May 2026 Issue 2
- Cultures Connecting
- May 15
- 6 min read
Transforming White Women's Leadership Lunch & Learn Series Starts this Month!
Our three-part Lunch and Learn series, Transforming White Women's Leadership: Reflection and Inspiration to Strengthen Racial Justice Practices, is coming up in a couple weeks with the first of series, "A Power Analysis." This workshop will support white women in leadership roles to deepen awareness of the presence and impact of institutional power, privilege, and stereotypes that white women leaders both navigate and perpetuate.
You can take one, two, or all three sessions at $25 each. Sessions are facilitated by Ilsa Govan and Tilman Smith and meet Fridays at 12:00-1:00pm PT / 3:00-4:00 on Zoom. You can also sign up for a discounted $100 follow-up 50-minute coaching session (a $250 savings)!
May 29th: A Power Analysis: Understanding White Women and Institutional Access.
This session invites us to examine how white women’s position in the hierarchy of institutional access lies between white men and People of Color.
June 5th: Naming our Patterns: Exploring White Women Leadership Personas.
This session invites participants in supervisory and management roles to engage in honest, constructive self-reflection about how their leadership patterns affect colleagues and staff of color.
June 12th: Compassion at Work: Cultivating Belonging Beyond Listening.
This session explores what compassionate leadership looks like when navigating the realities of racial difference, power, and trust in the workplace.
Click the button below for more details and to register.
Last Chance to get our Journal for Free with your Order of Facilitating Conversations on Race
This is your last opportunity to join our Brave Space Builders list for a chance to receive our journal free when you pre-order the 2nd edition of our Train the Trainer book, Facilitating Conversations on Race!
To celebrate our new release, we are giving away free Cultures Connecting journals with the first 25 pre-orders. We will make the pre-order link available, as well as instructions for claiming the journal, to our Brave Space Builders (BSB) mailing list. BSB is a great way to preview content and get sneak peeks of our 2nd edition. We may even be giving away other freebies through the list so stay tuned!
Sign up for the BSB mailing list by clicking the link below!
Ilsa Govan at the White Privilege Conference 2026
Our co-Founder, Ilsa Govan, recently attended the White Privilege Conference (WPC) in April. She, along with colleague Johanna Eager (pictured center top), facilitated their workshop "Beyond the Book Group." Ilsa and Johanna shared a model people can use to form and facilitate a group that goes beyond a traditional book group. Originally designed to challenge White cultural norms in the way groups meet to discuss What's Up with White Women?, the Beyond the Book Group provides a model that can be replicated in discussions with any anti-racist White group.
Ilsa reflects on the event, "Returning to the White Privilege Conference has often felt like a homecoming for me. This year held particular significance as I gathered with racial equity leaders, some whom I've known for decades, in a time where we must collaborate more than ever to move forward. I learned a tremendous amount from the sessions I attended, which ranged from giving feedback to addressing white supremacists. It was a joy to co-facilitate with Johanna Eager on a model we're creating with Tilman Smith to make book groups a way of being Beyond the Book Group. And I loved sitting with Richard Kim at our Cultures Connecting table, meeting people from across the country as well as reconnecting with old friends. Most importantly, my dad attended so he could see me in action. Sometimes you find yourself in just the right place at the perfect time. For me, that was WPC this year."
Catch Up on Our Community Interviews
We've had the great privilege of interviewing several people from the greater Seattle area doing important and interesting social justice work for our newsletter this year. If you've missed any of them, we encourage you to read the interviews on our blog to learn more about their work and how to support them.
Tanmeet is an integrative medicine doctor and author of the book, Joy is My Justice. She spoke with us about how her son's fatal medical diagnosis led her to question the nature of happiness, and ultimately to a deep understanding of joy. Dr. Sethi invites us to learn more why joy is so important, especially when the world feels hard. She explains, "The practice of joy is reclaiming how to be safe in a moment, even when the world is not safe."
