TSAL April-May 2022 Mixtape: Community Care and Intergenerational Healing

April-May 2022

TSAL Monthly Newsletter

MORE SOUL FOOD Artist: Titus Kaphar

COMMUNITY CARE INTERGENERATIONAL HEALING

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TSAL Monthly Newsletter

APRIL-MAY 2022

MORE SOUL FOOD Read | Watch | Listen

CONTENTS 1 COVER 3 GUEST EDITOR LETTER 5 SOUL CHECK 8 MIXTAPE 9 TEAM FEATURE 12 VIBES + STUFF 23 MIND 24 CONNECTION 25 SPIRIT 26 CLOSING Activating Space. Activating People.

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APRIL-MAY 2022

TSAL Monthly Newsletter

COMMUNITY CARE

Artist: Darius Steward

GUEST EDITOR: DR. MARTHA POTTS “Our genius lies in our capacity to make meaning through the creation of narratives that give point to our labors, exalt our history, elucidate the present, and give direction to our future.”

Neil Postman, The End of Education

As a prerequisite to my first solo trip to Rwanda, Africa, I decided I owed it to myself and the Rwandan people to engage in some serious introspection to conjure up and face the biases and assumptions I held about Africa and African people. I found myself reflecting on my childhood in Buffalo, New York where my mother, two sisters and I, lived in one of the multiple housing projects in the city. Every Saturday morning, while still in my pajamas, I’d grab a bowl of cereal, turn on the TV and watch cartoons for the better part of the morning. These cartoons were a weekly, narrative drumbeat for me and children of all hues whose formative years occurred during the 60’s. The cartoons were just one of the many narrative methods used to indoctrinate children of my generation.

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APRIL-MAY 2022

TSAL Monthly Newsletter

COMMUNITY CARE

Artist: Sanford Biggers

That pre-travel soul-searching proved to be the most important step in preparation for my first and subsequent trips to Africa. During every human interaction, I was keenly aware of, what had previously been, subliminal negative narratives. I was able to consciously interrupt them and immediately replaced the old with a new narrative I’d created. I played it silently in my head, on a loop, like a broken record anytime I interacted with an African for any reason (no matter how small or seemingly insignificant). The new narrative was “Your life has absolute value, and you are worthy of the upmost respect.” I cannot overemphasize the degree to which this had an immediate and profound impact on the quality of the relationships I had while in Rwanda. Even though Rwandans were consumed by the trauma of the genocide, they embraced me with kindness and treated as a family member. I was treated with kindness, care and respect by individuals, communities, and government officials. The experience taught me about the power of narratives, particularly the narratives we hold about other people.

As of late, the power of narratives has again become increasingly figural for me. This awareness resurfaced during dialogues with 3rdSpace team members, Mordecai Cargill and Brandon Wafford. They shared how challenging and surreal it is to have conversations with community/social change leaders that seem to be reminiscent of conversations that took place in the 60’s or 70’s. The equity needle on the wealth gap, home ownership, segregation, median household wealth, health outcomes, etc, and has barely moved.

The conversation caused me to wonder if one of the many conditions attributed to this sluggish transition toward equity is in no small measure due to the ‘glue’ of powerful negative narratives that have the ability to hold social systems in place.

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APRIL-MAY 2022

TSAL Monthly Newsletter

COMMUNITY CARE

COMMUNITY CARE Artist: Darius Steward

Maturana and Varela, Chilean biologists developed a theory they called 'autopoiesis' (self-creation). It described the capacity of living cells to reproduce and organize themselves. This theory found its way to social systems theory. When viewed through a social systems lens, autopoietic social systems are self-referential closed systems of communication that constantly reproduce and evolve themselves via the repetition of their own operations, i.e., reproducing themselves in their own image.

