Inspiring Stories 2022
Welcome to our third season of storytelling and conversation on complex issues we all care about. The Guibord Center and IslamiCity bring together people with rich spiritual backgrounds and diverse perspectives to share powerful stories from the heart. These live online events invite you into the conversation with an opportunity to connect with the speakers and others in Q and A sessions and breakout rooms after the presentation. Check our Calendar for upcoming events.
Inspiring Stories: dismantling racism
Inspiring Stories: Dismantling Systemic Racism
Moderated by the Reverend Jen Bailey
This event, the fourth in our four-part series on racism, brings us to the next crucial part of our journey. In previous sessions, we’ve listened to people courageously sharing their experiences with the pain and injustice of racism. How do we now apply this knowledge in our own lives and help create an antiracist world that dismantles systemic racism? Join us as we hear from compelling storytellers whose personal reflections open a space for deeper exploration and transformative engagement on this problem.
The Stories
The Discussion
Reverend Jen Bailey
Reverend Jen Bailey is an ordained minister, a public theologian, and a national leader in the multi-faith movement for justice. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Faith Matters Network and Co-Founder of The People’s Supper. The Center for American Progress...
Gail Kennard
Gail Kennard is African American, Muslim and a native Angeleno. She converted to Islam more than 40 years ago while in graduate school at UC Berkeley. Today she attends the Islamic Center of Southern California and the Women’s Mosque of America, where she has...
Harmeet Kaur Kamboj
Harmeet Kaur Kamboj (they/them) is a Sikh American interfaith educator, scholar, artist, and zine-maker. Harmeet is currently a Program Manager at Interfaith Youth Core, as well as a teaching aide at Union Theological Seminary and an instructor at the Moksha Arts...
Reverend Margaret Anne Ernst
Reverend Margaret Anne Ernst is pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. A passionate writer, community builder and organizer, she has worked alongside faith communities to fight for racial, economic and immigrant justice since 2013....
Inspiring Stories: We stop perpetuating racism
Inspiring Stories: How Do We Stop Perpetuating Racism?
Moderated by Suzanne Edwards-Acton
Recent tragedies in our nation have awakened many of us to how we perpetuate racist thoughts and behaviors, knowingly or not. Hear from people who have realized the damage inflicted by unconscious racism and turned to their spiritual traditions for guidance and strength to change.
The Stories
The Discussion
Suzanne Edwards-Acton
Suzanne Edwards-Acton is the founder of MyWorkToDo.com, a program designed as a space for white people to build stamina for conversations on race. Co-chair of the Program Group on Black Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, she is the immediate past Vice...
Samia Bano
Samia Bano is the Interfaith Coordinator for IslamiCity and a member of The Guibord Center Advisory Council. She serves as co-host of the Inspiring Stories online series, a collaboration between the two organizations. Known as the Happiness Expert, Samia is author of...
Ally Hawkins
Ally Hawkins was born and raised in the American South. There, she spent the majority of her life in what she considers radical evangelical fundamentalist religious spaces, steeped in both white supremacy and Christian Nationalism. She homeschooled her four children...
Donald Quick
Donald Quick is a science educator at Rosemead High School and a parishioner at All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena. He has participated in and co-facilitated My Work To Do online affinity spaces, fostering anti-racist understandings and stamina building for social...
Inspiring Stories: How Survivors of Racism are Healing
Inspiring Stories: How Surviviors of Racism are Healing
Listening to the experiences of racism survivors is crucial in order for healing and change to take place. Join us as our storytellers share about how their spirituality has helped them overcome the trauma and pain of racism.
The Stories
The Discussion
Sedona Jacobson
“Ya'aat'eeh” is Sedona Jacobson’s greeting as the 21-year-old student introduces herself. She is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in agriculture science at Diné College, the first tribally controlled and accredited collegiate institution in the U.S. Sedona resides in...
Kandake Ameena Siddique
Kandake Ameena Siddique is a Muslim American who is committed to criminal penal reform, equity in education and community relations. She is the Finance Manager at the Association of Legal Administrators in Chicago and a board member of the Learn Charter School...
Emily Bowen Cohen
Emily Bowen Cohen is an artist, writer and enrolled member of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation. She grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a Native American man and a Jewish woman. Today, she draws comics based on her experiences as a Jewish person of color. Her work...
Inspiring Stories: Exploring the Injustices of Racism
Inspiring Stories: Exploring the Injustices of Racism
The Guibord Center sees racism as a spiritual issue, as a hardening of the heart that damages the whole of the human family. It attacks our willingness as well as our capacity to experience the sacred in every living being, thereby depriving us access to the richness of a world of mutual respect and empowerment.
We are committed to opening our own hearts and programs to explore the many ways that people of different faiths and perspectives grapple with racism and changing a system that affects each of us profoundly.
Dr. Lo Sprague, January 2022
The Stories
The Discussion
Rick Sforza
Rick Sforza is a spiritual director, photographer, veteran, and co-facilitator of an anti-racism workshop. He worked for more than 30 years as a photojournalist, journalist and photo editor. During that time, Rick discovered that simply listening to a subject helped...
Imam Amiin Al-Musaddiq
Imam Amiin Al-Musaddiq is a native of the United States of America's urban community who reverted to Islam in 2001. Currently a student at Madina Institute in Atlanta, he serves as acting Imam at Masjid al-Mu'un in Chicago. Imam Amiin also is a certified life coach...
Walt Cunningham, Jr.
Walt Cunningham, Jr. is an accomplished pianist and musical creator and producer with an eclectic background. He attended West Point Academy, the distinguished military school, where he became one of just over a thousand Black American graduates and served as a...
Forrest S. Cuch
Forrest S. Cuch is an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe. Born in 1951, he grew up on the Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah. Forrest was raised in the sacred Ute/Shoshone Sundance religion and joined his father and uncles as a sun...