Image from The Community Foundation of South Puget Sound

I have never attended an event like “Community Conversations with Mónica Guzmán” before. It was my first time going to the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. SPSCC’s group was one of the first to arrive, but when we arrived there was already a small crowd forming around the entrance to the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Hitting 6:30 pm, the doors opened, and we all filtered into the building. 

The auditorium slowly filled – trickling in were a wide range of people. From SPSCC Alumni, current students, staff, and faculty, to older Olympia community members and people looking to learn something new. On the stage itself sat two chairs, accompanying end tables, and glasses of water, all lit by stage lights. Conversations echoed from the reception room, slowly building to a roar of 300 people all speaking at once. I sat reading the woman of the hour’s book, “I Never Thought Of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” by Mónica Guzmán, to help pass the time.

Then, finally, the event began with a keynote speech from Mindie Ruele, the CEO of the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound. She gave land acknowledgments to the Steh-Chass Band of the Squaxin Island tribe, as well as giving land acknowledgements to the Squaxin Island Tribe as a whole, the Nisqually Indian Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, Skokomish Indian Tribe, and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, of which current day Thurston, Mason, and Lewis county all sit on.

Ruele gives thanks to Community Foundation employees, elected officials, and the numerous outreach and media partners, one of which was SPSCC itself. She mentioned specifically that SPSCC had been planning on doing a similar event. But when it caught wind of this event, they chose to sponsor this event instead. 

After Ruele finished her speech, she gave the podium to Lieutenant Governor, Denny Heck. Lt. Governor Heck spoke about his project, the Project for Civic Health, a project that promotes and encourages healthy disagreements, and pushes back against the dysfunction of reactive partisan politics. “We are at our best when we disagree,” he said, as disagreements open dialogue for well-rounded decisions. If you are interested in learning more, click here for the Project’s website.

Finally, Mónica Guzmán, and her conversation facilitator, TVW CEO Renee Radcliff Sinclair, entered stage right.

It was much like an interview, to my inexperienced eyes and ears. Sinclair would ask a question, and Guzmán would answer to the best of her ability. Since I had just come off of reading the book, many of Guzmán’s answers and references sounded familiar. The Evergrey, the Newsletter Guzmán helped to create, dealing with the dopamine overload that social media exploits for revenue, putting yourself in a safe place to disagree with someone else, and political culture needing to soften so that politics may become a functional machine again. All referenced and explained in depth in her book.

It was a delight to see for me, as I could keep up with the conversation easily while taking extensive notes. Though there were aspects that were not mentioned in the book. Sinclair’s and Guzmán’s discussion on the nature of power imbalances, and Diversity vs. Pluralism, Palestine-Israel protests on College Campuses, and how to bring back effective collaboration from both sides, were the more prominent non-book mentioned topics.

Sinclair asks Guzmán on how to help enfranchise disenfranchised voices. Bringing people to the table, and ensuring they feel welcomed and included. Guzmán says that it starts with listening, relationship building, and building of trust. Without those steps, it’s all performative. Guzmán says on diversity that, “diversity is the fact of different people sharing the same space.” She also touches on the fact that  pluralism is the engagement of a diversity of different voices to a good end. She says that diversity is not enough, and that for meaningful enfranchising and relationship building, it has to be genuine – there needs to be trust. And a reminder, straight from the Founder of Interfaith America, Eboo Patel himself “diversity isn’t just the differences you like.”

As for Palestine-Israel Protests on College Campuses, Guzmán suggests getting in contact with Shira Hoffer, the creator of the Israel/Palestine Hotline. It’s a texting hotline where people could text and share their concerns and educate themselves on the complex situation. It’s easy to feel certain about your beliefs, but you can’t just walk around encampments and protests proclaiming they need to be educated and that they are wrong. Shaming people will not make people listen. “All that shame does is push people who will listen to them.” Guzmán said.

Guzmán says that the political culture in America has to soften before any progress can be made. Governance requires the tensions between opposing parties and yet peaceful collaboration and compromise. “Compromise is not gonna be easy to swallow.” Guzmán said.To quote Lin Manuel Miranda’s ‘Hamilton,’ “the art of the compromise, hold your nose and close your eyes.” Compromise doesn’t always feel good, and can be a hard swallow at first. Without collaboration, all we’ll get is pendulum swings, where one party makes all the changes it wants, and when the other party inevitably retakes power, they will undo all of that and instate their own changes. This is not good for democracy, and is the cornerstone of the entrenched reactionary politics we are experiencing now.

After the main conversation – the floor was opened for questions from the audience. Guzmán answered a wide range of questions – on how to deal with tainted systems, questions and certainty, asking Guzmán to expand on topics she mentioned earlier, balancing between tolerance and safety, and so many more that you can view for yourself here on TVW’s website.

When asked for a comment after the event, Lt. Governor Heck said, “What we can learn from her and her discussion the other night is that investing in efforts to work across differences is worthwhile and it starts with listening. This is important especially when we think about the spread of misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms being one of the biggest hurdles younger people are facing in the current political climate.”

Overall, the event was fascinating. It was a good mix of book-covered topics and references, while also introducing and discussing different but related topics. It was a fantastic event, and the author herself is a great orator and speaker. The free food, paid by the Community Foundation of South Puget Sound, was also delightful and good!