Hi BRIDGE family and Happy New Year once again,

We have had a wonderful start to the year! We will share some January highlights and give you a few sneak peaks on projects and events to come! We appreciate your being a part of our BRIDGE community! With you, we met our fundraising goals and it has allowed us to serve over 50 families throughout our year of training and community organizing on the front end. Behind the scenes, our staff works hard so we can support communities and individuals often overlooked. We offer community, financial assistance, tools to study or work more efficiently, and several other access points for peace, thriving and success! Our work is quiet, steady and persistent and we couldn’t do it without a BRIDGE community of supporters that contribute time, heart and treasure! Thank you for believing in us!

This month we kicked off the year with a TRJ meeting reflecting on our caucus work in affinity groups and what 2020 calls for us to do. We identified and solidified our campaigns and unpacked our accountability towards racial justice and equity. At the Race Task Force January table, we committed our time to hearing about the Census 2020, the ways in which accessibility has been addressed and also what the outcomes and arc of change has been. The representative was responsive to culturally sensitive questions and has followed up with several subsequent meetings, requests and conversations. Many thanks to Mark Sebastiano and Barbara Mahoney for setting this up. Our Race Task Force also presented the idea of working on racial disparities in HomeOwnership as a campaign this year and we are happy to have Greylock Federal Credit Union representative Lisa Trybus and Department of Housing rep Brad Gordon with us in February to continue the conversation and look at advocating with neighbors across the state for Senate Bill 800. Thanks to the subcommittee of AJ Enchill, Tommie Hutto-Blake and Wes Gadson for that initial work!

More Racial Justice and Equity work happened in the heart and soul of the Berkshires for Martin Luther King, Jr. day. We honored him with a Day of Service supporting our local active historically Black Church, the Macedonia Baptist Church in Great Barrington, by laying a whole new kitchen floor. We deep cleaned and spruced up rooms at First Congregational Church used by folks in recovery every day of the week — these rooms housed our summer program this past year and our women to women holiday party this past December. We also sent loads of peace and Valentine’s Cards to Fairview Commons along with more cards to the incarcerated women of Berkshire County who are housed in Chicopee. As a group, volunteers and staff led an arts and poetry corner while listening to the entire I Have a dream speech in our second annual Dream Corner. Later, we had story hour with Brad Meltzer’s Martin Luther King JR. biography and our Happiness Toolbox kids supported our volunteer Tim Likarish in a strength-spotting activity.  We all agreed MLK demonstrated courage and kindness along with so much more! We enjoyed a powerful service for the 22nd annual anniversary of the MLK noon service at First Congregational. In case you missed it, you can listen to Rev. Letman’s sermon, youth testimonials and Rev. Forte and Rev. Tezlaff honor Dr. King and read about it here… in the Berkshire Edge.

To wrap up the day of honoring Dr. King, Stephanie,  Vanessa and Gwendolyn read excerpts of How to be an anti-racist by Ibram Kendi in the Four Freedoms Gallery of Norman Rockwell Musuem in honor of Dr. King’s quest for a just and equitable country….

BRIDGE acknowledged for the Paul J. Aicher Award: As many of you heard we have been identified as a finalist for the Aicher Award and have embarked on a partnership with Everyday Democracy! This is very exciting! You can read about it here in the Berkshire Edge.

For the third annual presentation, the Du Bois Banners are flying again in Great Barrington upholding the legacy of Civil Rights scholar, activist and sociologist Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois in his hometown. The values the town amplifies from his work are Civil Rights, Progressive Education, Economic Justice and Racial Equality (Equity)! We look forward to seeing you at the Town of Great Barrington Legacy Festival. Please follow the work on duboislegacy.com and see the flyer below! BRIDGE is a happy anchor partner with the Town of Great Barrington in all of these efforts. We have an amazing lineup of scholars assembled by Dr. Emily Williams, Senior Engagement and Education Director at BRIDGE and Thasia Giles and Pam Tatge of Jacobs Pillow are returning as key partners to the Festival and bringing dance Joanna Haigood and Zaccho Dance Theatre to do some powerful community work with us. Joanna Haigood crafted this piece 20 years ago when studying at the Pillow and discovering Dr. Du Bois and we are happy to have the Between Me and the Other World here at Simons Rock. Also, we are calling for a community book read of The Souls of Black Folk with Bob Paynter of UMASS with Donna Gouger. As an outcome of the 150th anniversary, the community collected funds to have a Souls of Black Folk book read as challenged by Dr. Frances Jones Sneed and we have a free book for you to join us in reading Souls. On Feb 22nd we will host this dynamic book club of music poetry and text together with guests and local activists and the Great Barrington Legacy Committee! Call 413-394-4305 to arrange to pick up your book or email adminsupport@multiculturalbridge.org. Follow the details at duBoisLegacy.com.

