What is needed to consciously host and work through tensions of
race, power and privilege, while honoring unity in diversity?

With equity and race at the center, we started a collective journey.  It was an intense and rich conversation. At times it was hard, at others sweet.   Through it all, there were challenges, opportunities for continuous learning and growth, and of course plenty of emotions.  We wanted to be deeply in it, be present to what is alive in the larger field and in the room.  We also wanted to be on it, so that others could benefit from what we learned together.  With this harvest we want to offer the foundation for an on-going conversation around race, power and privilege that infuses the Art of Hosting community, and the spaces we each inhabit.

While the journey was indeed interrelated, it did not feel for all that it was collective, and it is certain that any given moment was hard for someone in the room. Something that made this sweet, though, was that the burden was shared among everyone, rather than the usual marginal few. From the beginning, we were all in it in different ways, and being ‘on it’ has also been complex because we know that the harvest offering is one of the most challenging moments in hosting (along with framing!) because it is one of the places where implicit biases, power relations, and privilege can dramatically impact the outcome of gatherings like this, regardless of all the wonderful work that happens between the bookends of Framing and Harvesting. So when asking ‘what might our harvest *also* be?’ we realize that it must be conscious, intentional, and self-reflective. Difference is a point of encounter and transformation. There is no universal ‘we’ here, each we is part of the interrelated and complex system of engagement taking up questions of power, privilege, race, and equity as it manifests in our lives, and also how it is evident in the methods often taken up in our gatherings such that they replicate inequities even while some participants primarily feel the sweetness of being with mates.
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Throughout the harvest, you will see indented, italicised paragraphs like the one above.  This is intended to be a reflective voice, showing you a different perspective on the experience of our time together, rather than just a point by point flow.  It aims to help you dig underneath what happened on the surface to get a sense of how complex and challenging this work is.
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This offering, this harvest, has three parts...

A harvest of the process we went through over the five days.

• What happened?  Through these pages, you will be offered the narrative of what we did together.  We start with the story of how this event came to be -- it was a learning journey on its own -- Making the call.  Then each day has its own page.  At the top you'll find the flow for that day, below that a description of what happened and the harvest from each of the processes.  Each day has its own slide show to give you a feeling of what happened and who was there.​

 

• Digging into the topic.  To develop a common language around race, power and privilege, specific teaches were offered.  Here you will find two of them in video format: Race & Equity and Power.

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• ​Reflecting on your practice.  The Fourfold Practice is a foundation for Art of Hosting and the map for our gathering.  Here you will find a dedicated page on the way we took a deeper dive at the Fourfold Practice through the lens of race, power and privilege.

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Personal reflections  

• How did it feel to be part of this conversation?  What have we learned?  What has this experienced evoked in us?  What has it provoked in us, and therefore, what will we do as a result?  Though you will find personal reflections scattered throughout the pages, there is a dedicated section on the Reflections & Resources page.  We will keep adding these reflections as they arise.  

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Resources & on-going conversation  

• On the Reflections & Resources page we've gathered resources to support conversations about race, equity and power.  We invite you to add to our google doc and help us all be more resource-full.
• ​Our blog is the place where we can talk to each other, offer insight and support and keep the conversation going.  Please join us there!​

The harvest is always contextual.  There is no getting it right.