Agenda

Yoga & Somatic Activity

Begin the day with an accessible movement and somatic practice designed to help participants arrive in their bodies, connect with the group, and ground in the conference’s themes of belonging and connection.

Presented by Under the North Star Yoga Studio, a yoga and care cooperative based in Louisville

Location: Room TBD

Introduction to O&B26 and Musical Welcome

We’ll open O&B26 by arriving together in Louisville, grounding in place, naming the questions we’re carrying, and setting a shared intention for two days built around participation, relationship, and practice.

Then, Louisville Folk School and the Good River String band will offer a musical welcome rooted in the sounds and traditions of the region, opening the conference through culture, place, and collective presence.

Speakers and Performers: emcee Sarah Crowell, Louisville Folk School, and Good River String Band

Location: Mainstage

Belonging is a Story We Write Together

Understanding the essential role of story is necessary to co-writing another story of the world we want to create. Stories that insist on our shared humanity offer an antidote to the pernicious strategies from actors who thrive on fracturing and isolation to drive antidemocratic agendas. Read more about this session here.

Speakers: Silas House, Crystal Wilkinson, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, and Jess Mullins Fullen

Location: Mainstage

Coffee & Tea Break

Join us in the concourse for coffee, tea, and a moment to reset.

Location: Concourse

Belonging in a Time of Crisis and Opportunity, with john a. powell

Louisville leader Sadiqa Reynolds welcomes O&B26 to the city before Othering & Belonging Institute Director john a. powell examines what belonging asks of us in a time of democratic strain, deep inequality, and coordinated othering. The session will explore how bridging can help us live into the connections that already bind us and how belonging can become a framework for responding to crisis with agency, imagination, and shared responsibility.

Speakers: john a. powell and Sadiqa Reynolds

Location: Mainstage

Lunch (provided) & The Commons Activities

Lunch is included in your ticket! Take time to eat, connect, and then feel free to explore a range of activities throughout The Commons.

Breakout Sessions

Find your path through O&B26 by selecting one of these concurrent breakout sessions located in the Lower-Level Rooms:

1. Building Common Ground through Storytelling with the KY Rural-Urban Exchange with Savannah Barrett, Contea Allan, John Bowman, Christa Iwu, and Richard Young
2. Youth as Architects of Belonging with Cecilie Surasky, Rheanna Ganapathy, and Daniela DiGiacomo
3. Meeting the Moment with Real Solutions and Local Leadership with D’Ana Pennington and Eli Moore
4. Building Belonging at Scale: A Bridging Partnership Model with Cynthia Knapek and Takeo Kuwabara
5. Authoritarianism and Data: Controlling, Suppressing and Weaponizing a Public Resource with Siddhant Issar, Alisia McClain, and Meeta Anand
6. UBLONG, A Radical Rewriting for Unconditional Belonging: Disrupting Narratives on How We Belong
7. (En)Gendering Authoritarianism: Understanding and Countering How Gender is Weaponized for Authoritarian Ends with Míriam Juan-Torres González, Laura Livingston, and Tara Chandra
8. Regional Stories, Shared Futures: Reimagining Identity to Strengthen Belonging and Democracy with Scott Hutcheson, Nichole Argo, and Roxanne Franklin Lorio
9. Who Are They, Really? Inside America's Largest Social Movement with Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone
10. What We Carry Forward: York, Sankofa, and the Bigger We with Hasan and Malcolm Davis

Coffee & Tea Break

Coffee, tea, and a moment to reset before the final mainstage.

Closing Session and Music

After a full day of learning and connection, we’ll shift into reflection and embodied practice, gathering up what moved us, what challenged us, and what we want to carry into Day Two. The session will weave local voice, performance, and collective reflection.

Then we close the conference day in music before gathering again for the evening celebration.

Speakers: TBA

Location: Mainstage

Ball from the Future: an O&B Party at the Muhammad Ali Center

An evening of music, movement, food, and connection at the Muhammad Ali Center. The Ball from the Future invites us to celebrate the relationships, creativity, and joy that help make a bigger “we” possible. The ball will include an exhibit dedicated to “bell of the ball” honoring bell hooks.

Location: The Muhammad Ali Center at 144 N 6th Street in Louisville, KY

Welcome to Day Two

We return for Day Two with a shift from grounding and possibility toward action, strategy, and commitment.

Presented by emcee Sarah Crowell

Location: Mainstage

Faith, Gender, and Democracy

Faith institutions and communities have long been sites of both belonging and othering. This conversation examines how faith, gender, and democracy are colliding in the current political moment: how some faith actors are building pluralism, gender equality, and a wider “we,” while others mobilize gender and “tradition” in service of exclusion and authoritarian power. Panelists will explore where bridging is possible without ideological agreement, which shared values can sustain democratic life, and how traditions of care, mutuality, and love of neighbor can be activated toward belonging.

Speakers: Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Imam Makram Nu’man El-Amin, Gionathan Lo Mascolo, and Míriam Juan-Torres González

Location: Mainstage

Coffee & Tea Break

Join us for coffee, tea, and a moment to reset before breakout sessions.

Location: Concourse

Breakout Sessions

Find your path through O&B26 by selecting one of these concurrent breakout sessions located in the Lower-Level Rooms:

1. Bridging movements, sharper analysis for alignment, shaping policy agenda toward belonging with Eli Moore
2. When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip: The Power of Culture & Convening with Jessica George & Ora Wise
3. Implementing Cultural Strategies for Solidarity and Multiracial Democracy with Sughey Ramírez, Nikko Viquiera, Temitope Olujobi, and Nick Szuberla
4. Beyond Anecdote: Empathy as Data for Bridging and Targeted Universalism with Leslie Tergas and Amber Weir
5. Rising Narratives for Radical Futures: How to Talk Across Difference for a Multiracial Democracy with Jordan N. DeLoach and Yewande O. Addie
6. Lessons and Strategies to Co-governance and Belonging with Erin Skene-Pratt, Lauren Burdette, Rachel Pate, Kristian Blackmon, and Jose Richard Aviles
7. “The Hand You’re Dealt” with Erika Washington and Brenda Zamora
8. Housewarming: From Story to Strategy — Co-Creating Policy for a Climate-Changed Future with Asma Mahdi, Saraí Jiménez, and ashley sparks

Lunch on Your Own: Explore and Support Louisville

Coffee & Refreshment Break

A short refreshment break before the conference’s final mainstage.

Musical Procession and Performance

When you hear the drums, return to the ballrooms or join Louisville’s River City Drum Corp in a procession to be seated for our closing session. A high-energy performance will bring the conference back together before the final commitments and closing.

Performers: River City Drum Corp

Location: Mainstage

Roll Call of Commitment

Across the room, participants name the commitments they are carrying forward, making visible the actions, relationships, and practices that can continue beyond Louisville.

Speakers: Evan Yoshimoto

Location: Mainstage

Closing Keynote Session with W. Kamau Bell and Beth Howard

W. Kamau Bell brings his distinctive mix of comedy and cultural analysis to the final mainstage conversation with Beth Howard

Speakers: W. Kamau Bell and Beth Howard

Location: Mainstage

Conference Closing, with Ashley Gallegos & john a. powell

Speakers: Ashley Gallegos and john a. powell

Location: Mainstage

Closing Music

Location: Mainstage