Maya Brown

On June 18th, #UMGC explored the history and impact of Juneteenth. Learn more about this important celebration and its significance in American history. #Juneteenth #UMGCEvent

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Hello friends, ready for a new tip on how to enjoy Florence and stay on the budget? Our intern at Franky in New York, Kate Jackson, is on the international studies program run by Syracuse University Florence, and she is exploring the city in search of useful tips for a budget-savvy vacation. Let's see what she has for us today. One of the best ways to experience Italian culture is the food! However, navigating tourist areas where food is frequently overpriced and inauthentic is a real challenge in Florence. Not to worry, I will offer a few tips on how to uncover some of the best and most affordable meals. First of all, breakfast is a relatively cheap meal in Italy, no more than 5 euros. Many cafes offer deals when you get a cappuccino and a pastry together. As long as you avoid the city center there should not be any problems here. There are also several cafes, which often double as bars, bookstores, or libraries, where study abroad students or others who work virtually can go to focus while also grabbing a bite. Moving on to lunch and dinner, street food is often the way to go. While I do enjoy a good sit-down meal with friends, when you’re on the go and trying to save money, “take-away” food is the perfect option. There are a number of famous sandwich places in Florence you can easily find with a little research, Never get a sandwich for over 10 euros though, trust me there’s better for less! Aside from sandwiches, pizza is an easy meal to find for 5 to 7 euros. There's a pizza shop on almost every corner of Florence and most of them offer plentiful servings. If you are like me and can not eat pizza, pasta, and bread for every meal without craving some vegetables, there are also healthier options. While somewhat hidden, salad places in Florence do exist, and many offer bowls for around 9 euros! Finally, your last alternative is to buy food at the market or grocery store and cook it yourself. Although this can seem overwhelming, it is so easy to find incredible produce—delicious fruits, vegetables, bread, meats, cheeses, and more—in Florence markets. The Mercato Centrale is also a great place to go explore, although touristy, you can get almost anything here and often keep it on the less expensive side. #firenze #florence #Budgetfriendly #florentinevacation #visititaly #syracuseuniversity #FrankyinNewYork

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Just added this to my reading list!

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Juneteenth is more than a celebration of emancipation; it serves as a reminder of the complex journey toward true equality and justice. It encourages reflection on the historical injustices that have shaped the present and inspires continued efforts to address systemic racism and inequality. The holiday also underscores the importance of education and awareness. By understanding the history of Juneteenth and the broader narrative of African American struggles and triumphs, individuals can contribute to a more informed and empathetic society. Schools, organizations, and communities across the nation increasingly incorporate Juneteenth into their curricula and programming, fostering a deeper appreciation for this pivotal moment in history. As Juneteenth gains national prominence, it offers an opportunity for all Americans to reflect on their shared history, acknowledge past and present injustices, and commit to building a more equitable future. Celebrating Juneteenth is not only an act of remembrance but also a call to action, reminding us of the ongoing journey towards a more inclusive and just society. Read more: https://conta.cc/3RtTUID

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What does it take for Black audiences to feel at home in the theatre? This question looms over producers at predominantly white institutions as they hope to encourage people to return to the theatre following Covid-19’s shuttering impact. Playwrights Dominique Morisseau and Jeremy O. Harris have been at the helm of a grassroots movement with a promising answer: Black Out nights. Now Black Out performances are filling houses across the country. https://lnkd.in/dubqe_s3 Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins talked recently about ‘Black Out nights’. In the UK it was drawn into the culture wars (though interestingly it hasn’t been in the US) with even Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticizing the practice for being exclusionary (it’s not). “It’s just a misreading of what those nights are. In America we have a strong black audience that buses in to see 'The Color Purple' or whatever… it’s an audience that’s a privilege to have so a black out night is not that uncommon of an idea.” Would he consider such nights at his shows? “I’m not averse to it… my plays tend to draw diverse audiences and I like to feel people be in the space together and listen to them laugh or not. But if people thought it was helpful then sure. It’s all a marketing scheme. It’s all about selling tickets, so sure.” https://lnkd.in/dfD-Mfxm Read more about Black Out here: https://blackoutnite.com/ #SweibelArts #BlackOutNights #AudienceDevelopment

