plymouth area network to help end racism
2021 Annual Report
who we are
what we do
Plymouth Area Network To Help End Racism (NH PANTHER) is a small, volunteer-run, grassroots community organization. We are a collective of youth, professionals, educators, mentors, and friends standing up for the rights of all the disparaged and marginalized in our communities. Our focus is: Youth-centric Equity in Education Civil Rights We formed in June of 2020, as a response to the murder of George Floyd and in tandem with the growing movement for social justice in the United States. Our founder, Benjamin Bacote, is a high school humanities teacher, father of three, and Black. He followed the lead of his then 13-year old son, heading to the town common to march, and answered the plea of one of his former students, a graduate who wants to ensure that the students in his wake are taught an updated curriculum. Over the past two years, we have started to find our footing as an organization in a number of ways: We organized peaceful rallies, marches, and teach-ins. We supported the efforts of other regional groups, like the Youth Mental Health fund created by Black Lives Matter Seacoast. Ben spoke to crowds, had articles and op-eds published, was a guest on NHPR’s The Exchange, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and became a writer for the “3-minute Civics” column in the Concord Monitor. We joined The NoCo Collective: A Consortium of North Country Social Justice Organizations. NH PBS show Windows to the Wild chronicled our BEFSP fundraising initiative with Summits in Solidarity. We successfully gave two unrestricted community grants of $3,898 to two young people in 2021 through our Black Excellence Fund and Storytelling Project (BEFSP). We invested in a Screen-printing set-up and did a free, live printing event at Wrong Brain's 2021 Holiday Bizarre.
Plymouth NH, June 14, 2020 Rally, March and Die-In
Plymouth NH, June 21, 2020 Socratic Seminar
Plymouth NH, Nov 7, 2020 Post Election Celebration
our mission NH PANTHER's mission is to help end racism and systemic biases through community engagement, direct mutual aid, education and curriculum reform, and youth empowerment programming. We stand peacefully within the Democratic principles and rights following the New England tradition of civil public discourse. We stand for representation, recognition, and education of all as we seek to correct historic and current inequities based on race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, gender, gender representation, ability, and age. These inequities exist systematically throughout our country and its institutions, and here, in New Hampshire. We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping our country. And, we will continue to stand until the promise of our founding words are not just memorized but also realized.
Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project project description "come celebrate/ with me that everyday/ something has tried to kill me/ and has failed.” --Lucille Clifton In the spring of 2021 we conceived a project called the Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project (BEFSP). It is our goal to provide material support and a public storytelling platform directly to young (under 35) Black and BIPOC individuals across all disciplines who are striving to embody excellence against the tides of systemic oppression. The project’s mission is twofold: To provide financial support–in the form of two unrestricted charitable grants, awarded in our inaugural year to Keagan Supple and Shawtel Allen-Burdette. We are currently accepting nominations through May 31 for 2022 participants. To provide a platform for community engagement - we engage spaces that center the authentic voices and experiences of diverse NH youth. In doing so, we stand against those traditions of excellence and success that have marginalized youth. We stand in solidarity, listening to young people as they redefine what it means to excel in today’s world.
Inaugral participants
Shawtel Allen-Burdette One of our two inaugural Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project participants in 2021, Shawtel Allen-Burdette, 18, of Concord, NH, was an integral part of camp staff this past summer at Circle Program, where she received her certification in Wilderness First Aid. She is currently a senior at Concord High, where she is part of the emergency services program. After passing her practical EMT test in December, she has one more exam to complete—upon passing, she will add Certified EMT to her resume. Last year, in her own words, Shawtel told us that she is, “a dancer, a choir student, a mentee and a Leader-in-training for the Circle Program. I am also one of three African American students in my emergency services program this year. As I look back onto my younger self, I’m honestly amazed because when I was younger, I was in a bad bus accident. My Nana was told that I’d lose all my memory and be in a vegetable like state, but I proved everyone wrong and now will soon be able to help others on their worst day. Next year I plan to go to the Fire Academy and to take EMT classes to get all my certifications, as well as attending my senior year at Concord High School. At the end of my senior year I plan to apply to the Air Force Academy to become an Air Force firefighter. I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without the support from my Nana, my Papa, and the Circle Program. They showed me that as long as I put my mind to it and really try, I can achieve anything, and that no dream of mine is too big; I’m proud to be a young African American woman.”
Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project
Keagan Supple One of our two inaugural Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project participants in 2021, Keagan Supple, 19, of Brentwood, New Hampshire, is a professional Freeskier. In his own words, Keagan’s goals are “to make the World Cup Circuit in Slopestyle or Halfpipe skiing, and also to inspire more diversity in the sport of freeskiing. As a Black young adult, I am one of the only people of color participating in skiing at the professional level, and it is rare to see someone else who looks like me on the hill. During the 2021 season, I placed 9th in the Copper Mtn Rev Tour and I placed 1st in the Futures Tour at Winter Park. The 2021 season was short [due to the pandemic]; I was only able to compete at 3 venues. With the 2022 season underway, I recently placed 7th at the Mammoth Rev Tour. When I am not able to ski, my hobbies include mountain biking, trampolining, and skateboarding.”
Fundraising partnership Another local grassroots group, Summits in Solidarity (SIS), chose our project to be one of two recipients of their 2021 fundraising efforts. SIS is a hiking initiative aiming to raise awareness about how racism and white supremacy show up in hiking culture and outdoor spaces, as well as working to engage participants in the creation of anti-racist outdoor spaces and culture. Each year, they organize a hiking event to take action in support of current racial justice initiatives related to the outdoors and in support of BIPOC led initiatives. Individuals and groups sign up to hike to various peaks and places throughout the US with signs expressing solidarity with diverse communities, and call on friends and followers to join in fundraising and action in support of BIPOC-led initiatives in outdoor spaces. The event took place on June 26th, 2021, and fundraising closed on July 31. Summits in Solidarity’s call to action: “First, a call from local Indigenous representatives Indigenous NH to save and preserve sacred Indigenous outdoor spaces. Second, a call from a Black-led community org NH PANTHER to support the education and goals of Black and BIPOC youth, and to help tell the stories of these individuals striving to embody excellence against the tides of systemic oppression.” (www.summitsinsolidarity.org) As this was NH PANTHER's first initiative involving funds, and as we are an unincorporated nonprofit community organization, we found a fiscal agent to legally process the funds raised and dispersed. Global Justice Ecology Project, of Buffalo, New York, kindly entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with us. We are incredibly grateful to them for providing this service!
Black Excellence Fund & Storytelling Project 2021 project financial summary To/From
Received via GJEP
Summits in Solidarity/ Cowasuck
$8,204.58
Received Directly
Global Justice Ecology Project
Fiscal Agent Fees Paid
Funds Dispersed
Outreach Expenses
Admin/Office Expenses
$410.23
BEFSP Recipient Keagan Supple
$3,898.00
BEFSP Recipient Shawtel AllenBurdette
$3,898.00
Screenprinting supplies-screens
$345.00
Screenprinting supplies-ink,etc
$149.76
Wrong Brain/Holiday Bizarre printing stipend
$100
Website Host fees
$192
To Establish Bank Account
$60
Subtotals:
Totals:
$8,204.58
$100.00
$410.23
$7,796
$494.76
$252
Income
Expenses
$8,304.58
$8,952.99
why unrestricted? To support Black- and Indigenous- led initiatives and individuals with unrestricted funds is to trust the leadership and vision of Black and Indigenous peoples. It is a tangible way to forsake power and privilege in the ongoing struggle to decolonize. The giving of restricted funds recreates power constructs and constraints, and reinforces the "colonizer" relationship and paternalistic mindset that we wholeheartedly reject. We embrace and support the giving of funds without restriction to those in the best position to create change autonomously. It is our hope that through advocating for this type of updated giving practice, power can begin to shift, perspectives can begin to grow, youth ambition and leadership can begin to arise. To support Black- and Indigenous- led initiatives is to support the Land, is to support the Outdoors, is to support us all.
