Beloved Gathering 2026

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Beloved Gathering 2026

September 17–20, 2026 | Thursday to Sunday
Unity Village — Kansas City, Missouri

This DRUUMM’s national gathering is when our community pauses from the pace of daily organizing and ministry to reconnect with one another, deepen our spiritual grounding, and strengthen our collective vision

In September 2026, we will gather at Unity Village, just outside Kansas City, for 4 days of worship, conversation, learning, and celebration among Unitarian Universalists of color and our communities of care.

  • Renew relationships across generations within the DRUUMM community
  • Deepen spiritual grounding
  • Celebrate our cultures, music, and traditions
  • Share skills and wisdom across ministry, organizing and justice work, and community leadership
  • Build DRUUMM’s future together

This page will continue to grow with more details in the months ahead.

Register Now
What to Expect

The DRUUMM National Gathering will include:

• Worship & Spiritual Practice

Shared worship, ritual, and grounding led by DRUUMM ministers, chaplains, and community leaders.

• Workshops & Learning Spaces

Sessions on organizing, ministry, spiritual care, community leadership, and racial justice work within Unitarian Universalism.

• Community Conversations

Honest dialogue about the future of BIPOC leadership and community in our faith.

• Arts, Music, and Cultural Celebration

Music, storytelling, and creative spaces reflecting our cultural richness.

• Affinity Spaces

Time for caucuses and connection among specific cultural groups and identities.

Unity Village

Our gathering will take place at Unity Village, a historic retreat and conference center located just outside Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City International Airport is about 45 minutes away.

Unity Village provides:

  • A peaceful retreat environment surrounded by nature
  • Walking paths, gardens, and reflective spaces
  • Comfortable lodging and gathering facilities
  • Easy access from Kansas City International Airport

Kansas City also offers a rich cultural history, including vibrant music traditions, strong community organizing networks, and a growing UU presence.

Conference Details

The DRUUMM National Gathering is BIPOC-centered and brings together a wide range of participants from across the country, including:

  • DRUUMM members and friends
  • UU ministers, seminarians, and religious professionals of color
  • Lay leaders and organizers
  • Young adult leaders
  • Elders who have helped build DRUUMM across generations
  • BIPOC Friends and supporters committed to racial justice in Unitarian Universalism

For your reference, the closest airport to Unity Village is Kansas City International Airport (MCI). It is 40 miles away, and travel time is approximately 45 minutes. Conference registration includes ground transportation between MCI and our conference hotels; please make your request here by September 7.

We have arranged conference rates at two hotels. Estimated total for 3 nights, including occupancy and state taxes is $238 per person, double occupancy ($475, single occupancy). Let us know when you register if you’d like assistance matching with a roommate.

  • Unity Hotel at Unity Village – $144 per night ($72 per person, double occupancy) until August 17. Includes free breakfast and free parking. Book your room at Unity Hotel. Enter any special requests in the text box when reserving or contact the hotel directly at (816) 347-5537.

  • In the event Unity Hotel rooms are sold out, we have a limited number of rooms 2.2 miles away at Holiday Inn Express in Lee’s Summit – $139 per night ($69.50 per person, double occupancy) until August 6. Includes free breakfast and free parking. Book your room at Holiday Inn Express.

DRUUMM recognizes present-day travel can come with risk for marginalized people, including Black and Brown people, trans people, and immigrants with or without documents and will arrange for a conference welcome buddy to meet you at Kansas City International Airport (MCI) if you request one. Please request a buddy here by September 7.

Unity Village aims to accommodate all guests. Please contact Customer Care at 816-251-3561 or at unitycustomerservice@unityonline.org  to discuss your needs before your visit.

Service animals: Service animals, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq. (“ADA”), are permitted in all areas open to the public. For the comfort and safety of everyone, service animals must always remain under their handler’s control. Pets are not allowed in the courtyard, labyrinth, or buildings but are welcome in other areas on a leash. Please clean up after your pets. 

National gatherings are made possible by volunteers who create a welcoming, organized experience.

