Category Archives: Intentional Communities

PG&E is considering shutting off power to some California customers to mitigate wildfire risk.

PG&E is considering shutting off power to some California customers to mitigate wildfire risk.

PG&E is considering shutting off power to some California customers to mitigate wildfire risk.

PG&E is considering shutting off power to some California customers to mitigate wildfire risk.

Latest: PG&E warns a wind event on Saturday may require more power shutoffs

LATEST, Oct. 24, 7 a.m.: To reduce the risk of wildfires sparking amid dry and windy weather, PG&E has shut off power to roughly 179,000 customers in 16 counties in the Sierra Foothills and North Bay Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo, Sierra, Sonoma, Tehama and Yuba.

About 1,000 customers in portions of San Mateo counties saw the lights go out around 1 a.m. Thursday.

As soon as PG&E meteorologists say the winds have calmed, ground crews will begin inspecting equipment and the restoration will begin. The utility expects to get the all-clear around noon Thursday.

PG&E said in a statement issued Wednesday night it is "monitoring and preparing for an additional wind event starting Saturday, October 26, which may require further shutoffs. Early forecasts show that this has the potential to be widespread across PG&Es service area in Northern and Central California with significant winds."

UPDATE, Oct. 23, 10 p.m.: PG&E announced Wednesday evening that it has cut power in 15 counties in the Sierra Foothills and North Bay Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sierra, Sonoma, Tehama and Yuba impacting about 178,000 customers in those areas.

Power shut-offs are still planned for a small pocket of San Mateo County, impacting roughly 1,000 customers, and Kern County, where up to 30 customers could be affected. These are set to begin about 1 a.m. Thursday.

In total, the intentional blackout to mitigate wildfire risk amid dry, windy weather will affect about 179,000 customers in 17 counties. When you consider an average of three people per household, the event could affect more than a 500,000 residents.

UPDATE, Oct. 23, 6 p.m.: PG&E confirmed that a number of intentional outages in Northern California have already occurred, with plans to have theshut-off continue in San Mateo and Kern counties at 1 a.m., as stated earlier.

The utility company clarified a rumor that has been circulating stating that due to the high winds and elevated fire risk expected overnight and again on the weekend, electricity would remain off through the entirety of both weather events for affected counties.

PG&E officials stated that this is untrue, and that the company intends to fully restore power to customers once the winds have died down, which is expected to happen about noon Thursday.

Once equipment has been inspected for damage by employees and given the all clear, power will be restored to residents. Meteorologists will continue to look at upcoming weather patterns before officials decide whether the upcoming weather this weekend will warrant a second shut-off.

"We understand the hardship caused by these shut-offs and the safety issues that it brings with it, but we also understand the heartbreak and devastation of catastrophic wildfire. Those losses are forever, and we're determined to do everything in our power to prevent that," said Bill Johnson, the president and CEO of PG&E.

UPDATE, Oct. 23, 3 p.m.: PG&E began intentional blackouts Wednesday for 179,000 Northern California customers in 17 counties.

The Santa Rosa Fire Department shared on Twitter at 2:45 p.m. that customers in the Rincon Valley and Oakmont areas reported outages.

Shutoffs in the North Bay were scheduled to start around 3 p.m. Outages in affected areas of San Mateo County are planned for 1 a.m. Thursday.

In Napa County, a total of 7,488 customers will lose electricity in portions of Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Lake Berryessa, Oakville, Pope Valley, Rutherford and St. Helena.

Sonoma County will see the power cut off to 26,845 customers in parts of Annapolis, Boyes Hot Springs, Cloverdale, Fulton, Geyserville, Glen Ellen, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Kenwood, Larkfield, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Windsor and Stewarts Point.

In San Mateo County, only a small pocket of 372 customers in La Honda, San Gregorio, Woodside and unincorporated ares will lose power.

Customers may lose power even though they are not experiencing critical fire weather in their specific location. "This is because the electric system relies on power lines working together to provide electricity across cities, counties and regions," PG&E explained.

Forecasts show the high winds subsiding by noon Thursday, and after the weather has calmed, PG&E will inspect equipment for damage. The utility company says it hopes to have power restored "48 hours after the weather event has passed."

UPDATE: Oct. 23, 10 a.m.:PG&E announced Wednesday morning it's moving forward with power shutoffs for 179,000 customers in 17 counties: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo, Sierra, Sonoma, Tehama and Yuba.

Shutoffs will start Wednesday afternoon and continue into Thursday morning. "The shutoffs are expected to begin around 2 p.m. in the Sierra Foothills, 3 p.m. in the North Bay counties, and approximately 1 a.m. Thursday in affected areas of San Mateo and Kern counties," PG&E said.

The high winds are expected to subside at noon Thursday, and after the weather has calmed, PG&E will inspect equipment for damage. The utility company says it hopes to have power restored "48 hours after the weather event has passed."

Find a list counties and cities were customers will be impacted on the PG&E website. (Note: The website has been crashing off-and-on. PG&E says it's working on this issue.)

Customers may lose power even though they are not experiencing critical fire weather in their specific location. "This is because the electric system relies on power lines working together to provide electricity across cities, counties and regions," PG&E explained.

Impacted customers can utilize one of the many Community Resource Centers scheduled to open at 8 a.m. Thursday and stay open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until the the shutoff has included. These are equipped with restrooms, electronic-device charging, bottled water and air-conditioning.

UPDATE: Oct. 23, 6 a.m.: If Pacific Gas & Electric shuts off the power to reduce wildfire risk in Napa and Sonoma counties, impacted customers will receive alerts via phone, text or email Wednesday morning.

High winds that can damage equipment are forecast to pick up at 5 p.m. and PG&E would begin to de-energize customers at roughly 2 p.m.

In Napa County, PG&E anticipates 7,488 customers could be impacted in parts of Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Lake Berryessa, Oakville, Pope Valley, Rutherford, and St Helena, In Sonoma, 26,845 customers may be affected in portions of Annapolis, Boyes Hot Springs, Cloverdale, Fulton, Geyserville, Glen Ellen, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Kenwood, Larkfield, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Windsor, and Stewarts Point.

If the power goes out in a small pocket of San Mateo County, it's likely to begin at 1 a.m. Thursday based on the current weather forecast. A shut-off could affect 372 customers in La Honda, San Gregorio, Woodside, and Unincorporated San Mateo County.

The following centers are scheduled to open at 8 a.m. Thursday and stay open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the remainder of the shutoff:

UPDATE: Oct. 22, 6 p.m.: Pacific Gas & Electric officials said Tuesday night that the scope of the customers who may lose power Wednesday has been narrowed "due changing weather information and the company's ability to sectionalize certain lines."

PG&E previously anticipated 201,000 customers in 16 counties would be effected in a pre-emptive shut-off to mitigate wildfire risk. The new number is 184,000 in 17 counties.

The utility company will make a call on whether to move forward with a shutoff Wednesday morning.

"Were continuing to closely monitor the weather," PG&E President Bill Johnson said at the press conference. "No such event has formally been called. We expect to make that decision tomorrow morning."

PG&E expects the event could impact people in up to 17 counties in the Sierra Foothills and the North Bay including Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo Sierra, Sonoma, Tehama and Yuba.

Mark Quinlan, senior director of emergency preparedness and response, said the current forecast shows the peak wind risk in the North Bay beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday and thede-energization sequence could begin at 3 p.m. If the power goes out in a small pocket of San Mateo County, it's likely to begin at 1 a.m. Thursday based on the current weather forecast.

"The all-clear is forecast for noon on Thursday," said Quinlan. "When we get the all-clear thats when we begin restoring activities."

PG&E will release outage maps closer to the event, and advises customers to visit a new sister site dedicated to providing shutoff information: psps.ss.pge.com.

On Tuesday night, PG&E updated its list of cities that could potentially be impacted on Wednesday.

If a shut-off occurs, PG&E will open Community Resource Centers in several communities, offering restrooms, bottled water, electronic-device charging and air-conditioning. These will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., until power is restored.

