Confronting White Supremacy in the Workplace

Pollen and Twin Cities Daily Planet

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About This Event

Minneapolis American Indian Center | 1530 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404

May 11, 2017

Pollen and Twin Cities Daily Planet bring together industry leaders and equity experts for a discussion about how whiteness informs organizational culture and what we can do day-to-day to build more equitable work cultures.

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EVENT DETAILS
SPEAKERS

EVENT DETAILS

confronting-white-supremacy Too often, definitions of white supremacy are limited to visceral association to the KKK and neo-Nazis. But white supremacy is far more complex. Pollen’s Unraveled Network series has been asking white-led organizations to peel back their bias and fragility to dissect how institutional racism and white supremacy are barriers to equitable network building and community engagement.

We want to bring your voice to the conversation and examine how white supremacy acts as a system of power that influences everything from leadership to organizational culture and even day-to-day operations. What are we doing to perpetuate a culture of whiteness? How can we radically change to build more equitable work environments?

In deep partnership with Twin Cities Daily Planet, we’re kicking off this month-long focus that will push critical culture conversations about power, white saviorism, white supremacy and paternalism to the forefront. Going beyond just a one-time event, this series will be a two-part engagement with online reading between events to encourage revelatory conversations and real action.

Thursday, May 11 — Confronting White Supremacy in the Workplace: Part I

Part I will be a space to listen, absorb, and ask questions. Co-moderators Jamie Millard and Adaobi Okolue have brought together a group of industry leaders and equity experts whose in-depth work and personal experiences have led to transformed company cultures in a variety of sectors.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

David “dstew” Stewart
Director of Production, Guthrie Theater

Ryan Williams-Virden
Dean of Students, Hiawatha Collegiate High School

Beth Zemsky
Intercultural Organizational Development Consultant

MODERATORS

Jamie Millard
Executive Director, Pollen Midwest

Adaobi Okolue
Executive Director, Twin Cities Media Alliance

Thursday, June 1 — Confronting White Supremacy in the Workplace: Part II

Part II turns the tables to the audience to share their stories, offer solutions, and tip conversation into action. Throughout the event there will be facilitated discussions and extensive engagement building from the previous event and online readings.

8:00-8:30 AM – Registration, Breakfast & Networking
8:30-10:30 AM – Program

GET TICKETS!

$25 for Part I & II

$15 for Part I

$15 for Part II

We strongly encourage attendees to participate in part I and II of this event to have time to process the panel discussion, learn more from the additional online reading, and come prepared to dive deeper into conversation and generate solutions with community members.

Co-presented by Twin Cities Daily Planet

The Twin Cities Daily Planet is an award-winning, professionally-edited online publication that amplifies and connects marginalized voices. The Daily Planet is a media arts project of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to equipping individuals and organizations with the power of media arts to shape narratives that advance equity and justice.

About Unraveled Network

If there’s one thing Pollenites know how to do, it’s how to nurture a thriving ecosystem of relationships, connections, and collaborative circles. Unraveled Network is an ongoing series hosted by Pollen that aims to better understand our inner habits and intentional actions that determine how diverse, robust, or ineffective our networks really are.

There is a free parking lot on the west side of the building, as well as free street parking in the neighborhood. The Minneapolis American Indian Center is serviced by the #2 bus and the Blue Line. You can plan and map out your commute using metrotransit.org.

SPEAKERS

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Adaobi Okolue

Executive Director, Twin Cities Media Alliance

Featured Contributor

Adaobi Okolue

Executive Director, Twin Cities Media Alliance

Adaobi Okolue is the executive director of Twin Cities Media Alliance (TCMA), and publisher of TCMA’s principal media arts project, the Twin Cities Daily Planet – an award-winning online publication dedicated to amplifying and connecting marginalized voices. Adaobi is often seen as an instigator for thinking of fresh, smart ways for solving problems, and is known for exploring the intersections of multimedia, creativity and innovation, story and activism in her work. She has been a featured guest speaker on MPR News’ discussion about Black Lives Matter and media, The Loft Literary Center’s Curated By series on African women writers, and The Common Table’s Writing and Art for Justice. Adaobi has served on countless committees, panels and boards for organizations in the Twin Cities, and is currently a commissioner for the Minneapolis Arts Commission.
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David "dstew" Stewart