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#CampaignManagers and #FieldDirectors - as you're planning for November or a primary, remember that safety for canvassers means more than working in pairs and using crosswalks. It also means protecting canvassers of color from harassment by residents and the cops. In many progressive campaigns, young people of color make up much of the #canvassing teams. Young Black and Latine people are often shut out of better jobs and opportunities, so well-paying temporary jobs talking to voters are often a good option for earning money for living expenses, school or to support their families. Our stratified economic system runs right smack into another legacy of Jim Crow: the assumption that a person of color walking through the neighborhood is up to no good. In every campaign I've ever worked, someone calls the cops on canvassers who are just doing their jobs. They carry campaign literature, use a mobile canvassing app and often wear a campaign t-shirt, sticker or ID badge. Worse, canvassers tell stories of residents chasing them down the street, yelling and threatening violence. One woman once said she couldn't call the cops because who are they going to believe? The middle-aged white woman who owns a house? Or the young Black woman? Here are a few tips to prepare for safe canvassing for your team and deal with incidents if they happen. 1: Talk to the cops before the first knock. H/T here to Izzy Goodman who writes more about this step in a blog post. (Link in the Comments.) 2: Struggle with assignments. On one hand, sending canvassers of color to all-white neighborhoods could be problematic. On the other hand, denying canvassers of color the opportunity to build their skills with these difficult voter conversations is pretty paternalistic. Also, team leads and full-time organizers have to come from somewhere. Great leads and organizers grow their skills with difficult canvassing conversations. As a field director or lead, it's your job to struggle with the balance between protecting these canvassers' safety and providing opportunities for growth. 3: When someone calls the cops anyway, listen to the canvasser. Remember, it's about the canvasser not you. Performative anger at the resident who dialed 911 or the cop who answered won't make the canvasser feel any better. 4: Talk to the cops. Again. Call the local precinct to report the incident. Spoiler alert: they will get defensive. However, it’s important to talk to them about it anyway. The cops have to know you’re watching. (Reminder: don't identify the canvasser to the cops. Don’t make it worse.) 4: Report Back to Canvassers Relate the conversation with the cops and go back to step # 2. With these steps - and probably others - You can keep your campaign on track and support the canvassers. For more tips on canvassing, campaigns and organizing, subscribe to the Organizing to Win newsletter! Link in the comments. #CommunityOrganizing #OrganizingToWin #Elections #Election2024

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Proud that Karim Ahmad has released the "Toward Curatorial Justice" report, supported by Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Perspective Fund! I've known Karim for several years from his time at Sundance and felt honored to be interviewed alongside so many other cultural organizers who are thinking critically about how we platform stories and storytellers. The report is chock full of insights on how we can do our work better, more intentionally, in service of creating a better culture. Check it out on the Restoring the Future website!

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Check out this article I wrote about tracing enslaved ancestors during the slave trade! https://lnkd.in/e7S8Z-cU

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Do you want to electrify your internal communications? Join IABC Philadelphia for an in-person session on June 13 as we welcome Stacey Hajdak, APR for a session to help you: ☛ Learn how prioritizing and personalizing can help employees take note of, digest, and act on important information. ☛ Discover how you can manage the demands on communicators by tapping into tools to help accelerate your work. ☛Target the unique needs of deskless remote workers and people managers who are often overlooked and under-indexed. ☛Equip your organization to balance speaking with both unification and nuance. ☛Explore how the simple act of listening to employees can impact communications and business success. More info: https://lnkd.in/eVwSz4Ux

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Today, the Essence Music Festival of Culture™, the Global Black Economic Forum, and When We All Vote announced a collaboration to mobilize voters and bring voting to the culture this year. The initiative will launch at the 30th ESSENCE Festival of Culture from July 4-7, 2024 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Together, we aim to register thousands of voters, bring together 10,000 volunteers as Essence Voting Squad members, and educate one million voters on the importance of voting, what’s on the ballot, and how their vote impacts the issues they care about most. This year, more than 34 million Black Americans will be eligible to vote — and 5.7 million of these are Gen Z. We’ll ensure that Essence Voting Squad members are ready to voice their concerns on critical issues like economic justice, climate change, and gun violence prevention.

