Cultures Connecting

05/19/2026

We are a proud sponsor of Community Mixer & Conversation on May 30th! This gathering is an opportunity to bring together educators, students, advocates, families, and community leaders who believe every Washington student deserves to feel seen, valued, and written into the stories we learn and share.

Senator T'wina Nobles will be giving the keynote address and feature speakers:

🎤William Jackson - ED of Teaching and Learning, Bellevue School District
🎤Scarlett Luo- Student Advocate of Make Us Visible WA
🎤Faaluaina Pritchard, ED, Asia Pacific Cultural Center
🎤Rep. Janice Zahn- WA State Rep of 41st Legislative District

This event is free and open to the public. RSVP at link in bio or https://tinyurl.com/Mixer-May30

📅 Saturday, May 30, 2026
⏰ 4:00 - 6:30 p.m.
📍 ACRS, 3639 MLK Jr. Way S, Seattle

See you there!

05/19/2026

This is your last opportunity to join our Brave Space Builders list for a chance to receive our journal for free when you pre-order the 2nd edition of our Train the Trainer book, Facilitating Conversations on Race!

To celebrate our new release, we are giving away free Cultures Connecting journals with the first 25 pre-orders. We will make the pre-order link available, as well as instructions for claiming the journal, to our Brave Space Builders (BSB) mailing list. BSB is a great way to preview content and get sneak peeks of our 2nd edition. We may even be giving away other freebies through the list so stay tuned!

Sign up for the BSB mailing list at the link in bio or https://culturesconnecting.com/bsb

05/07/2026

Are you a white woman in a leadership role?

This three-part Lunch and Learn series will support you to deepen your awareness of the presence and impact of institutional power, privilege, and stereotypes that white women leaders both navigate and perpetuate. Using case studies, personas, and real workplace examples, we’ll provide space for interactive small and large group discussions. You'll leave better prepared to name and take responsibility for embedding racial equity values into our leadership practices to become more effective and compassionate leaders.

📌​​May 29th: A Power Analysis: Understand White Women and Institutional Access

📌June 5th: Naming Our Patterns: Exploring White Women Leadership Personas

📌June 12th: Compassion at Work: Cultivating Belonging Beyond Listening

​​Choose one, two, or all three sessions. All sessions meet on Fridays,12:00-1:00pm PT / 3:00-4:00pm ET on Zoom.

Facilitated by Ilsa Govan and Tilman Smith
Register today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transforming-white-womens-leadership-lunch-learns-tickets-1988366525804

05/07/2026

We're so excited to share the cover of our new book, Facilitating Conversations on Race. This is the 2nd edition of our book that we use for our Train the Trainer workshops.

This book is a comprehensive guide designed to equip facilitators and organization leaders with the necessary tools and strategies for dealing with stumbling blocks that often arise when people are brought together to talk about some of the most difficult issues facing our country today—racism, power, and privilege.

Caprice Hollins and Ilsa Govan share stories and strategies they have practiced in their more than forty years of combined experience facilitating, while reminding the reader the power of bringing your authentic self.

Want to learn more? Sign up to our Brave Space Builders list at the link in bio or https://culturesconnecting.com/bsb.

05/01/2026

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

Let's look at our Diversity Calendar to look at significant dates to consider when planning meetings or events to create greater inclusion. Click on the name of the day to learn more.

5/01: Beltane (Neo-Pagan)
5/01: Buddha Day/ Visakha Puja/ Vesek (Buddhist)
5/01: May Day (International Worker’s Day) (International)
5/01-02: Twelfth Day of Ridván (Bahá'i)
5/05: Cinco de Mayo (United States / Mexican)
5/05: National Day of Awareness for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, & 2-Spirit (United States)
5/10: El Día de la Madre (Mexico, El Salvador Guatemala)
5/21: World Day for Cultural Diversity (International)
5/21-23: Shavuot (Jewish)
5/23-24: Declaration of the Báb (Bahá'i)
5/24: Pentecost (Christian)
5/24-29: Hajj (Islamic)
5/26-27: Eid-ul-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) (Islamic)
5/28-29: Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh (Bahá'i)
5/31: Haitian Mother's Day (Haitian)

Visit our website at https://culturesconnecting.com/calendars to download your own Diversity Calendar!

[Image: List of calendar dates on light green background.]

04/24/2026

When events such as ICE raids, wars, or protests occur locally or nationally, children and youth often respond with questions, fears, or misunderstandings.

Young people are forming ideas about race, power, safety, and belonging. Ignoring these moments can unintentionally reinforce stress, misinformation, or othering.

