Brown Hope is hosting a Gather: an Interdependence Day Potluck, an invitation to build community in the spirit of interdependence and collective resilience.

Gather with us to share an intimate moment of giving and receiving care, respect, and love. Join us in nourishing our bodies and souls with a shared meal, and you’re encouraged to bring your favorite dish! There will be vegan and gluten free options.

We’ll have interactive icebreaker activities to help people meet and socialize. Experienced song circle facilitators will lead us in songs and drumming that honor our values of freedom, justice, healing, and liberation.

Gather is also an opportunity to shine a light on the truth about this nation’s long history of injustice. July 4th is a day that carries a lot of traumatic the United States. The holiday often glazes over the slavery, colonialism, and genocide that this nation was built upon, and the present day inequities that persist due to the lack of accountability and resolution.

Brown Hope Founder and CEO, cameron whitten, will perform a live reenactment of the 1852 speech “What to the Slave is Your 4th of July?” by civil rights leader Frederick Douglass.

We’ll have a facilitated group dialogue after the speech and brainstorm ideas about how to increase our collective power and foster a more interdependent Portland community that’s actively working towards racial justice.

Gather is free and open to the public. We welcome people of all racial backgrounds, as well as uplifting Black, Brown, and Indigenous leadership on our journey towards collective liberation.