Finally, we want you all to mark March 17th because we have been invited to co-host What A Difference a DA makes with ACLU- MA! We will be inviting our Race Task Force members as partner organizations and have identified other key partners to join this ACLU event. Please save the date for a conversation in the Pittsfield Library, Berkshire Antheneum, in the evening.

BRIDGE has been commissioned by Downtown Pittsfield Inc., Berkshire Bank, and PERC to provide a daylong training session along with 3 follow up lunch ‘ n learns. Starting with a keynote and panel of community leaders we will have a day of workshops on March 20th! 

Our partner, member and client Greylock Federal Credit Union will run an informational Black History Month campaign on their facebook! Enjoy!

We celebrate Black History all year long and February is a month to amplify the longtime contributions of our local and national heroes and scholars. Without them, none of us would be here now. Celebrate and learn something new everyday!

Also our pop up Wing for Justice nights will be coming back soon! We do wings and justice conversations quarterly! Stay tuned and along with this lineup will be game night with some sort of justice theme! We need community, pleasure and fun in our activism because we have a lot of work to do!

There is still time to make your 2019 end of year gift or 2020 pledge! Many of you received my annual year-end letter in US mail but, if you are so far only part of our E-BRIDGE family, I wanted to share my letter here.  

I also want to give a huge thank you to those who joined us Dec 7th for our end of year SJIA launching our appeal - we raised $22,000 in donations and pledges for 2020 that evening! 

Stay tuned for January details for another SJIA! 

And many thanks to our Giving Tuesday supporters who helped us raise $2035 on and offline!

Happy holidays,
Gwendolyn

Hello friends,
With each of you, I want to celebrate community, love, and courage as we close out 2019. For me, I know 2020 will be a year of clarity—clear vision and focus for us all. In order to achieve positive social impact of equity in our communities and organizations, I know that we must continually activate ourselves and others, intentionally reflect, and diligently work with grit and resilience so that we stay activated.

"True learning is the ability to decide upon change and then follow through with clear mind and steady purpose. True learning is the ability to take action." Richard Heckler-Strozzi

So many of you have already leaned in to the urgency of now when it comes to your personal activism here in the Berkshires and beyond by being a part of the BRIDGE community. You, with the rest of our BRIDGE family, have focused on LOVE for one another and a vision of equity and justice for each and every one of us! Thank you!

A few important updates about where BRIDGE is today. In the last year, our team has... 

• Formed or continued to build upon strong learning partnerships with such long-standing community institutions as Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Jacob’s Pillow Festival of Dance, and WAM Theatre (just to name a few). 
• Co-created a coalition of leaders from organizations working on racial justice, including leaders like our local NAACP President, Berkshire Interfaith Organizing leaders, and more.
• Helped to curate a portion of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conference at Mass. College of Liberal Arts in June 2019- the launch of the Arts Institute 
• Received recognition from the Center for Democracy as a finalist for the Aicher Award 
• Received recognition when our CEO, Gwendolyn VanSant, was named 2019’s “Woman of Achievement” by Berkshire Business and Professional Woman (an event which helped us raise over $12k in career advancement scholarships for women aiming to pursue advanced education.)

And YOU? YOU have also made it possible so that we at BRIDGE have been able to... 

