Once upon a time, not too long ago, I was a new member on the DEI Committee for a nonprofit I still love. It was a beautiful early-June day, and we — the almost all-white staff and volunteer committee members — were debating how the organization should honor Juneteenth for the first time. We talked […]
Look, y’all. There’s a lot I want to say about Juneteenth; I’ll be honoring the day on Monday by taking time to write up a memory that’s on my heart. But as I’m seeing more posts and news stories in the run-up, I just cannot keep quiet about this: Saying it’s “the day enslaved people […]
I’m still resonating with the messages of unconquerable strength, love, power, and pride that surrounded me at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture last week. It’s not for me as a white woman to define what “the Black experience” is or what it means. That said, it *is* my work to try and […]
My friends. Today my heart is so full. But not in the way I expected. I spent the day at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. From the 10am opening to 3:30pm when I had to run for my plane. It still wasn’t enough time. I only finished perhaps half of the incredible […]
I think maybe I stumbled into a surprising way of doing something good? It’s small now, but it might be bigger with your help. No, don’t worry, this doesn’t end with a GoFundMe… but it is about money, and how we choose to spend it. Even when we think we’re saving it. Here’s the bottom […]
Been meaning to do this ever since Lizzo gave her amazing People’s Choice speech a couple weeks ago. Went thru the list of links in this LA Times article and donated to every single one of the activists/organizations, except the big schools and the individual artists where I couldn’t find a way to do so […]
Dear friends, I struggle with gratitude. Not the part about seeing how my life is overflowing with love and beauty and abundance, though. Hopefully, if you know me at all, you know that I know these things, deep in my heart. I struggle because gratitude is an insufficient response to a world that is unjust […]
Y’all, it has been a long long time since I felt ready to post again here. But last week, I was on a board committee call for an awesome nonprofit where I volunteer. We’re choosing a consultant to help structure our first-ever real fundraising campaign, and suddenly we had one of those Moments where there […]
Back on the beach of my heart, where so much is the same as when my family first brought me here nearly 50 summers ago. One thing is missing, though: the wreck of the SS James Longstreet, perched decoratively on the horizon during the day, a fiery blaze every sunset, until it finally rusted away […]
Honoring Juneteenth with another step on my lifelong learning journey: I didn’t know that the belated news of freedom wasn’t really being proclaimed to enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865. It was actually a warning from the Union Army “directed toward recalcitrant slaveholders,” as Isabel Wilkerson and others report. That is, the enslavers […]