Join us in person for an unforgettable day of connection, learning, and celebration at the Monona Terrace & Convention Center in Madison, WI. The Racial Justice Summit’s in-person experience features an energizing opening plenary, immersive institutes and breakout sessions, and a powerful intergenerational generative dialogue that brings together voices across age and experience.
Throughout the day, explore a vibrant pop-up space showcasing BIPOC creators and justice initiatives, engage with a thought-provoking art exhibition featuring our guest artist, and close the evening at our rooftop party overlooking the sun-kissed landscapes and glistening waters of Dejope, home of the Ho-Chunk people.
This day is more than a gathering! The in-person day is a space for deep learning, an act of resistance against systems that divide and silo us, and importantly, it is a celebration of our liberation ecosystem in the deliberate act of revolutionary love and joy.
Opening Plenary
The Opening Plenary is a shared moment for all Summit attendees to come together before the day unfolds. Through grounding practices, reflection, and collective intention-setting, we root ourselves in the values that guide our time together. This gathering offers space for connection, presence, and purpose—setting the tone for a day of learning, dialogue, and transformation.
Stay tuned for more updates on what to expect during this powerful opening moment with potential featured performances.
Institutes and Sessions
Announcements Coming in August
The Institutes and Sessions at the Racial Justice Summit are curated learning experiences designed to meet a wide range of needs, interests, and identities within our broader justice ecosystem.
Institutes offer extended opportunities for deep engagement, with 2.5-hour sessions focused on building skills, exploring frameworks, and creating space for reflection. Sessions, which range from 45 minutes to one hour, provide more focused experiences centered on specific topics or practices.
Topics reflect the interconnected nature of justice work, with offerings that explore Indigenous sovereignty, educational justice, environmental justice, disability justice, transnational solidarity, healing and body justice, multiracial movement building, and more.
Participants can expect a variety of engaging formats, including somatic practices, roundtable discussions, presentations, skill-building workshops, peer-to-peer support, art and writing-based practices, and even film screenings.
These spaces invite us to learn, unlearn, create, and imagine, both individually and in community.
We are currently reviewing proposals for Institutes and Sessions. Please stay tuned for announcements in late August.
Featured Pracitioner
Adaku Utah
We are honored to welcome Adaku Utah as our Featured Practitioner at this year’s Racial Justice Summit. Adaku is a visionary healer, cultural strategist, and movement builder whose work bridges ancestral wisdom, somatic practices, and collective care. With deep roots in Black feminist traditions and healing justice, Adaku creates powerful spaces that invite grounding, restoration, and embodied liberation.
Adaku will be leading an Institute on multiracial solidarity building, supporting in reconnecting with ourselves, each other, and the movements we’re building.
Stay tuned for more details on how you can engage with Adaku’s offerings during the Summit.
Closing Generative Dialogue
Coming Soon!
The Closing Intergenerational Generative Dialogue brings our in-person day to a meaningful close with a powerful, intergenerational conversation grounded in racial justice work across Madison and the surrounding area. Contributors are deeply connected to local movements and will share visions, lived experiences, and calls to action that are pertinent to what is happening in our local community.
This space invites us to listen deeply, reflect collectively, and consider the commitments we’re ready to carry forward beyond the Summit and into our communities. It is both a closing and a beginning, held in the spirit of connection, reimagination, and shared responsibility for our emergent liberation ecosystem.
BIPOC Creatives and Justice Initiatives Pop-Up
Open to all ticket holders, come and support the BIPOC Creatives and Justice Initiatives Pop Up. This is a beautiful space that will be located in Promenade Hall, celebrating the creativity and vision of BIPOC artists, makers, organizers, and community leaders. This space invites attendees to explore, connect, and support those building liberatory futures right here in our communities.
Featured Artist
Art Exhibition
Coming Soon!
Open to all ticket holders, the Featured Artist Art Exhibition is a powerful visual experience that highlights the work of a commissioned artist whose piece is created in response to the Summit’s theme and pillars of practice.
Each year, this specially commissioned artwork invites attendees to connect with the Summit’s vision through creative expression, reflection, and storytelling. The exhibition offers an opportunity to engage deeply with the featured piece, meet the artist, and support their work.
Stay tuned to learn who our 2025 Featured Artist will be!
Rooftop Party
Get ready to dance the night away under the stars at our unforgettable Rooftop Party overlooking Lake Monona on one end and the stunning Capitol building on the other! Open to all ticket holders, this high-energy, love-filled celebration features a live DJ, talented performers, delicious appetizers, and plenty of room to move, vibe, and connect.
Whether you're showing off your best dance moves, cheering on performers, or just soaking in the views with good people and good food, this is the space to celebrate, unwind, and revel in joy after a powerful day of learning and connection.
Bring your energy, bring your friends—let’s party and live into the life-giving joy that heals and sustains us.