Jo is an artist from Puerto Rico who invites us to reflect on how we view colonized lands as tourism destinations, and to question who "paradise" is really for. Her art installations span multiple mediums, from lenticular prints to interactive board games, aiming to both educate and convey the weight of colonialism. She asks, "Why does the native population of a place never get to call or see it that way [paradise]?"
Estella is Director of El Centro de la Raza, which translates to "The Center for People of All Races." She walks us through the organization's history, from its origins to today, where it serves over 20,000 individuals a year across approximately 43 programs ranging from emergency human services to affordable housing. Estella reminds us of the vital role community plays in creating lasting change, "In terms of organizing, no one person or group of people is going to do it alone. You have to have community support...That old saying that it takes a village? Well, certainly that's what it does."
Kade is a journalist, founder of Ori Magazine, a "travel magazine with a conscience," and Executive Director of Ori Artists Collective. He works to amplify stories told by people rooted in their own communities from around the world. Their nonprofit arm is currently piloting a journalism program with students at Garfield High School. Kade explains, "I think it helps to...show them that their stories matter…things that they have been curious about for a long time but hadn't had time to dive into in their own backyards. Not only is that valid, that is something other people want to know about."
We are excited to bring you more stories from our extended community. If you know of a person or organization doing important social justice work in your community, we would love to hear about it! Please contact Judy at judy.lee@culturesconnecting.com!
Make Us Visible's "Written In" Event on May 30th
We featured Make Us Visible's event, "Written In: Our Stories, Our Schools, Our Movement," in our last issue and wanted to remind you that it's coming up in just 2 weeks! The event will feature keynote speaker Senator T'wina Nobles, along with William Jackson, Scarlett Luo, Lua Pritchard, and Janice Zahn.
This community mixer celebrates the progress made toward passing SB 5574, which would establish comprehensive AANHPI, Black, and Latine history education in Washington's K-12 classrooms, and renews our commitment to seeing it through.
The event is free and open to the public. RSVP here and learn more!
Ways to Take Action for Change
Attend Mindful Resourcing Sessions to Pause and Reflect The Mindful Pause Center is offering a series called "Mindful Resourcing: Connecting to What We Value Most" to help us pause, reflect, and discover powerful ways to support and resource ourselves. They are offering several 60-minute sessions on a sliding scale where you will practice mindfulness and journaling so that you can return to your life with renewed commitment and care. The last two sessions are May 18th and 25th from 4-5pm PT on Zoom. Register here.
May Day Strong's Affordability Agenda Policy & Resource Manual
The Real Affordability Agenda is a comprehensive policy manual published by May Day Strong that outlines a platform for addressing economic inequality through three main pillars: affordable universal needs, affordable housing, and good jobs. The manual recommends funding these needs by taxing extreme wealth and large corporations, and includes detailed policy examples, talking points, and resources for advocates and organizers. Read the agenda here.
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!
5/15: Resistance Fridays at Common Power
5/16: NAAM Freedom Day: The Black Panther Party 60th Anniversary
5/17: Riff Raff League for Political Action
5/18: Mindful Resourcing: Connecting to What We Value Most
5/19: NAMI BIPOC Support Group
5/21: Race Forward: Building Racial Equity: Foundations Virtual
5/21: SURJ Abolition Action Hour
5/21: NAMI LGBTQ+ Support Group
5/22: Anima Café | Fire and Silence Chat with Daniel Quan-Watson
5/22: Pierce County Community Forum and Resource Fair
5/26: Race Forward: Power Building for Racial Equity
5/28: Building working-class confidence to win
5/29: Transforming White Women’s Leadership: A Power Analysis
5/30: Make Us Visible: Written In: Our Stories, Our Schools, Our Movement
5/30: Restorative Justice, Restoring Community Power: All Power to the People
...and so much more! Visit our Events Calendar to see the most up-to-date full schedule.
*Cultures Connecting workshop.