Michael Foulcault identifies the same phenomenon in Archeology of Knowledge in the following way: “And the great problem presented by such historical analyses is not how continuities are established, how a single pattern is formed and preserved, how for so many different, successive minds there is a single horizon, what mode of action and what substructure is implied by the interplay of transmissions, resumptions, disappearances, and repetitions, how the origin may extend its sway well beyond itself to that conclusion that is never given…”

IJS, the idea is something to think seriously about. I’m not proposing it as the single answer to the snail’s pace of the equity dilemma, but my personal experience has taught me that negative narratives about Black folks are pervasive at every level of our society. Maybe a good place to begin looking for narrative change is within.

From the Desk of the Resident Elder

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SOUL CHECK

EVELYN

Joy, thrive, & soul

intent, How Hope, have you been practicing care & courage for yourself and for the people you care about?

JENINA

MAURA

Artist: Titus Kaphar

BENJAMIN For myself, I'm taking walks in nature as the weather improves in Cleveland's beautiful metroparks. For others, I'm writing letters and postcards; slowing down to hand-write is an important practice to show care and thought to others in my life. I collect postcards waiting for the right person and moment to send them. Analog communication is so needed in today's world!

Justice, expansive, & liberatory

DR. MARTHA

At this, the third stage of my life, I’m savoring the sweetness of life and continually peeling away layers that have long outlived their usefulness. I’m valuing other ways of knowing (sense, touch, heart, energy, feeling, loving freely, openness…) and leaning into myself and trusting my journey as it unfolds. More of an authentic me is emerging that’s available to me and available to share with the people I love and care about.

BILL

BRANDON

For myself, I have been reading my news in places where there are no comments.

For others, I have been unplugging in the evenings and spending time with my wife and daughter with no distractions.

I pay close attention to my own health, welfare, and maintenance to best care for my community. I celebrate during Friday karaoke, I travel to friends, and I sleep.

Ubiquitous, EVELYN tangible, justice I've been taking care of myself by going to

bed much earlier on the weekdays so I can rise earlier to do yoga + exercise before I start the work day.

MAICA

JENINA I practice care for myself by practicing the core things that ground me: writing, reading, and watching films. Writing is a daily form of rigorous memory keeping that I am trying to pick back up again. For literature, I find books that read as atmospheric sketches of places as comforting (current reads are Jessica Au’s Tokyo in Cold Enough for Snow and Dung Kai-cheung's Hong Kong in A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On).

Lastly, Wong Kar-wai’s films are always a visual treat.

As for practicing care with others, I’ve been able to visit both old and new friends in the city after almost 3 years of just Facetimes and Zooms! I also find the train rides to the city as meditative and quiet.

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SOUL CHECK intent, How Hope, have you been practicing care & courage for yourself and for the people you care about?

MAURA

Artist: Titus Kaphar

MAURA

MORDECAI

I've been practicing care for myself and for the people I care about by spending more time with my 90-year-old grandfather, who has always been my favorite storyteller. I love to stop by with lunch and watch baseball games and his favorite movies with him in his living room. It's somehow both peaceful and joyful, and I feel grounded when I'm with him.

I’ve been prioritizing rest + recovery for my own health (got COVID in Israel). That was a practical matter—I was so tired at times that I actually wasn’t very helpful or thoughtful or present. So I had to check myself and also lean into my belief in My Squad…Practicing care for others comes much more naturally (in general), but it’s taken on a greater significance recently.

Joyful, bold, & beautiful

There are ALWAYS so many things for our team to manage + pay attention to, and at times, The Grind (or completing our to-do list) feels very much like Sisyphus rolling a boulder up a hill and watching it roll back down to the start. I’ve been trying to be much more deliberate about acknowledging that this is hard work and we’re trying our best to do The Right Thing (in our own imperfectly human ways).

SETH

SHAMMAS

I've been spending a lot more time talking to people about their health and just making more space to destigmatize talking about health in general.

I've been trying to practice five or ten minutes of meditation every morning to start each day with reflection, positive thinking, and intentionality. There's no easy answer to the turbulence of life, but I'm hopeful that trying to center joy, love, and calm in each day can help with that turbulence.

BRANDONMAICA

TREVOR

TRISTEN

Started seeing a therapist again after a much-too-long hiatus to give myself time + support for self-care, which will also help me care + give more for those I love.

