Hello Westside!

Summer is both hot and not hot. How innovative! Tonight the moon was saffron and the sky was a deep periwinkle. Very pleasing and complimentary colors but caused by smog and haze from fires in the north and south I know. I send so many prayers to those dealing with the hungry entity that fires are. These past six weeks I have been in and out of touch with the world. Rather, underneath the skin of the world. Wrapped in an immersive six week theatre intensive with Intiman Theatre focusing on theatre for social change, which wraps this weekend with a showcase at the Cornish Playhouse! I am very fortunate.

Your MST19 has been keeping it fierce and keeping it real. Liz and the survey team have been hard at work and the fruits of our many discussions have paid off! We have a survey for you! It will be launching next week, and you will have about a month to take part in it. Please please do! This isn’t just any survey you know- the information you provide us will help vitally with our painstaking process playing matchmaker for Westside and our Minister to Be. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know the moment it’s here.

August has been all about finding air to breathe, squeezing in vacations, getting your survey ready, securing neutral pulpit sites (we have them!), scheduling our post-survey cottage meetings (stay tuned!) and challenging our internalized racism and white supremacy through engaging with anti-racism trainings from scholars in the world and creating spaces within our group for truth telling and building understanding.

In addition to launching the survey next week, we will be having a potentially difficult yet vibrant and important discussion about two videos Roseanne and I shared with the group: Robin DiAngelo’s recent talk at the Seattle Public Library on white fragility (you can find it on the Seattle Channel), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The danger of a single story” on TED. These videos were brought to my attention during one of many diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings I received at Intiman. We recommend you watch them and discuss them too! We can’t wait to see all of you come In Gathering time, and of course also, witness your essences represented abstractly and anonymously on the pages of our fun and engaging survey!

Enthusiastically yours,
Neve