The Chirping Bird Gets Heard

It is Project Brownstone's pleasure to introduce to you, Lydgia! Her contribution to the work of the Amistad Watch is of great value. If you don't know by now, the Amistad Watch is engaged in the important work in the area of education. This initiative is in response to the 2005 legislation of Assemblymen Keith L. T. Wright and Tom Alfano to incorporate the African American experience into the social studies curriculum of the NYS Public Schools.

Lydgia is instrumental in organizing a group of concerned Harlem residents around social issues plaguing our community. Lack of knowledge of self and the ongoing challenges to our children's self esteem resulted in the formation of the Amistad Watch. 

She's a community Activist. We first met through Harlem Children's Zone's Community Pride. She facilitated great discussions and opportunities for the community to find ways to channel their voices. Most important, is what developed out of that effort.

Thank you, Lydgia!

Microaggressions In College

When women and students of color attend college they aren't always prepared for some of the interactions that take place. We don't take into consideration how these encounters affect students and can, in some cases, impede progress. The interactions I speak of can be referred to as microaggressions.

Microaggressions are very subtle. They're sometimes imperceptible. But they do exists. These negative encounters can be experienced in exchanges between students of color and women with their peers in predominantly white institutions of learning. This can result in an hostile environment creating a climate too uncomfortable to succeed. This shows up in ways such as blanketing whole segments of the population with stereotypes that border on racist as well as sexist.

My experience at Columbia University made evident that not all students understand nor care to integrate with 'others.' This comes in subtle statements as well as misinformation and lack of sensitivity to people not like them.

I'm not exactly a shrinking violet so I met fire with fire. I refused to allow this type of behavior or belief system to interfere with getting the best education possible. Besides, at the point that I attended grad school, I was fully comfortable with who I am and my place in the world.

My masters is in Fundraising Management, a field dominated by white women. I was one of two males in most of my classes. I always felt an underlying discomfort around many of these women. Mind you, all of my life, I've been around many women of different stripes so I know it had nothing to do with gender. I found them dismissive and, at times, rude making assumptions based on stereotypes.This became glaringly evident when we did our final group project, which I will address in another blog.

I noticed that no matter how I applied myself, there was always a discount of a half point on my final grades. I started to find it strange that after leaving an intensive undergrad experience majoring in History with a 4.0 GPA, the best I seemed to be able to accomplish was an -A.

Fortunately, we were required to take classes in the Business School as part of our requirements. Ironically, I managed to pull three A pluses and an A! The work was definitely much more rigorous. I began to realize what was going on and actually jokingly coined it the "Negro Discount." In the field of fundraising I automatically lose a half point based on some unforeseen microaggression...go figure?!

To add insult to injury, when we designed a training for a nonprofit as an assignment, I was met with condescension, and told "nobody will ever agree to that!" I let it stew for a week and when the time permitted, I confronted the professor and told him that by looking at the assignment through the eyes of a white man, you're doing a disservice to people who live and are affected by adversity in communities of color. He told me it was a "point well taken." Needless to say, I got an A!

Harvard University's Voices of Diversity project conducted a study addressing this phenomenon. Here is an article that presents the findings in their report: http://colorlines.com/archives/2015/01/report_for_students_of_color_college_life_filled_with_microaggressions.html.

Our First Workshop: The Textbook Stipend Project

We had an inspired weekend with a visit from students from the Philadelphia area and the workshop for the students of the Textbook Stipend Project. They were resounding successes. It's great to see students of color making positive moves in the education arena. They are shattering the negative expectations placed on them by the media and society as a whole. There's still work to be done but it is evident, we're headed in the right direction.

The students from Philadelphia have varied majors that range from Criminology and Forensics to Communications and the Recording Industry. They are equally motivated to complete their studies and also discussed the specter of attending Graduate School. They possess an entrepreneurial spirit that I'm sure will result in the growth of industry that will have important social implications at its core and activism in its practice.

Last August, we introduced you to the students participants of the Textbook Stipend Project. There's Dina Atwa, Faith Culpepper, and Gavin Ferguson. We got the opportunity to hold a workshop designed to bring the participants together to create the shared goals and expectations. The workshop takes place post-semester so we can get a perspective based in experience. The purpose of the stipend is to provide funds for textbooks and supplies necessary to the matriculation process.

In the workshop, we broke things down to the basics. It really came down to what they like, dislike, challenges and their shifting paradigm. The students unanimously liked their first semester of college. They enjoyed meeting new peers from different backgrounds, and quickly came to understand things do not operate the same way they do in high school. They like their classes, events, campus, and in one case, dorm life. Most striking, is the pride in attending college and the opportunity inherent in their new environments.

They are hard pressed to come up with dislikes. I pressed them for some kind of answer. All they came up with is the length and time of travel to and from campus, the number of days with classes, the foreboding darkness of one campus at night, and college food. Not too bad. I'm happy that they're taking full advantage of the resources as well as the advise given to them. They have managed to successfully navigate their first semester without any major drawbacks.

All in all, the most important piece of the workshop is finding out just how helpful and important the stipend is to the progress of their academic pursuit. They are unanimous in the opinion that the stipend makes things easier as well as provides a smoother transition into their studies. Most telling is they are aware of the academic requirements needed to continue in the project and used that as motivation to do well. It works.

In the coming days you will get to see and hear the students tell you in their own words just how important the Textbook Stipend Project is to their success. Stay tuned....

http://youtu.be/_8VWAmof9Mc
http://youtu.be/VXCvRZjM6nA
http://youtu.be/js1Vo5anmWA

We Need the Birds In the Clouds

Dana is the Dreamer. She dreams big and sets her sights on obtaining her goals in life. This desire combined with our fledgling organization has created an advantageous condition for us to use her skills in communication to assist in giving a definitive face to our message of empowerment and development.

Dana has all of the qualities that Project Brownstone looks for. She has a pioneering spirit that translates and transports our brand into the new age of Millennials. She is the quintessential representative of all that is and all that is possible. She's a young woman from a middle-classed family in Queens who worked her way through school majoring in Communications.

She has the moxy needed to succeed in the competitive landscape we live in presently. Dana knows how to think outside of the box, take advise and make the necessary moves that will take it to the next level.

Her goal is to be an on-air personality that reports on lifestyle as well as groundbreaking individuals. Her on air name is D. Carrie, you may have seen her show us what she's made of by lending her skill by interviewing myself, the Executive Director, Assemblyman Keith Wright as well as the guests Artist-in-Residence, Noel Donaldson, for our Gallery Series.

Her professionalism and bright spirit, hands down, make her our choice to be the face and spokesperson for our brand. Her message aligns well with the mission. Her work ethic and courage make her the perfect match for our new, daring, forward thinking organization. We thank you, Dana!!