The potential for an outage comes at a time of year when the landscape is dry and fires spark and spread easily. Northerly winds are expected to pick up Wednesday evening into Thursday morning in the hills of the East Bay and North Bay, delivering critical fire risk. Winds between 35 and 45 mph with some 55 mph gusts in localized areas are forecast for Sonoma and Napa counties.

Amy Graff is a digital editor for SFGATE. Email her at agraff@sfgate.com.

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Latest: PG&E turns off power in portions of 15 counties in Northern California - SFGate

Haven is pleased to host In Conversation with Sonia Sanchez, a free post-show discussion with the esteemed writer, poet and activist. Sanchez's play 2 x 2 is featured as part of DIRECTORS HAVEN, the company's ever-growing initiative annually showcasing the talents of three rising directors. Hosted by Artistic Director Ian Damont Martin and the play's director, Aaron Mays, the conversation about Professor Sanchez's work, her life and the interplay between arts and activism will be held on Sunday, October 27 at 6 pm (following the 3 pm performance) at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Advance reservations are recommended by visiting Eventbrite.

In addition to Sonia Sanchez's lyrical drama 2 x 2, this year's DIRECTORS HAVEN also features Caryl Churchill's ambitious surrealist work THIS IS A CHAIR directed by Lauren Katz and Dan Giles' tender yet challenging one-actHOW YOU KISS ME IS NOT HOW I LIKE TO BE KISSED directed by AJ Schwartz. The three productions, which will have the support of a full production team, run back-to-back in one program through October 30, 2019 at The Den Theatre. Tickets ($10 suggested donation) are available at havenchi.org.

About Sonia Sanchez

Poet. Mother. Professor. National and International lecturer on Black Culture and Literature, Women's Liberation, Peace and Racial Justice. Sponsor of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Board Member of MADRE. Sonia Sanchez is the author of over 16 books including Homecoming, We a BaddDDD People, Love Poems, I've Been a Woman, A Sound Investment and Other Stories, Homegirls and Handgrenades, Under a Soprano Sky, Wounded in the House of a Friend (Beacon Press, 1995), Does Your House Have Lions? (Beacon Press, 1997), Like the Singing Coming off the Drums (Beacon Press, 1998), Shake Loose My Skin ( Beacon Press, 1999), and most recently, Morning Haiku( Beacon Press, 2010). In addition to being a contributing editor to Black Scholar and The Journal of African Studies, she has edited an anthology, We Be Word Sorcerers: 25 Stories by Black Americans. BMA: The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review is the first African American Journal that discusses the work of Sonia Sanchez and the Black Arts Movement. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts, the Lucretia Mott Award for 1984, the Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Community Service Award from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, she is a winner of the 1985 American Book Award for Homegirls and Handgrenades, the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Humanities for 1988, the Peace and Freedom Award from Women International League for Peace and Freedom (W.I.L.P.F.) for 1989, a PEW Fellowship in the Arts for 1992-1993 and the recipient of Langston Hughes Poetry Award for 1999. Does Your House Have Lions? was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the Poetry Society of America's 2001 Robert Frost Medalist and a Ford Freedom Scholar from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Her poetry also appeared in the movie Love Jones. Sonia Sanchez has lectured at over 500 universities and colleges in the United States and has traveled extensively, reading her poetry in Africa, Cuba, England, the Caribbean, Australia, Europe, Nicaragua, the People's Republic of China, Norway, and Canada. She was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University and she held the Laura Carnell Chair in English at Temple University. She is the recipient of the Harper Lee Award, 2004, Alabama Distinguished Writer, and the National Visionary Leadership Award for 2006. She is the recipient of the 2005 Leeway Foundation Transformational Award. Currently, Sonia Sanchez is one of 20 African American women featured in "Freedom Sisters," an interactive exhibition created by the Cincinnati Museum Center and Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition and she was the recipient of the Robert Creeley award in March of 2009.

DIRECTORS HAVEN 2019 includes:

THIS IS A CHAIR

By Caryl Churchill

Directed by Lauren Katz

Mentor: Devon de Mayo

Featuring Catherine Dvorak, Tamsen Glaser, Lakecia Harris, Isaac Snyder, Julian "Joolz" Stroop and Diego Zozaya

This is a Chair is composed of a series of individual vignettes, each including a headline that is meant to be clearly displayed or stated. Each title refers to a contemporary world issue, including "The War in Bosnia," "Genetic Engineering," and "Pornography and Censorship" titles that seemingly share no connection to the scene at hand. Caryl Churchill invites us to dig deep into our personal lives and relationships, exploring the depths of how we interact with the world around us.

2 x 2

By Sonia Sanchez

Directed by Aaron Mays

Mentor: Pemon Rami

Featuring Dionne Addai, Sheree Bynum, Simon Gebremedhin, Merrina Millsapp and Juwon Perry

Beverly Smith is watching her family fall apart. Her grandchildren are in need of her care while her daughter Ramona, once a fierce activist, struggles with addiction. When Beverly goes to take the kids home with her, she learns about Ramona's past passion for activism and what led to her decline. This lyrical drama set in North Philadelphia explores social activism, generational differences and the hardships facing urban black communities through the lens of a mother-daughter relationship.

HOW YOU KISS ME IS NOT HOW I LIKE TO BE KISSED

By Dan Giles

Directed by AJ Schwartz

Mentor: Monty Cole

Featuring Morgan Lavenstein and Rolando Serrano

It's a love story that transcends labels. Two people meet, they fall in love, they U-Haul, life happens. A couple just like any other well, almost. How You Kiss Me Is Not How I Like To Be Kissed innovatively addresses the urgent contemporary issue of straight representation in the arts. This groundbreaking and oh-so-needed play brings important visibility to the sorrows and joys and even the inherent flaws of the heterosexual lifestyle.

Comments Artistic Director Ian Damont Martin, "This cohort of directors is more than ready to bring their work to the Chicago community, and Haven couldn't be more excited to facilitate and support them in this fifth year of our Directors Haven program. Each of these early-career directors have interests and visions that are specific, intelligent and downright exciting. The pieces they have individually selected are glimpses of the kind of work we need to be seeing and making right now work that asks us the difficult questions work that makes space for the marginal and the marginalized. This is met with an articulated interest and commitment in intentional processes, which is becoming increasingly important at Haven. We are very much looking forward to bringing you this necessary work from the next generation of artists helping to find and define the future of our practice."

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Title: DIRECTOR'S HAVEN 2019

Location: The Den Theatre (2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

Previews: Monday, October 14 at 7:30 pm and Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30 pm

Regular Run: Wednesday, October 16 Wednesday, October 30, 2018

Curtain Times: Sundays at 3 pm; Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:30 pm

Tickets: $10 suggested donation. Tickets are currently available at havenchi.org.

About the Directors

Lauren Katz (This is a Chair) is a freelance director, dramaturg, and teaching artist. She served as the 2016-17 Artistic Apprentice at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and as a fellow in the 2018-19 Directors Inclusion Initiative at Victory Gardens. Recent directing projects include: Subjective is Beauty (Prop Thtr), Toni and Marcus: From Village Life to Urban Stress (Illinois Holocaust Museum) and Salena's Story (iO Theater). As an assistant director and dramaturg in Chicago, Lauren has worked with various companies including About Face Theatre, Firebrand Theatre, Theater Wit, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Writers Theatre and Windy City Playhouse. As a teaching artist, Lauren works with Lookingglass Theatre and Mudlark Theatre.

Aaron Mays (2 x 2) is an emerging director and playwright in Chicago with a passion for stories of the African diaspora and the narratives of marginalized voices. Aaron's most recent directing credits include Waiting for Godot(Tympanic Theatre) with an all-Latinx cast and Tug of War (CIRCA Pintig), a series of short plays on war, trauma and immigration. In addition, he has worked with Chicago's top directors, serving as the assistant director for such productions as Sweat (Goodman Theatre), Mosque Alert (Silk Road Rising), Two Trains Running (Goodman Theatre) and Seven Guitars (Court Theatre).

AJ Schwartz (How You Kissed Me is Not How I Like to be Kissed) is a director living and making art in Chicago since 2013. As a theatremaker, they aim to use performance to explore the world through a radical, iconoclastic and undeniably queer lens. Their recent credits include Mike Pence Sex Dream, Refrigerator (assistant director, First Floor Theater), This Bitter Earth (dramaturg), Time Is on Our Side (assistant director, About Face Theatre), Zurich (assistant director, Steep Theatre Co.), and The Henry V Project (director, Loyola University Chicago).

