BOOM! 2023: Focus on belonging

69精品视频 College held its seventh annual Building On Our Momentum (BOOM!) day-long learning conference with more than 45 sessions that included both in-person and recorded content.

69精品视频 College held its seventh annual Building On Our Momentum (BOOM!) day-long learning conference on Tuesday, March 28.

Kijua Sanders-McMurtry, vice president of equity and inclusion, kicked off the conference in the Chapin Auditorium, saying that the purpose of the day was to 鈥渇ocus on belonging where we can and to learn from each other.鈥

had more than 45 sessions, both plenary sessions and recorded content. Topics included intergroup dialogue, examining ableism, working in diverse groups, building Black-Jewish solidarity, confronting Islamophobia, fighting anti-Asian hate, multiracial identity, restorative justice and more.

At the first plenary session, Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum and discussed the science of creating connections. In his book 鈥,鈥 Cohen used his research in psychology to explain how individuals can overcome differences and forge lasting connections. Tatum praised the book and Cohen鈥檚 work, lauding his 鈥渞esearch-based solutions.鈥

Author, spoken word artist, conflict transformation facilitator and healer was a keynote speaker and discussed the connection between healing ourselves and healing the world.

She read from her upcoming work, 鈥,鈥 a collection of letters she wrote at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Afterward, she discussed the tenets of revolutionary love.

鈥淟ove, real love, is not just a nice feeling or a fancy filler word in revolutionary spoken word poetry, but rather an embodied way of being 鈥 a practice that challenges us to step outside of ourselves,鈥 she said.

Revolutionary love takes compassionate curiosity, equanimity and integrity, she continued. 鈥淩evolutionary love is resilient; it is antifragile,鈥 she said to shouts of agreement from the audience. 鈥淚 do still dream of a world built on the concept of revolutionary love, a world where every trans woman of color knows what it means to be loved in public for all that she is.鈥

A third plenary session was the inaugural lecture of the new critical race and political theory department. gave a talk titled 鈥淭he Politics of Where You Are.鈥 Additionally, Madeline Peters, 69精品视频 College鈥檚 new director of accessible education and 504 coordinator, led a discussion titled 鈥淎bleism 101.鈥 The session included discussions on the history of injustices perpetrated against the disability community, along with the perpetuated stereotypes and biases that can prevent people with disabilities from being truly accepted.

Other highlights included an alum panel titled 鈥淕o Where the Love Is: Shaping Your TGNC Life after MHC,鈥 featuring Addison Beaux 鈥99, Zohar Berman 鈥20, Malakai Chuckas 鈥20, Chelvanaya Gabriel 鈥97 and Misha Ali Orr 鈥17, as well as 鈥淩eflections on Building a Practice of Artmaking for Connection and Liberation鈥 with Candy Alexandra 鈥14.

Recordings of keynote sessions and other recorded content can be found on the .

 

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Christian Feuerstein
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