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Democracy in Practice
A diverse people can self-govern

Local Color: Gathering across color, creed + ideology

“Our lives begin to end when we stop talking about things that matter.” – Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Deep in our hearts we know that if we’re going to ever “live out the true meaning of our creed, that all men are created equal” it will be something that happens between us day to day – in the places we live, in the lives we lead, in the actions we take and the decisions we make – large and small. Yet still we predictably turn toward our television sets and social media when the crisis happens between us — a decision that further fuels distance and division between people who look and think differently. Imagine if in times of crisis, instead of separating, we gathered? Who might we be then?

We imagine a public space where we come to really know each other, where we look unflinchingly at what divides us as we revel in what unites us – sort of an old-fashioned civic barn raising of sorts. We imagine an idea-generating, deeply real (possibly even joyful) Hamilton-inspired Technicolor town hall. In conjunction with the Smithsonian exhibit “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America,” join us for a series of discussions on important topics to our community.

Potential panelists: Community leaders. This is kind of a series that can frame the programs if they’re broadly around issues of race. Suggest a series of 3 topics chosen specifically for the community to occur during the exhibit as a series (can be topics listed here or we can work together to select them; can take a look at some of our Local Color topics – http://localcolors.us/ ). This might be a good fit for Sarasota (maybe Miami, depending on interest) than other locations. This is a way to launch Local Color as a series that the location might regularly host. Recommend pulling people/panelists into the community conversations who might not normally be there. Also note that we’ve got Local Color t-shirts we can make available for sale.