• successfully match a capacity grant we received from an anonymous donor supporting BRIDGE at this critical time in the organization’s growth and development
• continue to meaningfully respond to racial incidents in schools with our culturally competent approach and wherever possible, aim to repair harm and restore belonging
• bring a youth-centric leadership model to County Superintendent called SPIRIT in partnership with the United States Attorney Office and Department of Justice for all participating school districts wanting to empower student activists on issues they deem essential for students safety and thriving. Launching in Central Berkshire this December. 
• hold 10th anniversary celebrations of BRIDGE’s Happiness Toolbox and our “Women to Women” program (the heartbeat of our organization)
• partner with Greylock on their “Women’s Day of Caring Action” during International Women’s Day by sending packed backpacks of care to greet Berkshire women as they return home. We proudly plan to make this an annual event!

As we move into 2020, we are focused on bolstering the humanity of our children and of women here in the Berkshires who face threat of harm and/or experience harm or exclusion every day. 

As we move forward, we aim to embody in practice a systemic, holistic approach to equity and justice for every one of our community members. We know that we not only have the power to touch hearts and minds, but the power and responsibility to shift power, access, and resources here in our community and beyond. We will continue to bring attention to the spaces that need our “love in action.”

“If you know what is love and what is fear, you become aware of the way you communicate to others… Love is not about concepts; love is about action. Love in action can only produce happiness. Fear in action can only produce suffering. The only way to master your love is to practice your love.” -Don Miguel Ruiz

Please join us by choosing the ways in which you can support BRIDGE in 2020. We have outlined them below. Your support and collaboration helps us be the change we want to see in our country and community. Thank you in advance! We will be able to send you your new BRIDGE supporter decal for your car, window or office door.

Serving it forward in peace and justice,
Gwendolyn

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. ~ Maya Angelou

Women to Women is joined by Walking Our Talk to celebrate the holidays

Fun to have our BRIDGE family join Shirley Edgerton in the Community Read
at Conte Community School.

Hello BRIDGE,
I received nothing but accounts of understanding and praise on today’s training from my officers. In return I shared with them your team’s appreciation of their openness and participation in return as well as an understanding of their dedication and responsibilities to their job... today was certainly a day of pride, satisfaction, and hope for me.  I can’t thank your team enough. I routinely recognize that you are professionals and today you demonstrated that again...thank you for continually trusting and sharing personal experiences with our community.
Jeff Coe
Dalton Police Chief

Click here to read all about those different ways to support.

• ​Join as a member
  
• Sustaining Monthly Donation
  
• BRIDGE’s Reparations Fund
  
• Moonlight Mile Match
  
• BRIDGE’s Endowment Capital Campaign
  
• Sallie VanSant Memorial Fund
  
• Open Doors
  
• Facebook Fundraising campaign 
  
• Amazon Smile 
  

For more information and options, please click here to email us!

BRIDGE, and all of our external operations, will be on Holiday Break from Tuesday, December 24 until Tuesday, December 31 to provide all of us a chance to clear our heads, catch up on our lives and/or families, and recharge our batteries for the new year. Bridge,

Wishing everyone Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year! Celebrate your traditions and ask a friend with different ones for an opportunity to share with one another.

Solstice Reflection: 
“At this time of year, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on birth and the coming of the light. But the Solstice is really Nature’s season of rebalancing between life and death, and new life is never possible without a darkening, a sloughing off.
What makes this season holy is the act of casting off that which, with little to no guarantee, will set us on a new course. Like winter, Nature’s death field closes in on us with its cold and dark promise to claim all that isn’t thriving. It isn’t unusual to resist this process. We may find ourselves trying to prop up the old way, lifeless as it may be, in an attempt to reanimate the ill-fitting, limp, and even destructive, because at least it was familiar. 
But as reluctant as we may be, the holy act of this season is trust. Even as the old things are being cast off, torn away, or leaving of their own accord. Even as disappointment, heartbreak, and fear are rearing up on all sides. Something better for our well-being is marshaling itself below the cold ground. And the sooner we can conclude our old attachments, the sooner the new way will be made visible.” 
-Excerpt from toko-pa blog

And for inspiration this holiday season - watch these videos:

We are again happy to have Dr. Emily Williams on our team as Senior Engagement and Education Director.

