Creating Change 2014-Day 1 Recap

January 29, 2014 was the day we'd been planning as a Host Committee almost a year to have seamlessly happen, and it dawned clear and cold.

It was Day One of Creating Change Houston style, and on tap for it was The Racial Justice Institute. I didn't actually have to be up at the Hilton Americas until 5 PM for a meeting concerning the suites, but I'd sat at home and gotten my beauty sleep long enough   It was time for Moni to make an appearance at the Hilton Americas Hotel for CC14 and see my LGBT peeps .

I bounced out of the house at 7 in order to get a feel for the layout of the space and where our suites were located.   I discovered they are all on the west side of the hotel starting on the sixth floor and going all the way up to the 21st floor.  I returned to the lower levels after locating the 11th floor location of the Racial Diversity Suite , chatted with some of the peps at the registration desk before heading to the Lanier Ballroom where the initial session of the RJI was occurring.and being facilitated by The Washington Consulting Group, of whose members I met and chatted with before it started. 

It also didn't take me long to start seeing people as the cavernous room began to fill up with people attending the RJI..  I finally met the lovely Angelica Ross, who I have known online and chatted with on the phone from time to time for several years.   That triggered the floodgate of people rushing up to want to talk to me once they realized the TransGriot was in the CC14 house. 

And yes, I enjoy those conversations as much as the people who are approaching me do.  

The RJI started at 9 AM and was scheduled to run until our 12:30 PM lunch break, and we spent that time working toward the goal of having deeper and meaningful conversations across race and sexuality.  


As that lunch break happened and I pondered what I was going to do, I ran into Stacey Langley and we decided to walk over to a nearby food court in the mall near the Four Seasons Hotel.   

I ran into in rapid succession on that walk Holiday Simmons from Lambda Legal, Jen Richards of Trans 100 fame and my Arizona homegirl and newlywed Toni D'orsay.

After lunch Stacey and I returned to hit different breakout session .   She hit the Engaging Race As A Multiracial Person in the LGBT Community one while I decided to head to the Engaging Race Gender Identity And Sexual Orientation Across People of Color Communities.

Shiva Subbaraman and Vernon Wall facilitated an interesting conversation over the next hour and 15 minutes that touched on a wide range of topics including the internalized issues inside our various POC communities.

I got to see Imam Daayiee Abdullah during this session and looking forward to checking out the Muslim service he's leading on Friday.   Didn't get to finish the RJI because of that 5 PM meeting to pick up the key for the suite that opens tomorrow at 8 AM and help set it up with Melissa Meadows.

On that note, I didn't get back home until almost 9:30 PM.   I did have a nice package waiting for me when I arrived, and it was my autographed copy of Janet's book Redefining Realness that's going to be released February 4.

As busy as I'm going to be for the next two days, quiet time to read it is going to be at a premium.    And yep, need to get my behind in bed to get up at 5 AM so I can be there to open the suite and do the NBJC sponsored institute I'm a part of  in a few hours.

And nope, for those of you #CC14 attendees who are fans of TransGriot and have asked me, haven't decided who gets this week's Shut Up Fool Award yet.  I am taking suggestions though.