Read With US
Great reads guide our work and our belief in better ways.
A pillar of our work as a ten year-time limited initiative is constant learning and deep connectivity with the communities we serve, their current economic realities and the historic toll of systemic racist practices in communities across this country. The future we seek to help influence begins partly by understanding the costs that have already been paid and the lessons from the past yet to be fully leveraged. Periodically, we’ll share what’s on our current reading list. If you know of a title that fits our mission, we welcome suggestions.
To the extent that the media and politicians focus on the racial divide, it is through its most urgent and salient features such as police shootings, burning cities, white supremacists, crime and violence. Underneath it all is a deep and growing financial fault line between black and white. Though hard to detect, it is nonetheless the defining feature of America’s racial divide because it is intimately linked to so many other problems. The wealth gap is where the historic injustice breeds present suffering.’’
B etween 1888 and 1930, African Americans opened more than a hundred banks and thousands of other financial institutions. Through the story of the St. Luke Bank in Richmond, Virginia: the first and only bank run by Black women, Shennette Garrett-Scott’s Banking on Freedom: Black Women in U.S. Finance Before the New Deal offers an unparalleled account of how Black women carved out economic, social, and political power in contexts shaped by sexism, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation. Garrett-Scott reveals the ways gender, race, and class shaped the meanings of wealth and risk in U.S. capitalism and society.
“( The New York Times Book Review ) modern classic that coined the term “metaverse” — one of Time ’s 100 best English-language novels. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous. . . you’ll recognize it immediately.’’
This article was originally published on Medium. Read it on Medium →
Where the Road Leads
By Nichole M. Christian
When the Center for Cultural Innovation launched Ambitio US four years ago, the bullseye became neon clear: Identify the alternative economic trailblazers in BIPOC communities and find new ways to lift and strategically support their culture changing ideas. And let’s do it fast, in 10 years.
The initiative was forged with the anticipation of major demographic and social disruptions, it did not anticipate a seemingly unending global pandemic. After a long pause in travel the Ambitio US team hit the road on a nine-day, five-state, concert-like, road tour of the U.S. south to see and hear from these visionary leaders first hand. Needless to say — we were blown away.
Ambitio US grantees are planting, some literally, new seeds of economic ownership and change in cultural communities battling against systemic disinvestments and racial disregard.
The more than 1,000 miles drive started in Atlanta, Georgia (GA)and included stops in: Jackson, Mississippi (MS); Memphis, Tennessee (TN); rural Alabama (AL) and Bentonville, Arkansas (AR).
“We took this trip because we are in this work to fund people, the ideas they have, the organizations they create, and the cultures they are working to preserve and celebrate,’’ explained Fox. The visits included: Ekvn-Yefolecv (AL), , Cooperative New West Jackson (MS), and Historic Clayborn Temple and Orange Mound (TN).
“Being with these thought-leaders in their communities is the best way to get to know the work and the change that is happening.’’
CCI President and CEO Angie Kim, who is also the founding director of Ambitio US , says the tour painted an important portrait which philanthropy has yet to embrace. “A new movement is happening,’’ she said. “These organizations represent a whole new generation of Black and BIPOC leaders who understand the history and the very real threat of cultural dispossession, even today, in their communities. They’re explicitly creating ownership opportunities and alternative economic approaches that are beginning to inspire others like them. It’s important to see their work and to see what needs to be done to grow the movement.’’
Want to learn more about the trip, the movement or the Ambitio US approach to change, feel free to be in touch here.
Who knows where the road will lead AmbitioUS next!
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 →
The RUNWAY to Joy
By Nicole Winthrop
Just a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending Nonprofit Quarterly’s Remaking the Economy: Closing the Racial Wealth Gap . The perspective of one of the panelists, Anne Price, President, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, has stuck with me ever since. What Price spoke of was something not normally mentioned when talking about matters of economics: JOY. She surprisingly and brilliantly linked joy as being vital to the often daunting hope of narrowing the racial wealth gap.
I knew instantly I wanted to read her latest essay, “ Doing “The Right Thing” Won’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap” (Shelterforce. February 2022). The goal, as Anne portrays in her essay is to offer a new paradigm, one that identifies and insists upon broader notions of wealth such as mental health, as safety, as collective well-being, and one that debunks the myth of individual choice as ahistorical.
