Newsletter: February 2026 Issue 2
- Cultures Connecting
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
DEI Facilitation and Social Status Workshop in 2 Weeks
Our DEI Facilitation and Social Status workshop, facilitated by Dr. J.P. Anderson, is in 2 weeks! This workshop is designed to help organizations identify and repair one of the most common pitfalls of DEIB work: status inversions.
This shows up when an organization genuinely wants to advance equity but ends up flipping who is seen as credible instead of changing the deeper rules of the game. Rather than separating competence and leadership from things like race, gender, or sexual orientation, those assumptions quietly get reassigned. Click the button below to learn more and register today!
Date: Friday, February 27, 2026
Time: 12:00-1:30pm PT / 3:00-4:30pm ET
Registration: $100
Advanced Microaggressions for Leaders Workshop
Advanced Microaggressions for Leaders, facilitated by Dr. Caprice Hollins, will be on April 9 & 10 on Zoom. 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 learn eight strategies for engaging staff when tension exists due to microaggressions and other types of comments that cause tension.
This course includes enrollment in our e-course Microaggressions: What are they and Why are they Harmful. To take full advantage of this workshop, we encourage participants who have limited understanding of what microaggressions are to complete the e-course prior to the workshop.
Date: April 9 & 10
Time: 8:30-12:00pm PT / 11:30-3:00pm ET
Location: Zoom
Train the Trainer Books on Final Clearance!
Our book Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which we use for our Train the Trainer workshops, is on final clearance! To make room for our new edition, which is scheduled for release later this year, we have further discounted the book to $10 (+$10 shipping)! Visit the button below to purchase.
If you'd like to learn more about the new edition, including a sneak peek of our cover and release date, join our Brave Space Builders list by replying to this email and requesting to join BSB.
Team Retreat at Reclaim Clay Collective in the CID
Our 2026 Cultures Connecting team retreat was held on January 30th, which coincided with the National Day of Strike, at Reclaim Clay Collective. We debated cancelling but decided to move forward as a way to be in community, to replenish our souls through art, and be connected in person. We had fun (and felt challenged) wheel throwing to make bowls under the guidance of our instructor Andrew (featured above). It wasn't easy but they turned out pretty well!
Reclaim Clay Collective is a POC, queer, and woman owned business in the Chinatown International District. They offer memberships, clay workshops, and risograph printing all on a sliding scale basis. Their mission is "to nurture an intentional community that reclaims artistic spaces for underserved peoples, and to foster diversity through creative collaboration and mutual support so that all people have the chance to learn, be inspired, feel joy, and heal as their authentic selves." We highly recommend them!
Take Urgent Action to Make AANHPI, Black, and Latine History Part of K-12 Curriculum
Make Us Visible WA (MUV-WA), a nationwide effort to get AANHPI history integrated into K-12 school curriculum, has partnered with the Black and Latine communities to get all of our histories included through Senate Bill 5574.
SB 5574 made progress this year as it has been pulled from the Rules Committee to the Senate Floor.
Please take action by February 17th by visiting their toolkit which includes a link to a single webpage where you can enter your address and send a letter in support to your senator and representatives. The toolkit includes a letter template.
Lunar New Year and the Year of the Fire Horse
Lunar New Year 2026 begins on February 17th and is celebrated by millions of people around the world. The holiday marks the start of the lunar calendar and is observed in many countries and communities, including China, Vietnam (where it is known as Tết), Korea (Seollal), Singapore, Malaysia, and across the global Asian diaspora. While traditions vary by culture, Lunar New Year is generally a time for family gatherings, honoring ancestors, sharing meals, and welcoming renewal in the year ahead.
This year ushers in the year of the Fire Horse, a powerful combination in the Chinese zodiac. The Horse represents freedom, movement, and determination, while the Fire element adds passion, intensity, and bold self-expression. Together, the Fire Horse symbolizes a year of momentum—one that encourages us to act with courage, speak honestly, and pursue what truly matters, even if it means stepping outside our comfort zones.
Lunar New Year events have been taking place since the beginning of February but there are more events to come. If you're in the greater Seattle area, visit EverOut or our DEIB/Social Justice Calendar to find an event near you.
Ways to Take Action for Change
Join Tsuru for Solidarity & La Resistencia for Solidarity Day
Tsuru for Solidarity and La Resistencia are hosting a Day of Remembrance and solidarity day on the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center on Saturday, February 21st at 1:00pm. Survivors of Japanese American internment will speak about the parallels between their lived experiences and the current victims of mass immigration detention. La Resistencia will be speaking on the latest conditions inside the detention center and will include Taiko drumming and poetry reading.
Sing for Solidarity and Resistance
The group Singing Resistance has been channeling their sorrow and rage into songs such as "This is our Neighbors" and "It's Ok to Change Your Mind." The tradition of singing for resistance and solidarity in Minnesota today is deeply rooted in the legacy of enslaved African Americans, who used music as a vital tool for survival and communication. During slavery, spirituals and work songs served as coded messages for the Underground Railroad while providing a rare space to assert humanity and preserve cultural identity under violent suppression. This ancestral power evolved through the Civil Rights Movement, where freedom songs transformed fear into collective courage, and it continues to sustain modern organizers. By singing together, today’s activists honor those who sang their way toward liberation, drawing on a centuries-old well of strength to fight for contemporary dignity and community.
If you would like to learn these songs or organize a singing protest, you can get a printable songbook, a guide to using song in movements, and an action kit for how to organize. They also have virtual trainings and have been encouraging people to create their own city chapters. Learn more about this movement and listen to some of the songs in the Anderson Cooper story below.
Get ICE Out of our Neighborhood Yard Signs from MoveOn
MoveOn is offering yard signs with "ICE Our of Our Neighborhoods" and "Immigrants Welcome here" for $40 each. MoveOn is a "community of passionate changemakers committed to building a more just and equitable world." Order your yard sign or other merchandise to show your solidarity at the MoveOn store.
Send a Postcard through The Majority Project
The Majority Project was started by the Black owned, family run print company Signs of Justice and aims to flood congress with 12 million postcards with facts about where the majority of Americans stand on universal background checks, trans rights, abortion, and paths to citizenship. They added a second postcard that says No Troops, No ICE Raids, Due Process to send to your representative
You can visit their site to purchase the original postcards or the one featured below. You can also download the images for free to print on your own. Yard signs, stickers, shirts, and other items to show your solidarity are also available for purchase.
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!
2/17: NAMI BIPOC Support Group
2/18: Adapt, Recover, Grow: Resilience through Mindfulness
2/18: How to Fight Back Against the Criminalization of Immigrants
2/19: Race Forward: Building Equity Foundations Virtual
2/19: SURJ Abolition Action Hour
2/19: NAMI LGBTQ+ Support Group
2/20: Resistance Fridays at Common Power
2/21: Lunar New Year Family Festival
2/21: Solidarity Day with Tsuru for Solidarity & La Resistencia
2/21: BIMA Black History Month Soiree
2/22: Aware LA: Unmasking Whiteness
2/24: Race Forward: Power Building for Racial Equity
2/27: Freedom Lifted: Shared Power in Supervision
2/27: Seed Harvest Weave: Facilitating Collective Leadership
...and so much more! Visit our Events Calendar to see the most up-to-date full schedule.
*Cultures Connecting workshop.