About Haven:

NEXT GENERATION. NEW CANON. SOCIAL PROFIT.

We exist to be a Haven for The Future. We achieve this through championing the next generation of playwrights, directors and actors by producing and promoting plays and performances that are staking their claim as the immediate future of this art form, and by investing in those at the very beginning of their professional journeys. Through this inspiration, we seek to ignite in each audience member a hope for the Future - the Future of theatre and performance, the Future of each other, the Future of our community.

Continue reading here:

Haven Hosts In Conversation with Sonia Sanchez - Patch.com

White people find my halo of gravity-defying hair irresistible to the touch. I dont mind as long as they ask before they cop a feel, but they usually dont. So after years of enduring this overfamiliarity from everyone from the stranger behind me in the checkout lane to a middle-aged male dental hygienist, I came up with a strategy.

Now when that unbidden White hand starts creeping toward my head, mine starts creeping toward theirs. I go as far as they go. They usually flinch back, and then resignedly lean into my touch, laughing with recognition as their faux pastheir microaggressionsinks in. I laugh along with thembecause lets keep it light, right?and with a little thrill of victory. Teachable moment, for the win!

Unfortunately, unsanctioned hair touching is the only microaggression that I have an effective, emotionally non-burdensome response for. Im not the only one with such a limited repertoire. I tried tapping my social network to see how other people effectively dealt with microaggressive interactions and got precisely zero feedbackthough, admittedly, just tweeting about them seems to work for some people. Many of the ideas I found online seemed to be intended for use in a fantasyland, where White people are eager learners, unafraid of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and need actual reasons to call the cops on us. Other tips violated a seminal rule of BIPOC-ness: thou shalt not waste emotional labor educating White people about stuff they should already know or can Google.

Finally, I turned to the experts.

Microaggression is classically defined as, brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. The term was coined around the late 1960s, early 1970s, after the Civil Rights era, when visible and violent expressions of racism were eclipsed by subtler incarnations. Now broadened to include all marginalized groups and their many intersections, microaggression has become something of a buzzword within the social justice arena.

And as with most buzzwords, the meaning gets diluted at best and ignored at worse. But that doesnt erase the harmful impact. In his new book, How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi stridently insists that microaggressions are nothing but racial abuse and should be called that.

Most experts agree on the frequency and continual fallout of microaggressions for the astoundingly high number of BIPOC who endure them.

Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University and scholar in the field, writes that microaggressions cause frustration, self-doubt, anxiety, and cumulative emotional, psychic, and spiritual burden. Unlike macroaggressions, large-scale, overt aggressions that mostly occur at the systems level, Sue writes, microaggressions are interpersonal, and often occur in academic and professional settings.

Joy Petaway, a licensed social worker in Maryland, has witnessed these responses in some of her Black female clients.

Workplace microaggressions are common, Petaway says.

And because of that, there is increased anxiety over-trying to perfect what one is producing, being on [and] internalizing negative messaging, she says. Untangling these messages while also trying to find motivation to go into places of work that often aren't feeding mind, body, soul, becomes a very difficult thing to maneuver.

Despite the evidence, there are nonbelievers who contend that the notion of microaggressions is simply out-of-control political correctness. This argument itself is a microinvalidationone of three categories of microaggressions identified by Sue. Microinvalidation, basically ignores the lived experiences of historically marginalized groups. That perennial favorite, I dont see colorsomething well-meaning White folks say, often defensively when they are called out on a prior microaggressionalso falls into this category.

What theyre in essence saying is that they dont want to judge people on the color of their skin, Sue says. What they dont realize [is] recognizing me as an Asian American is important, because its an intimate aspect of my racial, cultural identity.

It can be difficult to distinguish microaggressions from typical rudeness using empirical methods. This is because BIPOC are enculturated to anticipate microaggressions from White people, because according to Sue, they do not view themselves as racist or capable of racist behavior, and lived experience is hard to prove with empirical methods.

The question therefore is, whose reality is the most accurate reality? Sue says. Social psychologists have provided research to indicate that the reality of people who are most marginalized or oppressed is most accurate as to the oppression that is going on.

This makes sense, he continues, because people from marginalized communities are in a position where they must understand the people who have the power and privilege to succeed socially, academically, and professionally. White peoplein particular cis-gendered, heterosexual White mensimply do not. The implication is clear to me that people who most have their voices oppressed and silenced are the ones who have to be heard. ... So it would be incumbent upon White individuals to really be nondefensive and listen and try to understand [the impact their behavior has on people of color].

And this is where the influence of power, privilege, and oppression really works against individuals. So it would be incumbent upon White individuals to really be nondefensive and listen to try to understand what is going on. Because people of color know that microaggressions are occurring, but its completely invisible to those individuals who are what we call perpetrators.

So how does one disarm microaggressions without exceeding their emotional bandwidth?

Denise Evans, a certified facilitator of implicit bias and cultural intelligence workshops in West Michigan, uses wittiness to disarm microaggressions, of which she has experienced many. For example, when a White person compliments Evans, who is Black, for being well-spoken or articulate, she responds in kind.

I have said, Thank you very much, so are you, says Evans. She then asks, with a smile, why they felt the need to say anything, including a list of possible reasons in her question: Is it because shes a native New Yorker? A woman? Black?

And I literally wait for [an] answer, she says. I give people their microaggression and their implicit biases back in a pretty box with a nice bow on it. I hand it to you, and I wait for you to open it and tell me what you see.

Evans is at heart an educator and uses these teachable moments, she says, to expose the unconscious associations people have. For example, linking African American and uneducated or women and assistant. This is an approach rooted in the hidden-bias research of Harvard University psychologist, Mahzarin Rustum Banaji. Human brains may instinctively make associations for survival, Evans says, but we can choose to dismantle them.

All the research tells us that our brains are malleable and that we can form new synapses. I feel like its my responsibility to help disrupt whats happening in your amygdala, Evans says, tongue in cheek. Let me just help you separate some of these thoughts real quick.

Her approach typically results in White bewilderment, not fragility or combativeness, she explains.

I know that I would feel uncomfortable responding to microaggressions so directly. Avoidance is a legit strategy in the case of possible physical harm, but my silence usually stems from my being too stunned to generate a snappy comeback or not being entirely convinced that I was actually microaggressed.

And Im not alone.

This is apparently common among targets of microaggressions, and this confusion is a significant part of why they are so damaging. The power of racial microaggressions lies in their invisibility to the perpetrator and oftentimes to the recipient, Sue, and colleagues, wrote in a 2007 article. And this is why a key strategy for dealing with microaggressions is making the invisible visible.

By naming a microaggression, a concept Sue borrows from Paulo Freires seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, we are able to undercut its power and expose metacommunication behind it.

For example, pointing out that where are you from? is really code for you arent American enough or I have Black friends really means what I just said isnt racist and neither am I social worker Petaway says. And doing this doesnt have to be educational or immediate, she adds.

Sometimes its as simple as saying, your bias is showing and walking away, a response Evans often has to microaggressions, especially those from women.

But the burden of responding shouldnt solely rest with the target of the microagression.

Writer Leslie C. Aguilars suggests targets or bystanders can just say Ouch! Interrupting and redirecting conversations heading toward biased territory with, Whoa! Lets not go there! can also do the trick, particularly when delivered by allies who share commonalities with the speaker.

Aguilars suggestion resonates most with me. Unlike Evans, who is an ordained minister and educator, I dont feel a calling to educate perpetrators. I already manage depression and anxiety, and now theyve just said something that hurts. Why should I have to sink more emotional labor into an already fraught situation?

But research indicates that avoidance, when there is no threat of bodily harm, may not be the best course of action and that eschewing resignation brings rewards, including feelings of bravery, dignity, and self-efficacy.

Theres also the bonus that Im less likely to mull over the situation ad infinitum.

However, Petaway assures me, I can respond when I want, how I want. Theres no statute of limitations on addressing microaggressions.