Director of Production, Guthrie Theater

Featured Contributor

David "dstew" Stewart

Director of Production, Guthrie Theater

Prior to his work at the Guthrie, David worked for the University of Texas at Austin, and held positions at the University of Wisconsin – Madison as Production Manager and Head of Stage Management, Stage Manager for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Director of Production for the Office of Multi-Cultural Arts Institute, Production Stage Manager for Varsity Band, and Event Producer for the Chancellors Office. He has served as an AEA stage manager for Madison Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, St. Louis MUNY, Kansas City Starlight Outdoor Musicals, The Little Theatre on the Square and Vienna Austria’s English Theatre. In addition, Stewart was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumni Achievement award from his Alma Mater, Webster University, and is the chair for the People of Color Network at USITT where he also serves on the board. David is also the co-founder of the highly successful Gateway Program. He has two nationally published articles on diversity in theater production, is the technical editor for two theater management books, and holds a 4th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
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Ryan Williams-Virden

Dean of Students, Hiawatha Collegiate High School

Featured Contributor

Ryan Williams-Virden

Dean of Students, Hiawatha Collegiate High School

Ryan Williams-Virden is a cultural worker from Northeast Minneapolis and currently serves as Dean of Students for Hiawatha Collegiate High School. Growing up working class, Ryan’s parents believed in the power of education to better life circumstances and instilled that belief in him. Ryan has come to realize that the production of knowledge and school can be two very different things and strives to close the distance between the two. Most of his work explores the intersections of identity through a critical lens, particularly whiteness. A spoken word and hip hop artist, Ryan is the oldest of three brothers, is married, and has a daughter.
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Beth Zemsky

Intercultural Organizational Development Consultant

Featured Contributor

Beth Zemsky

Intercultural Organizational Development Consultant

Beth Zemsky MAEd, LICSW comes to her work out of her continued commitment to engage people in learning activities that move them to understand critical social and cultural issues. Building on best practice approaches, Beth specializes in intercultural organizational development with organizations working towards social change and structural transformation including foundations, nonprofits, educational, health, faith-based, and social change organizations.

Beth has over thirty-five years of experience working as a consultant, community organizer, psychotherapist, educator, and organizational leader including serving as the principle of Zemsky and Associates Consulting, founding director of the GLBT Programs Office, supervisor of the Diversity Institute, and coordinator of leadership development & organizational effectiveness at the University of Minnesota. She also served as former national co-chair of the Board of Directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.

She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, certified workplace mediator, and a qualified administer of the Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) and the Meyers Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). In addition, Beth has been adjunct faculty at University of Missouri – St. Louis, Augsburg College, and the University of Minnesota where she has taught courses in Gender & Sexuality Studies, Social Work, and Family Social Science.

In addition, she was awarded a Bush Leadership Fellowship to study organizational development of social movement organizations. Recently, Beth was the recipient of the 2016 IDI Intercultural Award for commitment to social justice.
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Jamie Millard

Executive Director, Pollen

Featured Contributor

Jamie Millard

Executive Director, Pollen

Jamie Millard is executive director of Pollen, a nonprofit that breaks down the barriers of narrative, networking, and opportunity to build better connected communities.

Jamie has been identified as a “2015 40 Under 40” by the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, as a “100 People to Know in 2015” by the Twin Cities Business Magazine. Nationally, Jamie was recognized in the Huffington Post as one of four millennial leaders, “doing important work to move us toward a more just and equitable society.” In addition to her dream job, Jamie serves on a GREATER MSP task force to address the retention and attraction of emerging talent in our region. She is also a current member and former board chair of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network — Twin Cities. In 2009, Jamie co-founded the literary arts magazine Paper Darts, which is now a premier Twin Cities literary institution and has published more than 700 writers and artists.