For too long, the persistent rhetoric has been that investing in Black communities is too risky. Such thinking forced African Americans to segregate themselves into under-resourced urban ghettos and into easy prey for practices such as, redlining, and a long history of being marginalized from most government programs, including and most disheartening, FHA-backed mortgage loans. The Great Migration of the early 20th century among African Americans fleeing the South throughout the rest of the country led those landing in urban areas only to be corralled into substandard living conditions so as to remain segregated from the growing sprawl of white communities in so-called developed or suburban areas outside of the city and away from the black ghetto. (Read Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership . University of North Carolina Press. 2019.)
This may seem like a historical rehash but the consequences continue to show themselves today. Take for instance the way bank lenders focus on what is commonly called, the 5 C’s of Credit (i.e. Collateral, Capacity, Capital, Conditions, and Character) to determine whether or not an individual is ready for a loan. Far too often BIPOC individuals and organizations in need of lending fail to meet those standards or to fully understand the ways their very design contributes to racial exclusion.
Jessica Norwood, Founder and CEO, RUNWAY not only understands; she’s also leading a bold collective approach, rooted in deep and empowering community partnerships to dismantle practices which she declares “clear and persistent metrics of racism.”
Instead, and much like Price, Norwood invites us to show up “in right relationship with one another” to shift systems of capital in directions meant to help BIPOC communities access capital and the joy of realized dreams. In RUNWAY’s inaugural issue entitled Nourishment (September 2021), the numbers speak for themselves: From 2018 to 2020, revenue from RUNWAY entrepreneurs nearly tripled from $2.7 million to $7.8 million through the Friends and Family Loan Product, which is what initially drew Ambitio US to fund RUNWAY, a product designed as an impact investment fund that yields both positive social impact and returns to investors.
By underwriting loans based on character and “in right relation” with borrowers, investors, community-governed funds, and financial institutions, RUNWAY demonstrates a financing model that breaks away from the 5Cs of credit model so as to unlock capital for those historically marginalized from the necessary capital to scale let alone to survive. During the pandemic, explains Norwood, “It looked like Black firms were not getting access to the federal relief program PPP because they lacked bank relationships.” RUNWAY connected its entrepreneurs with PPP loans as well as provided Universal Basic Income (UBI) to provide a social safety net, cultivate a sense of well-being, and nourish mental health.
I witnessed some of the returns on that bold thinking during a recent funder briefing hosted in Oakland, California’s Historic 7th Street, at the center of the “Harlem of the West.” Oakland-based musician, Bosco Kante, spoke about “success circles,” a network of RUNWAY entrepreneurs that holds space for entrepreneurs to engage in a non-competitive way and look to one another to innovate and excel together. Bosco, founder of Electrospit, was full of visible joy as he explained the feeling of hearing his fellow entrepreneurs speak of their ability to finally manage and in some cases grow their business during the pandemic. Best of all, he said, is that he now believes even greater growth is possible. Norwood and RUNWAY are hard at work expanding hopes of BIPOC entrepreneurs and artists like Bosco by expanding their orbit as movement leaders. Theirs is an orbit that will soon include a business accelerator and cooperatively run consultancy (Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative), a community-governed capital fund (Real People’s Fund), a public bank (Self Help Credit Union), and a community of Black entrepreneurs in Boston, Chicago, and Oakland.
To witness the work of groups like RUNWAY is inspiring. But it’s all the more inspiring to see growing evidence that Norwood and thought leaders like Price are not trailblazing alone. Nwamaka Agbo , CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund (REF), defines Restorative Economics as that which centers on healing and restoration of vulnerable communities who have been marginalized and oppressed by a polluting and extractive economy, by investing in strategies that create shared prosperity and self-determination for a just transition to the next economy. RUNWAY has demonstrated the untapped possibilities that occur when financial services center the priorities of borrowers as well as those of investors. They are able to provide this community-centered, non-extractive approach because they are “tapped into” a broader ecosystem that sustains the conditions necessary for restorative economics.
In this way, RUNWAY exemplifies the promise of alternative funding models, and most importantly, RUNWAY is making the promise of joy real.
Nicole Winthrop is Program Associate at the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), 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 →
Imagining: Courage
By Cate Fox
We have lead pipes in our American economic system. The extent to which we are aware of that fact is likely related to the degree of direct exposure to the system. For some people the pipes are hidden within the walls and framing of the larger structure; only thought about when renovations are contemplated or something has gone wrong and needs a fix. Pipes are removed and replaced with little thought about the wider system. But for many others the pipes are exposed, mixing invisible chemicals into critical water supplies that, under the best circumstances, sicken and damage the humans that ingest it. Simply replacing a few pipes is not enough to cleanse the system; it is inadequate. Daily, people wrestle with where to get clean water, how to make the water more tolerable, designing work-arounds for a system that works the way it is intended.
