BlackIssuesISSUES -blacklivesmatter & diversity

I am a 3X National Endowment for the Humanities award winning educator, artist and diversity trainer raising funds to teach students at La Guardia High School (the FAME school) and complete a webseries based on performing at Miami Art Basel and research in Savannah, Georgia on the Gullah-Geechee this summer so I can create a curriculum, live performances and a podcast to use Humor to Heal the Racial Divide.

**THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT TO FUNDS COMMUNITY OUTREACH INITIATIVES AND CURRICULUM**

All of my research on race that I conduct with the NEH and other institutions is used to create dynamic workshops, curriculum and content through my company BlackIssuesISSUES which does community organizing workshops with disadvantaged youth and theatrical shows for #racialjustice inspired by #blacklivesmatter

PLEASE scroll down to learn about the impact I’m making and SHARE with others to show your support! Thanks so much! 

Being proud to be Black is a liability. I’m not even always talking about race, but that doesn’t matter. There is a shaming and silencing of Black women that is pervasive and yet not talked about widely.

So I am coming to YOU and appreciative of your support!

(Rain Bermudez photography at #OccupyCityHall in NYC discussing #ENDracism and #antiracistbudget) 

Here are photos of me conducting workshops for thrilled students! YAY!

WHAT your support will fund:

1. EQUIPMENT and EDITING for a podcast about the impact of racism on people of various races. What stories are and are not being told in the Savannah community? What is the local leadership doing to preserve the Gullah Geechee culture and reckon with the legacy of slavery, sharecropping and Jim Crow?

Podcast editing 

$500

Video editing 

$900

3. BLACK2NORMAL webseries 

#GeorgeFloyd unified many in America. A multiracial, multigenerational movement birthed in shock at the horrific way in which an unarmed Black man died, started strong with millions taking to the streets, but two years later many of the same issues remain. Since 5/25/20, voter rights are under attach, school boards are banning books many of the pledges for diversity are missing in action. 

In 2021, I got an amazing team to shoot me interviewing people in the same spaces that a year before were overflowing with protests chanting and holding signs to hold our system accountable and demand racial equity. I wondered if those same streets would see a resurgence in numbers and voices. Unfortunately, the movement in 2021 dwarfed the movement of 2020 and I wanted to know why. 

While I shot all the footage, due to not having the $800 needed to fully edit the footage, the BLACK2NORMAL webseries is languishing, unseen or heard and remaining in my hard drive instead of changing hearts and minds. 

$800 will unlock this time capsule of racial sentiments. 

$2000 would fund my team shooting the 2 year anniversary of #georgefloyd on 5/25/22 and getting it edited and posted on BlackIssuesISSUES’s YouTube channel. 

$5000 would fund ongoing BLACK2NORMAL content. That’s the goal. To go out and interview people when Black or racial issues dominate the media and have me, an experienced researcher about race to have conversations that “amplify the issues and accelerate the solutions”.

4. TRADEMARK- right now the BLEXICON my unique and innovative way of discussing racial issues is NOT trademarked. I would like to obtain all the trademarks and also secure all the domain names- which have lapsed due to lack of funding. I am terrified that BlackIssuesISSUES that I have been developing for four years and already received institutional support for THREAD at Yale for New Media and Storytelling, premiered off-Broadway in 2018 and had a SOLD OUT SHOW at Joe’s Pub can be replicated, appropriated or stolen. 

Trademarks for 20 BLEXICON words and logos. 

$5200

BlackIssuesISSUES is a SOCIAL IMPACT platform to

INFORM

ENGAGE 

INSPIRE and

ENTERTAIN

PEOPLE

Black AND White and everyone in-between about #racialjustice and #blacklivesmatter during this COVID19 and racially charged political climate. 

(Channel 4 News while I was talking about RACE while #AllieTheAlly and I demonstrated #takeaknee at Trump Tower)

How? 

Well I created a BlackAF language called the BLEXICON with words and graphics including: 

BLURGENT (Black + Urgent)

BLACKache (profiting off of Black pain/media circus around Black ISSUES and incremental change/struggle)

BLENIUS (Black + Genius)

BLACULATOR (Black + Calculator to calculate reparations for 400+ years of racial oppression) 

scroll down to discover MORE! 

I am an #AntiRacistPersonalTrainer lovingly guiding humanity to have a #racialreckoning 

I use the BLEXICON to engage my students and adults about BLACK ISSUES in ways that encourage critical thinking, accountability and ACTION!

