This year's Next Communities project is in full swing. After last year's examination of gentrification, development and affordability, we decided to get into even stickier territory this year, bringing folks together to discuss diversity, race, and class issues in our community.

Why this topic, you might ask? Well, I spent the fall speaking with community leaders about what issues they felt were most worth examining, and this is what I heard. We also held an open community meeting at the Evanston Public Library in October, and these were the issues that seemed to rise up from the group that assembled. Also, I must admit, I was really interested in having this conversation, because of my own experiences over the last year or so.

So, I set out to put together an ensemble of community members that could represent our ethnic, cultural, socio-economic and political diversity. I was also looking for a group of individuals who really wanted to have an honest conversation about these issues, and who were willing to sit in a room and truly listen to others who disagreed. It was an interesting process, in part because there is a good amount of profiling and pigeonholing that goes into putting together a small, intentionally diverse ensemble. And guess what? Not everyone wants to spend their Saturday mornings talking about race and prejudice. Go figure. Lots of Rogers Park and Evanston progressive types such as myself were interested in participating, but that obviously doesn't make for a very diverse group. I also came right up against some of my first lessons -- one of which was that my well-intentioned, liberal, Caucasian female agenda that assumed everyone would see the value in a discussion such as this one, was a bit presumptuous. Eventually, though, a brave and hardy group of 16 assembled on a snowy Saturday morning -- a group that included representation from different cultures, ethnicities, classes, and even the Evanston Republican Organization.

Our first workshop began as they all do, with some improvisation exercises to get us playing and relating to each other in unconventional ways. We then talked about why it is so difficult to talk honestly about race, diversity and our prejudices -- that we are all nervous about saying the wrong thing, or the right thing in the wrong way, or revealing something ugly about ourselves. And we agreed that we would be a circle in which those things could happen, be dealt with honestly, and worked through.

And so we jumped in. We've discussed the appropriateness of a diversity project being run by a couple of white women, institutional racism, where stereotypes might come from and in what ways we might be responsible for them. We've looked at social and cultural privilege, being the "only," balancing assimilation with retaining one's culture, housing and gentrification (again!) and tried to examine our assumptions as honestly as possible. In progressive, basically liberal American communities in the 21st century, our prejudices make themselves known not through racist remarks or actions -- we are past that, in a way -- but through the way we see things. Naomi Wolf refers to this as our "veil of assumptions." We tried to lift that veil, or at least become aware of it when we could. It was hard. We weren't always brave, didn't always get to the deep stuff. But we certainly made some headway.

Margaret Lewis, an accomplished and acclaimed Evanston playwright, is currently writing a play based on our discussion workshops. In a few weeks, the group will come together again to rehearse the piece, which we will then perform May 15th through 18th. Next Communities exists to create opportunities for dialogue in the community about difficult issues. We invite you to come join us and be part of the dynamic discussion.

Performances:

Thursday, May 15th, at 7:00 p.m. at the Fleetwood Jourdain Community Center,

1655 Foster Street, in Evanston

Saturday, May 17th, at 3:00 p.m., at Raven Theatre

6157 N. Clark Street in Rogers Park

Sunday, May 18th, at 3:00 p.m. at Next Theatre