Summer updates from Gwendolyn and BRIDGE

First, thank you all for the many ways you breathe life in to BRIDGE and support our quest for racial justice and equity! Without you, we could not show up in love and intention towards our collective humanity!

I am writing to tell you we have had a busy June at BRIDGE. We were fortunate enough to partner with MCLA on the Equity and Inclusion Conference. We are so grateful for what Dr. Emily Williams did for our Berkshire County. It was an amazing enlightening time with the launch of the Arts and Humanity Institute and Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond Undoing Racism being on campus. I had the privilege of serving on the opening plenary panel alongside several community leaders and of spending time with my childhood heroine, Nikki Giovanni (I kept a lifesize poster over my bed as a young girl!). Lots of good work ahead in the Berkshires and so glad to have the arts community in partnership. 

We had a daylong powerful retreat for Race Amity Day on the second Sunday where we honored Juneteenth and also had meaningful dialogue with several leaders and activists. We enjoyed drum facilitation with Otha Day and a preview of Pipeline.

Gwendolyn was able to lead a couple of meaningful race dialogues as talkbacks with Barrington Stage Co. for America V 2.1. Many community leaders rallied to support intentional conversations after this brilliant play. Many thanks to our many racial justice allies and activities that attended and thank you to Julianne Boyd and Greylock for sponsoring the tickets and talkback stipends.

Also on another front BRIDGE’s racial justice and Gwendolyn’s special Women to Women program integrating gender and race equity conversations in an embodied leadership joined forces with WAM’s Kristen van Ginhoven at a special day training 80 professionals in our Attorney General’s office. We discussed roles of allies and accomplices in the workplace in responding to, navigating and disrupting microaggressions, microaffirmations and more! That was a privilege and definitely courageous conversations being led there by April English and her colleagues.

Another W2W embodied leadership participant, Gloria Escobar, really shone in her leadership this month with the national designation of Juntos Avanzamos for Greylock Credit Union branches in Lee and on West St. Stay tuned to hear more about their service to the Latino Community. Also our Women to Women members had an amazing time with Jacobs Pillow for the amazing Flamenca Dance performance.

Thank you all again for your support and we have so much more to come! See our calendar for wing nights, house parties, racial justice meetings, and more! Stay in touch. Next newsletter, we will share our new Moonlight Mile circle of members and our renewed BRIDGE membership list, don’t forget to renew or join as a BRIDGE sustaining member where your organization can benefit from BRIDGE services and you support our ongoing work.

Looking ahead--join us this Thursday!