The Second Line Blog

Dear Friends and Fellow Activists,

Our brightbeam team cares about your safety and ours. 

Like you, we are closely watching the national news and government reports about the coronavirus (COVID-19) so that we can act appropriately.

We are fortunate that our organization converted to being a completely virtual team 18 months ago, which means we have the ability to keep working (so long as we’re healthy) while states, cities, and school districts take steps recommended by scientists to ensure public safety.  

At the same time, brightbeam exists to shine a light on the condition of children living at the margins of their cities, and we are deeply concerned that when schools close it will have an outsized impact on large populations of economically insecure or unhoused families. Many of our brightbeam parents and students fall into this category and we want to do all we can to make sure a tough time for all of us isn’t an even tougher time for them.As you make plans to keep your family out of harm’s way, we hope that you will keep less fortunate families in your plans. One clear way to do that is to use your voice where possible to influence local leaders to ensure there is food for students who rely on school meals for daily nutrition, and there is care for them when their parents are not able to take consecutive days off of work.

We’ve collected some actions you can take. If you have other suggestions for how we can support children and families during this time, please add them to the comments at the bottom.

• Meals on Wheels America delivers nutritious meals, friendly visits and safety checks to seniors so that no one is left hungry or isolated. You can make a donation or see if there are opportunities for you to (safely) volunteer to make an impact in your community.
• Save the Children has set up a Coronavirus Response Fund to reach children in coronavirus-affected areas and other countries at great risk. Your donations will help keep children healthy and safe, train health workers worldwide, and supply the protective equipment and other supplies frontline health staff desperately need. 
• RIP Medical Debt will take your monetary donations and eradicate the medical debt of those most in need. This helps people who are uninsured or inadequately insured to get the medical assistance they need sooner rather than later.
• The Red Cross is in urgent need of blood, platelet or plasma donations to avoid shortages as they respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Donating blood is a safe process and you should not hesitate to give or receive blood (while paying careful attention to social distancing recommendations).

We believe the power of activism changes the world, and during this time it could potentially save lives. 

Best,

Chris Stewart and the brightbeam team

This week I had the honor of chatting with two school leaders. Jasmine Bergeron of Elan Academy and Javonni Ramos of Foundation Preparatory School. Both highlighted their schools in pure joy when sharing the great work happening in their school communities. Grabbing our delicious treats of king cake and PJs Coffee specialties, I could tell that this interview would be full of energy so we began with brief introductions of the schools and their locations.  

Elan Academy sits quietly on the westbank of New Orleans and grows every year in size. Currently serving pre-kindergarten 4 through 4th grade, next year, they will grow to grade 5. And one year at a time, Elan plans to increase by one grade until they reach grade 8. 

Foundation Preparatory, currently serving kindergarten to 6th grade, is nestled in Gentilly at the long time home of what was Medard H. Nelson Elementary school. Since moving into the school site, Foundation Prep has grown to 250 students in size. 

Both schools are apart of the #SchoolsThatCare campaign run by the organization Black Education of New Orleans (BeNOLA). This initiative is in hopes to shine a spotlight on smaller but promising schools working to develop children’s unique gifts, talents, and personal needs. 

Teachers are Our Greatest Asset 

We quickly moved towards a conversation about the teachers. As a former teacher of the New Orleans charter school movement and now serving as a professor to teach even more teachers, this is a question I wanted to dive right into. I was pleased to hear how much both schools love, respect, and support the craft of the educators in their buildings. 

Both schools utilize a co-teaching model of two teachers in one room. Class sizes cap off at 25 students per room. The co-teaching model promotes a novice teacher or newer teacher to the profession to work with a more seasoned or veteran teacher who can model the skill of teaching and then allow the teacher to practice and hone skills for themselves. It also supports students receiving more personalized learning instruction by working in smaller groups. 

Ms. Bergeron informed us of their efforts to concentrate on professional development stressing that this work begins early. Professional development happens for four weeks during summer and continues every Friday of the school year. Friday’s students take part in a shortened school day so that teachers can take part in their own teaching and learning. And once a month, teachers are able to leave at 2 p.m. in support of what they call a “Health Day.” During this time teachers are encouraged to take care of themselves by heading to the doctor or fulfilling any other needs in order to take care of themselves. 