As RuPaul says: If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?

thirdspace ACTION LAB

I have been leaning into the joys in developing interdependency in my friendships. I have been encouraging myself to practice vulnerability as I navigate grief, heartbreak, accomplishments, and more while hopefully creating a space for my friends to do the same.

PLAYLI 67

3 words to encapsulate your vision for a Black loving world

SOUL CHECK MIXTAPE DR. MARTHA MS. TINA COMMUNITY CARE Hope, intent, & courage & INTERGENERATIONAL HEALING

Peaceful, pure, & amazing

This month's mixtape was curated using music that moves us to feel our Joyful, connections to bold, one another & beautiful whether it be our neighbors down the street or the spirit of our ancestors. It provokes themes of love, gratitude, sorrow, hopefulness, and transformation.

MAURA

EVELYN

Joy, thrive, & soul

JENINA

Artist: Titus Kaphar

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LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST HERE ACTION LAB

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TEAM MEMBER FEATURES

THE TSAL CONSULTANTS

BRANDON WAFFORD

BENJAMIN COLLINGER

Our Spring 2022 Social Media Intern, Tristen Hall, sits down with TSAL Consultants, Brandon Wafford and Benjamin Collinger on The Work, hot takes, and beyond.

What are 5 things that you’d want people to know if they want to get to know you?

BW: 1. Went to four highschools 2. One of eight siblings 3. Been to Cuba - political grounding, transformative for thoughts on race, history and nation states 4. Avid gardener 5. Goes to karaoke every second and fourth Friday of the month

BC: 1. From St. Louis, Missouri 2. Lived in Cleveland two years 3. Venture for America fellowship working at GCP 4. Has two younger sisters 5. Like to go on hikes in the Cleveland metro parks

Bonus: Both BC and BW are fluent speakers and readers in Spanish and have traveled throughout Latin America.

What are you working on right now that’s most exciting or impactful to you?

My goal was always to review the impact. How can we better understand what it means to evaluate race?

Not only as it pertains to an equity footprint, (which is one of the tools we use, along with conducting an organizational review with racial equity), but asking what are other ways that we can see a racial, racially equitable space and place being fostered through interpersonal relationships through through dynamic learning. An example of this is coaching through Office Hours, which are new tools that Benjamin has developed for us. We have a diverse team of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, how are those perspectives showing up? And how do we evaluate it? How is it showing up in the ways that we produce and package our impact? How can we build a fuller story and a fuller picture using those perspectives, and not only in our evaluation and analysis, but also in the construction of how we even plan to talk to people. The way thats we communicate, gather, and attain knowledge are rooted in our positionalities.

I'm really interested in and excited about building up TSAL’s internal ability to manage a lot of projects and deliver great ideas to our clients. So as a growing small company and as a startup, we are trying to figure out the best ways to work with each other and make that sustainable. I've been excited in the past several months about figuring out ways that we can use our project management tool called Airtable to make sure that everybody is communicating in a way that helps us make the most of everybody's strengths, and just use transparent communication as much as we can.

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TEAM MEMBER FEATURES THE TSAL CONSULTANTS Our Spring 2022 Social Media Intern, Tristen Hall, sits down with TSAL Consultants, Brandon Wafford and Benjamin Collinger on The Work, hot takes, and beyond.

What have been some general perspectives from your clients that have been meaningful for you or is there a client’s work that you want to uplift?

We think it’s really important to get behind some of the ideas that make it really hard for organizations to reach their full potential. We see this all the time with so many amazing Latino and Black and other colleagues of color that are tremendously capable leaders that are just in a culture that is really hard for the organization to take advantage of their amazing strengths and leadership potential. They have started to realize throughout our engagements the way their culture has really stifled them. Another example is many of the foundations we work with that are not as aware of some of the dynamics happening on their staffs that impact the way they’re able to authentically engage with their communities. Or public policy coalitions that are very aware of the contours of race and racism but sometimes they need a strategist to figure out how to communicate that through the public. How can we make the case for racial equity and inclusion in different ways based on the people we are trying to help move for their particular needs?