Our Cultures Connecting team developed "Guiding Youth in Polarizing Times" to provide developmentally informed strategies to help you respond with honesty, care, and intention.

At the heart of these conversations is a commitment to dignity, humanity, and belonging for all people.

Download the free PDF at our blog so that you can have these hard but important conversations about current events with youth.
https://wix.to/OznK6QS

When events such as ICE raids, wars, or protests occur locally or nationally, children and youth often respond with questions, fears, or misunderstandings. Young people are forming ideas about race, power, safety, and belonging. Ignoring these moments can unintentionally reinforce stress, misinforma...

04/22/2026

Equity leadership is evolving.

Across the country, formal DEI roles are being restructured, renamed, or eliminated. In many organizations, the work has not disappeared, it has simply become more complex.

In this moment, clarity, strategy, and community matter.

Leading Equity in Shifting Times is a workshop that brings together equity leaders, formal and informal, who are committed to sustaining belonging-centered organizational change even in shifting political and institutional climates.

This is not just networking.

It is strategic skill-building, collective learning, and grounded planning for what equity leadership requires now.

Leading Equity in Shifting Times: A Learning Community for Equity Leaders
Facilitated by Caprice D. Hollins and Ilsa Govan
📆 May 7 & 8
🕤 8:30-12:00pm PT / 11:30-3:00pm ET
📍 Zoom
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4ch4yxvv

04/14/2026

We had the pleasure of interviewing artist Jo Cosme whose work challenges us to rethink how we see places like Puerto Rico.

Jo grew up in Borikén, the indigenous name for the island the Spanish renamed Puerto Rico, absorbing a story about herself that wasn't hers. It was the story colonialism tells: that North Americans are more educated, more intellectual, more worthy. That to be from the Caribbean is to be lesser. "We grew up with this shame of being savages," she says. "That's what they tell us and we grow up having that internalized."

Puerto Rico has been marketed as paradise for as long as Jo can remember. The beaches, the sunsets, the warmth, all packaged and sold to tourists. Her work asks who that framing actually serves and at whose expense. "Who is it for? Why does the native population of a place never get to call or see it that way?"

She traces that question through 500 years of colonialism, from Spanish rule to what she calls the very tangible, very ongoing reality of American colonialism today.

Read our latest interview with Jo on our blog to learn more about her work, including images and videos of her art, and ways you can travel to places like Puerto Rico in more responsible and sensitive ways.

04/09/2026

The 27th annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) will be held on April 22-25 in Seattle. WPC welcomes everyone and aims to provide a rich range of perspectives and creates space for meaningful dialogue and how White privilege, White supremacy, and systems of oppression shape our daily lives.

✨​Our co-founder Ilsa Govan will be co-facilitating a workshop with Johanna Eager from Equityls Consulting, "Beyond the Book Group." Ilsa and Johanna will share a model people can use to form and facilitate a group that goes beyond a traditional book group.

Originally designed to challenge White cultural norms in the way we meet with one another to discuss What's Up with White Women?, the Beyond the Book Group model can be replicated in discussions with any anti-racist White group.

👉Visit https://www.theprivilegeinstitute.com/wpc27 to learn more about the conference and to register.

04/06/2026

Our Advanced Microaggressions for Leaders facilitated by Caprice D. Hollins is happening this week on Thursday-Friday, April 9 & 10.

This strategy-based workshop is designed for supervisors, managers, and leaders who want to improve their ability to lead their staff through difficult conversations. Participants learn eight strategies for engaging staff when tension exists due to microaggressions and other types of comments that cause tension.

Register today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/advanced-microaggressions-for-leaders-tickets-1717276453099

04/03/2026

Our April newsletter, first edition is out and it's full of useful information about what's going on at Cultures Connecting and other relevant information about the social justice landscape.

If you don't subscribe, sign up at the link in bio or https://culturesconnecting.com/mailinglist. You can also DM us your email to be added. You can read this issue in our archives on our blog.

In this issue we cover:​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
📌Arab American Heritage, Autism Acceptance, and Celebrate Diversity Month
📌Only 1 More Week Until Advanced Microaggressions for Leaders Workshop
📌Register for Equity Leaders Workshop
📌Who is Paradise For? A Conversation with Multimedia Artist Jo Cosme
📌Unspoken Truths: We STILL Dream a Future Exhibit at King Street Station
📌When Women Lead Conference 2026
📌White Privilege Conference Coming Soon
📌Ways to Take Action for Change