The Great Michigan Gathering Kicks Off
By Samantha Jamgochian
On Oct. 8, Michigan Humanities celebrated their kick off event of the Great Michigan Gathering in The Henry Ford Museum’s Anderson Theater.
Michigan Humanities is a nonprofit organization committed to gathering with intention, connecting communities and building relationships. Jennifer Rupp, president and CEO of Michigan Humanities, said the goal of the Great Michigan Gathering is “to create a movement across the state of organizations and communities that are connected through public humanities programs.”
“We are creating opportunities to engage, talk, learn, and connect through traveling exhibits, book discussions and virtual programming,” Rupp said.
The event was not only celebrated by those in the building, but from more than 50 communities all across Michigan participating through watch parties.
In-person attendees took home their own free copy of “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters” by Priya Parker, the night's guest speaker.
Katie Wittenauer, director of programs for Michigan Humanities, opened the event. She said she hoped the Great Michigan Gathering would help create a “connected, thoughtful, engaged and informed Michigan.”
For Camron Amin, a Michigan Humanities board member and professor of Middle East and Iranian diaspora studies at UM-Dearborn, that goal starts with trust.
“If people can gather together, they can also build trust, a sense of community. And that means they can share reactions to a book, or a poem or an exhibit in a setting that feels safe and fun…Building trust with everyone in Michigan around the mission of Michigan Humanities is important.”
Amin said he sees the Great Michigan Gathering as an effort to “find a way to engage as many people as possible ‘where they are.’”
“The goal is to make the act of coming together the ‘event,’ then use that practice to share more humanities-based programming…The emphasis was previously on the content itself…Now the emphasis is on the practice of engaging with that content.”
Before she left the stage, Wittenauer announced Parker as the guest speaker and Jennifer Rupp as the moderator for the evening.
Rupp explained why Parker was the right person to speak at this event, describing her “timeless” approach to gathering and her expertise in conflict-resolution and facilitation. She credited Parker’s first book as the beginning of the conversation about the importance of gathering.
After a near hour of in depth discussion, Rupp shifted to a Q & A session with audience questions submitted and selected in advance. The night ended with announcements of upcoming events and a Priya Parker book signing.
Though the event itself had ended, attendees were left with plenty to ponder about the importance of gathering.
“By taking the gathering away, we began to notice it.” Parker said, referring to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Gathering is how we experience.”
As she highlighted the significance of getting people together, Parker referenced a report from the Atlantic saying “Americans don’t party anymore.” She pointed to studies that showed a lot of this is attributed to the rise of intensive parenting, work intensifying and people becoming more comfortable with being “homebodies.”
So how can we gather better? Parker had some tips: “You host.”
Rather than waiting for an invitation, Parker encouraged people to take the initiative. But hosting is about more than simply inviting people into a room with a few balloons. She said the idea is to “invite them into a world they can say yes or no to,” allowing people to set their boundaries and experience events in a way that best suits them.
Parker describes gatherings as “the creation of a temporary alternate world,” allowing people to possibly step outside their comfort and experience things in a way they never had before. And that experience doesn't necessarily have to be an elaborate plan. “The best gatherings start as jokes,” she said. Even a simple idea can become an opportunity to bring people together, as long as someone takes the initiative to bring it to fruition.
Jodi, an attendee whose wife was volunteering at the event, told me the main thing she would be taking away from this event was the “red beans and corn bread.” Those in attendance know that this is Parker’s favorite metaphor, meaning that a memorable gathering can start with something as simple as a home cooked meal.
Amin shared a similar view on how easy it can be to bring people together and shared his hopes for what people were able to take away from the event saying “I hope people came away with a sense of how feasible it is — how possible it is — to come together in a regular way to share cultural experiences.” He continued on by sharing “I know that sounds kind of basic, but really it’s foundational. It's important for cultural life and civic life.”
As for Rupp, the Great Michigan Gathering represents something larger than an initiative. “The Great Michigan Gathering is, at its heart, an investment in Michigan,” she explained, adding that “this program will create hundreds of moments of genuine connection across this state.”
Rupp notes that, for more than fifty years, Michigan Humanities has been connecting people through the humanities. The Great Michigan Gathering, she explained, is how the organization hopes to continue carrying that work forward “with the intention, the partnerships, and the framework to make it last.”
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