Plymouth NH, March 20, 2022 PSU Women's March
Dover, December 11, 2021 Live Printing at Wrong Brain Holiday Bizarre
Pine Mountain, July 29, 2021 Hike with Windows to the Wild
Goals & Vision moving forward Increase Giving for 2022 to $10,000 total; increase fundraising goal to $11,000 to account for 2 x $5,000 BEFSP Community Grants, $550 admin fee to GJEP, and $450 operating costs. Expand our Storytelling Project initiatives by continuing series like our Black Excellence/Black History Month Series highlighting living examples of Black success, our Community Spotlight series highlighting local leaders and changemakers, and our Did You Know? series that seeks to educate folks about civil rights, education, and health care issues in NH, especially those issues that most impact youth, through shareable infographics and best practices for social media management. Long Term Goals: host a rest retreat for BIPOC activists, build a screenprinting studio, host and collaborate a Youth Summit, continue to network with other NH organizations, obtain a physical space for community space, info-shop, mutual aid, food pantry, harm reduction resources, etc. Create a mutual aid food sustainability and garden network, organize local farm gleaning projects to distribute through food pantries, host free community meals, create a community garden program network with backyard gardeners. Host a celebratory “Festival of Black Excellence.”
Acknowledgements Thank you to Anne, Theresa, and Global Justice Ecology Project for your Fiscal Sponsorship and all of your support. Special thanks to Keagan and Shawtel for making the Black Excellence Fund a reality. Summits in Solidarity, Paul and Denise, NoCo members, members of NHPR and NHPBS press, special thanks to you all for building community with us. Special Mention: Bill and Cynthia Powell, The WigWag staff for their inspiration; Jack Barry, Diane Siegart, our families and our kids. Many thanks to all who have supported us along the way!
meet the team Ben is a queer, black, teacher, writer, and dad living in Campton, NH. He teaches Humanities at Waterville Valley Academy, writes for Concord Monitor’s 3-Minute Civics column, and is the proud parent of three kids. He is deeply engaged with his students and strives to create a space in which they can learn to think critically and to develop their own voices. Originally from North Carolina, Ben fell in love with New Hampshire when he moved here for a time as a teenager, and so returned to attend Plymouth State University, where he earned his BA. In 2019, he graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with an MA in English. Then, in the spring of 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, he followed his eldest child onto the town common to protest; this inspired the founding of NH PANTHER. He hopes to help create widespread, systemic change by engaging his community at the local level and following the lead of today’s youth.
Benjamin Bacote Founder & Director
Connect with Ben on Instagram @nhpanthers or by email at bbacote@gowva.org
Lindsey is a proud Ashkenazi Jew and is originally from Richmond, VA. She uses humor as a coping mechanism for intergenerational trauma and present-day trauma, as it is a major component of Jewish culture. Lindsey is a highly skilled aquatics professional with 14 years of experience as an American Red Cross Lifeguard and swim instructor. She is passionate about nature, traveling, science, and history and she is committed to diversity and inclusion. Before she relocated to the Lakes Region where she resides with and parents her son, Lindsey earned a Bachelor of Arts in US and Latin American History from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Arts in Mexican History from Portland State University. She is currently certified in Wilderness First Aid; she also holds a Level 3 American Swimming Coaches Association Certification and LEAD Camp Mental Health Certification. Connect with Linsdey on Instagram @nhpanthers
Lindsey Collins Education & Research Youth Outreach
meet the team Rebekah is a Social Work major at Plymouth State University, a member of the NASW, and certified in Mental Health First Aid. She is working towards her Masters degree, and hopes to work in research and policy. She spends her time reading books and looking for something new to learn about the world around her. Rebekah is a strong advocate of equity and equality, for people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and women’s rights. Connect with Rebekah on Instagram @nhpanthers or by email rebekahbreann@gmail.com
Rebekah Lewis Online Director Elizabeth is a queer writer and artist living with chronic illness. Before returning to New Hampshire in 2018, she was based in Oregon and Montana, where she worked with Seeds of Peace Collective (www.seedsofpeacecollective.org), providing logistical support to environmental and social justice movements and campaigns, and Buffalo Field Campaign (www.buffalofieldcampaign.org), where she helped advocate for wild bison. Her experience with art, food, and the environmental justice movement, combined with her love for and knowledge of the natural world, are some of the strengths she brings to the NH PANTHER team. She uses an intersectional, anti-capitalist lens to approach organizing, and operates under the belief that, as bell hooks said, “what we cannot imagine cannot come into being.” Conncect with Elizabeth on Instagram @hermitpower or by email elizuhbethr@gmail.com
Elizabeth Robertson Development & Communications
We are thrilled about the addition of our newest team member, Morgan Brown, as Public Safety Coordinator! Look for their bio on our website soon.
Morgan Brown Public Safety coordinator