In Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King describes the moment a parent must explain segregation to a child:

“When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park… and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky…”

This passage is not only a window into the pain of injustice. It is also an invitation into mindfulness as protest—the capacity to notice where stress sits in our bodies, how narratives of oppression shape our emotions, and how reclaiming our story becomes an act of agency.

The Open House draws directly from this lineage:

to feel, to name, to notice, and from that noticing, to choose a more intentional path forward.