We are very excited to see you next July for the 2022 Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) and happy that we get to lead the brand new MYLE team called Cultural Awareness. Shai Seifert is currently serving as president of the European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice and Felecia Boone is currently serving as vice-president of the Minneapolis Area Synod. We both live in Minneapolis and are members at Calvary Lutheran Church. (Basically, we are both church nerds and do a lot of work on racial justice in the ELCA.)
Calvary is located one block from where George Floyd lost his life. It’s also the epicenter of a commitment to racial justice and community. Like much of the world, the community at Calvary has been deeply affected by the death of George Floyd and the world-wide calls for racial justice. At the one-year commemoration of George Floyd’s death we were honored to host members of George Floyd’s family and the artist Common by providing practice and hang out space before the big concert. Having these experiences made our commitment to racial justice even stronger.
We have heard stories about microaggressions and other harms that have happened at past MYLEs. We have also heard that it appears some adults have not known what to do to help in these situations or haven’t understood what is going on. These stories break our hearts, and we are working hard to help people do better and for everyone to have a better experience at MYLE, in their faith communities and in the world.
Our job is to help equip the youth leaders better recognize the harm that sometimes happens, to work to prevent harm, to deal with problems that arise and to support all their young people.
We can’t wait to see you and we want you to bring your whole amazing, unapologetic selves. See you at the University of St. Thomas next summer!
Shari Seifert and Felecia Boones are the leaders of MYLE Cultural Awareness team. They are both lay leaders and members of Calvary Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