It's really taking back our time and focusing on our boundaries, she explains.

If its not addressed in the moment, that doesnt mean it cant be addressed later.

There is no one asking you to give beyond the wellspring that you have, Petaway says. So if you dont have it to give, then do not give [it].

Original post:

Racial Microaggressions Are Real. Here's How to Navigate Them - YES! Magazine

Progress on gender diversity at work still needs improvement. To achieve equality, some believe companies must turn good intentions into concrete action. But leaders with one co-working space in Edina are doing their part to help create a future where women of color lead at the highest levels across all sectors.

Its all part of the "The State of Womxn of Color Roadshow."

The Riveter, a Seattle based company with ten locations across the U.S., is creating an opportunity for that conversation across the country through a partnership with an organization called Future For Us.

The spelling of womxn is meant to show inclusion of trans, non-binary, womxn of color, womxn with disabilities and all other marginalized genders. Both The Riveter and Future for Us use this spelling to indicate that our spaces and platform are open to anyone who identifies as such.

Sage Quiamno, the co-founder of Future for Us, said she never saw herself included or felt like she belonged during various points of her career.

The problem we want to solve is creating better and intentional communities for women of color to get the resources that they need to advance at work. We want to solve the problem with the leadership gap, she said.

She is on a mission to uplift communities and arm people with data.

We are facing other issues within companies because we are not creating inclusive environments for us to do well. Twenty-one-percent of women of color feel like they can't be themselves at work. Forty-percent women of color feel like they need to downplay their ethnicity to succeed at work, she said siting dating from McKinsey & Company.

Jodi-Ann Burey is Riveters senior Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion. She said you cannot envision or prepare for the future of work without women of color at the center of it.

Too often people claim that people of color and women of color specifically are too hard to find. This is not true. Even in the least racially diverse cities, there are vibrant communities of color who create spaces where they can be seen, heard and valued, Burey said. Gender bias unites womens experiences at work, but those experiences are not the same. Partnering with Future for Us and others as The Riveter continues to grow is part of a larger initiative to bring diversity and intersectionality to the forefront of our fight towards equity of opportunity for all women.

To learn more about the October 24th event, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/state-of-womxn-of-color-advancing-community-culture-and-careers-mn-tickets-69759764333

Continued here:

The State of Womxn of Color Roadshow coming to Minnesota - KARE11.com

No matter where youre from, how you identify, or what you need to feel comfortable and safe, the tweet reads, weve got you. BarCamp Phillys inclusivity mission is a 12-year evolution as our community has evolved.

Tomorrow is the 12th annual BarCamp Philly, to be held at The Wharton Schools Huntsman Hall.The unconference event lets participants propose and conduct the sessions. Attendees post ideas in the morning, and lead the sessions throughout the day.

Ahead of the event, organizers took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to share how theyre thinking intentionally about keeping the tech event inclusive to attendees of different genders, abilities and life experiences.

Why?

Because its the right thing to do, wrote organizers Briana Morgan and Amanda Renzulli via Slack message. BarCamp has always been an event that encourages anyone in the community to have a voice, and gives them a platform to volunteer or lead a session and be heard.

Features introduced this year some in partnership with venue sponsor Wharton include signage for a gender-neutral bathroom, gender-neutral terminology and expanded sizes for t-shirts, lactation suites, a KidCamp area for children, and quiet spaces for those who experience sensory overload. Pronoun stickers for badges are returning after their 2018 introduction.

Often these changes are made because someone has requested them, said Morgan and Renzulli, who organize the event along with Brian Crumley, Maurice Gaston and Joe Campbell. A couple of them have been based on requests weve gotten. Some of them have come from what we as organizers have seen other conferences and communities doing.

The thread caught our eye because of how clearly it states the steps taken by organizers to create a space to meet different needs. Check out a few:

The organizing team is already thinking ahead to next year.

We would like to hear what our attendees, sponsors and volunteers think about this years changes, Morgan and Renzulli said. And wed like to continue to see accessibility improvements in 2020, like real time captioning for at least some talks, ASL translation and a more accessible after party. As we are a community-driven, sponsor-funded event, everything we do is funded by ticket sales and the companies that support us year over year.

Go here to read the rest:

Why BarCamp Philly's organizers are intentional about inclusion - Technical.ly

Photo Gallery Faith and earth: For more than 100 years, community of nuns has taught lessons of spirituality and stewardship View 6 Photos

As the asphalt road going southwest from Sewanee, Tennessee, gives way to gravel, the houses along the roadway become less frequent and cellphone service drops off. The woods thicken before revealing a gray stone building whose residents, while secluded, have become a community fixture.

People come to the house for the Monteagle Mountain views, the time in nature and the sense of peace that echoes throughout the building's living rooms and chapel. The surrounding woods drown out man-made noise from nearby highways.

For the four women who live at the Community of St. Mary, the environment is not just something to marvel at, it is a teaching tool, a guide and a way to connect with God. Anglican nuns have lived on the mountain since 1888, serving their neighbors in the nearby town. At times, the service has involved food or education. The lessons of the community have survived world wars and multiple technological revolutions.

More and more, though, people are coming to the house in Sewanee to spend less time tethered to screens and more time in touch with the world that surrounds them.

Ministry in the moment

The sisters in Sewanee say there is a connection between the multiple increasing social problems in America and Americans lacking relationships to nature and people.

According to a 2018 Nielsen study, Americans spend more than 11 hours a day looking at screens from computers to smartphones to TVs a number that is a one-hour increase from a similar study in 2016. A 2017 report, funded in part by conservation groups, found that today's average American spends less time in nature and has less access to it than previous generations.

As people move further away from nature, in body and spirit, they increasingly believe they can control the environment. They focus more on their independence than the people around them. This mindset has led to the degradation of the world and the increasing damage of climate change, said Sister Madeleine Mary Hodges. An ecological focus is a spiritual focus, she said.

"We think of [the climate] as an abstract idea, but it affects us every day," Hodges said. " People need that view. They need to be out in nature because that's how you go into yourself. That's how you find peace."

The sisters host four worship services a day as well as providing educational events, meals, retreats and spiritual direction. Each year, more than 6,000 visitors come to the convent, though many come multiple times a year. In decades past, many of the visitors learned about the community by word of mouth. Now, internet searches and social media bring guests.

Guests can receive spiritual guidance from the sisters who live at St. Mary or wander the grounds, which include a lavender garden, vegetable garden and labyrinth. They can go to the chapel to pray or stay in the community's hermitage.

The Benedictine community lives a life of prayer and service, with a special focus on connection to nature. The community grows and sells lavender and manages the small bush-lined labyrinth, a place for walking meditations.

The community hosts interns every year with its Sacramental, Organic, Intentional Living program (SOIL), with one opportunity lasting three months and the other 10 months. The students, either recent graduates or undergraduates, work in the garden and on the grounds to foster a deeper sense of spirituality with the earth at the same time they are assisting with worship at the community. The program is part of a grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, which has paid for 22 interns at the community so far.

Leonard King, 58, has worked in the garden off and on since he was 16 years old. With a degree in botany, he runs the educational garden that school groups visit and advises some of the interns. When he was a teenager, the community gave him a scholarship to attend community college, he said.

"Working for them is sort of like giving back, helping pass it along," King said.

People want a deeper connection with the world, but our technology and our society have kept us from remembering how, Hodges said. Social media has become an entire world onto itself, a world that does not require as many real, face-to-face relationships, she said.

"People underestimate how much of a gift it is to really listen, to really listen to a person," Hodges said. "We got really good at putting every little thing on Instagram or posting it on Facebook and pretending we have friends."

Many of the friends of the St. Mary community do not schedule visits. They just walk through the door. They bring their spiritual, mental or physical needs with them and the sisters respond, Hodges said. The community used to have a grant to be able to help people pay for bills and food, but now they show people other local resources.

The sisters live in a moment-by-moment ministry.

"Here, people literally walk in, then that becomes your ministry," Hodges said. " We may have an idea of what we are going to do in a given day, but we never really know. Sometimes you talk to them. Sometimes you just let them walk the grounds. And sometimes you have to dry their tears and remind them they are not worthless. That they are the single creation of a God that's unique."