Please see her second interview with our CEO, Gwendolyn, and partner for InsideHigherEd with BRIDGE client John Bissell of Greylock Federal Credit Union.

Any feedback, please feel free to contact her at Emily@multiculturalbridge.org:

On Sunday, November 3rd, please come join us at the Doris Duke at Jacobs Pillow to celebrate the Latín American women at BRIDGE in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month 10 years of their stewarding their Latinx community with support and education through our Women to Women program at BRIDGE! We will dance, listen to stories, share delicious food samplings and view cultural artifacts from several countries! Raffle prizes include a Chromebook, beautiful Ecuadorian jewelry brought back just last month and a stay at a Provincetown Cape Cod hotel! Proceeds support the women and children in our BRIDGE Programs! Rsvp@multiculturalbridge.org

This November we are joining WAM in their production of Pipeline and members of our Racial Justice Coalition and BRIDGE Race Task Force join talkbacks after each show. We have the special treat of the actors and directors engaging with our community as well! This is an important play about family, structural bias in education and voice! Get your tickets --

We have honored Dr. Du Bois where we achieved a moment in history we will never forget. Dr. David Levering Lewis wrote to Randy Weinstein “perhaps the battle with Great Barrington is won!” Meaning this global icon of civil rights, pioneer of sociology and founder of NAACP is appreciated in his hometown. Stay tuned for videos, testimonials and more!

We are on book two of Mass MoCA Black Feminist Book Club on Christina Thorpe In the Wake. Join me on Nov 7th—no matter where you are in the book—to have a discussion!

Also on Nov 7th, we are joined by Dr. Tracey Benson for his book launch of Bias in Education after Pipeline at the WAM performance at Shakespeare & Co. Even if you have Pipeline tickets another night join us at 6:30 or 9:00—and if you don’t have tickets join us! No matter the family background this play coupled with this book is essential!

Thank you for being a part of the BRIDGE community!!!

Let’s party! We want to have wings with you for Wings for Justice at Patrick’s Pub in Nov 13th for fun and dialogue (and Wings!) 7 PM. Rsvp@multiculturalbridge.org

And as the year draws to a close we at BRIDGE are forever grateful for your engagement as volunteer, employee, client, partner, member, donor and/or community ally, accomplice & friend! You all make up our BRIDGE community! You make the difference!

Sending you all best wishes for peace and meaning!
Serving it forward,
Gwendolyn 

Follow us on Facebook and check our website for more information!

P.s. Please welcome Dr. Emily Williams, our new team lead, as our Senior Education and Education Director! Gearing up for the work ahead! Blessings to all!!!!

Dear BRIDGE supporters:          

Hi all! 

We finished up the summer and started Fall with a sprint!

It has been a great fulfilling month as we flexed our core value of collaboration and joined our partners and friends in moving the needle on justice and inclusion in our community.

We were able to show up in partnership with the Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Committee and drafted, approved and showed up for the vote to shift to Indigenous Peoples Day. If you did not make it to the town meeting, please view the video:

Along the same intentions for reparations, The Du Bois Legacy Committee, UMASS and the Town of Great Barrington  are  honoring the 50th anniversary of the Du Bois Boyhood Homesite. BRIDGE Is a proud-sponsor along with 15 community partners on the event. Our TRJ Du Bois Campaigners are in full swing! Please join us for a beautiful day. #allhandsin

We are looking forward to the production of Pipeline! We have Dr. Tracy Benson with the book launch for educators on bias in schools at the Nov.7th Pipeline show with TRJ-South. We have District Attorney Andrea Harrington and Race Task Force member and DA Office Community Engagement Officer Bryan House joining for two talkbacks. Taconic High School Jamal Ahumada of new Black Studies.

Read the article here!

Thanks to the BRIDGE TRJ members who joined the discussion at MassMoCA about Parable of the Sower. Please see our agenda designed by Gwendolyn.

Upcoming Book Club Events:

• November 7th: In The Wake: On Blackness and Being
  
• December 5th: Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?
  