I would love to uplift the newsletter and it’s consistently growing and it’s a really awesome evaluation metric for our team. You can see where our team’s design is going, where our team literally is going in size, what our team is thinking about, the events our team is going to and what music we listen to. I think that because it has all of us reflected in it it really does a great job at demonstrating some of pride in joy in terms of our projects and radical thinking–it really allows for us to explore without parameters.

How are you both as consultants, thinking about how not to reproduce some of the same inequities and systems within TSAL? What are some of the daily or philosophical practices that you engage in to continually push back?

It takes some really powerful grounding everyday to prepare for this work. And the first one is friendship.

I'm consistently on the schedule, connecting with friends, whether it be to travel and work, or messaging Benjamin to recalibrate because so much of my race work right now is de-centering whiteness. I do this work for myself, for my community, for those who I see when gay bill is on my screen, and Northeast Ohio's human trafficking is on the rise and those are the folks who, when I do this work, I'm thinking about them. All of these points of disparities are Black people, right? Young Black people, queer Black people, young Black women, and immigrants who are Black. And so it's really important to me that I don't get lost in the shiny dollar signs of whiteness. And instead, I ground myself in the reality that's very much outside my door, and can be inside as well at times.

I think one of the ways that we think about it within the team is, how can we identify some of the racial narratives that are impacting the ways that we work together? Who gets assigned? What and how do we talk to each other? How does our positionality, as Brandon says, impact the way that we present on calls with our clients, and the ways to create spaces of belonging and celebration of everybody. It is also about being really open to talking about the specific dynamics that are happening within a company and why they're happening, and how people's identities and places of power influence that. Whether that's in hiring as we did in the info session, which was intended to be a less intimidating way for a prospective candidate to get to know us than an interview and hopefully attract more people who wouldn't otherwise apply. And it's also thinking about how to make sure that we are supporting businesses that are also Black-owned, or are also getting started and need support from customers to get going in the same way that Evelyn and Mordecai did several years ago, whether it's true hiring for events or catering.

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TEAM MEMBER FEATURES THE TSAL CONSULTANTS Our Spring 2022 Social Media Intern, Tristen Hall, sits down with TSAL Consultants, Brandon Wafford and Benjamin Collinger on The Work, hot takes, and beyond.

Time for hot takes: What hill would you die on?

Chicago is the best city in the motherf**** world. It’s the best city in the world because if you’ve ever been in summertime Chi “ahh” as Kanye says just put your hands in the sky. It’s the best city in the world because it’s a home of immigrants, it’s an immigrant city through and though yet it’s nestled in the middle of the country. It’s a hot take because I’m in Cleveland! Chicago in a lot of ways is like a diamond in the rough. When you move into Chicago: it’s the tech, the skyscrapers, the reliable buses and transportation, and a lakefront that has beaches in the hood. You know I’m from the Southside Rainbow beach, and 55th Street beach is on the southside. It’s cool and I grew up around that. Not only that, but our winters! Though they may be traumatizing, we are prepared for them! Not to mention, I learned Spanish en el barrio, on the street in order to kick it. Food is banging, deep dish pizza, pizza puffs, and Italian beef.

The hot takes come up in conversation. They come up because I’m like actually I totally disagree and here’s why. I’ll say one thing about what the hot take idea is. So TSAL is so enamored with hot takes because I think we were born on a hot take which is a different way the counters or race and racism in Cleveland and around the country. Of course that’s been powered by the REI, but it’s also been powered by our co-founders who are outspoken in a way that very few people are. We try to use the idea just to make sure that we are being really honest with each other. Being controversial is sometimes what you need to move things forward.

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VIBES + STUFF

WHAT'S NEW TSAL OPPORTUNITIES PAGE LINK TO OUR OPPORTUNITY PAGE HERE

First Year Cleveland (FYC) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

LEARN MORE The executive director is responsible for articulating First Year Cleveland’s (FYC) vision and mission, implementing strategies to achieve its priorities set forth by the strategic plan, maintaining and expanding strategic partnerships, supervising FYC staff, and overseeing advocacy efforts.

Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

LEARN MORE Serve as executive assistant to the CEO in schedule manage management, routine communications, and external relationships, especially with executive assistants to board members and peer executives.

ClevelandVOTES COMMUNICATIONS +NARRATIVE STRATEGIST

LEARN MORE Communications + Narrative Strategist will serve as the day-to-day staff person who will be responsible for all communication and marketing activities that promote and protect Cleveland VOTES’s mission and brand reputation.

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VIBES + STUFF The Soul of a Movement: Reimagining Justice with Community Wednesday, May 4 @ 1PM ET

LEARN MORE HERE Exploration of how arts and culture and community organizing challenge traditional notions of community justice, and how they can be reimagined.

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VIBES + STUFF Flex Your Voice!

Wednesday, May 17 @ 6PM ET

REGISTER THROUGH THE LINK HERE

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VIBES + STUFF TEXTURES EXHIBITION: The History of Art and Black Hair September 10, 2021 - August 7, 2022 Kent State University

LEARN MORE HERE

The exhibition runs from September 10, 2021 - August 7, 2022, and synthesizes research in history, fashion, art, and visual culture to reassess the “hair story” of peoples of African descent. This symposium surrounds these histories and convenes thinkers and creators from a variety of backgrounds to discuss, engage, and celebrate ideas pertaining to Black history, hair, beauty, and culture.

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VIBES + STUFF Past Masters, Master Teachers, and Modern Artists:

The Preservation of Her Calling: Dr. Tameka Ellington from the Inner-City Streets of Cleveland to Designer and Motivational Speaker A Lecture and Book Signing

May 14 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Cleveland History Center, Norton Gallery 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE

In this presentation Dr. Ellington will tell the story of her journey from growing up in the Glenville neighborhood, to being the first in her family to attain a degree. She went on to work as a designer in the high pace fashion industry and years later became the first Black Professor of Fashion at the Kent State University Fashion School. Now Dr. Ellington is living in her true calling of being an internationally recognized empowerment speaker. Dr. Ellington and Dr. Joseph L. Underwood servd as the co-curators for “TEXTURES: The History and Art of Black Hair, an exhibition at the Kent State University Museum that will remain on view through August 14, 2022.

For more information, please contact Dr. Regennia N. Williams, the curator/coordinator for the series and Distinguished Scholar of African American History and Culture, at rwilliams@wrhs.org or (216) 721-5722, ext. 1516.

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VIBES + STUFF FLOW AND GROW: Midtown Neighborhood Community Tree Planting and Celebration April 30, 2022 @ 12:00PM - 4:00 PM ET 6709 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44103

SIGN UP FOR A SLOT HERE

To celebrate this year's Arbor Day, MTC will host Flow and Grow: MidTown Neighborhood Community Tree Planting and Celebration on April 30th from 12-4 p.m. at the Dunham Tavern. The event will feature local food as well as a yoga session from instructor Shelli Reeves. AJ and The Confirmation Band will also perform!

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VIBES + STUFF PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING IN ACTION Sunday, May 15 @ 2:30-4:30 PM

LEARN MORE HERE

Mark your calendars for the afternoon of Sunday, May 15th! That's when PB CLE will host “How Do YOU PB CLE?” an interactive education event around town.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members age 14 and up directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It is a 5-step process that lasts a year and repeats for each new PB cycle:

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VIBES + STUFF RECESS CLEVELAND: FREE YOGA IN-PERSON CLASSES Every Wednesday @ 4:30-5:30 PM

LEARN MORE HERE

Join Recess Cleveland every Wednesday from 4:30pm-5:30pm for an all-levels slow flow yoga class at no cost! Beginner's welcome. You will feel grounded, relieved, and have a clearer mind after each session. You will practice your breathing as she guides you through easy-to-follow yoga postures.

Requirements: Please bring a yoga mat with you.

What to expect?