Stoking the embers

The sisterhood of St. Mary began in 1865 with Harriet Starr Canon in New York, though the sisters in Sewanee trace their history more directly to the sisters who were sent to Memphis to create a school for girls in the 1870s. When the city was devastated by yellow fever in 1878, and thousands of people fled, the sisters stayed to care for the sick. The one surviving sister, Hughetta Snowdown, among the "Martyrs of Memphis," moved to Sewanee, where she founded the community and later opened an all-girls school on the mountain.

The sisters on the mountain today still channel the energy and passion of the martyrs, they said. The community may be small, but religious life is not dying, Hodges said. She has been asked that question for 30 years but the community still exists, though many people are not aware there are opportunities for religious life in the Episcopal Church. The convent survives mostly on donations and sales of its greeting cards, jams and photography.

There are periods of growth and crisis among religious communities, but there will always be a need for spiritual direction, Hodges said.

"You stoke the embers and keep the embers going and it will flame up again. That's how I think about religious life," she said.

The Sewanee community spans generations. Hodges joined in 1970, while Sister Hannah Winkler will be eligible for her final vows in December 2020. The 33-year-old oversees the guest ministry at the community, as well as the ministry of jokes, as she described it. When she is not managing the property's hermitage or guest rooms, she runs the community's social media accounts, too.

Winkler always wanted to be in a helping profession. She was raised Baptist and went to a Roman Catholic school as a child and ended up studying to become a hospital dietitian. But the work in the medical field was not what Winkler was looking for. She wanted a more meaningful connection with the people that surrounded her.

"I wanted to pray with people more than I wanted to tell them not to eat a cookie," she said.

She found the Episcopal nuns with a Google search for convents she could drive to from her home in North Carolina. Now, she can guide people who want to slow down and get in touch with their spirituality.

"We see people from all walks of life," Winkler said. "Not just Episcopalians. Not just women. But social workers, people in crisis, retired priests."

Among the many guests, the sisters at St. Mary said, there is always a desire for spirituality, even at a time in history where America is growing more secular. People are longing for a spirituality that speaks to them despite all the voices and ideas that pull them in directions away from religion, Hodges said.

"I think about how courageous it is to have a prayer life, a daily prayer life, that you're committed to," she said. "People will say, 'Isn't there something better you could be doing with your time?' Being a spiritual person today is a challenge."

I became a journalist to help people see people as people. But highlighting the human side of every policy decision, and how it is affecting your community, takes time as well as support from readers. If you believe in telling the stories of people in your community, please subscribe to the Times Free Press today. Contact me at wmassey@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Find me on Twitter at @News4Mass.

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Faith and earth: For more than 100 years, community of nuns has taught lessons of spirituality and stewardship - Chattanooga Times Free Press

The League of Women Voters and Indiana University South Bends American Democracy Project invited municipal candidates to answer a series of questions at vote411.org. Today, The Tribune publishes unedited answers from the at-large candidates for South Bend Common Council. There are many other resources available to voters at vote411.org, including answers to more questions than we publish today. The candidates were told The Tribune would not edit their answers in any way. Any spelling or grammatical errors published here are the candidates own.

Amanda Jean Grove

Occupation: Caregiver for her mother

Twitter: @amandajeangrove

Davin Hackett

Occupation: Police officer/Air Force National Guard

Lori Hamann

Occupation: High school teacher

Rachel Tomas Morgan

Occupation: College professor and administrator

Karen White

Occupation: Retired college administrator

The outgoing mayor has argued that South Bend has transformed from (what some labeled) a dying city to one with robust development and population gain. Do you agree with this assessment of the past seven years? If so, what will you do to continue this progress? If not, why not, and what needs to be done differently?

Grove: I will say, Im in the middle on this question. I do not believe our city is a dying city, but I do not believe it is currently one with robust development and population gain. South Bend is a very different city since our Mayor took office 7 years ago, some good, some bad. It depends on how and what youre looking at. The city has been beautified in much of downtown, which is great and has brought more tourism into downtown, but many of our neighborhoods have been forgotten. Our corridors leading into downtown are also always a mess, with potholes deep enough to pop a tire. We have been using the same cheap asphalt to repair our roads for years, and unfortunately it doesnt last more than a couple of months. There are now much better options to fix our roads, and while they may be a bit more expensive, these options have been proven to last months or years.

Hackett: I believe that certain areas have benefited, but other areas have deteriorated. Until all of South Bend neighborhoods reflect the dream of every citizen we have not achieved that goal.

Hamann: South Bend has come a long way since 2011, and by any metric there is a lot to be proud of. The last few years have seen a revitalized downtown, investment in growing industries, and a spirit of optimism for the future. It could easily have turned out differently, so this should be celebrated. At the same time, I walk around the citys great neighborhoods, and I dont see the same change and growth. People are struggling to make it. They cant find a job with a living wage. They are struggling to afford the basic necessities of rent, food, clothing, and medicine. We need to lift these people so that they, too, can participate in the renaissance of this city.

Tomas Morgan: We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Where we are as a city today is because of the hard work and collective effort of previous mayors, neighborhood and business leaders, and members of Council over the decades. I will work hard, using all the tools available to me as a Council member, to build on the momentum of our citys economic development and ensure that it is inclusive, reaching across neighborhoods and all segments of our community.

White: The people of South Bend and the surrounding communities have heart, passion, and determination. When anyone tried to count South Bend out, we have proven that person wrong! (This includes being labeled a dying city). We have experienced robust development and population gain. I agree with the Mayors assessment of the past seven years up to a certain point. I have and will continue to stand on the premise that our city cannot be a great city without great neighborhoods. Our city cannot be a great city until all citizens are fully engaged. Our city cannot be a great city until all of our citizens voices are heard. It follows then, that it is imperative that we continue to address and align our resources to build strong inclusive neighborhoods with affordable housing, continue with job creation, and foster economic development for all. As well as create and foster better relationship with our police department city wide.

What, if anything, can the Common Council do to tackle the problems of poverty and homelessness in the city of South Bend?

Grove: As mentioned above, I would like to head up a housing project for our homeless. I believe that if we focus on economic development, it will help with the issues of poverty and homelessness. We need to focus on supporting our small businesses, as well as bringing in larger businesses, therefore creating more jobs. As for the housing project, ideally I would like to build a tiny house village, or apartment complex, where the residents will pay rent based on income. Ideally they would be given 3 months to find a job, which we will help them with (either by driving them to workone, helping them with their resume, or whatever else is necessary to help them succeed.) Again I am almost out of characters to fully explain this, but if you have any questions about this project, please ask. I will be trying to do this whether I am elected, or not.

Hackett: As a Common Council member, we should be attracting businesses. We also should be promoting small businesses in our local community. Once we have equitable employment for all we can drive out poverty.

Hamann: I have been and will continue to be a strong advocate for the homeless. There is a myriad of reasons why someone ends up on the streets, and we need to do all we can to help them. It is imperative for us to establish a fully-funded day center where the homeless can have access to all available services and which provides shelter if needed. Additionally, more housing is needed for those currently living on the streets. Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. My wage policy will address many of the issues around poverty.

Tomas Morgan: Through my work at Notre Dame, I teach on themes of global poverty and development. I partner with organizations around the world, helping to resource and build their capacity to address the problems that affect their communities. Solutions to tackle poverty must be local and come from the very people effected to give voice and agency. Poverty, and homelessness as a symptom of poverty, is multi-faceted and requires multi-faceted approaches that address economic, social, political, and cultural dimensions of the human person for effective poverty eradication. Furthermore, if we understand poverty in terms of deprivations and disparities, than the role of municipal government is to use all financial and legislative tools available partnering creatively to tackle deprivations in education, health, housing; to incentivize and generate employment; and to further address inequalities in freedoms and opportunities for the poor to achieve economic security and social inclusion.

