The CIRCLE Cultural Café is an annual diversity and inclusiveness ‘un-conference’ for community leaders, educators, board members, parents, and students committed to building more inclusive communities to come together to engage in shared learning, listening, and leadership.
The name CIRCLE reflects our commitment to our work. Connecting Inclusive, Responsive Communities Leading Education” is more than just a name. It is a values statement that guides our work as we plan each and every event, speaker, and workshop.
The CIRCLE promotes a commitment to diversity and inclusiveness and moves beyond celebrations and awareness by intentionally approaching specific issues that surround inclusiveness in a multifaceted approach by exploring opportunities, knowledge, and skills.
This shared experience will bring community members together for an interactive, contemplative, collective gathering. We encourage attendees to join us for a day of learning from our incredible speakers: Dr. Ramona Beltrán, Regina Jackson and Norma Johnson, and each other.
There will be local artisans and vendors selling their art, books, and other various goods throughout the day as well!
Dr. Beltrán, MSW, PhD is a Xicana of Yaqui and Mexica descent and dancer/activist/scholar. As an Associate Professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, her scholarship is committed to interrupting legacies of historical trauma that affect Indigenous and Latinx communities with a commitment to addressing issues facing LGBTQ and Two Spirit communities. She focuses on disrupting the problem-focused approach to understanding Indigenous/Latinx health that dominates mainstream research. She does this through centering culture in knowledge production with and for Indigenous/Latinx communities.
Regina was born in Chicago in 1950 Regina remembers an America where everything was in Black and white. Burned into her memory are; the beatings and horrific treatment of civil rights workers throughout the south, the Goodman, Chaney & Schwerner murders, the murder of Viola Liuzzo, the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the murders of President John Kennedy and his brother Robert. The violence perpetrated on innocent people going about their lives, by white people. It is these memories that drive Regina to push for real change in America. Which is why she co-founded Race 2 Dinner.
Norma is a spiritual healer, speaker, writer-poet-playwright, performance artist and facilitator that brings a creative background into her distinctive presentation form of social justice education and activism. Norma collaborates with a dynamic range of organizations, institutions, faith communities, arts, civic groups, and educational forums such as the highly regarded Annual White Privilege Conference. Her deeply moving poems are featured in racial justice courses taught by educators across the country. Her storytelling inspires awareness and insight and the power we have to bring paths of healing to our future. www.allinspirit.com
See who’s spoken at our past conferences below!
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