Mr. Ramos went on to explain that the teachers at Foundation Prep undergo professional development that helps them to support their students and their social-emotional lives. Students are not apart from their home lives or the traumatic experiences that may have occurred outside of school. Foundation Prep has partnered with the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies (I-WES) to train and support teachers in their work with students and mental health education. This professional development helps their teachers to learn about 1) Impact of individual and community trauma, 2) Adverse Childhood Experiences, 3) Self-community- care and resilience, 4) Restorative Justice Practices. With the help of I-WES, Foundation Prep helps to build teachers who are equipped to support their students if social-emotional issues arise. 

A Typical Day 

When asked about what a day in the life of a student looked like, Ms. Bergeron explained that every day is a new beginning at Elan Academy. The morning starts with being greeted by a school leader, followed by breakfast and brain work to get their juices flowing. Then there is a morning meeting pow-wow and classroom morning chants and affirmations that set their intentions to have a great day of learning. 

Students there also partake in learning Latin as a second language in efforts to build their capacities to learn even more words. And finally, at the end of the day, students are given a choice hour where they are able to make choices in fun activities with their peers or on their own. 

Mr. Ramos jumped in and explained that students at Foundation Prep began the day somewhat the same though the younger students were supported by the 5th graders during the breakfast hour. Students at Foundation Prep were also heavily focused on Literacy. That includes all facets: reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language arts instruction. And apart from the normal school day, students there partake in yoga classes, an effort to move their bodies and breathe in order to center themselves and continue learning. 

Parental Involvement

One of our final questions of the night was about parents and their involvement. Elan Academy has a Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) but prides themselves on their open-door policy as well as keeping their parents close and asking them what they want and need from the school. This open communication helps the staff serve their students best to build a community fostered in connection and working with each other not just for one another. 

Foundation Prep leans into their Parent Association by having it run by the school’s teachers. Parental involvement is so important to the work with student progress that the teachers have taken on that task with pride. Mr. Ramos also gave big kudos to Foundation Prep’s parent liaison who has been apart of the school since it opened. She set the foundation for the teachers to follow her lead in making phone calls to each and every parent and guardian to create the connections needed to continue the work inside of the school. 

Work and Progress 

With so many choices and so little spotlight on smaller schools and their offerings, I was happy to have met these two school leaders. While we as parents work with the changes and may not have as much time as we would like to, to do school visits or are just inundated with the emphasis on letter grades, this interview was encouraging. There are schools in the city doing the work that matters that want to offer you and your child a place to grow together in education. 

Though it seems that equitable education is out of reach for us and our children, that is not the truth. There are school sites that are continuously working and approaching school in a non-traditional fashion tailored to serve our non-traditional New Orleanian children. Let’s continue to do what we can do by asking the questions and viewing our options. You just may find the diamond in the rough you were hoping for.

This article was first posted on askmissherd.com

In celebration of the MLK holiday, and out of an effort to build power and cultivate change, the Second Annual “Black and Brown Get Down” took place last month. Sponsored and produced by Our Voice Nuestra Voz, the premise of the event was to “Break Bread and Build Community”; after all, most great things in our culture start at the dinner table. Established in 2019, out of a deep love for Black and Brown people, our shared struggle and our shared stories, this year’s event was held alongside the Muddy Mississippi at Crescent Park: Mandeville Warf, which was transformed into a beautiful and welcoming event space. 

The night began with a ceremonial welcome from the Mardi Gras Indians and the Calpulli Tonaalehqueh, danzantes Azteca, You can read more about them on their site. It was a beautiful way to honor our ancestors and set the tone for the programming that took place. 

The 200+ attendees were pre-assigned seating at tables bearing the names of notable ancestors- Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Nipsey Hussle (to name a few). Participants indulged in a family-style dinner with guided conversations around our communities, the challenges that are faced and steps we can take to build power together. As explained on Nuestra Voz’s social media page, “Without conversations, community needs cannot be identified, opportunities for success cannot be created and the barriers that keep us from building coalitions with one another cannot be broken.” 