Recess Cleveland is a local nonprofit that builds healthy, active, and social communities using recess and organized sports. We'll play games like Dodgeball, and Gellyball and many others!

But what about COVID...

Recess Cleveland has spent the past year researching and practicing ways to get out a play safely during a pandemic. We've also partnered up with Neighbor Up and we will distribute FREE MASKS and warm drinks during the event. Text WELLNESS to 216-242-2282 for more invites to our upcoming yoga classes!

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VIBES + STUFF CLEVELAND VOTES: EARLY VOTING Tuesday, May 3

443VOTE.US

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VIBES + STUFF ART FUTURES FELLOWSHIP

Application deadline: Wednesday, May 11, 2022

LEARN MORE HERE APPLY HERE

FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art occupies a unique place in the arts ecosystem of Cleveland. As the organizer of a major international contemporary art exhibition and a convener of visual arts institutions in the region, FRONT is an important platform for artists to gain recognition and build careers. In this role, FRONT has a responsibility to help turn the tables on systemic inequity in the visual arts by increasing access to opportunities and resources for local artists of color.

FRONT is introducing a three-year Art Futures Fellowship program for emerging Northeast Ohio-based visual artists of color (Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian American Pacific Islander) that will provide significant and sustained financial and professional support for career development and opportunity. The Fellowship will be awarded on a three-year cycle to three recipients who live and work in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Portage, or Summit counties. Awardees will be honored at the FRONT Gala on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

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VIBES + STUFF Creating a Fashion Photograph Sunday, May 8 @ 2PM CMA’s Gartner Auditorium | A public reception will follow the event.

LEARN MORE HERE PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Three Men, 2018. Micaiah Carter (American, b.

1995). Image courtesy of Aperture, New York, 2019. © Micaiah Carter

Gold Finger, New York, 2019. Adrienne Raquel (American, b. 1990).

Image courtesy of Aperture, New York, 2019. © Adrienne Raquel

New Orleans, 2017. Arielle Bobb-Willis (American, b. 1994). Image courtesy of Aperture, New York, 2019. © Arielle Bobb-Willis

When viewing the latest editorial spread from your favorite fashion magazine, have you ever wondered what goes into creating the image?

Hear three artists featured in The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion—Cleveland-born photographer and art director Adrienne Raquel (GQ, Vanity Fair, and Paper Magazine), photographer and stylist Arielle Bobb-Willis (Lil Nas X, Lady Gaga, and Billie Eilish), and stylist Jermaine Daley (Interview Magazine) — discuss how collaboration between the photographer, stylist, and editor is crucial to the making of the fashion photograph.

CMA Assistant Curator Darnell-Jamal Lisby moderates the conversation.

Made possible by the Fran and Warren Rupp Contemporary Artist Fund

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MIND

The Intellectual Work

READ Beyond Research, Taking Action Against Racism Heather Tirado Gilligan

"The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated that access to care is crucial to public health. Increasingly at Mass General Brigham that has meant providing care beyond the hospital walls, and even outside ofthe community clinics that are also partof the Mass General Brigham system. Such work falls under the purview of Taveras, Mass General Brigham’s chief community health equity officer, a position—along with Bryant’s job as senior medical director for health equity—that was created as part of the UnitedAgainst Racism initiative. The two work closely together on improving clinical care for patients and making care accessible to community members who aren’ttheir patients."

READ Surviving Prison is 90% Mental. That’s Why I Teach Workouts That Strengthen the Mind Aaron M. Kinzer

"The sessions I lead are intense enough to match the mental strain that we endure daily: the rejected phone calls, denied visits, humiliating random pat-downs and other microaggressions."

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CONNECTION The Community Work

REST Rest Supports Grieving: Grief Rituals The Nap Ministry, Tricia Hersey

“Grief comes when people miss one another…Grief is an emotional recognition that something is missing. To acknowledge rather than dismiss this missing is a sacred act of reverencing absence. We can miss what has been – a person, a thing, a relationship, or a commitment, that no longer exists. We can also miss what has never been.”

