Day 3- Breaking down Barriers and Borders through our spirituality

To kick off our third day of POWER Summit, some of us took an optional field trip to the Minnesota History Center in downtown St. Paul to check out an exhibit called Open House: If These Walls Could Talk. Located in an actual reconstructed house, the exhibit tells the stories of various residents living in a house on the East Side of St. Paul during the past 100 years. Through interactive exhibits, we learned about the diverse immigrant families that called that place home through the years while getting a piece of Saint Paul history. It was fascinating to see how immigration has changed so much in the last century and to read about the unique, yet similar struggles and triumphs that each family experienced while living there. It got me thinking about all the different families that have lived in my own house, and where they came from, as well as encouraging me to think deeper about my own roots and family history.

Back at the Carondelet Center, we continued the day with a panel of speakers from four different spiritual backgrounds- Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and the Buddhist tradition. Each speaker inspired the group with their personal stories and experiences working for social change. They described how their spirituality sustains them and inspires them to continue their important work. Though all four claim very different beliefs, the same message of social justice and compassion echoed in their words. The panel helped us realize the universality of these beliefs, and it was clear that no matter what barriers and borders that we may build up between different religions, in the end we are all truly looking for peace and justice. Bree, of the Buddhist tradition inspired us all when she told us that our lives are like a crayon, when the crayon is all used up it is not gone, but rather the mark we made on the world with our crayon will live on. It is up to us to figure out what that mark is going to look like, and what difference we are going to make in the world.

Next, we got in our Learning Circles to reflect on and discuss what we heard in the panel. We learned more about each other and our personal histories as we shared our religious beliefs, experiences and struggles. We discussed the ways in which each of us are sustained by our spirituality and how that spirituality helps us break down various barriers and borders in our lives.

After a short snack break, Sister Brigid McDonald spoke about the weekly Peace Vigil on the Lake Street bridge to prepare us for our outing later that night. After listening to her stories about the peace movement, we were inspired by her energy and started making protest art right away! We carpooled over to the bridge and had a great time putting our words and ideas throughout the week into action through nonviolent protest. And in a way, we even broke down the border of St. Paul and Minneapolis! After the Peace Vigil, we headed over to St. Albert the Great Church in Minneapolis for a potluck dinner and an evening of storytelling and sharing about the Peace Vigil's ten years of resistance to war. It was a truly inspirational ending to a busy day!

After the storytelling, we all headed home to get some rest for tomorrow- the last day of POWER Summit, where we will be declaring our action steps, sharing our creative expressions and having a big celebration. I can't wait!

- Carolyn

Day Two – How building community helps break down barriers and borders

Day two began with another icebreaker. We got into our learning circles and wrote down every-day barriers and borders on small boxes. We thought of things like religion, sexuality, geography, class, and language that make us feel like there are barriers or borders between ourselves and people we don’t know and understand. Using those boxes, we constructed a big wall, then each group described and acted out little things that each of us could do in our interactions with people to break down some of those barriers. Finally, we joyfully destroyed the wall!

We then heard from Salvador Miranda, Twin Cities community organizer and instrumental leader in the inception and construction of the Mercado Central, a large Hispanic market on East Lake Street. His firey words at the very least made each of us think deeply about issues such as institutional racism, the prison industrial complex, affirmative action, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, charity and advocacy work, and the polarized political “debate of values,” that he identified as central to creating a solution to social problems. He framed his message through the story of his own journey from “Chicano homie” during Reagan’s first months in office to beneficiary of affirmative action to law student to community organizer to man responsible for many amazing developments for the Twin Cities’ Latino community. His message was challenging and inspiring. His energy was something that stuck with people throughout the day and will continue to influence many of us as we take on what he would call “battles” for what we believe in.

Following Sal, we hopped on Metro Transit and traveled west and north to visit two cool locations on Lake Street: Mercado Central and the Global Market. We indulged in great food, soaked up the sights and sounds of Lake Street and shopped and enjoyed the vendors of both places.

After a filling meal, we returned to the Carondelet Center for more processing in a large group. We felt drained but inspired, confused but enthused, challenged but eager to act. From our large group we broke into our two creative expression groups. The writing group workshopped what we had created on Day one, sharing, offering comments and compliments, and loving everyone’s energies, styles, and effort. The mural group made great progress on their visual creation, adding color and significance to what was a white canvas the day before.

We finished day two ready for rest and more adventures tomorrow!

Day One – A personal look at barriers and borders

We started the day off with some wonderfully awkward icebreaker activities. Faith encouraged us to greet new friends as if they were our long lost relative, then another new friend as if we really didn’t want to be here, then another as if they were telling us we had just won a million dollars. We then moved into our learning circles – small groups which whom we will spend time throughout the week processing, discussing, and reflecting.

Next, we heard from Kim Anderson. After a short introduction from her about Casa Guadalupana, the immigrant resource center which she founded and runs, we got into groups and did an empathy-building exercise around immigration. Kim gave each group a foreign board game with instructions in a language we couldn’t read. Our task was to try to figure out how to play the game while one of our group members took notes on the group process. Upon reflection on the activity in a large group, we found that each group, even though we had different games and different languages, faced similar struggles and dealt with them similarly. We all tried to relate parts of the game to other games we had played before. We all expressed feeling frustrated and that it was unfair. We didn’t even know where to begin with these children’s board games, all because of a language barrier. It helped us feel a miniscule portion of what groups of immigrants may experience when trying to come to the US.

Lunch on Monday was delicious Mexican food with a salad made of organic lettuce from our community garden.

After lunch we heard from a panel of young people. Two of them were recent immigrants from Iraq and one was the son of two Hmong immigrants. All three openly shared stories of either their immigration or the immigrations of their parents. The POWER Summit audience was struck by their struggles, from language to culture to education, and inspired by their energy and hope. Instead of being bitter after so many setbacks, the three of them work in different ways on behalf of immigrants. They were gracious and happy to answer our questions about their what they miss most of home and what their greatest hopes for their futures and the futures of other immigrants. Some spoke of missing friends and family and their hometowns. All were hopeful that immigrants will soon have an easier time, both in the immigration process itself and in terms of the cultural challenges that often face immigrants.

The rest of Monday was spent doing creative expression. Half of us spent time with Jessica Lopez Lyman and Steven Tacheny working on writing while the other half learned from Gustavo Lira, a local muralist, and began designing our own mural. Both groups will present their final creative expression projects during Thursday afternoon’s Celebration of Gratitude.