The Black and Brown Get Down is the brainchild of Marydee Moran, co-founder and Executive Director of Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, a local non-profit advocacy group. This event was one that Moran has dreamed about since she was a child, growing up in California. Now committed to the New Orleans community, Mary has seen her dream take on a life of its own. 
At the end of the dinner, she announced the launch of one of the many transformative actions that will come from this movement: The #BlackandBrownGetDown Community Defense Fund.

This fund has been created to invest in our ability to act and defend Black and Brown people, including a bail relief fund and scholarships for undocumented students (among other things). Moran says, “ The #BlackAndBrownGetDown Community Defense Fund takes us from conversation to action. It increases our ability to act as a collective voice as we defend our communities and build our power. A community that cannot defend itself will continue to be vulnerable in a country that has historically left us voiceless, marginalized, and oppressed.”

After dinner there was dancing, celebrating and fellowship. The Black and Brown Get Down is truly one of the most uplifting events of the year. To find out more information and to sign up for other events, visit www.omv.org. 

You know the saying “train up a child?” Well, when I hear that I think of all the women in my mom’s old hair salon. When I was a kid and wanted to get my hair done, my mom would make me work for it. I used to wash hair, clean up, run errands, answer phones, you name it.

All the ladies in the salon would tell my mom how happy they were to see me working and earning. All I wanted was a blow out. Even though I didn’t understand what she was doing, other than abusing child labor laws, I understand now. She was instilling hard work in me and even showing me how helping others will make me a better person. She was showing me that to get what I want, I have to work for it. 

I watched my mom motivate, inspire and uplift so many women in that salon. The beauty salon was so much more than a place where you went to get your hair washed. It was a place for women to exhale, laugh, eat, and cry. I’m so happy to have been a part of that. 

Fast forward to 2020. I want to spotlight a young 8-years-old girl and her mother, motivating and inspiring just the way my mom did. Maybe not with a blow dryer in hand but in their own special way. Today, I want to introduce you to a mother-daughter duo that’s inspiring and uplifting young girls in New Orleans and hopefully, around the world. 

Meet Mother and daughter Windy & Peyton. They started their own brand, Peyticakes, with a mission of inspiring and empowering girls all over the world. I had a chance to sit down with them and learn more about what drives them and their goals with this amazing mother-daughter venture. 

How did Peyticakes come about and why did you start the business?

I have always wanted to transition into entrepreneurship but was never quite sure what direction I would take because I had so many ideas. After having my daughter all of that changed because she instantly became a source of inspiration. As she got older, I realized that we shared a lot of the same passions, so it was inevitable that she’d be my business partner. The name has been around for a while as it was a nickname given to her by my family. 

I decided when my daughter Peyton was around a year old that one day we’d have a business called Peyticakes, but didn’t realize how involved and influential she would be on the brand. One night we decided to create vision boards. Peyton included that she wanted to be a Fashion Designer and own a business, amongst a few other things. After our vision board party, we started to play a game called “I Am.” I asked Peyton to say words of affirmation to describe how she saw herself. I started with I Am Beautiful! and she followed with I Am Strong. We continued to play this until I think we both ran out of words lol. Then Peyton looks at me and says, “Mommy let’s put that on a shirt.” 

As a proud mom, I lit up like fire and told her this could be the start of her fashion design career and running her own business. I told her not only will she become a young entrepreneur, but she would also inspire other girls just like her to know how to speak words of affirmations about themselves too. I made her understand that this will guide those girls to remind them that they are worthy and valuable. We both agreed on 5 statements that could be the launch of her I AMCollection. 

I will say, since we’ve been working on this, she has not been shy to share with the world that she knows that she is enough! She has become a mini advocate, so we also decided to turn the collection into a movement. The “ I Am” movement encourages and teaches girls the fundamentals of knowing what their value means! We love using influence to inspire.

Why is the Message so Important? 

When I was my daughter’s age, I didn’t know what value meant or that I was ok just the way I was created. I didn’t know that being enough at the moment could be real. Generations have definitely changed over time and it’s quite different from my childhood. She’ll be faced with situations that weren’t as prominent while I was growing up. Therefore, I want her to be secure in who she is during every season of her life. 

I want her to know that she will change and evolve, and her value will increase during each stage of that evolution. I can’t say this enough: It is easier to build strong kids than to repair broken adults. The message is important to me because it’s part of my way of breaking generational cycles. It’s important for her because she will be the new generation that will lead and learn in a different way and I want her to continue to share that legacy. 

