Hitting my Heart at the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation conference #ncdd2023
October 28, 2023
I've spent much of the evening going through resources that came through participating in the recent NCDD conference in Atlanta Georgia.
What a treasure trove of community building, democracy strengthening, human spirit lifting materials And whats more -> from incredible committed good people.
In these troubled times, this is what we need to highlight. There is hope, there incredibly effective tools to allow folks to collaborate and not be in conflict.
We have let our lizard brains get a major upper hand. And predominantly, what we see and highlight is a constant toxic stream of calamity, conflict, and negativity. It's almost a deluge. And sometimes its hard to conceive how the hopeful, effective, colllaborative stuff can punch through and really gain well deserved attention on a societal scale.
One way is through art and media. What's sticking with me the most from the NCDD conference is the impact of the art and media showcased. Got way further into my heart.
Check out this incredible slam poem from Kevin Coval from the opening plenary - "a call to you who is me".
One evening at the conference, we also saw an incredibly moving documentary about the courage and leadership of six women, three pro life leaders and three pro choice leaders, asked to come together after an incredible tragedy to try to forge stronger relationships while not compromising their very strongly held views and values. Abortion Talks is a masterpiece documentary that hopefully is seen far and wide as a reminder that better ways are possible.
Throughout the whole conference, talented people were graphically recording the sessions. I love this complement to text based notes. Really helps broader understanding of key insights. Here is my online photo album of these graphic recordings.