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Where Do You Belong?
Growing up in Detroit - a “Chocolate City,” with a history of labor organizing, human rights activism, and Black excellence - left an indelible impression on me. I felt connected to the shop owners, Eddie the neighborhood mechanic, and our school’s groundskeepers. I’d...
Resiliency and Loss
It’s been a year. A year since Breonna Taylor was murdered. How many more we could list… The list is overwhelming and far too long. This has been going on for all people of color for far too long. And we’re finally seeing a trial for one of the main policemen who...
To Live a Collaborative Life
For the past 10 years, my wife, Natalie Berry, and I have enjoyed a highly collaborative art-life. We take turns working on pieces or alternate roles to create drawings, paintings, costumes, and performances. Our child has been raised in the studio as an equal...
GIVE DEMOCRACY TO THE POETS
Photo credit: Moremi Akinde Last month, the world watched as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris became America’s new chief executives. The ritual of Inauguration Day is an American rite of passage. It’s the day we honor those charged by God and country to uphold the...
Review: My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
Gratitude as Radical Self Care
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare,” - Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light (1988). (Lorde was a Black lesbian feminist essayist, poet, and activist) One of my self-preserving acts is gratitude....
Birthing Transformation
I have not slept easily much recently. Thoughts of fires, hurricanes, marches, civil unrest, murder, armed citizens, confrontation, and misinformation run through my mind. It's a struggle to keep positive while surrounded by infuriating, scary and destructive images...
Who Do You Want To Be?
Say who you are.Do who you want to be. Those two lines have become my central mantra in 2020. It’s a simple message, but it’s been a guiding force for me in the maelstrom of emotions and challenges that has been this year. When I feel overwhelmed or stuck, I can move...
Gut Feelings
We want more bodies to have less pain. The goal of reducing suffering in the bodies of fellow humans is unifying across the nonprofit sector. Whether in food security, environmental restoration, or accessible healthcare, we work for the betterment of bodies. Bodies...
To The Helpers
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’― Fred RogersWhen we talk about service, certain names and faces come to mind right away. People who will always...
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