Name: Conversation and Connection: Exploring divides and how to bridge them
Start: 2026-03-12T18:30:00-04:00
End: 2026-03-12T20:30:00-04:00
Location: Chinese Culture Connection Community Room

Conversation and Connection: Exploring divides and how to bridge them

A facilitated conversation about division, belonging and connection, open to community members in and around Malden.
About this Event

The Divides Project, in collaboration with Malden Reads and the Chinese Culture Connection (CCC), invite the community to a free evening of conversation and connection in the welcoming space of CCC’s new community room and offices.

Inspired by the themes of this year's Malden Reads book selection "Our Missing Hearts," by Celeste Ng, this community gathering invites participants of all backgrounds to come together for conversation—about division, belonging, and connection.

You do not need to have read the book to attend. Through facilitated conversation, we’ll explore questions that feel especially present today: Why do divides emerge? How do fear and misunderstanding take root? What helps communities stay connected across differences?

"Our Missing Hearts" is a dystopian novel that follows a 12-year-old boy’s search for his missing poet mother in a near-future America where dissent is punished and families are torn apart. This novel offers cautionary yet hopeful reflections on art, love, and storytelling that resonate deeply today in Malden and across a nation grappling with division while yearning for connection, hope, and relief.

Whether or not you have read the book, we will make it easy and welcoming to join the discussion.

Refreshments will be provided.

The Divides Project is a grant funded initiative that explores what disconnects us and how art & dialogue can transform divides into opportunities for deeper connection.

Malden Reads is a community reading program in Malden, MA. Organized by community groups, city leaders, and residents, in collaboration with the Malden Public Library, the program invites the Malden community to read the same book and participate in a series of events related to the book’s themes. The goals of the program are to promote literacy, a love of reading, an appreciation of city resources, and most of all, to build community in the city of Malden.

Chinese Culture Connection (CCC) is a Malden based organization that empowers Chinese immigrants and Chinese descendants of the Greater Boston Area to appreciate and retain their heritage, develop bicultural fluency, and enrich others with a deeper understanding of Chinese language and culture.