White: The Common Council and the administration are working together to address the problems of poverty and homelessness in our city. Clearly there is need for permanent support housing for the chronically homeless. Including the creation of a social service system to support long-term drug addiction and mental health needs. The Racial Divide Initiative at Prosperity Now in partnership with the City of South Bend developed a profile to analyze how racial economic inequality affects South Bend. The findings were not encouraging for communities of color. We must develop strategies to strengthen our economy for all our residents. The Racial Wealth Divide report also stated that the racial economic inequality must be at the forefront of our economic development plan. The success of our community is directly related to the financial stability of our citizen for all our citizens. Key challenges are economic development and household income in our low-income neighborhoods.

Is the city doing enough to reduce youth- and gang -related gun violence, and if not, what should the city try?

Grove: No, I personally dont believe we are doing enough... This question comes right back to the issue of being short on police officers. We need to have more officers patrolling our neighborhoods, as well as downtown. This also comes back to my economic development view, which suggests that bringing in more jobs will curb the violence. The detox center is another answer. I do apologize for being repetitive here, but I firmly believe that if we find solutions for our unemployment and drug issues, there will be a significant drop in violence. People will be clean from drugs, and employed, so they wont feel the need to burglarize homes and businesses, or even kill for drugs and valuables. We also need to implement more mentoring programs for our youth so they will feel less need to be affiliated with gangs and other violence based organizations.

Hackett: No, we are not. I was a South Bend Police Officer for 11 years. Crime has risen since I have left. To reduce youth-related crime we have to engage with them in school. We have to have a plan B or C for them. If college is not right for them, then we need trade schools for them.

Hamann: Statistics may indicate that violent crime is down in the city. However, it is also true that the current crime rate is unacceptable. Moreover, while numbers may say one thing, peoples perceptions of safety in South Bend matter deeply. And the perception is that the crime rate is high. A way to address the perceived lack of safety may be with an increased police presence in the downtown. I would continue to focus on and actually strengthen the community policing which has garnered positive results in multiple cities. Youth programs which teach conflict management and peaceful resolution have been very successful. It is also true that a lack of resources creates inferior educational opportunities for households in poverty. Families mired in poverty tend to fall into self-fulfilling prophecies regarding their future. They become discouraged by the lack of economic opportunity, choosing instead to fight for themselves.

Tomas Morgan: City leaders at all levels need to understand the depth and breadth of the public safety problem, strategies and practices in other communities, and what has worked and hasnt in our own community. There are no magic programs to pull us out of this problem. There are talented and committed leaders throughout our community who must have support to help address this problem.

The City needs to stay committed to the Group Violence Intervention and remain engaged with the National Network for Safe Communities and other networks through which we can share best practices to promote safety. The Council should continue funding in multiple departments promoting outreach and intervention to youth and young men at risk. Elected officials must support best practices in policing by providing the necessary funding, and by being present at events which strengthen relationships between police and community.

White: Gun violence is an urgent, complex, and multifaceted public health issue. Violence anywhere in our city affects all of our city. We must address this urgent issue from a community perspective. The lost of one life to gun violence is unacceptable. As we have experienced a rise in crime this year, specifically in murders and aggravated assaults compared to this time last additional resources, collaboration and intentional focus on this issue is needed. With the increase in violence more resources are needed. We must develop comprehensive programs in collaboration with residents, businesses, educational institutions, our police department, community stakeholders, and social services to broaden the discussion regarding violence. There is a need to expand programs such as GVI, SAVE and other preventive and intervention programs Solutions to gun violence must take into account the effects of law enforcement, poverty, and mass incarceration on communities of color just to name a few.

The recent fatal shooting of a black suspect by a white police officer, along with continued allegations of officers engaged in racist conversations on the so-called police tapes, have sparked increased conversation about mistrust between local police and minority communities. What must be done to improve those relationships?

Grove: Its sad that in todays world, theres still racism. Unfortunately, there will always be some form of racism, bigotry, etc. and its difficult to change minds when thats how people are raised.

However, these practices are unacceptable in any type of public servant. Police, fire, government employees, etc. are held to the responsibility that we need to take care of everyone, not just our own. It shouldnt be acceptable in anyone, but especially our public servants, who serve the people.

As a member of the common council, if Im elected, I promise transparency, and I would want to be on the committee to investigate allegations such as these. I will do my best to lead by example in this sense... ONE city. ONE people. ALL voices. South Bend should not be all about one race, political party, or sexual orientation. We are all human. We all bleed the same blood.

I only have 1,000 characters to answer this question. You could give me 10,000 and I still wouldnt be finished. Theres SO

Hackett: For the police tapes issue, fire everyone involved and take legal action against everyone involved. As for the officer-involved shooting, I can not speak about the incident because I may be called in to testify.

Hamann: This and all seemingly senseless deaths should sadden us all. There is a great deal of conversation around a focus on diversity hires within the police department. We should be cognizant of the latest research which state clearly that police department culture has more to do with white on black and black on black violence. Not that I think department diversity is a bad thing but it is certainly not a cure all. Our police department should attend cultural training and their should be a strong push toward development of neighborhood relationships and structured activities within these neighborhoods for the police to interact with local residents and local teens.

Tomas Morgan: Relationships take time and they take commitment. We all know this. As difficult as it is to measure, City and law enforcement leaders need to clearly prioritize building trust with community, and community leaders and community members must create specific, active ways to engage police officers. We must learn from the many other communities who are struggling with this, and seek to implement effective strategies for increasing communication and meaningful interaction.

Recruiting a new, diverse generation of officers into the police force could accelerate the building of relationships of trust in many sectors of our community. Visibly strengthening our accountability mechanisms such as the Board of Public Safety and simultaneously making them more visible and transparent would be signs of good faith on the part of the City which could help officers to develop community relationships.

White: The recent fatal shooting of a black suspect by a white police officer has challenged our city as never before. Coupled with the police tapes and allegations of racist conversations by some officers. Our city has acknowledged that significant work lies ahead in order to build trust between local police and communities of color. The concerns over implicit bias and the use of body cameras became a point of debate and the public outcry for justice. In response, the city has hosted a number of public safety meetings to foster input as well as, to listen to our residents concerns and recommendations. Much still remains. Discussions about implicit bias, recruitment and retention of minority officers, police-community relationships community policing initiatives, to accountability measures must continue. Public Safety must be one of our top priorities moving forward. We must stop the damaging cycle of violence and hardship in our communities by treating the root of the problem

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Where they stand: South Bend at-large council candidates share their views on the issues - South Bend Tribune

The influence of a younger generation of philanthropists on U.S. family foundations is moving these charitable organizations into more intentional, issue-focused giving and has led to greater diversity in governing boards, according to the Trends 2020 study from the National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) released on Wednesday morning.

The study, conducted in collaboration with Bank of America which also provided fundingshowed that 70% of family foundations today were established since 1990, a striking fact thats influencing foundation governance, grant-making, and investing, says Virginia Esposito, NCFP founder and president.

Even family foundations that were founded before 1990 are including younger voices on their boards and in decision-making. The study found more than half have multiple generations serving on the board, while about 10% have three or more generations. They are also adding more voices to reflect the communities they serve, with 35% including at least one person of color, and 11% including at least one member of the LGBTQ community.

Also significant: mission and impact investing has doubled since the first survey was conducted in 2015. That includes program-related investments made as part of a foundations annual required payout of 5% of the value of their net investment assets, as well as impact investments made from the foundations endowment itself.

Youre talking about a doubling of the number of family foundations that are using new practices with a whole lot more ready to either institute them or expand them, Esposito says.

The study is based on a random, statistically significant sample of more than 500 family foundations with assets of at least $2 million or annual giving of at least $100,000.

The overall results are useful for peer-to-peer learning, providing a context for family donors, to try some of these alternative ideas of practices on for size and to determine what works best for them, says Claire Costello, managing director of Bank of America Private Banks Philanthropic Solutions Group. Often they dont have this broader context to see what others are doingit tends to be an insular practice.

Among several findings, the study found that family foundations today are giving fewer grants per year, but those grants are larger in size. They are also shifting toward giving more multi-year grants, and grants that support general operating expenses or provide capacity building funds, which help organizations strengthen their systems and operations.

This reflects the personal nature of the family philanthropy and the fact that they identify grantees whose values and vision and priorities they share, and theyre willing to invest in them, Esposito says. This may be why you are seeing less of a whole lot of small grants and people beginning to be more thoughtful and perhaps more generous in significant contributions.