Whether or not we realize it or want to admit it, those lead pipes poison all of us. An economic system designed to work for some people by systematically working against others needs to be seen as toxic to all of us. Each day in communities all over the United States (and the world), local leaders, especially those who have direct exposure to the harmful structures, are working creatively with affected communities co-creating reliable systems that are not dependent on outside entities, that reflect their values while also addressing their community’s needs. These trailblazers are willing to try new structures and face many unknown factors. They are interested in how decision-making and ownership can be shared, how more people can have a voice and prosperity. These leaders are in it not to fix their own condition, their own house if you will — but they are interested in lifting up whole communities of people.
Leaders in the restorative and solidarity economic circles regularly cite Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard’s book Collective Courage as a source of motivation and inspiration. Her book explores the African American community’s deep roots with cooperative and mutual aid economic systems one effort at a time. Dr. Gordon-Nembhard is an important way-shower for all those interested in building new, just systems. She has an amazing ability to pattern recognize both the logistical parts of cooperatives, like their common business development progression; and the social-emotional elements, like how these structures tied communities together and created benefits that extend beyond access to scarce or expensive resources or increased financial well-being.
By looking deeply into the past she is showing us a way forward. The idea of building new systems feels daunting, and yet over and over again the book provides examples of where African Americans studied various economic approaches and arrived at (and, in fact, still arrive at) the value of pooling resources and efforts to address “personal, family, social, political, and economic challenges’’ and the value of shared decision-making over how those assets are allocated. These are lessons in creativity, entrepreneurship, and economics. And courage. Dr. Gordon-Nembhard writes, “Leaders and members of YNCL [Young Negroes’ Co-operative League] clearly understood that cooperative economics was a strategy in pursuit of a larger goal — the elimination of economic exploitation and transition to a new social order.” There is a vision .
Even as various cooperative efforts crest and begin to break apart Dr. Gordon-Nembhard points to the progress, that the participants were in a better position even as the cooperative dissolved than before the cooperative began.
In our day-to-day work at Ambitio US , we see hope and the potential for meaningful systems change in our investees’ efforts to do work that is grounded in shared economic prosperity, democratic participation, and cultural dignity. In designing these new systems, investees take risks with the belief that regardless of the outcomes they (and we) will continue to build on the past lessons toward systems that center Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Asian individuals as well as other historically marginalized populations. And in that way, build a system that works for everyone.
The economic infrastructure may seem immovable, but it is a human construction. We know that the lead pipes will not fix themselves. Some people and institutions will choose to make investments in remediation, which will fix some parts of the economic system for some people. We need investments like that in the short term, but we also have to summon the courage to make intentional investments in new systems. Nelson Mandela had to face the likelihood of dying in jail in order to show us what courage requires. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,’’ he said, “but the triumph over it.”
May we triumph in our understanding of Mandela’s words and our willingness to test our actions against them.
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 →
An Ally Asks
By Nichole M. Christian
Conversations and forward-thinking questions are central to all that we do at Ambitio US. Our mission is big and our time intentionally limited: Ten years to amplify, uplift and of course fund systemic economic change as envisioned by leading BIPOC arts workers.
To do this work well, we are also constantly listening and learning from a special group we call allies . As often as possible, we want to share some of the learnings that make this group vital to our understanding of the hurdles, opportunities and under-resourced possibilities. In a recent blog for Nonprofit Quarterly, Ambitio US ally, Nwamaka Agbo , who is also CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund, poses several powerful questions.
She asks: “What would it look like to have our democratic values shape our economy, instead of having a capitalist economy that shapes our democracy?’’ We wonder right
alongside Agbo and we welcome you to share your ideas too. Tell us what democracy in economics might look like if the power were yours, or the world more equitable ?
The urgency and potential impact that she lays out are worth watching and sharing as well. “The framework of restorative economics provides a roadmap — albeit one with forks, detours, twists, and turns — to arrive at a just and equitable economy. As always, the challenge lies in the implementation. Restorative economics asks us to prioritize five guiding principles: democratic governance, capacity building and human development, non-extractive integrated capital, power building through social movements, and systemic change.’’
Allies like Nwamaka Agbo continue to ground Ambitio US in our belief for more daring ways now.
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.
Photo citation.
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/nwamaka-Agbo-foto-bethanie-hines.jpg
This article was originally published on Medium. Read it on Medium →
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 →
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 →