NMEntiende’s Crafty Convos: Our way of making space for difficult but healing conversations.

Since last year, the NMEntiende cohort has been looking for and developing ways to proactively serve communities and build relationships with individuals across New Mexico. The first steps for coming up with effective community-centered ideas is reaching out to folks and creating a space for meaningful discussions with those most impacted.  

Still in its pilot phase, we have been hosting “Crafty Convos” within our own community groups. These convos are a few hours of snacks, crafts, and the two things you should never bring up at the dinner table: religion and politics. We understand how daunting it can be to speak about either topic because we all have different experiences, understandings, and have been impacted by the world in radically different ways. 

No matter what we believe in or what practice we belong to, every single one of us are in the Land of Enchantment, trying to thrive, and oftentimes facing the same struggles. With these commonalities it’s important to learn how to talk with one another with dignity, respect, and grace. To alleviate some of the anxieties these topics bring we’ve chosen a variety of crafts to participate in while sharing a meal and sharing experiences.  Some crafts include making meditation beads, your own tarot card, or painting your own retablo, along with a few others. 

We encourage people from the spectrum of beliefs and lived experiences to share while also enjoying a bit of crafty fun. Through these “Crafty Convos” we hope to assist in making a space to have what sometimes can be uncomfortable conversations and cultivate a deeper understanding of our own beliefs like we did with our Heart of New Mexico podcast.

We live in a beautifully diverse state where New Mexicans and their families should always be treated with dignity and respect. Please keep an eye out for any Crafty Convo sign-up opportunities, follow any of our four organizations' social media for updates, and listen to the Heart of New Mexico podcast on Spotify or Podbean.