Relational Integrity in Cross-Cultural Spaces
Date: June 30, 2026 7:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Much of our language around connection is built on the idea that we are “more alike than different.” While comforting, that assumption can limit our capacity for honest relationship. In this webinar, Deidra Riggs offers a different starting point: what if we are, in fact, more different than we are alike?
This session explores what it means to engage across real differences—cultural, experiential, theological, and personal—without losing ourselves or attempting to control one another. Rather than focusing on rules for interaction, participants will be invited to consider how they show up in the presence of difference: what they assume, what they protect, and what happens when tension arises.
At the center of this work is relational integrity—the ability to remain grounded, honest, and present without collapsing, correcting, or becoming defensive.
Together, we will explore:
- Why overemphasizing sameness can undermine trust
- How difference naturally creates tension—and why that tension matters
- The common reflexes that show up in difference: defensiveness, correction, and collapse
- What it means to stay present without hardening or disappearing
- Practical ways to engage others with clarity, honesty, and respect—without requiring agreement
Participants will leave with a grounded, usable framework for engaging across difference—one that allows them to remain fully themselves while making space for others to do the same.
Deidra Riggs is a writer, creative strategist, and longtime guide for people doing meaningful work in the world. With a background in publishing and years of experience shaping book ideas,
she is known for helping authors, leaders, and thinkers find the true center of what they’re trying to say—and say it with clarity, beauty, and integrity. Her work lives at the intersection of storytelling, belonging, and lived experience. She brings a thoughtful, practiced lens to questions of cultural competency, helping individuals and communities engage difference with honesty, humility, and care. She is especially drawn to conversations that don’t have easy answers; where identity, faith, and connection require both courage and imagination. Whether she’s working one-on-one with a writer or gathering people around a table, Deidra creates spaces where people feel seen, challenged, and invited into deeper reflection. She is the author of several books and essays, including contributions to We Deserve to Heal: Black Women on the Perils and Promises of Friendship With White Women, and is currently exploring new ways of bringing people together through teaching, writing, and curated experiences. Based in Connecticut, Deidra is in a season of shaping her “third act”—one that centers
presence, curiosity, and the quiet courage to do what feels most true.
