Lora-Ellen McKinney wants to make talking about race fruitful and less painful than it often is.

Race can be an uncomfortable topic full of potential pitfalls, but familiarity and friendship can change that.

McKinney is a psychologist, and the event she called me about is an experiment of sorts.

She calls it Seattle Race Initiative: Let's Talk About Race. It will be held 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave. in Seattle. Anyone interested may participate, and it's free.

And yes, McKinney said, there are many organizations and events in and around Seattle that focus on race. So why is she creating another?

McKinney belongs to a group of people who've been Kellogg Fellows. The fellowship is for people who do socially constructive work, and this year Kellogg asked past fellows to start conversations about race as we head toward the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"One of the things I know about Seattle is that Seattle is committed to compassion," she said, "but we know compassion can be hard to learn."

She wanted to do something that didn't generate argument, that wasn't a lecture, something that gave people a safe way to talk.

McKinney said most people think about race through their own experiences, so she wanted to allow people to talk about their different experiences.

"When I think about this a little bit, I think of the trite metaphor, that we are all on racial journeys and we have suitcases packed with baggage. ... I'm trying to make it a 21st-century suitcase," with lighter contents, she said.

McKinney's metaphorical and actual suitcases have traveled a lot.

She's the older daughter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel McKinney, a prominent figure in Seattle's struggles with race and justice and Mount Zion pastor emeritus.

Throughout her childhood, she remembers people coming to the house or calling for advice or help on pressing issues having to do with race. At the dinner table each evening, she and her sister were expected to discuss affairs of the day.

She became a psychologist and has worked all over the country in a variety of positions, often involving issues of race or poverty.

She went back to school, earned a degree in public policy from Harvard, and was working as an analyst in Washington, D.C., in 2002 when she was diagnosed with a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which weakens connective tissue and can be painful and debilitating.

McKinney moved back to Renton to be near her parents and began a new career writing about religion and faith.

With encouragement from friends and despite her illness, she also discovered a talent for writing and performing humorous pieces on stage.

So when she was planning this event, she decided to stimulate conversations through fine arts, literature, dance and theater.

On Friday, four artists will each make five-minute presentations. Participants will discuss what they've seen and heard, then the artist will comment. One of the artists, writer Nancy Rawles, will read from her novel "My Jim."

On Saturday, participants will be asked to gather in small groups based on shared interests or the kind of work they do, so they have something in common as they discuss their different experiences and perspectives.

McKinney is inventing this thing as she goes along. When she got the idea, she posted information on Facebook and called people she knew and organizations she thought might be interested. It's all built on volunteers and donations.

She did bring in a professional facilitator, but he's a friend she's known for years, David Campt, a consultant on community-communications strategies from Los Angeles.

"We don't know how it is going to work," she said, "but we are willing to try." That also sounds like a healthy approach to race in general.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.