Why is education so important to you? 

Education is the foundation in building, grooming and preparing our children. I firmly believe that child development starts in the home, but the academic structure given to them teaches them what they need to learn in order to progress in life on levels that will only get by being in school. 

I instill in both of my children that education is the blueprint of their future and how they navigate through life. It’s the building block that stimulates their brains and prepares them for whatever is thrown their way. I explain to them that education is power and no one can strip you of what you know. No one! I want them to continue feeding their minds about any and everything. It’s their birthright and I want them to know how privileged they are to learn freely. I do not take that lightly. I want them to know that they are our ancestors’ wildest dreams and never take learning for granted.

What message do you and Peyton want to share with young girls? 

The message that we both want to share is for every girl to stand tall, stand strong, and to always believe in themselves. I take pride in showing Peyton how to push through when she may feel like giving up or if things aren’t so good at school one day. Because she knows that I’m here to encourage her, she wants to do the same for other girls too. My daughter is pretty confident and I love that about her. 

I want her to share her confidence with other girls to inspire them so they’ll know that they are beautiful, smart, loved, enough, worthy, awesome… The list can go on and on lol! The mission behind the Peyticakes brand is to create products, projects, and movements that will help girls embrace their beauty, talent, worth and strength and to be ok with who they are!

Learn more about Peyticakes here and follow them on instagram @peyticakes.

This article was first published at Citizen SHE United, and advocacy group in Louisiana that is building an aligned base of Black Women who inform, advocate for and enact a collective policy agenda to address the needs of Black Women across the state.

In Citizen SHE United’s first Letter To Black Women of 2020, Danielle Wright, Division Director of Navigate NOLA, pens a poignant love letter, honoring all the ways in which Black Women, bravely and mostly without acknowledgment, lead and serve the masses toward our collective liberation.

All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave

 – But Some of Us are Brave (1982)

My love letter to black women seeks to elevate and celebrate the unique bravery endemic to African-American women carrying out abolitionist work daily. This work often goes unacknowledged by society at large and even goes unacknowledged by us, the black women doing the transformational work of disrupting systemic racism. This work often goes unacknowledged because intersectional erasures leave us without a lens to understand the depth of our contributions not just to black women and to black people, but to society at large. 

Black women are standing on the shoulders of ancestral giants who have paved the way and also hard wired our DNA (epigenetics) to create a legacy of bravery through paradigm-shifting acts of social justice. What is particularly unique about the bravery that black women have exhibited across time has been this theme of forward-thinking or foresightedness as the impetus behind performing acts of bravery. 

In her famous 1850 speech, “Aint I A Woman, “ Sojourner Truth challenged white women suffragists around the politics of respectability of that era and suggested that such privileges associated within these politics of respectability, shaped by the Victorian Era, should be extended to women of color. She also challenged a movement that excluded enslaved black women from the fight for equality of all women. She had the vision for what academic scholars refer to as black feminist theory and intersectionality. It was because of her foresight, she began laying the groundwork for educator and feminist scholar Anna Julia Cooper’s scholarship in her 1892 book entitled, “A Voice from the South,” in which she so eloquently articulated the challenges that existed for women of color at the intersection of race, class, and gender during that time. As we reflect on the contemporary challenges that exist for women of color today, Anna Julia Cooper’s work is still very relevant. Her work has inspired many of our contemporary feminist scholars such as Kimberle Crenshaw, Melissa Harris-Perry, Patricia Hill Collins, Beverly Guy Sheftall, and Monique Morris. 

The colored woman of to-day occupies, one may say, a unique position in this country. In a period of itself transitional and unsettled, her status seems one of the least ascertainable and definitive of all the forces which make for our civilization. She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem and is as yet an unknown or unacknowledged factor in both…May she see her opportunity and vindicate her high prerogative

 –Anna Julia Cooper, 1892

There are countless examples of black women recognizing their opportunity and vindicating their high prerogative throughout history. In the 1800s a black woman named Lily Ann Granderson established a “midnight” school for slaves in Natchez, Mississippi. The school operated from 11 pm to 2 am. She operated during this time because Mississippi law prohibited the literacy of slaves and they were at risk of facing severe punishment. Granderson educated hundreds of slaves at her school. Today, black women continue to disrupt inequities in public education as teachers, school social workers, advocates, educational administrators and professionals working in educational policy. 

