Frank Caracciolo: As we move forward, this is really important work that you’re doing and I got to sit in on. The workshop that you held at the conference and it was really different from what we had done in the past. And so can you just tell us a little bit about EDDI 1st and then a little bit about what your intent was at the conference?

Patricia Blackett: So we decided to submit a proposal to present at the at the conference, mainly because the theme this year was belonging and working in EDDI and anti racist pedagogy. Patricia Blackett
It’s so important that I guess the starting point be that all our students feel like they belong and to feel like you belong. You have to be known. You have to be seen. And if we are hesitant or shy about speaking about race, well then that can be a bit of a hindrance in terms of really getting to know each other, so that was I guess the main reason why we decided to submit a proposal and end up presenting.

Frank Caracciolo:
Well, it was very well attended as I was one of the participants, but I saw a lot of people. Our director general was in it with us. So it was really wonderful to see her join in the workshop. And we were sitting also. I have to mention of course Natya Messina was with us, our assistant director over at ESD. Have to mention that.
We don’t get in trouble, but it it’s it’s fun and it was. It’s really. Caracciolo
It was different for me as well participating, you know, listening in and and how you went about it. And I know we spoke prior to it starting, you know as we were just hanging out and then and then it began and it got very serious and I was really interested in how you felt giving that kind of information out to the people in the workshop.

Patricia Blackett
So it was quite exciting and exhilarating. It was nerve wracking, of course, a little bit, but it was really good to be able to, you know, talk frankly about race and to try to encourage others to feel like this, is something that that can be done and and there’s there’s importance but the fear behind it doesn’t have to dictate not doing it that it that there is an urgency, there’s an importance to centering race.

Angela Leonetti
And although there was a serious tone, as he mentioned Frank, it was also quite obvious that as we continued Speaking about having conversations about race, you could see that the room became a little bit more comfortable, especially with some of the tools that we were introducing. And then you started seeing the joy, the smile, the laughter, the the conversations were a little bit more easy.

Frank Caracciolo
One of the things that I had a hard time with was Angela’s clock, right? So like you helping us, the timing and that really sends a message because we were… and and for people that don’t know right, you’re in the workshop and you’re given a prompt and as you’re working on the prompt, Angela will say, OK, that’s it, time and then we have to go back and what I what I found was is that the conversation got very deep and as it was getting deep, it’s so hard to pull away and then go back into, you know like the other part of the workshop there because you want to continue and you feel like you haven’t gotten enough out and you want to keep knowing and so I found out that was really fun. Like as we kept doing it, you kept saying OK time and you’re like, oh, come on, Angela, give us a little bit more…

Patricia Blackett
Really good about she took that very seriously.

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