It’s Time to Talk and Act – Live Events Spark Meaningful Change

Creating meaningful change towards eliminating racism in Minnesota is within our reach. It starts with conversations, and it’s propelled by action. YWCA Minneapolis offers interactive workshops to help participants understand and combat different forms of racial injustice.  

Through these events, individuals gain clarity on the impact of racism, oppression and biases — along with actionable steps on how to overcome them. 

Pull quote: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." – James Baldwin 

Our workshops create a supportive and open learning environment to educate participants on how oppression manifests at interpersonal, institutional and systemic levels. They’re a great place to start for questions about the effects of discrimination on a community or to develop new skills to fight racism. 

It’s Time to Talk: Forums on Race™ 

YWCA Minneapolis hosted our annual It's Time to Talk: Forums on Race™ event, presented by Thrivent, in September 2023. This transformative discussion was designed to ignite meaningful change in the community. This event didn't just talk about racial justice, equity and inclusion; it actively practiced it, inspiring hope and a sense of possibility.  

The event was anchored by keynote speaker Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, along with Dr. Joi Lewis and Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre, who led deep-dive workshops on solidarity, immigrant population perspectives, and how intersecting identities across gender and race catalyze historic moments.  

The event is called It’s Time to Talk: Forums on Race™ because we’ve gone beyond the time of dancing around these topics. To have a serious conversation about effective and meaningful change, we must name the elephant and discuss everything else in the room.  

Keynote: Leaning Into Discomfort and Embracing Curiosity 

Dr. Hill's keynote delved into critical themes like deep listening, confronting uncomfortable histories, embracing radical hope, redefining diversity and the transformative promise of abolition—all essential components for meaningful change. Dr. Hill tied the keynote session together beautifully with the James Baldwin quote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."  

His call to purposeful practice and accountability resonated deeply, urging participants to lean into discomfort as a catalyst for meaningful change.  

This message of purposeful activism and answering the call of curiosity energized participants, who engaged in breakout sessions that were so compelling that 80% stayed through the entire event, fostering a sense of community and connection.  

It’s Time to Act!™ 2023-2024 Series: Solidarity 

It’s Time to Act!™ is a forum series that engages participants for deeper learning and action planning around issues of race, equity, identity and social justice. 

The forums are a catalyst for changemaking, where attendees take a deep dive into issues affecting our community and are inspired to identify their own role and power to create change. Pairing lectures with intentional action planning, these events create opportunities for attendees to move from talk to action. 

The 2023-2024 series focused on solidarity, diving into how to accept and leverage diverse perspectives to drive meaningful change.  

What Solidarity Looks and Feels Like to Immigrant Communities 

The session, "Solidarity: Immigration Across Communities," illuminated how true solidarity manifests and drives meaningful change, as seen through the experiences of Minnesota's immigrant communities.  

Panelists Jaylani Hussein, Juventino Meza and UyenThi Tran Myhre shared their deeply personal immigration journeys, highlighting both the challenges and successes that inform cross-cultural solidarity and the path to meaningful change. 

Hussein left the audience with an activist-fueled message – to do activism’s heart and head work by getting grounded in their unique purpose and skills. Only from that internal foundation can one fuel their role in organizing racial justice with longevity.  

Catalyzing Historic Moments Through Solidarity  

In “Solidarity: Intersectional Identities Across Gender and Race," Dr. Rose M. Brewer highlighted how solidarity at these intersections has catalyzed historic movements, reinforcing the necessity of intersectionality for driving meaningful change.  

Through a historical journey, Dr. Brewer showed why centering race is paramount, as it remains the "difference that makes the most difference" in America.  

Participants unpacked what organizations can do through a Q&A session. The session encouraged those who work along the lines of difference to invoke and practice solidarity, leaving participants and organizational leaders with a useful toolkit.  

One key perspective discussed in the event was how history isn’t just decades ago. History was yesterday, and today is the present and the future. Until the night envelopes the sky, we do not know for certain what the day holds. 

Defining Rematriation and Reparations 

The series concluded with "Solidarity: Rematriation and Reparations," with speakers Dr. Kwame-Ross and Dawn Laroque. In this discussion, they reclaimed the definitions of rematriation and reparations through an indigenous and anti-colonial lens.  

Dr. Kwame-Ross stated, "The time for appeasement is over." If we want real change, we must take radical, organized action like past civil rights struggles.  

Dawn emphasized throughout the session that we must center the voices, experiences and perspectives of women and move away from the status quo of a white-heteronormative lens. She provided a learning experience about academic language and the native experience of appropriation.  

Moving From Concept to Meaningful Change 

These sessions exemplify the groundbreaking work led by YWCA Minneapolis Racial Justice & Public Policy department.  

We aim to inspire meaningful change by having authentic conversations, building connections across communities and taking purposeful action to realize racial justice and equity.  Only through intentional, purposeful practice can we move from concept to meaningful change—a journey YWCA Minneapolis is committed to leading.