When Armando Castellano and his sisters, Carmela Castellano-Garcia and Maria West, became involved in the foundation their parents, Alcario and Carmen, set up shortly after winning a $141 million California lottery jackpot in 2001, they, working with their parents, narrowed their focus to three issues: arts and culture, leadership development, and education, primarily focused on the Latino community in Santa Clara, Calif., where they grew up.

The second generation also shifted from making grants toward one-off programs and events to providing multi-year grants for general operations, Castellano says.

Its very hard for organizations of color, especially, to get general operations money, he says. Theres a distinct difference of the amount and the ability and access to the philanthropy as people and the dollars. Even larger ones that have been around a long time.

That the Castellano family remains focused on their home county is common especially for more established foundations, but the shift to a focus on a specific set of issues reflects a common generational shift, one that earlier research by the NCFP had noted.

Even of those [foundations] that are place-based, 95% are issue-based within the geography, Esposito says. Were seeing families more likely to not only build off of a sense of goodwill and shared purpose, but to the coming around of some issues that they can commit to over a longer period of time.

The study released Wednesday found that 82% of family foundations formed since 2010 are shifting their focus from giving in the specific geographic region where they are based to giving to issues that matter to them as a family. Only 40% of foundations created before 1970 have an issue focus.

People are making money these days in a global economy, so the notion of a hometown where the familys business was nurtured, where the family prospered, where they want [the foundation] to thank employees and customersthat kind of economy has been changing and people have become more issue focused, Esposito says.

The areas of concern for families, however, is shifting. While education remains a top issue for 38% of families surveyed, its only cited as the number one focus area for 23% of family foundations founded since 2010. Also, only 28% of family foundations established before 1970 put poverty at the top of their list of concerns, compared with 64% of the newest foundations, the study found. Among new foundations, economic opportunity was cited by 41%.

Eleanor Frey Zagel, vice chairman of the Frey Foundation in Grand Rapid, Mich., led her third-generation family members into an exploration of how they could support the homeless in Grand Rapids, and also in northern Michigan countiesareas facing very different dynamics.

They started late last year with a call for innovative ideas to accelerate access to sustainable, quality housing opportunities in Kent County, where Grand Rapids is located, ultimately awarding a $150,000 Housing Innovation Award to the Inner City Christian Federation.

While this approach to identifying a grantee was different to anything the Frey Foundation had done previously, Zagel says their efforts to improve housing and security for the community grew out of roots planted by the second generations focus on making an impact. They just have different tools at their disposal today, she says. Were moving the needle differently.

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Family Foundations Today Want to Make an Impact - Barron's

Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel / Flash 90

{Written by Adina Shmidman and originally posted to the JNS website}

The essence of Simchat Torah is the completion of the reading of the Torah scroll, and the joy and celebration that naturally ensues from the annual culmination of the Torah-reading cycle. Because of the traditional means of celebration, womens participation has historically been more passive rather than active, which leaves synagogues with the challenge of how to include women in the full observance of the day.

Simchat Torah presents the perfect opportunity to highlight programming that addresses needs and introduces new norms, all within the parameters of Orthodoxy. Building authentic moments is the goal with the ability to inspire individuals.

Several years ago, a colleague and I were discussing this exact issue: how to create meaningful opportunities for women on Simchat Torah morning. She shared with me that in her synagogue, when the men were being called to the Torah, the women gathered together to learn Torah. It struck me that to celebrate the Torah through study is a true fulfillment of the essence of Simchat Torah.

We started the Simchat Torah morning lesson (shiur) at Lower Merion Synagogue outside of Philadelphia and, as the years went by, the idea caught on and more women attended. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Seeing how well-received this idea was in the synagogue, it was a natural decision for the Orthodox Union Womens Initiative to launch the program on a national level.

As a national program, the details are intentional and speak to our greater mission. The program is more than just a series of classes on Simchat Torah morning in individual synagogues. Highlighting local female scholars is a chance for communities to appreciate the some of the talent in their midst. Each woman comes with her own voice and Torah knowledge to share with others who are looking for inspiration and connection.

This is our second year running the program, and more than 40 synagogues around the country now are participating, elevating the holiday experience for women.

Women are coming forward and asking for these opportunities; women are offering to teach Torah; and, significantly, synagogue leadership is helping to create the space for this. And it is more than simply about Simchat Torah. Communities across the country are looking for more engaging learning from a variety of texts for women; they are searching for opportunities for growth and inspiration for women at all phases and stages.

The call to action is national, yet the action itself is local.

We are hopeful that womens learning, joy and celebration on Simchat Torah will become the North American communal norm of every synagogue, and that this momentum will extend throughout the year.

Dr. Adina Shmidman is the founding director of the Orthodox Unions Womens Initiative and rebbetzin of the Lower Merion Synagogue in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

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Making a Meaningful Morning for Women on Simchat Torah - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

City

Rapid social change and Midtown Village development are encroaching on Philadelphias LGBTQ mecca. Should we mourn its loss or embrace its evolution?

Is this the end of PhillysGayborhood? Illustration by Matt Harrison Clough

It was around one oclock in the morning, and I was standing in a long line of mostly straight Penn alumni waiting to enter Voyeur Nightclub. It was a drunk former classmate at least, I hope he was drunk who said it: Isnt this where the fags go?

The occasion was the official after-party for my five-year college reunion, which was held at one of the most popular dance parties in the Gayborhood. The reunion committees idea had been innocent enough: Given that most other clubs in Philly shut down at 2 a.m., why not venture where we could let the good times roll until 3:30?

But once we were inside, all of us, gay and straight, saw things we werent expecting. It wasnt long, for example, before visibly uncomfortable alumni were side-eyeing transgender women going to get drinks at the bar. For me, it was a sea of straight women cheering on a sash-wearing bride-to-be and refusing to share space on one of the dance floors on which I had spent so much time growing comfortable with my own identity. Worse, the racial segregation was unmistakable: Black and brown attendees were packed in a smaller upstairs lounge that was pumping out hip-hop hits, while the main floor was predominantly white, with a DJ spinning mostly dance/techno pop music.

There goes the neighborhood, I thought as the last illusion I had of this part of the city as an inclusive yet uniquely gay space dissolved before my eyes.

Over the past few years, the death of the Gayborhood a phrase once uttered in mock horror whenever a favorite hangout changed hands or a well-known institution screwed up has taken on an air of inevitability. The areas legendary staples, 12th Street Gym and More Than Just Ice Cream, are no more. Two popular Gayborhood bars, Venture Inn and ICandy, have closed down, and Voyeur and Woodys have tried to broaden their customer base by hosting bachelorette parties, exotic male revue shows for women, and even NFL watch parties. Mazzoni, the citys leading LGBTQ health-care center, relocated and lost its executive director and senior management amid staff turmoil. Franny Price, the veteran producer of Philly Pride one of the countrys largest annual gay celebrations is stepping down after more than 25 years, with no successor in sight.

Coloring all of this loss are a host of gentrification and diversity issues with which the citys LGBTQ community has only recently begun to grapple. Yet in the wider Philadelphia culture, LGBTQ representation and acceptance are at an all-time high. We saw this in the political arena in 2018, when two openly gay black candidates, Malcolm Kenyatta and Alex Deering, competed for a state House seat in the 181st District a section of North Philadelphia thats both geographically and economically distant from the Gayborhood. (Kenyatta would go on to win, joining Gayborhood-area Representative Brian Sims as the states only two openly gay legislators.) Then, in 2019, five openly LGBTQ candidates ran in the City Council primary.

Citywide, LGBTQ visibility is similarly increasing in the cultural realm: Large-scale LGBTQ-themed events have moved beyond the traditional Pride weekend in June and Outfest in October, and many former Gayborhood event producers and performers are booking venues throughout the city. For many Philadelphians, the Gayborhood is no longer the sole place for an LGBTQ experience, but just another option in a growing field of inclusive alternatives.

During this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall riots in New York, which brought the gay rights movement in the U.S. to mainstream attention, members of Phillys LGBTQ community are reflecting some wistfully, some critically on what the Gayborhood means today, and wondering whether theres really anything left to be lost by venturing outside the neighborhoods now-fading rainbow-painted crosswalks.