In the streets, on Facebook and with your SUPPORT to shoot and edit content on Youtube and Instagram, I produce content about RACISM #blacklivesmatter #allyship and amplify ISSUES and SOLUTIONS that directly impact the Black community. 

I've performed in front of over 1,000 people and I facilitate as a #diversityconsultant for The New York Times School and Prospect Hill Foundation. I can deescalate fear and elevate trust, authenticity and alignment with one's highest good all while holding people accountable regarding #race.

I am BOLD, detailed and DETERMINED. I'm not SCARED. 

I've had tons of fellowships in policy students and educational leadership, HEALING THE RACIAL DIVIDE makes my heart SING! 

Talking to NYC Mayor DeBlasio about passing an #AntiRacist Budget that stops funding wealthy institutions like The MET and MOMA with our tax dollars and INSTEAD reallocate funds to smaller community based organizations that heal the wounds inflicted by #systemicracism the #blacklivesmattermural in #Harlem 

(Larry Henderson Photography at Trump Tower on 5th Ave in NYC)

BlackIssuesISSUES is an anti-racist webseries, curriculum and philosophy to decenter whiteness and center BLACKNESS when having #BRAVEconversations about race in ways that allow people to open up to the truth and lies about #race, #America and #colonialism with empathy, humor and humility. 

(#AllieTheAlly at the #blacklivesmatter mural painted by local artist @omomisha)

My latest project is a book and websieres called The Re-Education of Allie the Ally- a new webseries about how to raise anti-racist children.

It started as a joke about Nancy Pelosi wearing kente cloth and taking a knee.. but then Allie became REAL. 

Allie was brainstormed during my daily Facebook live show where I talk to whoever is available to analyze the news and media. My blollowers and blinfluencers are highly engaged as I toy with their emotions using emoji pillows and then eventually dolls. 

But Allie is real! Every culture throughout the world utilize dolls to represent beautiful aspects of humanity. 

Children LOVE dolls. And children always start of:

innocent 

loving

curious

open

joyous 

UNTIL we ruin them with isms. #racism #sexism #homophobia #transphobia #classism etc 

But what if we could RAISE AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF ANTIRACIST CHILDREN??

What would the world be like? 

Well that's my DREAM! Support THIS gofundme and SHARE with 8 friends!!

To be HONEST, I was very disappointed by the Sesame Street special on #race 

Too often #whitesilence = #whiteviolence so I am starting a #FreeElmo and #FreeCookieMonster campaign because they no longer want to be puppets while #systemicracism ruins yet another generation of children. 

(#AllieTheAlly at the BlackLivesMatter mural in Harlem painted by artist Jason Wallace)

I (B)love the millions of multi-racial protesters being BLURGENT  (Black + Urgent) by uniting around the Blagedy (Black + Tragedy) of #GeorgeFloyd, however, I want to make sure Black people are not reduced to what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in a viral TED TALK calls a single story.

I believes Black people are more than knees on necks and shots in the back hashtags. I believe Black people are dynamic, multifaceted and BLAMAZING (Black + Amazing)! Black people were the first people to roam the earth. Black people mapped the procession of the sun, moon and stars, erecting pyramids in perfect alignment with the heavens. Black people were the first to worship gods through song, dance and drums. Most importantly, Black people are Blinfinitely creative; our music, art, dance and inventions are an amalgam of soul, spirit and resilience.

To prevent this movement about George Floyd to only be about police brutality and reform, Allie the Ally fully immerses herself in aspects of Blackness rarely witnessed by others. Allie The Ally has witnessed protests, #blacklivesmatter mural paintings, but also more intimate interactions like purchasing bow ties from an African fabric store in Harlem and Double Dutch jump rope. The goals is to depict Blackness as it is. The Blexcellence. The Blenius. The Blagedy. The BlackACHE and the BlackJOY.  

Seriously Silly Message during a serious GoFundMe campaign!

Imagine if #reparations could be funded by a #whiteteartax?

I'm being silly, but too often, those who perpetuate racism, the #karens, #becys and #amys of the world hijack the narrative. Their #racialreckoning is shallow and insincere yet they get the headlines, while the Black victim is eclipsed and silenced. 

This photo that featured Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben and other racist stereotypes and iconography was Black in 2008. I've been producing art that interrogates #racism in the media, down our grocery aisles and haunting our subconscious mind for almost 20 years. 

Before the steady stream of viral videos of #BLAGEDY (Black + Tragedy)

& #BLACKache..

I was BLURGENT (black + urgent). I performed via "Shock and Awe With a Political Aftertaste" because the status quo rendered #racism irrelevant, especially at the dawn of the #Obama presidency. 

