On the Menu: Dinner and Dialogue

Oak Park is throwing a dinner party at a resident's home and you're invited. 

It's part of the village's new "Dinner & Dialogue" series, a program aimed at bringing frank and honest discussion about race to the forefront.

Here's how it works: A resident will open their home or select another location for a catered dinner provided by the Community Relations Department. Director Cedric Melton will help select the dinner party guests, comprised of "no more than 12 guests of diverse backgrounds." 

Armed with a topic, the dinner's host will then open the floor for a discussion about diversity, inclusion and race. 

But in Oak Park, which has , won't the dinners just amount to an exercise in preaching to the choir?

Melton said it won't.

In fact, he said, it's designed "to get people who aren't heard from most of the time...in a safe place.

"Even great communities that have been on the forefront of diversity still need to check in from time to time and see how they're doing."

The idea for the Oak Park dinners are rooted in the similar Chicago Dinners series thrown by the Jane Addams Hull House Association. 

Organizers are hoping to launch the series sometime in April, and it could be the first of four official dinner discussions. 

The estimated cost to the community relations department for each dinner will be about $200. 

"But the dialogue and understanding to come from that is priceless," Melton said.

Interested in hosting a dinner or attending one? Contact Cedric Melton at (708) 358-5407 or email community@oak-park.us