A light bulb went off over my head when a friend said, “I realized I can get crushed, pinned down under a person twice my size and be totally okay. I can adjust, accept and move on." Now that's a paradigm shift I could use...
When you live in a Super Tuesday state like Maine, February is not only a month blessed with reflections on Black History. It’s a funnel through which to reflect on the decision-making skills of our fellow...
Last year we saw an incredible victory for our community here in Lewiston, Maine: Safiya Khalid became the first Somali-American and youngest person elected to our city council. . I had the honor of watching her campaign, her courage, and her hope spread through our city.
Many years ago, I learned an adage that has proven itself time and time again in my life: What you focus on grows. We often think about this phrase in the personal realm: If I focus on...
Narrative shift happens when we stop basing decisions, strategies, and policies on the current dominant narrative (think, “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps!” or “America first”) and start to purposefully ground our work in our personal values and principles. Narrative shift is our path to a better way of life. Erik Peterson of Bending the Arc Strategies shares his take on developing healthy narrative shifts.
“We’ve done our work for 15 years without a focus on racial equity and had success. So why should we make this core to our work now?” This was the primary question put...
Hmmmmmmm. Do I want to be right or do I want to be free? Now, that's a tough one. Sometimes I really, reallllllllllly want to be right. I want everyone to see things the way I see them. Wanting to be right is really about...
The project of white supremacy is deeply intertwined and at times is no different than the project of patriarchy. It is our responsibility to pull back the misogynistic interpretation of feminism that would have us ignore it, make fun of it, or push it aside as "not for me". What is feminism? What is misogyny? And what is the value to each of us of reclaiming a useful sense of these terms?
I had this cool idea for a podcast: "Yo, that's misogyny!" Inspired by the evergreen, "Yo, is this racist?", each week I and my cohost, Margaret Cho, would dissect that week's latest assault on people...
There are moments of change that completely redefine who we are - to the world, and to ourselves. How do we walk through these moments with grace and courage? How do we explore connections to race and gender that influence these changes?