In 2012, I had a SOLD OUT pandemonium show where I birthed 400 Years of Racial Oppression at Brooklyn Museum. The poor security staff couldn't handle the amount of people. Some of my most loyal supporters found a secret passage way and crammed into it to see once all seating ceased! It was INSANE! 

I based #400 Years of Rrrrrrrr on a rant by Serena Williams at the U.S. Open when she said "Last time I checked, this is STILL America!"

I BLOVE audience interaction! The audience participates! We had a BLAST!!! 

I used the concept of mirrors to reflect the obtuse and acute realities of #race in America. 

I have been producing BlackIssuesISSUES a seriously silly satire about a magazine called the BlackIssuesISSUES, a magazine satirizing Conde Nast's LACK of diversity since 2018, prior to the current Anna Wintour controversy. I've been ahead of my time with regards to #race for 20 years! HA!

Maybe NOW you can help me PREVENT future racial unrest by helping to fund my webseries and curriculum to have people Laugh While They Learn about the 500+ legacy of racism, colonialism and how we can Use Humor to Heal the Racial Divide. 

YOUR SUPPORT will provide me with:

1. A personal assistant so I can focus on writing a book on race and create comedic content

2. A graphic designer to make my curriculum look professional so I can feature on ZOOM chats and other interactive forums and publish it

3. A video editor so the videos I shoot don't stay stuck in my hard drive 

4. A videographer so the next time I'm swamped with hundreds of people, someone is there to document it 

5. A publicist/social media person to manage press inquiries and promote NEW blackissuesissues content

In my community, I use the #BlackIssuesISSUES curriculum to teach social justice theater to teenagers for The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, I hand out FREE face masks on behalf of the NYC Mayor’s Office to those in need in Harlem and I am a diversity consultant, facilitator and curriculum writer. 

During my BlackIssuesISSUES shows, I brainstorm solutions, analyze policy and connect people with information and resources. I’ve performed BlackIssuesISSUES at The Public Theater and I was supposed to fly my students to SXSW to perform, before COVID19 made that impossible.

I've been a teacher in elementary, middle and high school classrooms and producing political satire about RACE off-broadway on stages for 20 years including at Brooklyn Museum. I’ve received numerous awards in the arts, policy and education from institutions including Puffin Foundation for Activist Art, National Endowment for the Humanities, Coro for Educational Leadership, The Colin Powell Center for Policy Study and was a Columbia University Community Scholar.

I'm obsessed with breaking down RACE, the #blacklivesmatter movement, #policereform, policy and government with humor, compassion and a love for differing opinions. I am a diversity consultant and I use my facilitation skills to have conversations with people of different races, socio-economic classes, sexual orientations, ages and political ideologies.

I also produce comedic content and satire because I love being as silly as I am serious about ISSUES and SOLUTIONS that affect the Black community. My shows feature “blexperts” that speak about ISSUES including MacArthur and Peabody Winner Majora Carter talking about gentrification and Dano Wall discussing his Harriet Tubman $20 bill stamp.

BlackIssuesISSUES invites YOU to partake in #BRAVEconversations about ISSUES and brainstorm solutions and new policies. What would would you love to live in? We share facts and our feelings and also tips regarding self-care.

BlackIssuesISSUES conducts large scale community service initiatives and partners with community organizations to solve ISSUES too!

BlackIssuesISSUES gave out 1000 masks in under 2 hours to the underserved, homeless and unemployed in HARLEM and partnered with Harlem F.U.N.D. to provide food, water and socks. It was filled with good vibes and included several fashion photographers to celebrate people wearing their face masks and I also featured @Renaldo Davidson an artist that had a huge mural depicting Black people wearing masks to prevent #COVID19! It felt GREAT to spread love and keep my community safe.

Your support would assist me in getting...

A video editor to post more inspirational and informational content

Interns to help with follow up emails, administrative tasks, etc

Video and lighting equipment to improve the visual and sound quality of my videos

Props and costumes for the show

A Zoom membership so I can start producing shows featuring multiple blexperts

Website development assistance

Social media intern

Right now, I’m doing EVERYTHING, which is not ideal. My goal is to finish writing my book about RACE and other innovative projects.

This is a BLURGENT Black and URGENT request for funds so I can continue to spread more information that can save lives or provide clarity about #racism and being #antiracist

Your donation will be GREATLY appreciated! I enjoy what I do for the community and your support will help me make a greater impact!

Thank you so much for reading, donating and sharing BlackIssuesISSUES!

BLOVEuBLACK