Open Engagement is an annual conference, running since 2007, that takes place in Oakland this weekend. I will be following along online and wish I could be there! Two powerhouse speakers will be setting the tone, and I expect asking some tough questions. Power is the theme of the conference. What is it? How do we get it? How do we share it? And how are we teaching it to our children?

Open Engagement is one of the few conferences I want to go to that has a whole paragraph inviting families and reminding us that children will be part of this conversation. I love that they recognize that part of working in the arts, creating social change, and talking about power includes people who take care of children. They write out their welcome like this:

“Open Engagement and its partners are committed to intergenerational spaces and will support children, parents, and caregivers to the best of our ability. We ask all conference participants to be supportive of kids, parents, and caregivers wherever they are, as we do not discourage them from attending any part of the conference, including workshops. As prison abolitionist Jason Lydon of the Community Church of Boston said, “kid noises are the sign of a growing movement,” so please join us in the community responsibility needed for a supportive and truly intergenerational environment. —Language adapted from the NYC Anarchist Book Fair Collective’s statement on childcare.”

You can follow this dialogue with “activists, writers, thinkers, artists, teachers, community leaders, cultural workers, and others” through their blog posts on Power. I’m sure you will find something to disagree with, something to be changed by, and something to ask your children about. Art always reminds me to center my parenting on the important parts of life, but it doesn’t make it any easier to do.