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As we settle down from all of the 4th of July celebrations and approach election season, I'd like to share an op-ed that I wrote in collaboration with Made By Us and Teen Vogue that centers around redefining patriotism and creating change as Gen Z. Check out the entire article here: https://lnkd.in/eVeq9-G3

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The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain Based on interviews and archival research, this book explores how media is implicated in Black women’s lives in Britain. From accounts of twentieth-century activism and television representations, to experiences of YouTube and Twitter, Sobande's analysis traverses tensions between digital culture’s communal, counter-cultural and commercial qualities. This chapter outlines questions that buttress this work, such as: How is digital media implicated in the lives of Black women in Britain? In what ways do such digital experiences involve forms of creativity and cultural production? How are the intersections of anti-Black racism, sexism, and capitalism connected to this? Read: https://lnkd.in/eWF6xXtf ZVVT activities in 2024. For more info see in the comments the links: 1. May 17: Plannen doe je zo! Basistraining Time Management. 👇️ 2. May 24: IT event Unlocking Hidden Talents. Earlybird tickets en Student tickets available👇️ 3. May 31: Introduction session: Cybersecurity and the career opportunities 👇️ 4. June 8: Introduction workshop Robotics 👇️ 5. June 19: LinkedIn Kickstart: De Fundamenten voor Jouw Professionele Succes 👇️ 👉 Please share if you like it. 🚀 #stichtingzvvt #zwartevrouwenvoortechnologie #zwartevrouwen #technologie #vrouwenindeict #ict #zvvt #vrouwen #stichtingzwartevrouwenvoortechnologie #technology #francescasobande #thedigitallivesofblackwomeninbritain #blackwomenslives

When our oldest son was born a decade ago we faced a hard financial choice - send our newborn to daycare in Manhattan where we both worked ($$$$) or in Brooklyn where we lived ($$$)? Or...become a stay-at-home mom and say goodbye to my career. When our baby was less than two weeks old the choice was made for me. I got laid off from my job and I took on the primary title of mom, chief of household, keeper of all things and default parent. (Best job to date, mind you!) We discussed, albeit briefly, what it would look like for me to go back to the office. No matter which way we spun it - the cost of two working parents didn't outweigh the benefits of having two working parents. I stayed home. I kept earning money on my terms through entrepreneurship, but it never quite captured the income I left in the office. It took us 10 years to feel comfortable as a family for me to go back to working full time. So while I never paid for daycare, it's simply because we couldn't. The price was too high both financially and from a family standpoint. Unfortunately, many people don't have that luxury, and both parents MUST work. Our system is broken. We should be able to work AND afford things. What a novel idea, eh? Did anyone else here have to choose between parenting and a career?

