All are welcome to participate in one or more conversations about equity and justice 

Conversations will take place each Thursday at 3 p.m. in July and August and will last no more than
90 minutes. There will be a break midway and a reconvening.

A thematically-focused site visit will be offered each Thursday at 2 p.m. Tours will begin in the upper
level of the John Brown barn in the exhibit, “Dreaming of Timbuctoo.”

In nine weekly sessions over the course of the summer, local and national experts will co-facilitate
each conversation. Facilitators will include: Ellen Bettmann, Mike Bishop, Kathy Bonavist, Russ
DeFonce, Jen Kretser, Melissa Lambert, Pete Nelson, Martin Tyler, Yunga Webb, Dr. J.W. Wiley,
and Jeri Zempel.

For the conversations, participants are asked to bring lawn chairs and meet in the traffic circle at the
John Brown Farm by 2:45 p.m. each Thursday. Some chairs will be provided.

The 2023 series of facilitated conversations in A Memorial Field is a program of Creatives Rebuild
New York artist Ren Davidson Seward in collaboration with John Brown Lives!

Schedule of Conversations

• July 6: Dr. Shenell Evans & Shawndel N. Fraser, MA - “Tear Gas, Whole Milk, and Chocolate Friends: How to Get Invited to the Cookout”
• July 13: Pete Nelson - “Navigating Systemic Change"
• July 20: Jerilea Zempel - "Public Art, History & Context"
• July 27: Mike Bishop - "Allyship and Solidarity"
• August 3: Kathy Bonavist, Yunga Webb
• August 10: Ellen Bettmann, Dr. J.W. Wiley
• August 17: Russ DeFonce
• August 24: Melissa Lambert, M Ed
• August 31: Jen Kretser, Dr. Martin Tyler

More details on individual conversations are available in the attached PDFs.