In the 1964 Democratic Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer testified before the Credentials Committee about her efforts to exercise her right to the benefits of full citizenship through voting, and the many challenges that she faced doing so in the deep south area of Mississippi. Today, black women have emerged as a collective powerhouse in the U.S. electorate.  

In 1991, Anita Hill testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about the sexual harassment that she experienced while working for Clarence Thomas, she paved the way for today’s Me Too Movement. She was the original voice of the voiceless as it relates to the seriousness of sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence against women. 

Black women continue to instinctively create space for their own healing while simultaneously breaking down barriers to create space for themselves and other marginalized groups. We participate in such acts and observe other black women performing these acts and acknowledge them as ordinary because we have normalized such extraordinary bravery. We do this by showing up each day to corporate workplaces where we are the most underrepresented group, educating students of color in an inequitable public education system, addressing the exacerbated vulnerability of people of color as mental health professionals, serving as elected officials despite the fact that we remain underrepresented in state and local politics and bringing children into the world knowing that we are three to four times more likely to die than our white counterparts during childbirth. We continue to face a wage gap even larger than women overall. Despite all of this, we are leading the nation in labor force participation, burgeoning entrepreneurship, and voter participation. All of what we contribute to the world is revolutionary and an act of abolitionism, whether we are referring to the African enslaved women who built the original levee system in New Orleans or the black women who are consumed with the day to day struggles of meeting their basic needs and the needs of their families, it is all incredibly revolutionary. 

Collectively, these brave and revolutionary acts are performed because we have the vision and foresight to understand what these acts mean for future generations to come. Sending all the love that the universe has to offer to black women. May our strength flow on forever…

Danielle Wright 

About Danielle Wright
Danielle Wright currently serves as the Division Director of Navigate Nola and is responsible for the oversight of the development and implementation of the 7 social-emotional and community wellness programs that fall under the Navigate Nola Division.

Danielle Wright is a social worker and public health practitioner. She is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, GA.

Danielle has a Doctorate Degree in Social Work from Tulane University. She also holds master’s degrees in both Social Work and Public Health from Tulane University. She is certified both in Infant Mental Health (IMH) and Disaster Mental Health (DMH). She gained IMH certification through a one-year-long Infant Mental Health fellowship with the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) Department of Child Psychiatry Harris Infant Mental Health Center. She has served as an adjunct clinical field faculty member at Tulane University’s School of Social Work.

Danielle has worked across various clinical mental health and public health settings such as LSU’s Behavioral Sciences Center, The City of New Orleans Health Department, Jefferson Parish Human Service Authority and The Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies and Communities In Schools.  

Danielle is committed to making a difference in her community and enriching the lives of the New Orleans citizenry. She is a member of several volunteer service organizations such as the Links Inc., Crescent City Chapter and African-American Women of Purpose and Power.
 

“Letter to Black Women” is brought to you weekly by Citizen SHE United. For more information visit www.citizensheunited.com.

Last year a was introduced to the man behind Exhibit Be. Over the past few years, New Orleans has become flooded with beautiful murals around town. From photos of local NOLA Icons to photos of Activists. Brandan “bmike” Odums is the man behind a few of them.

In 2014 bmike created Exhibit Be. His canvas was an abandoned five-story apartment complex located in Algiers. Brandan, as well as dozens of New Orleans street artist, filled the abandoned halls with paintings of black heroes.

“Exhibit Be” (sometimes spelled “ExhibitBE”) drew an army of viewers and became a local icon of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as New Orleans’ most exciting 21st-century artwork to date. Simultaneously, the blue and violet portraits in Odums’ murals became iconic. 

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to see Exhibit Be but I’ve visited his studio in the Bywater called Studio Be. And this Saturday I’ll be checking out his first museum titled “NOT Supposed 2-Be here” located on Tulane University campus.

Odums said that “NOT Supposed 2-Be here” includes several simultaneous themes that touch on ecology, racial identity and autobiography. 

To learn more about Not Supposed 2-Be here, Click here