Thanks to Steve & Diana! We raised $2700 at their beautiful garden party and welcome a few new volunteers. BRIDGE board treasurer Steve and his wife Diana worked with the BRIDGE team of staff and volunteers while our CEO and Community Engagement Coordinator with Susan Witt of Center for New Economics were in Austin, TX at a women, money and power conference! Stay tuned of how you can leverage your resources for positive social impact on women, girls and others historically oppressed!

Special thanks to all of our volunteers who tabled, did outreach and preparation and were stellar ambassadors for BRIDGE! With your help, we can celebrate and collaborate the important work of our partners and promote our Not in the County campaign! Thanks so much! 

Stephanie is hosting a book read of Beverly Tatum’s 20th anniversary edition of Why are all the black kids sitting together? in the Central Berkshire Regional District and their feeder towns. Find that agenda on our website and read along! 

Vanessa arranged for us to share the Statewide Cultural Appreciation Week with the Great Barrington Courthouse. Our Women to Women and staff made an authentic dish from our cultures and family traditions for a potluck with all courthouse staff and a few retired Ones. We shared job roles for both BRIDGE and Courthouse members. We discussed immigration, race and poverty issues that the court sees daily. And they joined us in signing the pledge. We were joined by local attorneys as well that supported the process with good questions and reflections.. A small step towards a deeper collaboration. A member of the GB courthouse will join our Race Task Force Coalition!

The day before, County Police Chiefs received Gwendolyn of the Race Task Force and Dr. Leticia Haynes of Williams College (newest Race Task Force member) for a presentation and discussion regarding campaign, training, collaboration and more! Stay tuned!

Keep an eye out for some links on social media to an InsideHigherEd article on cultural competency with Dr. Emily Williams and Gwendolyn, Kristen (WAM Theatre) and  Gwendolyn’s Blog about Pipeline, and some of our CEO articles will be surfacing again soon (it has been a busy summer on collaborative written pieces!) These posts are meant to support your journey towards equity and liberation for all.

In March 2019 we had the pleasure of hosting the book launch Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments  by Dr. Saidiya Hartman. We are proud to know that our Advisory Council Member has been acknowledged as a MacArthur Fellow, ie. She is a recipient of the “Genius” award. We are proud to know her and benefit from her work! Watch the videohere!

Congratulations for Stephanie Wright (BRIDGE) and Karen Murray (BRIDGE women to women and RMV) to be accepted in to the Women’s Fund Of Western Massachusetts Leadership for Political and Public Impact (LIPPI)at UMASS. Thanks to Moonlight Mile for resources to sponsor. 

Thank you for reading our updates!

Many thanks to our sustaining donors that make a meaningful monthly pledge!
You can always support our urgent response and reparations fund for those at the target of bias incidents and responses. We will notify you always when we are responding in urgent response and/or offering reparations funds. Send with a memo and note so it is applied correctly. 

If you shop Amazon, join Amazon Smile!

If you are having a birthday, crowdfund for a day or a week on Facebook!

Join our monthly meetings and actions and follow your pledge commitment to being active positive bystanders.  

Spread the good word about your experiences and we would love it if you would send us testimonials regarding your BRIDGE experience.

Wishing you all the best,
The BRIDGE team

Dear BRIDGE supporters:

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

It has been a full joyful summer. Happiness Toolbox 2019 was full of children and youth mentoring one another, sharing their gifts and skills. We exceeded enrollment and had the most returning families and the most youth leaders in our 10-year history! We drummed with Otha Day, read and imagined ourselves as entrepreneurs with author Ty Jackson. We explored wellness with Kijana Rose in yoga and the study of crystals. We explored computer coding and human coding with DNA with Tim and JV. And our youth leaders led us in sports, Spanish, dance, art, and HANDLE. Thanks to YES (Youth Empowerment in Sports with Williams College students and alumni) for partnering with our youth! We piloted at Luna Buho Farm in Cheshire a two-day Happiness Toolbox program and look forward to even more collaboration next Spring. Email us to find out how you can be involved. Additionally, we were so glad and grateful to be hosted by First Congregational Church in Great Barrington for the first time and look forward to collaborations to come! For example, keep an eye out for BRIDGE Multicultural Dinners returning for the community at First Congregational Church in October! Details coming soon!

