YWCA Bethlehem hosted a virtual Martin Luther King Day event Jan. 18, the first event in the Community Voices Series, hosted by YWCA Bethlehem’s Empowerment & Justice Committee. YWCA Board President Staci Bell and YWCA Director of Administration Tiwanna Hatcher provided the opening comments.

The event featured a shared viewing experience of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” he delivered Aug. 28, 1963, during the March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C.

After the speech, attendees were placed in three breakout rooms for community conversations. Each had a YWCA staff member or volunteer to serve as a moderator. Breakout room conversations included reactions to King’s speech, people’s perspectives on racial justice issues today, and the need for more dialogue in this time of political polarization.

At the end of the session, Tiwanna Hatcher and Jen Wanisko read YWCA’s USA’s Stand Against Racism Pledge and many of the 50 plus attendees signed the pledge “virtually” using the Annotate feature of Zoom. More events are planned for the series.

A session on the documentary “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools” met event capacity Feb. 12. Upcoming events include “In Her Shoes,” an anti-trafficking workshop sponsored by ASPIRE to Autonomy on March 23, and in April, “Racism as a Public Health Crisis” as part of the YWCA USA’s annual Stand Against Racism.

The full language of the pledge is available at: https://www.ywcabethlehem.org/homepage/what-we-do/racialjustice/

More information on, and registration for upcoming events can be found at https://www.ywcabethlehem.org, click on What We Do, then on Racial Justice.