In the 1950s, Center City in the vicinity of 13th and Locust streets, which we now call the Gayborhood, was known as the Locust Strip a red-light district full of strip and hustler bars, some of which catered to a gay clientele. The Strip also had another, more disparaging name the gay ghetto but at a time when people who frequented gay-oriented businesses faced public scrutiny and harassment, it was a lifeline. Even before Stonewall, says Franny Price, who has lived in the city for 62 years, the gay ghetto was an area where we LGBT people had a sense of belonging.

When the gay bars and shops were lumped in with the undesirable elements of the 60s and 70s and threatened with police raids, the attacks had the effect of galvanizing the community, says Bob Skiba, a Gayborhood historian and curator. Gays formed a business association and a neighborhood watch to police their own territories.

In the wake of extensive civil rights work by LGBTQ activists around the country in the 1970s and during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the openly gay character of the neighborhood was firmly entrenched by the time City Paper editor and columnist David Warner described an Outfest celebration as a beautiful day in the gayborhood in the early 1990s. By 1999, the term Warner had coined was appearing on maps, and developer interest soon stoked a rapid revitalization that would turn the area from a collection of bars and niche businesses into a hot spot filled with high-end restaurants and retailers.

City institutions played their own large roles in the Gayborhoods growth. In 2003, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, now known as Visit Philadelphia, launched a hugely successful campaign inviting potential visitors to Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay. Three years later, then-mayor John Street demarcated the neighborhood with 36 rainbow-striped street signs (there are now nearly twice as many) so LGBTQ visitors and residents could identify it as a safe and welcoming place.

Despite this official gay-forward posture, market forces were already starting to weaken the Gayborhoods identity. An early-2000s effort by developer Tony Goldman to rechristen the 13th Street corridor as Blocks Below Broad, or B3, mercifully never caught on. But a more recent developer appellation, Midtown Village, now threatens to subsume the Gayborhood entirely. It first began appearing on tourist maps as Midtown Village in Philadelphias Gayborhood, says Skiba. Next, maps showed two separate areas Midtown Village to the north and the Gayborhood to the south. This year, Ive seen maps showing only Midtown Village, with text mentioning the Gayborhood, a part of Midtown Village.

The businesses underneath those pride-inspired street signs are undeniably getting straighter. And while some observers would suggest that the change is a natural consequence of widespread LGBTQ acceptance, others argue its a painful sign of gentrification thats erasing the identity, culture, and intersection of racial and gender diversity within the Gayborhood.

Our community continually grows more divided and diluted, says Zach Wilcha, executive director of the Independence Business Alliance, an association of LGBTQ business owners. As more straight-identified folks and businesses move within the Gayborhood, LGBTQ identity of that space becomes diluted.

Whats been particularly challenging to witness over the years is not just the loss of LGBTQ businesses, spaces and organizations, but the loss of a larger sense of culture and community, says Amber Hikes, the former executive director of the citys Office of LGBT Affairs. We see this in cities around the world, but Philadelphias density allows us to feel the sting of gentrification in a unique way.

The Gayborhood has changed along with all of Center City, counters Valerie Safran, who with her partner, Marcie Turney, owns Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyns, and several other popular restaurants and retail shops in the neighborhood. I remember a time when 13th Street between Spruce and Locust was a little sketchy late at night lots of drugs and prostitution.

While many in the Gayborhood bemoan its decline due to straight residents gentrifying the area, Turney has a different outlook. The world has changed, she says. I dont want to separate people out based on anything. Were welcoming everyone here.

It was Visit Philadelphias marketing that made me consider Philly as a place to live when I was applying to colleges on the East Coast a decade ago. I grew up in Texas, where LGBTQ rights and safe spaces were either rare or nonexistent, and from the outside, Philly seemed to have its act together in terms of drawing a diverse crowd of people to a majority-minority city that also embraced LGBTQ people. But in living here, Ive learned that what was depicted in those travel ads wasnt telling the full story.

As a freshman in college, I reveled in the queerest place I had ever been, too wrapped up in the excitement of my own coming-out to notice any of the undercurrents of change in the neighborhood. But my time at Penn coincided with one of the first dominoes to fall: the 2013 closure of Sisters, a landmark lesbian bar that had evolved into a truly intersectional space embracing people of all identities.

It was then that I really began to feel the vibe shifting. Our drag shows became brunch/dinner parties for straight people who were new fans of the hit TV show RuPauls Drag Race. Our queer nightclub go-go dancers became eye candy for straight women at their bachelorette parties. Our beloved Pride flag and rainbow crossroads became Instagram-worthy snaps completely divorced from any appreciation for the people whod had to fight to make them happen. The Gayborhood stopped being a neighborhood in which the most marginalized could find and be themselves and started to feel more like a tourist attraction for cultural voyeurs.

Around this time, two national movements Black Lives Matter, spearheaded by queer black women, and the fight for marriage equality, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2015 awakened my social consciousness. By then, I was a young journalist covering the community, and I began to notice ownership and leadership disparities at Gayborhood spaces, which were led predominantly by cisgender white men despite the notable role that people of color across the gender spectrum played in shaping the areas history.

Others had, of course, seen this before I did. Longtime community activist Michael Hinson, the citys LGBT liaison under Mayor Street, had advocated for more inclusive policies within the citys LGBTQ community as the Gayborhood grew in commercial prominence. While some initiatives, such as increased funding for LGBTQ nonprofits, improved due to the Gayborhoods newfound viability, he says there were unintended consequences that began to overshadow the progress.

Generally speaking, the Gayborhood has benefited from years of public- and private-sector attention, creativity and resources, thanks to high-end housing, the Avenue of the Arts, shopping, restaurants, and coffee and other specialty shops, Hinson says. Along with these benefits, we have, unfortunately, seen the displacement of social and other safe places for some communities, including the homeless, transgender individuals, young people of all backgrounds, and communities of color.

It got to the point where I could no longer ignore the tragic irony of the Gayborhood: Formerly marginalized LGBTQ people were still marginalizing some of their own in the one place that was supposed to be safe for all of us.

I stopped going out to the Gayborhood on weekends after being told about impromptu dress codes at nightclubs that never seemed to apply to the white guys in the line. Then, in 2016, Darryl DePiano, the owner of the now-closed ICandy nightclub, referred to a black former employee as a nigger repeatedly on video. The resulting controversy served as vindication for LGBTQ community members of color who had long been raising concerns about racism in the Gayborhood. The offensive video and the uncovering of several incidents of racial profiling and discrimination at Gayborhood bars and nonprofits prompted LGBTQ activist groups to boycott and protest these institutions, which in turn prompted additional business and leadership turnover.

Over the past year, Ive felt that finding authentic and intentional LGBTQ experiences outside of the Gayborhood was a necessity, but one thats been easier than I expected. Diverse queer house parties have popped up in West Philly, out indie artists are performing in South Philly, and theres no shortage of LGBTQ networking events around Fishtown. But for some people, adjusting to the idea that LGBTQ life and perhaps even a better, more modern and inclusive version of it exists away from the Gayborhood is bittersweet.

I had hoped that the Gayborhood would stay a safe place, but I dont think it is anymore, says Matthew Beierschmitt, a longtime Gayborhood DJ and community advocate. But I still think we need to find a way to rely on each other like we used to and keep fighting for all of us, not just some of us, inside and outside the Gayborhood.

We have to face the fact that queers create great and impactful culture and communities, and that non-queers then want to participate in and even steal that culture, says Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center and a longtime Gayborhood resident. We saw that during the Harlem Renaissance, during the Pansy Craze of the 1930s with the commodification of black ballroom culture, and now in mainstream culture from Broadway to Netflix. I believe that by the time our culture is commodified by the mainstream, we move on and create new and even more exciting cultural projects.

Its that thought, I believe, that we need to embrace: Every time weve lost control of something that was ours, weve regrouped and blazed a different path. Its time to cast one last backward glance at the Gayborhood that launched Phillys robust LGBTQ culture, take a deep breath, and move on.

Published as There Goes the Gayborhood in the October 2019 issue of Philadelphia magazine.

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