Last month, NPC Berkshires hosted our bias awareness workshop and we were glad to host BCC, Lee Bank, Berkshire Natural Resources and friends from Franklin County. Nice to have new groups join the dialogue on how to build stronger, more inclusive workforces.

In case you missed it, our Director, Gwendolyn, and Chief Coe of Dalton, MA shared on the national Not In Our County website about our Berkshire campaign. We were invited to hear Cornelius Minor speak and I loved this quote that he offered CBRSD teachers: 

At this beginning of the year launch meeting, CBRSD did their launch of signing the pledge offering to interrupt bias and intolerance at their schools.

Unfortunately, some of our neighbors in North Adams were targets of race incidents and city councilors and Mayor have been in conversation with residents and so forth. We plan to host a September community meeting with DOJ USAO office reps and DOJ CRS reps and we hope you join us for our September Race Task Force for more dialogue and planning. We are proud to welcome new Race Task Force members, Kristen van Ginhoven and Lia Russell Self, from WAM Theatre and Bryan House from our Berkshire District Attorney Office. #allhandsin. Call to action!

And another great time was had by all staff and volunteers who participated, our Director had the awesome opportunity to support planning A Day of Action with Yo-Yo Ma and we built a table in community. Find us here on Yo-Yo Ma’s Instagram and also our photos here on our BRIDGE facebook page here. JV made great new fourth-generation BRIDGE T’s for the event!

Lastly, we are gearing up for the WAM production of Pipeline and you can hear Directors speak about the value of the program here. We had our second planning retreat in Gloucester, MA last week as we prepare for the launch. Please sign up for a show and also join us in dialogue about microaggressions and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Heartbeat Update: We made our Match- woo hoo! $7,869 | We are so grateful for the generosity in our community. Our resilient connections are growing stronger every day! We had a surprise visit from our original Development Coordinator and founding partner in Race Task Force, Rev. Natalie Shiras! She is so proud of the work we have done to grow BRIDGE’s roots and she carries our work on the West Coast. Thank you, Natalie, for the legacy of white accompliceship!

Tim Likarish, Lily Swartz and Grace Church offered this Heartbeat Match as we refer to our Women to Women and Youth Leadership & Education programs as the pulse of our organization! Together they generously contributed $7,000 and we crowdfunded through our networks and raised $7,869 with your help totaling $14,869! Thank you so much for collectively caring for the happiness and well-being of our women and youth in our community. Please see the photos!

Wishing you all the best,
THE BRIDGE team

Dear BRIDGE Community,
We personally want to thank YOU for being in community with us! You all make BRIDGE what it is with love and gusto!

Last week, we had a fun dance night and good food connection and intergenerational cross-cultural fun (did I say FUN?) was had by all attending at our pop-up SJIA! I hope you will join us for future celebrations, wings and dancing as we enjoy the rest of our summer.

We have been busy at BRIDGE this summer in so many ways. We take pride in supporting our clients and some of us are busy making plans with our youth leaders for the 10th-anniversary Happiness Toolbox summer season. We also have made plans to do a two-day pilot for Cheshire and surrounding towns at Luna Búho Farm July 30th and July 31st with a family presentation 4 PM on July 31st. We will be drumming with Otha Day, dancing, practicing literacy through Spanish and Computer coding, reading with local Authors Ty Jackson and JV Hampton VanSant, and learning our local Berkshire history through the legends of Dr. Du Bois, Laura Ingersoll, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Mumbett with Ms. Stephanie Wright. We will be enjoying the athlete, artist, naturalist, and dancer in all of us. Several youth leaders are sharing their talents, passions and favorite BRIDGE lessons with the program. Our themes are empathy, perseverance, and grit! We will explore the history of the land we use today... And need I say more!

For you to get a sense of what we have been up to so far this season, please see the editorial strand, regarding a recent racially biased incident at Jacob’s Pillow and our two collaborative responses from accountability of TRJ and also the CEO letter with John Bissell (Greylock Federal Credit Union) and Peter Taylor (Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation).

As we live and practice true to our mission, we are advocates for the many marginalized voices and also we serve as a resource to institutions and organizations committed to change. We work towards cultural and systemic policy change. 

