Detroit, Michigan. A North American Youth Section conference on depolarization.
From October 12 to 14, 2025, a group of 30 convened at Bart Eddy’s Brightmoor Maker Space in Detroit, Michigan, to engage in the work of depolarization. Although small, the group included people from all over the U.S. and Canada, and individuals of all ages. This diversity made for a fertile working group on issues that permeate many aspects of contemporary social life. The gathering included individual presentations from Robert Karp, co-founder of the Anthroposophy and Social Justice project; Daniel Hindes, school director at Boulder Valley Waldorf School; Linda Williams, PhD, a member of the advisory board of AWSNA; and Francis Vig, former Waldorf teacher and council member of the Pedagogical Section. It also included a series of panel presentations, one of which focused on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in Waldorf education and the other on social justice in community life. One panel featured Abra Derbis, Executive Director of Sunfield Biodynamic Farm and Waldorf Schools, and Mark McGivern, a former Waldorf class teacher and co-founder of Ubuntu Learning. The other panel featured a coworker of the Kimberton Camphill community, a priest of the Christian Community, and a seminary student of the Christian Community.
Although the conference was inspired by work coming out of the Anthroposphy and Social Justice project, it was organized by Ezra Sullivan and Adeline Lyons, coworkers of the Youth Section of North America. Ezra facilitated the gathering, inviting everyone to create a social fabric together where we can look upon our experiences from our higher and more objective selves. In addition to creating a social fabric that can weave into the future, this event pioneered a new approach for the Youth Section to act in the world. Besides hosting youth conferences, it can also serve as a vessel through which other conversations can take place more freely. Difficult conversations were able to occur, which enabled a transformation of polarity, not to a middle ground but into an entirely new substance which the youth section work hopes to incorporate into the formation of future vessels.
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Photo Adeline Lyons