LISTEN Session 162: Processing Our Collective Grief Dr. Joy Harden Bradford

"Much of what we’ve been experiencing in various ways over the past couple of months is grief. Grief related to the loss of loved ones, our previous way of life, and our ideas about what 2020 would look like.

To help us dig a little deeper into what grief looks like given our current state of affairs, Dr. Ajita Robinson is back with us this week. Dr. Robinson and I chatted about our collective sense of grief, how our rituals around grief have been upended, the importance of processing symbolic losses, and her thoughts about the work that will need to be done on the other end of the pandemic."

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SPIRIT The Soul Work

LEARN The Four Bodies: A Holistic Toolkit for Coping With Racial Trauma Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu | Instagram

"While the only way for us to truly heal from racial trauma is for racism to be dismantled, my hope is that this toolkit can offer some guidance on how we can cope as we work towards this mission. We are so often expected to take on the role of dismantling racism that we forget that the main job of a survivor of abuse is to heal. Centering healing in our narrative is a radical act because it reminds us that we are human — something that society has tried to make us forget. Now is the time to lean into practices that our ancestors set aside for us."

LISTEN Cultures of Care Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley

"Cultures of Care learns from and builds on the legacy of care work. The practices in Cultures of Care might take the form of a party, a social space, work culture, the grief circle, or a previously unseen image. These practices are innovations that respond and adapt to needs by creating systems and knowledge. For the practitioners profiled here, their collective care practices arise out of a need to protect against forms of violence perpetuated by multiple forms of othering. They have reclaimed the value of care not just as a practice of love, but as explicit and implicit refusals of our dominant economic and political systems."

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APRIL-MAY 2022

TSAL Monthly Newsletter

COMMUNITY CARE

Artist: Titus Kaphar

“If we don’t amend history by making new images and new representations, we are always going to be excluding ourselves.”

— Titus Kaphar, Source

Dear Comrade, Thank you for spending time on an inner journey through our monthly mixtape. We recognize the ways we are physically and spiritually tied to all of the facets that make up our lived experiences are is inextricably tied to where we’ve been. This April and May ThirdSpace Action Lab has been grappling with how we can become actively invested in community care and intergenerational healing? Through our visual conversations we challenge our team and our communities to consider our responsibility in repairing our spirits from things inherited and in our current realities.

In the quotation the cover and closing artist, Titus Kaphar, speaks the core of our theme by acknowledging that there must be shifts in our practices, teachings, and beliefs that align with our current realities and anticipated futures. In a podcast with NPR titled, “How can we address centuries of racism in art,” Kaphar details how binary thinking often clouds the discourse about how to reckon with the past. The questions are usually framed as either maintain the old or replace it with the new without. Kaphar believes that we must apply a critical creative lens to allow room for both.

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APRIL-MAY 2022

TSAL Monthly Newsletter

COMMUNITY CARE

Artist: Sanford Biggers

Our second featured artist emphasizes the nuance that Kaphar speaks of through his work by honoring contemporary social issues through deeply historical artistic methods such as quilt-making and African sculpture. As we lead lives that prioritize care and healing there must be an intentional focus on the body. Sanford Biggers feels that his quilts are “portals” that hold a “repository of memory–the memory of the body.” If we were to look into the memories that our bodies hold, what would we find and how do we transform our memories that may not be as positive into vibrant futures?

Darius Steward, our third featured artist, challenges our visions of what could be in his portrayals of children. He paints images of what he says he missed out on growing up in East Cleveland. With “greater aspirations for a better life for my children and all people” his art reminds us of the beauty of dreams and imagination as we grieve lives that could not resemble all of our potential.

When we are able to hold the multiple truths of history, move through the pain and joys of our bodies, and sustain hopefulness for the future we can actualize the power in our shared responsibility to heal and support one another.

Mindfully, TSAL TEAM

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Artist: Titus Kaphar

PEACE. Read | Watch | Listen

Follow ThirdSpace Action Lab for mo' Soul Food!

Twitter: @3rdSpaceCLE | IG: @3rdspacecle

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