Last week, we also shared a successful Bias Awareness Training hosted by NPC Berkshires and we are going in for part two on Thursday. We were happy to welcome several participants from Lee bank, Berkshire Community College, Public Health Institute, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, BRIDGE, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, and more to the session. Thanks to NPC director and founder, Liana Toscanini, for the invitation and soliciting and publishing the piece on Colorblindness in the latest Connections magazine.

We celebrated with our sister organization WAM on their tenth anniversary as they announced their beneficiaries, Women of Color Giving Circle and Harmony Homestead, who were collectively nominated and chosen among WAM and BRIDGE staff! Happy birthday, WAM! Can’t wait for Pipeline—see the calendar to get your tickets!

Lastly, we had such fun at the Gather-In at Durant Park and also look forward to our Day Of Action with Yo Yo Ma and several community organizations in Pittsfield. Learn more here.

We have a new Summer Challenge grant this summer in honor of the 10th anniversary of two of our core programs, Women to Women and Happiness Toolbox. Woo hoo!

Grace Church and the Ellis family (Tim, Lily and Levi of TRJ) have joined forces to offer $7,000 towards these two programs annual and celebration costs. It is time as you read for you to double your contribution by giving now because they have jointly issued the Heartbeat Match Challenge. Good news—we are more than halfway there at $3856! Make your donation here!

We love to return to Adrienne Maree Brown to reflect on inspiring folks in our networks to catalyze change by living an authentic life—the practice of reflection is a helpful step. Pause reflect and then get back to doing! 

Do you already know that your existence--who and how you are--is in and of itself a contribution to the people and place around you? Not after or because you do some particular thing, but simply the miracle of your life. And that the people around you, and the place(s), have contributions as well? Do you understand that your quality of life and your survival are tied to how authentic and generous the connections are between you and the people and place you live with and in?

Are you actively practicing generosity and vulnerability in order to make the connections between you and others clear, open, available, durable? Generosity here means giving of what you have without strings or expectations attached. Vulnerability means showing your needs. - adrienne maree brown
Stay in touch with us! Thank you for all you do!

Warmly,
Gwendolyn VanSant

BRIDGE is happy to welcome our two service learners, Florence and Damari!

Dear BRIDGE Families,

We hope you are having a great start to your summer! 

We have some important updates to share with you regarding the Happiness Toolbox Summer Program. Due to construction at Hevreh, we will no longer be holding the August 5-16: South County program at that location. August 5-16th: South County Happiness Toolbox Program will now be held at the First Congregational Church at 251 Main St, Great Barrington, MA. We will be hosting a northern Berkshires pilot in Cheshire July 28-August 2nd at Owl Moon Farm.

This year, we will host special guests: Ty Allen Jackson of Bighead Books, Otha Day of Drum to the Beat, A.J. Enchill, District Aide for Adam Hinds, and student athletes from Youth, Education, and Sports Initiative (YES). Our returning youth leaders: Damari Taylor, Maya and Westley Hampton VanSant, Jaiden Ellerbee, Miles and Audrey Allard and more! For our South County program, we will travel to Gideon's Garden both Friday afternoons to harvest, learn, and celebrate.

We are looking forward to our upcoming staff, volunteer, and youth leader training, in which the Happiness Toolbox team will be trained in BRIDGE's Happiness Toolbox Diversity Leadership and Positive Psychology frameworks by Gwendolyn and JV Hampton-VanSant as well the HANDLE model by Elizabeth Frishkoff on July 11, 2019.

Thursday, July 4, 2019
(Lenox, MA) - In special partnership with BRIDGE, Shakespeare & Company host its annual Fourth of July Community Celebration “We Hold These Truths” from 1:30-5:00pm. This yearly event is an Independence Day celebration, held on Shakespeare & Company's Campus, 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA 01240, with music, children's crafts and activities, and a public reading of one of the most stirring and influential documents in our country's history, The Declaration of Independence. This event is free, and an all-American barbeque will be available for purchase.
 
"We are thrilled to be partnering with BRIDGE for our Fourth of July Celebration," said Company Artistic Director, Allyn Burrows. "We find it vital to broaden the conversation around the values on which this country was founded in order for us all to evolve together."

