Insights from Forum Leaders
“We are committed to unlocking the possibilities that exist beyond the story that difficult conversations of conflict, difference, or injustice must be avoided out of fear, won out of righteousness, or bulldozed with aggression. We want to co-create a countercultural movement of people relating to difference, reframing conflict, and practicing bridging and belonging in ways that both ground in and build toward our vision of justice and liberation.”
“Words can lure groups and communities into dangerous and destructive ideologies, turning them into ardent supporters of disastrous deeds and policies. However, language can also serve as a bridge that unites people and fosters healing on a collective level.”
“‘I’ wrote this essay with an eye of Black geographies, haunted outdoors, the hidden public that subsidizes the obvious. From within that space, there is - in my opinion - a groundswell of impulses and movements gesturing towards the more-than-just. Gesturing towards 'breaks' of some kind. This essay is an attempt to trace those wandering yearnings for another sun.”
“While facilitated direct in-person experiences are best, intergroup contact can be achieved indirectly through storytelling & education. That’s where Gorm Media comes in. We are a platform on a mission of unity across lines of difference and we share stories, educate and create engaging content of people from diverse communities and conversations of people bridging on social issues.”
“Nonviolence is usually studied as a philosophy or moral code, rather than as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. I realized how important it was to correct this gap. Drawing from discussions with activists working to defend human rights, challenging corporate corruption, or combating authoritarianism, it was evident that people with few resources and little influence in conventional politics can nevertheless engineer momentous upheavals.”
“Hope is not always a choice we can make. Sometimes things get so crippling that we find a strange glimmer of emancipation in the darkness of the moment. I suppose that little glimmer, that crack, is the trickster reminding us that not even loss can be fully itself. Nothing can be fully itself, nothing can belong, without the strange other hiding among the ranks, squeezing itself between the lines, the devil in the details. Not a slave ship bound for the Americas. Not a pandemic threatening destruction. Not a climate crisis with no end in sight. Not death. Something always steals in. Maybe there is a powerful political move there. Maybe there is a way of sitting with the trouble and inadequacy of hope. Maybe there is hope in the hopeless. “
“Another participant talked about their mother’s living room as an example of a sanctuary space built on fostering connection. It was there they were able to observe their mother and her friends show their true selves, which is often extremely different from who they had to be while out in public, especially as an elderly Muslim wearing a Hijab. In those living rooms, when the mothers come together with one another, they would go wild in a way that no one would believe. The shisha comes out. The music comes on. It’s beautiful to see.”
“For more than 50 years, Muslims and Jews have been portrayed as natural enemies. I always struggled with this naturalization, which is nothing natural, but constructed through history. The discourse has always been polarizing. Divisions between these two main ethnoreligious groups in France or Germany, countries I know best, are also instrumentalized by different political parties for their own gain. Interfaith bridging can bring a new process of identification of Arab-Jews and an acknowledgment of Jewish history and life within Arab-French-Muslim people. It is a way of deconstructing essentialist identities.“
“But we need for soon-to-be-powerful young people to recognize that other 13-year olds who might live on social housing estates or might be the children of drug dealers are also valid and they need to be heard. And sometimes it's time for rich students to close their mouths, demonstrate humility and just listen. Roots has been about challenging all young people to use their voice, and making sure they've got equal space in that room to challenge each other, to listen to each other, to be intrigued about each other, especially for the young people who aren't often in those rarefied spaces to ask the questions they need.”
“‘Othering’ and ‘belonging’ seem like pretty malleable concepts to me, but in the context of borders they are instructive. We are great at creating tribes. They have been to our evolutionary advantage in the past, and they are a fundamental aspect of our nature…I think ideas of othering and belonging color that tribal mentality. To ‘belong’ in a place or society really implies that you don’t belong outside of that society. And that creates room for the notion that some people don’t belong in your society, and instead belong elsewhere. So I think even the desire to belong comes from the tribal instinct, which is necessarily ‘othering.’”
Our leading premise is that art is a powerful tool to translate complex issues in a language that provokes empathy and understanding. By opening these works to the world, and by allowing adaptation and implementation in local contexts, we multiply their impact exponentially. What is more, we promote and foster openness in the visual arts sector, where the practice of licensing works under Creative Commons is low.
“There is a lot of idealization of Europe when it comes to racism and social inequalities, and these are based on false assumptions. Europe is doing better in terms of some social policies and maternity leave, and the justice system is a little bit better, but it's not great either. So I think it can break the idea of a Europe that overcame racism after World War II.”
“Covid 19 is not necessarily a good opportunity for far right parties. When they govern, they face the same difficulties as other parties in office, because no one has the solution, no one knows the best way to tackle the pandemic efficiently without damaging the economy. When they are not in government, they loudly criticize the parties in office, but most of them do not appear as legitimate to take over—they lack credibility. “
“At nearly every level of society, Italians, when thinking about when meeting someone who's not white, automatically think they are a migrant, not an Italian. And this is the main change I think that our society is going through right now—to understand that you might be Italian but not white or not Christian.”
“When speaking of polarization, we often refer to a phenomenon known as conflict extension: when members of the group converge across a range of issues. This is not happening in the UK. In fact, there are issues such as climate and the protection of nature and the countryside where we see widespread agreement and a shared desire for change.”