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Conversations on Race Aim to Open Hearts and Minds

freeimages.com/Jon Wisbey

How segregated is your life?

That's one of the questions that might come up in a series of conversations on race taking place at public libraries throughout Monroe County in the coming weeks.  The program is presented by the Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library and it aims to get people talking about race in a way that they might not in their day-to-day lives.

"Some people are much more aware and conscious of it than others, so we ask them pretty poignant questions, such as 'On a daily basis, how are you affected by it?' so people are beginning to reflect more and more on it as a part of what they do every day," said Sherry Walker-Cowart, president of the Center for Dispute Settlement and facilitator of the conversations on race.

Steve Jarose of the National Coalition Building Institute is a co-facilitator. Among the people he'd like to see come to these discussions are those who believe race has no influence on their lives.

“We encourage people to look at their workplaces, to look within their family, their neighborhoods and their faith communities and to get people to think about this notion of race and how our ability to communicate with each other is actually impacted by our ability to have relationships with one another," he said.

The First Conversations on Race event is scheduled for Tuesday, September 13, at the Charlotte Branch Library on Lake Avenue. 

A complete schedule can be found at http://www3.libraryweb.org/FFRPL/programs.aspx?id=500128

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.