We need volunteers to support with:

  • Registration support
  • Hospitality and welcoming
  • Workshop hosting
  • Worship and music support
  • Accessibility coordination
  • Logistics and setup

If you would like to volunteer, please contact noemi@druumm.org or click the button below to complete a Volunteer Interest Form

Volunteer Interest Form

For everyone’s health and safety, we request that you please follow the COVID protocols below for our in-person time together. Masks will be available.

  • all vaccinated
  • minor symptoms and negative test = masking
  • any positive test within 5 days or major symptoms = isolate and cancel flight if not already at conference (limited livestreaming will be offered)
  • Co-Chairs: Cat Nguyen, Erol Delos Santos

  • Team members (current and past): Daisy Quan, Esperanza Flores Garza, Jon Ramirez, Michelle Venegas-Matula, Shannon Harper, Sophia Uehara, Tomi Fatunde

  • DRUUMM staff: Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, Noemi de Guzman
  • Conference consultant: Majiq Vu Mai

To stay informed:

Become a Member

Programs and Facilitators

Current programs from our community, for our community.

Restorative Practices: Centering Community Safety & Healing

This workshop introduces the basics of the restorative practices framework as a tool to reduce & repair community harm. Participants will engage in small group discussion, as well as, work together to workshop harm repair scenarios using restorative practices.

Facilitator
Phyl Flanagan

Their academic and professional background includes health & wellness, design (The Ohio State University), embodied activism (The Embody Lab), restorative practices (IIRP) and macro social work (Boston University). Phyl has served as a lay leader of St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church (Cincinnati, OH) for 8 years where they delivered sermons and co-drafted a racial justice resolution. Phyl founded The Reconnection Circle LLC consulting firm in 2023, is a lead designer at the Women of Color Equity Design Institute, is a 2025 Vanguard Urban Leadership Fellow, and currently serves as a Justice, Equity & Belonging Program Manager at YWCA Columbus (OH)

Past, Present, Future: the Self in Relation

Create an interconnected visual multimedia work in a 1.5 hour workshop with Wilbliss of They Birth They Art. Start with a guided movement meditation, then visually represent the past, present, and future on 2 surfaces with yourself in relation. Look at the adversity you have overcome to be who you are. Recommit to intentions, purpose, and goals for yourself, your loved ones, your business, and the world. It will be playful, it will be moving.  Art is for everyone! Includes 2 blank surfaces, a miniature rope ladder, a miniature figure representing yourself, collage, markers, small found objects to attach with glue

Facilitator
Wilbliss

My name is Wilbliss. I use they/them pronouns. I use art as a healing medium to show people their own power and resilience thru adversity. I am a disabled Korean immigrant via the adoption trade, a queer trans single parent of teens, have lived experience of abortion, miscarriage, parent and sibling loss, and am a survivor of abuse. I am also a former survival sexworker, recovering addict, and now a part-time Faith Formation Director for a UU congregation.

Sound Meditation I: Grounded & Centered

Beloved, take a deep breath. Let your shoulders drop. You are safe here.

 
In a world that often pulls us in every direction, this session of sound meditation is a sacred invitation to come home to yourself. This sound bath is designed to anchor your spirit and settle your nervous system.
 
We will immerse ourselves in the deep, resonant frequencies of low-toned singing bowls and grounding drones. These rich, oceanic vibrations work directly with your lower chakras and physical body, helping you clear away external noise, release accumulated stress, and find your center. Combined with a guided mindfulness practice, this space is a sanctuary to simply be—unburdened, rooted, and held by the collective.
 
Come lay your burdens down, feel the steady support of the earth beneath you, and remember your unshakable foundation.

Facilitator
Natasha Walker

Natasha Walker she is a strategic leader, operations expert, and spiritual companion dedicated to building resilient communities and fostering collective healing. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI), where she leads efforts to mobilize communities, deepen regional collaboration, and advance legislative justice.
 
Natasha brings over twenty years of professional experience in corporate strategy and operations at global organizations, including Google and the Walt Disney Company. She is a Spiritual Director, a Sound Healer, a Tea Sommelier, and a single mom to three neurodiverse children.
 