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Exciting news! My creative honors thesis on Black gaming is now published and available on the Stanford Digital Repository! For YEARS, Black gamers have called on academic institutions to critically examine the representational gap of detail and cultural resonance when it comes to Black fashioning in video game development. This call is not only about expanding Black customization options, but ensuring these options resonate with Black diasporic communities and demonstrate an authentic understanding of Black expressive cultures. Relying on video game developers to do this has proven insufficient. Barriers to professional entry or a lack of concern in initial development stages make positions of high impact on character and narrative design either inaccessible to those interested in revitalizing Black digital representation or unvalued by non-gamer stakeholders in the video gaming industry. Consequently, developers produce games that are culturally insensitive and homogenous ecosystems, whether intentionally or unintentionally. As a gamer and humanities scholar, I leveraged my positionality as a Stanford student to amplify this call. My creative honors thesis titled "From Pixels to Pleasure: How Black Modding is Pleasure Activism" serves as a megaphone, focusing on how Black gamers—in recognizing this digital representational gap and the silence from institutions to rectify it now—take matters into their own hands today. They do not sit idly waiting for an equitable future to arrive. They bring that future to the present by cultivating a distinct Black video game playstyle I call "Black modding." This practice allows Black gamers to modify video game content—such as an avatar's appearance—to integrate culturally resonant details from Black diasporic cultures into their gaming experiences. In turn, these players create their own Black playgrounds that celebrate, affirm, and sustain Blackness in its totality. Read more about my research and findings in the Stanford Digital Repository. Let's continue to push for a more inclusive and equitable digital future together! A special thanks to the many Black gamers and content creators (such as Stephen Works) who contributed to the fruition of this thesis—I could not have done this without you! #BlackGamersMatter #BlackModding #Stanford #DigitalRepository #VideoGameResearch #BlackStudies #BlackSimmers #TheSims #Ebonix #Xmiramira #GameDesign

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There’s just 1 week left to apply for the 2025 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize! Learn more and apply by Friday, May 3rd at 5PM: https://lnkd.in/eXE8z5Q9 Each year, 5 nonprofits are selected to receive the $100,000 ‘no strings attached’ Brooklyn Org Spark Prize. Know a Brooklyn-serving nonprofit that you think should apply? Tag them in the comments below! ⬇️ ELIGIBILITY: Interested organizations must meet each of the following requirements: ✅ Serve people and communities of Brooklyn ✅ Be in operation for longer than 5 years ✅ Can show a minimum organizational budget of $200,000 for most recent fiscal year ✅ Have a 501c3 letter or a memorandum of understanding (MOU) from a fiscal sponsor ✅ Have an active governing body (i.e., Board of Trustees, Advisory Board, etc.) ✅ We encourage organizations that are not current Brooklyn Org grantees to apply, including those that applied for the Spark Prize in previous years (including finalists). Current BKO grantees are also eligible to apply. Former winners are not eligible to apply. ❗ Please note that we do not fund the following: - Individuals - Capital campaigns - Schools (public, private, or charter, including PTAs)

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In this episode of the #TransLashPodcast, we discuss the intersectionality between the environmental justice and trans liberation movements. Joined by educator and storyteller Vanessa Raditz along with organizer and artist #BigWindCarpenter, we examine the inherent queerness of nature, the lessons learned protesting environmental racism, and much more. This one is for all my queer nature lovers. Let's unpack together via the link below. https://lnkd.in/eq4fNd-9

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Representation matters, especially for the disability community, which makes up over 15% of the global population but remains underrepresented in mainstream culture and advertising. Charlotte Armstrong's piece for MediaCat Magazine delves into the Key Principles for Authentic Disability Representation, created by the Valuable 500 alongside global disability advocates and experts. Featuring impactful examples from Vanish, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Toyota Motor Corporation and Channel 4. These principles guide companies from awareness to action, ensuring inclusivity and authenticity in everything from strategic decision-making to product design. #DisabilityInclusion #RepresentationMatters #InclusiveDesign #AuthenticStorytelling

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📢 NEW from GPAHE: Support for Project 2025 Surging On Proud Boys and White Supremacist Forums "There’s a lot for white supremacists to like in #Project2025. It calls the 'left' 'subversive' and 'deviant' and will eliminate LGBTQ+ and transgender rights, institute punishing immigration policies including draconian roundups and tent cities, militarize the border and end refugee programs, abolish DEI efforts and fire those who supported them, and purge the government of 'deep state' and 'woke' civil servants, replacing them with 'a database of personnel vetted for conservative values and loyalty.' It’s supported by more than 100 conservative organizations, many of which are explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ or anti-immigrant and/or rooted in Christian Nationalism. So it’s not surprising that white supremacists, who are generally opposed to things like civil rights, like the Proud Boys, are supporting Project 2025, becoming more vocal, especially now that it’s hit the mainstream." ➡ READ the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/eV9xPYUE

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