The event will run from 1:30-5:00pm on Thursday, July 4 with ongoing activities for the whole family including free children's activities including: crafts table, face painting, and a photo booth. The Amy Ryan Band returns to perform a unique mix of country/rock blues. Shakespeare & Company artists and special guests Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli, Senator Adam Hinds, and District Attorney Andrea Harrington will read the Declaration of Independence beginning at 3:00pm. In celebration of our country’s diverse heritage and to inspire us to reflect on the multiple identities we hold as Americans, the day will also feature readings from Frederick Douglas, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, The 1848 Women’s Declaration of Sentiments, Harriet Tubman, and others. The event will also feature an independent community based group of dancers performing a Colombian folkloric piece in celebration of preserving their history and culture through performance.
 
"As we focus on multiple truths, independence and liberation are something we as US residents and citizens are all still striving for," says Gwendolyn VanSant of BRIDGE. “I have been honored to be invited to collaborate on integrating diverse voices and stories that make up our US history in the annual program. Through this honoring of our collective history, the BRIDGE and Shakespeare & Company communities have intentionally united to demonstrate the incomparable value of relationship-building within our Berkshire home."

Throughout the course of the event, food will available for purchase (credit cards will be accepted) on site from SoMa Catering. The Fourth of July Community Celebration will happen rain or shine, and is generously sponsored by David and Natalie Johnsonius Neubert.
 
The celebration will be followed by a preview performance of Twelfth Night at 6pm in the Tina Packer Playhouse. This classic showcases a rich, affecting, and deeply funny story of longing, love, and laughter which paints Shakespeare at his peak. Twelfth Night is directed by Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director, Allyn Burrows. Tickets are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office at (413) 637-3353. The Company’s 2019 Summer Season also includes two outdoor Shakespeare productions, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and a special workshop production of Coriolanus; plus Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan, The Children by Tony nominee Lucy Kirkwood, The Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and Tony Award nominee Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies.

Schedule
1:30pm-5:00pm
Food from SOMA Catering is available for purchase; Selections from Amy Ryan Band

1:30pm - 3:00pm
Children's crafts, face painting and photo booth are open to the public for free; Colombian folkloric dance performance

3:00pm - 4:00pm
Speeches, readings and the Declaration

5:00pm
Fourth of July Community Celebration ends

6:00pm
Special Twelfth Night Preview Performance

About BRIDGE
Founded in 2007, BRIDGE (dba Multicultural BRIDGE) is a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing equity and justice by promoting cultural competence, positive psychology, and mutual understanding and acceptance. The organization acts as a catalyst for change through collaboration, education, training, dialogue, fellowship and advocacy. BRIDGE is a minority and women run non-profit certified by the Office of Supplier Diversity of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (SDP). Their certified competencies are training, education, language access, and multicultural awareness. More information about BRIDGE can be found at https://www.multiculturalbridge.org.
 
About the Amy Ryan Band
Witnessing Amy’s solo performances at open mic sessions in New York’s Capital Region, guitarist Richard Green saw an opportunity to combine his own blues guitar chops with a gutsy female singer with the potential to lead a great blues band. The Amy Ryan Band was soon born. Melding together Amy’s country blues mojo and Richard’s urban blues and rock sensibilities, this musical partnership is rounded out by bassist Steve Dietemann and new drummer Al Bauman. With a repertoire that includes band adaptations of Amy’s self-penned solo tunes, newly minted originals, and select covers, the Amy Ryan Band rocks the blues.
 
About SoMa Catering
Providing the Berkshires, Connecticut, and upstate New York with full service catered events, SoMa believes in thoughtful and custom menus inspired by seasonality and locally grown and sourced foods. From boxed picnic lunches to dinner parties and elegant large scale events, they are driven by enhancing celebrations through professional service and simply delicious food. All avenues of SoMa from service to their chefs stand behind their core values of integrity, honesty, sustainability and going above & beyond to make a mark on their events. For more information on SoMa, visit http://www.somacatering.com.
 
About Shakespeare & Company
Located in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the leading Shakespeare festivals of the world. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 40,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to an internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.