Courage to Connect

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Category: Action

Facilitated by Daniel Hughes and Troy Bronsink

"We can’t think ourselves into new ways of living, we must live ourselves into new ways of thinking."

In July 2017, after the hung jury Ray Tensing trial, two friends, Daniel Hughes, a black pastor from Price Hill, and Troy Bronsink, a white pastor from Bond Hill looked around for spaces to have difficult, courageous conversations about differing experiences of our same city, nation, and world. They decided to work together to facilitate spaces for these courageous conversations, convinening upwards of 70 people over the last two years. What arose were questions like:

• Does contemplation even make a difference in the “real world” of political and racial chaos?

• How does our interior work go public?

• Where can we practice meaningful conversations that model self-care and solidarity?

Courage to Connect is a course designed to facilitate dialogue (as opposed to debate), and mindful awareness. Like-mindedness can damage community, but this group is designed to emphasise how shared intention or “like-heartedness” can hold together a room of people with very different experiences and convictions. We seek to amplify the voices of those who aren’t often heard in the mainstream, without asking the most vulnerable in our gathering to bear the weight of the conversations.

This is a laid-back conversational space. Our approach benefits from the behavioral work of mindfulness and the socio-cultural wisdom of folks like Ibram X Kendi, Stuart Hall, angel Kyodo williams, Cornel West, bell hooks, Bruce Perry, Parker Palmer and Howard Thurman to name a few. 

There is a food component, where participants bring snacks. The facilitators bring specific conversations from current events as well as difficult conversations to have in “brave” ways. And everyone pitches in to affect how the class unfolds. This 6-week version of the class is the beginning of something we plan to offer consistently, with a dream that those who have completed the class might eventually hold Courage to Connect events in their own communities, and workplaces around the city.

A great class for those wanting to take the next step from contemplation to action, and who have the courage to connect in meaningful ways.

This is class has been sponsored by a donor, we welcome donations for the course to "pay it forward" for others to take it.

NO CLASS on MLK Holiday 1/20 or President's Day 2/17.