Raised on the Navajo Reservation and rooted deeply in UU values, Natasha is passionate about creating spaces where people can embody their authentic selves and examine the intersections of personal values, identity, and community transformation. She is a firm believer in the power of deep rest, creative expression, and radical candor as paths to invite the Beloved Community to sustain us in the work of liberating love.

Sound Meditation II: Sacred and Connected

Beloved, you are a reflection of the infinite. Your spirit is welcome here.

This session of The Beloved Gathering is an elevated space designed to transcend the daily grind and touch the sacred. Together, we will open the doors to higher consciousness, collective healing, and personal transformation.
 
Through a tapestry of high-frequency crystal tones, ethereal chimes, and soaring melodic layers, we will lift our collective energy and open our hearts to the Divine. These luminous, expansive sounds are curated to activate your upper energy centers, quiet the analytical mind, and invite a profound sense of cosmic belonging. Through guided visualization and pure vibrational immersion, you will be invited to merge with the source of ultimate love, honoring the sacred spark that lives within you and connects us all.
 
Come expand your vision, elevate your spirit, and remember the divine rhythm that flows through your lineage.

Facilitator
Natasha Walker

Natasha Walker she is a strategic leader, operations expert, and spiritual companion dedicated to building resilient communities and fostering collective healing. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois (UUANI), where she leads efforts to mobilize communities, deepen regional collaboration, and advance legislative justice.
 
Natasha brings over twenty years of professional experience in corporate strategy and operations at global organizations, including Google and the Walt Disney Company. She is a Spiritual Director, a Sound Healer, a Tea Sommelier, and a single mom to three neurodiverse children.
 
Raised on the Navajo Reservation and rooted deeply in UU values, Natasha is passionate about creating spaces where people can embody their authentic selves and examine the intersections of personal values, identity, and community transformation. She is a firm believer in the power of deep rest, creative expression, and radical candor as paths to invite the Beloved Community to sustain us in the work of liberating love.

Growing Up Together: Parenting, Presence, and Partnership

In a rapidly changing world shaped by technology, uncertainty, and disconnection, many parents and caregivers are trying to guide children while also unlearning the patterns they inherited. This interactive workshop invites participants to explore parenting as a shared journey of growth, healing, and relationship – especially for those navigating family, culture, and survival legacies shaped by racism, migration, faith, or silence around emotion.
 
Grounded in personal storytelling, psychological insight, and spiritual reflection, Chloe Repole offers a reframe from control to connection and from authority to partnership. Through reflection, dialogue, and practical tools, participants will explore how to break inherited cycles, deepen connection, navigate conflict with more intention, and approach children’s exposure to social media and AI with curiosity rather than fear.

 

Facilitator
Chloe Anika Repole

Chloe Repole is a writer, strategist, and storyteller whose work explores identity, belonging, and the sacred complexity of becoming. Rooted in a queer Afro-Caribbean perspective and a reverence for ancestry, transformation, and orí (inner knowing and alignment), she creates space for conversations that honor unlearning, relational truth, and collective healing.
 
Her work lives at the intersection of culture, spirituality, and care, where story becomes a bridge between what we inherit, what we outgrow, and what we choose to build in its place—guided by aṣẹ (creative life force, embodied power, and the ability to bring intention into form)

The Power of Poetics and Somatics in Leadership

A practice liberatory poetics and Somatics (body based practices) with Atena and Nat, Justice Movement facilitators. Our bodies and minds respond to, and retain, deep learning, connection, and positive memories better when our creativity is activated and our nervous systems are cared for. Integrating some simple techniques and prompts can level up meetings and support your physical, mental and spiritual health. This is an experiential session open to all bodies and abilities, but come prepared to gently move, breath, write and dream.

 

Facilitator
Natalie Brewster Nguyen

 

Facilitator
Atena Danner

Natalie Brewster Nguyen (they/them/any) is a Queer BIPOC multi-disciplinary performance and installation artist, writer, actor, parent, entrepreneur and movement artist. Nat is a founder and facilitator with Justicer Movement, and the Executive Director of Splinter Collective,  an historic warehouse, event space and 501c3 non-profit focused on art, social justice, and amplifying marginalized artists.
 
