Registration for YWCA Madison’s Virtual Racial Justice Summit is Now Open
Madison, WI, August 4th –– Registration is now open for the YWCA Madison Virtual Racial Justice Summit. For nineteen years, YWCA Madison’s Racial Justice Summit has been a space and experience that has brought people in the Madison Community together for deep learning, and an invitation to action for racial justice. In the 2020 reality of COVID-19, as well as the immense shift in the national conversation around racism and the need for systemic change following the uprisings in defense of Black Life, we intend to build on the experiences of prior Summits to offer a virtual gathering place for even deeper learning, vision casting, and movement building.
Please join us. The Virtual Racial Justice Summit will take place, September 29th – October 1st.
Visit ywcamadison.org/racial-justice-summit to register or to learn more.
This year’s theme is Reconstruction. Centering Blackness – A Path to Build Collective Power and Justice for All. This theme invites us all to radically build on ancestral decolonizing ways of being, relating, and co-creating in society, as well as to develop new paradigms. These new paradigms must be shaped by what we all deeply and collectively value in life — dignity, freedom of choice, justice, sacredness, and opportunity for wellbeing. These are times to stand together in dismantling and unlearning the white supremacist ideology and anti-Blackness that is present in our current social structures and cultures. Centering Blackness offers us a profound opportunity to uproot the perpetuation of violence, scarcity, and economic order based on extraction and exploitation as determined by whiteness.
Centering Blackness guides us in shifting the direction of our future with bold, courageous, and radically creative actions today. We are on the brink of co-creating a new era of Reconstruction—this time with an understanding of our sacred interconnectedness as we envision new policies, systems, and institutions. Centering Blackness steers our bodies, minds, and imagination to a whole different direction—one where everyone can truly thrive and experience shared dignity, abundance, and joy.
The featured keynote speakers for the Summit will be Alicia Walters, Winona LaDuke, john a. powell, Charlene Carruthers, and Rev. angel Kyodo williams.
In addition to the keynotes, this year’s Summit will also offer online community spaces for Summit participants to deepen their learning, practice, and action within a deliberate race-based affinity-based group and/or a chosen area of work or field of practice. These spaces will be offered during designated time blocks on October 1st, as well as come with access to our Sutra online platform for support and communication.
“During this time in our country, we have a real opportunity to reconstruct our nation by tearing down the oppressive systems and rebuilding and reimagining something new. This starts with centering Blackness. We all have a part in the reconstruction process. We are excited to build on the movement of collective power and justice for all.” -Vanessa McDowell, CEO, YWCA Madison.
Please register to join YWCA Madison and its generous sponsors at this event. For more information, visit our website at www.ywcamadison.org/racial-justice-summit, or contact Gery Paredes Vasquez at gpvasquez@ywcamadison.org. Also, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YWCAMadison to receive updates and news about this event.
About YWCA Madison
YWCA Madison is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, dignity, and justice for all. YWCA Madison is part of an international movement serving over 2 million in the United States and 25 million worldwide. For comprehensive information about this important work, go to www.ywcamadison.org and www.ywca.org.
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For Immediate Release:
Contact: Jay Young
Marketing and Development Manager
YWCA Madison
P 608.257.1436, option 2 | jyoung@ywcamadison.org