New York, I Love You But You've Changed is a podcast where long time New Yorkers from across the five boroughs give us their version of the city they love, discuss how it has evolved and share their thoughts on what we can do to make the greatest hometown in the world great for all of us. And we also have some fun with the pop culture associated with NYC. Our interviews seek to create an anthology of voices that represents the range of life that exists in New York City, especially those voices who are often left out of the narrative. Your host is Alexis Haut, a former NYC teacher living in Crown Heights. For more about the show, visit our website at www.newyorkilybyc.com or follow us @newyorkilybyc.
Melissa Saenz Gordon, Soft Power Vote, Part I: Who is running in NYC’s Chaotic June 2021 Primary and What We Think of Them
Melissa Saenz Gordon is a cultural worker, photographer, artist, cultural producer, writer, San Francisco native and self described “CivicArt BAE” with a background in geography and urban planning. She is also the co-founder of Soft Power Vote, a voting initiative in New York City that produces voter guides and content that illuminates the connectivity between art, pop-culture, and local politics. Soft Power Vote produces voter guides and online resources for New Yorkers to level up on voting in NYC by demystifying local politics, decoding voting information, and providing the resources necessary to make everyone’s voice heard. SVP was born out of Melissa’s and her co-founders’ frustration with the lack of transparency and resources available to NYC residents to make voting accessible and informed. In this episode, Melissa shares the genesis of Soft Power Vote, Soft Power Vote’s ethos and its criteria for endorsement and what people can expect to find in their Voter Guide. Melissa also shares SVP’s endorsements and recommendations for each race and who they recommend NOT RANKING in this June’s primaries. She also informs us about what other races are on the ballot and import info like what a comptroller actually does. She also shares information about voter rights and accessibility, essential election day info and how the heck Ranked Choice Voting works. Alexis and Melissa also get into conversations about how the media perpetuates the Yang narrative, Beyonce, Lebron James, Cardi B, Tony Soprano’s frustration with Dr. Melfi’s painting and East vs West Coast hip hop.
This is one of two conversations with Melissa, look out for part II later this week!4 In the other part, you will hear Melissa discuss her relationship with New York, what brought her here after 31 years in the Bay Area, what it means to be a cultural worker and how she manages to sustain it, defining our careers for ourselves and the essential connection between art and politics.
Places on the Internet to Learn More:
Soft Power Vote (https://softpower.vote/about/)website and Instagram and their June 2021 Primary Voter Guide and their Candidate Criteria
Ranked Choice Voting Info and where to find your poll site and sample ballot
Dianne Morales’ Campaign Woes
Rebecca Traister on Maya Wiley and New York Magazine’s feature on Andrew Yang
New York Nico interviews the Mayoral Candidates
28 May 2021
Kelsey Jones and Gabriela Tejedor, Brooklyn Independent Middle School
Kelsey Jones and Gabriela Tejedor, are the founders and Co-Heads of School and the respective Math and ELA teachers at Brooklyn Independent, a private middle school with a sliding scale tuition model located in Fort Greene. BKI names diversity and inclusion as keys to effective learning, and the school’s goal is to cultivate a community that sincerely reflects the racial and socioeconomic diversity of Brooklyn. Gaby and Kelsey started BKI as a response to the stark segregation and inequity that plagues New York City’s school system, two things they witnessed and felt in their decade-long careers as educators. Gaby and Kelsey opened the doors of BKI to their first class of 6th graders in the fall of 2019 after years of intense, and at times, disheartening, planning. BKI is now in its second year of operation, serving 6th and 7th graders, with plans to expand in the coming years.
This conversation is rigorous (to borrow an overused word from the ed world) and emotionally rich and thought provoking and very very honest. In this episode, Gaby and Kelsey discuss their protective, stubborn relationships with New York City, how to fundraise and recruit for a school with a social justice mission and different tuition tiers, the ugly truth about remote learning, and running a school during a pandemic and last summer’s uprising. They also reflect on the email they sent out last June in support of Black Lives Matter and the many iterations the school’s systems have gone through to most accurately actualize their mission and to better serve all of the students and families in their community. Alexis, Kelsey and Gaby also all share details about their own uncomfortable reckonings with how they have shown up (and not shown up) as educators in the past, and how to do it with more awareness.
Places on the Internet to Learn More:
Brooklyn Independent’s Website (https://www.bkindependent.org/)and Instagram
Initiate Equity
Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards
MCOD: Multicultural Organization Development Framework
14 May 2021
Brittany Owens Micek, Meditating for Black Lives, Part 2: Parks, Permits and White Psychology
Brittany Owens Micek is the founder and lead organizer of Meditating for Black Lives, a community organization that uses the principles and practices of various meditation traditions to support community efforts to heal oppression. Brittany started Meditating for Black Lives last summer with hopes to create a space for attendees to sit in contemplation together to process our absorbed trauma and breathe for the lives of Black and Brown people, and for all people, throughout the world. On Saturdays and Sundays from June 2020 lasting through the fall, Brittany or other intentionally selected guides led up to 2,000 attendees through 30 minute guided meditations in both Bed Stuy and Brownsville that focused on the privilege and precarity of breath.
This is part two of our conversation with Brittany. Topics include, how the wellness industrial complex has co-opted the ancient practice of meditation, leaving it falsely synonymous with whiteness and money… and also how Meditating for Black Lives is an attempt to counteract that. Brittany explains why she chose to move the meditations to Lincoln Terrace Park from a park in a gentrifying Bed Stuy, how she intentionally chose the meditation leaders and how the local NYPD precincts chose to behave when she applied for a park permit with “Meditating for Black Lives” in the title. We also talk about the psychology of whiteness and why nobody ever talks about it, Alexis’ honest journey with yoga and we somehow manage to stumble on conversations about Jay-Z, NoName, Atlanta, Robin D’Angelo, Solange, DMX and the Goonies.
Meditating for Black Lives is also back for its second season! They will hold three meditations every Saturday and Sunday in May at Swivel Gallery in Bed Stuy. Visit the links for MFBL and Swivel Gallery below to check the times and sign up in advance.
Places on the Internet to Learn More:
Visit Meditating for Black Lives’ Website and Instagram to sign up for a meditation and donate if you are able
You can also sign up for a meditation on Swivel Gallery’s website
“Corporate Mindfulness Programs Are an Abomination”, Thom James Carter for Current Affairs
Yoga is Dead Podcast
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