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Cleveland Dinners 2023 Launch

A brave space for honest dialogue on race and equity

Leader

Elizabeth Falco

Location

Virtual Cleveland, OH 44120

About the project

Have you ever wanted a brave space for honest conversation about the state of race and equity in your community? The Cleveland Dinners gives you that brave space around the virtual table every fourth Sunday of the month. Through our virtual dinner series, we bring diverse groups of people from across the country together to share in nourishing conversation about race and equity. We leverage the power of the arts and personal stories to create authentic connections that break down the barriers that divide us.

When: The Fourth Sunday of every month from 5 – 7pm EST. 

Where: From the comfort of your own home! Our dinners are currently held virtually so you’re welcome to join from wherever is most convenient. We plan to host a mix of live and virtual events starting in 2023! 

The Steps

  • Performance  – A local musician of color kicks off the evening by sharing his/her musical talent as guests arrive at our virtual table. The dinner then starts with a performance piece – a play, Ted Talk, short video, chapter from a book – where guests are united in a shared experience. The performance creates an invitation to vulnerability, so guests feel comfortable sharing from their own lived experiences.
  • Facilitated Conversation – Guests are then moved into diverse breakout rooms where trained facilitators help guide the conversation to ensure everyone in the group can share personal stories.
  • Intentional Diversity – The design team intentionally creates diverse breakout rooms where guests from different backgrounds can unite in shared conversation.
  • Dessert – Guests return from the breakout rooms to share their experiences and key takeaways with the larger group. We then close the evening with a spoken word piece performed by an artist of color. This concludes the event for the evening.

Why we‘re doing it

We believe in the power of stories to break down perceived barriers and connect us in our common humanity. We believe that the dinner table is a place to gather to listen, share and connect with each other. We believe that to move forward and create meaningful change in our communities we need to come together to heal.

$1,772.00 still needed of $2,062.00