley and community action, will also be screened at the festival.
The festival includes a workshop for filmmakers and community members on April 17th on how to tell the stories of communities, and another on documentary editing on April 18th. The festival will conclude with a shorts program on the 19th. Learn more about the festival and film lineup at the Social Justice Film Festival website.
Ways to Take Action for Change
Consider Switching from ChatGPT Many of us rely on ChatGPT to help us with tasks but historian Rutger Bregman, in this Guardian opinion piece, encourages us to boycott and cancel our subscriptions. OpenAI's president Greg Brockman, the company that owns chatGPT, donated $25 million to Trump's Super Pac, Maga Inc. They are also spending $125 million to lobby states to ensure they cannot regulate AI. Many of you have probably heard about the Trump administration's demand to give the Pentagon unrestricted access to AI technology, including those used for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. Anthropic, the company that owns Claude and previously held that contract, refused so ChatGPT stepped in.
If you're looking for an alternative, many people have been moving their accounts to Claude. Claude has provided a tool to make it easy to move your ChatGPT history to their system. While this might be one solution, advocates say the more important and effective thing you can do is to contact your representatives and ask them to regulate AI.
Embodied STEAM and/as Liberation Virtual Event
Attend this free virtual speaker series featuring with Dr. Chris Emdin, Ph.D. on how to reclaim education as a site of embodied liberation. Dr. Emdin will explore how learning environments that celebrate the rights of the body and center imaginative thinking can transform classrooms and communities.
The event is on Zoom on Wednesday, March 25th from 5:00-6:15pm PT. You can register for this event here.
Build Your Capacity for Intense as F*ck Times Practice Space
Meeting twice weekly, these community virtual sessions facilitated by Embodying Racial Justice are an opportunity to support your practice and deepen your somatic commitments to community. These sessions are available as drop-in and sliding scale pricing.
Upcoming DEIB/Social Justice Events
For details on these and other events, workshops and conferences happening in the social justice space, visit our Events Calendar. If you have an event you would like us to share, please reach out to us!
3/15: Paper Dolls to Free Families at The Fishbowl
3/17: Build Your Capacity for Intense as F*ck Times Practice Space
3/17: NAMI BIPOC Support Group
3/18: Transforming the Culture of Community Involvement in Planning and Decision Making
3/19: Race Forward: Building Racial Equity: Foundations Virtual
3/19: SURJ Abolition Action Hour
3/19: NAMI LGBTQ+ Support Group
3/19: Speaking of Seattle: Immigrant Rights Are Human Rights
3/20: Resistance Fridays at Common Power
3/25: Embodied STEAM and/as Liberation
3/26: Freedom Lifted: Shared Power in Supervision
...and so much more! Visit our Events Calendar to see the most up-to-date full schedule.
*Cultures Connecting workshop.
