Month: January 2022

J U M P

J U M P By Cate Fox

One of my middle son’s recent tactics to delay bedtime is to ask me for a story, one from when I was growing up. Recently I told him a story about learning how to swim. Well, to be more precise, it was a story about jumping off of (a very low) diving board. Standing on the edge of the bouncing light blue plank I could see to the very bottom of the pool. It was only nine-and-a-half-feet-deep but my six-year-old self had no sense of depth and was paralyzed with fear. It was the 80s so I was not equipped with a floatation device just in case I struggled to swim. In the water, my instructor reached out her arms as I stared down at her from the wavering board. There was no way I was jumping. I would get to the edge, look down, and turn right back around and head to the ladder. I did this for weeks.

Then one day I gathered up my courage and jumped; all the parents watching from the YMCA’s viewing deck clapped. Each time I did it I was scared but I did it anyway.

In the Spring of 2020, after almost eight years as a Senior Program Officer focused primarily on the arts in Chicago, I wrote a note to my colleagues at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation about how the health pandemic exposed fragile and flawed (physical, political, social) infrastructure that demanded change. We could continue to spend time and money trying to make our current systems more just and accessible but we also needed to invest in new systems, ones that center Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Asian, and other historically marginalized populations. Before posting the note, I had a feeling not unlike standing at the end of the diving board. I had already experienced a number of these dizzying moments at the Foundation, but there was something that felt different this time.

The note was sent out. Publicly inviting my colleagues to change and remake systems was as much for them as it was for me, an invitation to myself to do more.

Shortly after that was written George Floyd was murdered. The Foundation’s racial justice grantmaking we did in response to the many injustices made more visible is some of the most important work that I have ever done. And, for me, it was not enough.

So, in November 2021 I joined the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) as Ambitio US Director . Drawn to its unconventional approaches, commitment to systems change, and deep centering of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color populations, I was hungry for new ways of being. The video calls I am on these days feel like literal masterclasses in how we can do things differently in ways that are better for all of us.

The news and social media feeds are full of stories that illustrate and sometimes even glorify our fragmentation, our separateness. The grantees of Ambitio US act as a balm to those messages. The movement leaders are weaving communities back together, preserving and highlighting a fuller spectrum of cultural identities that better reflect this country, and creating models that embrace our interdependence both with each other and with our natural environment. These leaders talk about not only shifting resources but power to those directly harmed by current systems. It is hard and beautiful work.

Even in this urgent moment many people will continue to climb up the proverbial ladder, walk to the edge of the board, and decide there is too much at stake to jump, too many uncertainties, they might lose too much. But my heart is on fire for the people that are guiding us to that edge, showing us that it is not only possible but desirable.

Cate Fox is the Director of Ambitio US , a national initiative of the Center for Cultural Innovation, that is focused on strategically shifting economic power and opportunities to BIPOC communities and artists.

This article was originally published on Medium. Read it on Medium →

by habtamu

Up Next: Help News Spread

Up Next: Help News Spread By Nichole M. Christian

From its inception as a time-limited initiative of the Center for Cultural Innovation, Ambitio US has been guided by an intentionally daring North Star. We exist to bring light and real economic power to BIPOC communities under existential threat.

The work requires a fierce commitment to collaborations of nearly every kind from frontline BIPOC leaders, artists and activists, to researchers and myriad ally organizations who share an interest in understanding and illuminating changes on the ground. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce new collaborations with two key independent and solutions-oriented media partners, Yes! Media , and Next City magazines. As nonprofit media publishers, Next City and Yes! Media (Yes!) have each worked to amplify the people and the initiatives that are out to ignite broad social change agents.

Over the next year, both of these award-winning outlets will take in-depth looks at the shifts in thinking and tangible outcomes being created by a cross-section of Ambitio US investees and the communities they serve, who are together blazing new trails in almost every corner of the country.

“It is hard and beautiful work,’’ as Ambitio US director Cate Fox notes in a blog explaining why she decided to jump into CCI’s vision of systemic economic change .

Fox adds that these media collaborations will help showcase the work of those collectively envisioning and creating equitable community-rooted models while also repairing some of the cultural harm of white supremacy and other economic systems. “Part of our work at Ambitio US is to ensure that those who are doing the work in communities aren’t dreaming alone. These organizations have knowledge and experience that we can all benefit from, especially as we think about how to lean into systems change. Through partnerships like these we hope to shine a light on the ways in which a different and better future is possible.’’

Please subscribe to our Ambitio US newsletter and the digital platforms of both our partners for more details. In the meantime, here’s a glanc e at some of the work chronicled by Next City in 2020 and 2021 .

Nichole M. Christian is the Narrative Shifter at the Center for Cultural Innovation , a nonprofit intermediary that supports individuals in the arts to realize greater financial self-determination.

This article was originally published on Medium. Read it on Medium →

by habtamu