Atena Danner (she/her) is an educator, a writer, and a critical thinker who uses creativity to facilitate connection, curiosity and discovery in joyful learning environments.  Atena joined Justice Movement in 2024. With her decades of experience, knowledge, passion and empathy as a facilitator and content creator Atena designs engaging experiences for learners who want more for themselves, their networks, and their communities.

Altars for Liberation–Soujourning with Our Ancestors

Facilitator, Rev. Crystal, will present a theological grounding for altars that highlight BIPOC traditions and rituals, including veneration, offering, memorial, and beyond. The first part of our time together will be presentation-based, but socratic, leaning on the wisdom of the beloveds gathered. We will end with contemplative space both inside and outside at the labyrinth to build altars

Facilitator
Rev. Crystal Saiyge

Rev. Crystal Saiyge, she/hers is a queer Black woman, sex-positive interfaith minister, wife, and mom of four. She is Executive Director of Sister Souurce, Inc, the first and only organization dedicated to Black UU women, girls, and femmes. She also has a virtual chapel, #Churchofthebando, which is a liberated space for global spirituality, thoughtful inspiration, grief counseling, sex-positive education and trap karaoke.

Mess Around and Find Out

A joy-centered art workshop that invites attendees into a shared creative experience rooted in play, creativity and belonging. It is inspired by the structure of musical chairs, but instead of competition, it centers collaboration, art making, and snacks.

Facilitator
Jessica Dickens

 

Facilitator
Kamilah Brown

Jessica Dickens (She/her) is mixed media artist and jewelry designer with over 20 years of experience. She considers herself a creative hummingbird and enjoys sharing art with others. To view her work visit: www.jessicadickens.com

Kamilah Brown (She/her) is an elementary school educator. For 30 years, she has brought joy to all her students. She views the world as a glass half full and encourages others to do the same.

 

The vision of DRUUMM CALIFORNIA is to uplift, amplify and center BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Unitarian Universalists, through cultivating a network of regional retreats within the three main regions of the state: the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California. We dismantle white supremacy culture by centering the stories, lived experiences, and spiritual traditions of BIPOC UUS.

Offer a Program

If you have questions about the gathering, collaboration ideas, or ways to support the event, please reach out.

We are inviting community members to offer workshops, conversations, and creative sessions.

Possible offerings include:

Spiritual practices and rituals
Healing and restorative practices
Storytelling and community history
Arts, music, and cultural expression
Faith and justice conversations
Movement organizing and leadership development

If you have an idea for a program offering, we would love to hear from you – contact info@druumm.org. If you would like to offer a program, please click the button below to fill out our Beloved Gathering Interest Form.

We thank all who submitted! Proposals were reviewed in May and June.

Submit a Program Proposal

Interest Form

If you are interested in attending, volunteering, or offering a program, please fill out our Beloved Gathering Interest Form.

The form helps us:

  • Estimate attendance
  • Identify workshop leaders
  • Organize volunteers
  • Share updates with participants

What’s Coming Next

Over the coming months we will add:

  • Volunteer orientation information
  • Program leader orientation sessions

This will remain a living page as the gathering grows.

Questions?

If you have questions about the gathering, collaboration ideas, or ways to support the event, please reach out.

noemi@druumm.org

We look forward to gathering in community and continuing to build the future of DRUUMM together.

The vision of DRUUMM CALIFORNIA is to uplift, amplify and center BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Unitarian Universalists, through cultivating a network of regional retreats within the three main regions of the state: the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California. We dismantle white supremacy culture by centering the stories, lived experiences, and spiritual traditions of BIPOC UUS.

The vision of DRUUMM CALIFORNIA is to uplift, amplify and center BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Unitarian Universalists, through cultivating a network of regional retreats within the three main regions of the state: the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California. We dismantle white supremacy culture by centering the stories, lived experiences, and spiritual traditions of BIPOC UUS.