Gain valuable insight from six nonprofit leaders fighting for racial justice as they share core values and advice about collaborating to make meaningful change.
These leaders from Story Tapestries Inc., an organization that promotes accessibility and equity through the arts, work on an initiative to Amplify Voices for Racial Equity. Get their tips on supporting racial justice and see how you can apply them at your nonprofit.
Steven Barker
Managing Director at Story Tapestries Inc.
Who He Is:
Steven is a lecturer of theatre design and technology at McDaniel College. Previously, he served as executive director of the Culpeper State Theatre, a teaching artist for Story Tapestries (Montgomery County), the Redhouse Arts Center (Syracuse), Pied Piper Theatre (Manassas), Imagination Stage (Bethesda), and Orlando Repertory Theatre. He successfully directed the theatre programs at Lejeune High School and Falls Church High School. He has a range of directing and design credits, including Radium Girls (world premiere—one-act version); Godspell; The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; and A Christmas Carol. He holds a M.F.A. in theatre for youth from Arizona State University, a B.F.A. in theatre education, and a B.S. in chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Faith: Once you find the intersection between racial injustice and other forms of injustice, you can work with other groups on common areas of interest. You will change the system faster by standing with many voices.
Michelle: Understanding who you are and how you are perceived in the world is important when starting any organization. If you don’t understand your privilege, you can’t understand racial inequalities.
Regie: Racial injustice is not just an economic inequity, but one rooted in centuries of miseducation. We need to understand history from the perspective of the people of color and Black people who built this country.
Steven: Pace yourself—this is a marathon, not a sprint. Do the reading, come up with actionable benchmarks, keep forward momentum.
Lorienne: Accept that making mistakes is the process of learning and that questions, not answers, guide growth. Because in asking the question, you invite reflection and participation.
Michelle: Educate yourself and don’t rely on the BIPOC community or friends of BIPOC origin to educate you.
Regie: Ask yourself, how many of your friends are white?
Steven: Be honest with what you don’t know. Don’t participate in “cancel culture.” Practice “Oops, Ouch” in your daily life.
Arianna: “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo
Faith: “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” by Simon Sinek
Michelle: “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds” by Adrienne Maree Brown
Arianna: Collaboration is the key to success. Work with a diverse group of people. Build a team that tells the story of the community. Do not make any assumptions about your team. Ask, and you shall grow.
Faith: Let your team know that you are there to make every member successful. Be willing to have that conversation with each member … it opens up dialogue, idea generation, and support for each other as you provide a safe community/work environment. In return, it builds a high-performance team and information sharing that fuels success.
Regie: People do not understand the intricacies of microaggressions against BIPOC people. If you are being corrected by a BIPOC person, ask questions, let it sink in for 24 hours before getting defensive, and build your own resource of respected BIPOC allies to engage in deep and meaningful dialogue.
Arianna: Always be open; listen, learn, then act. We are committed to our community, and we recognize that we have much to learn.
Lorienne: Our Collaborative Project Process means we aim to create programs and services that are designed both by and for the communities we work with. It is essential to us to create meaningful, impactful products by first listening and then collectively responding. Story Tapestries is committed to empowering others to create, design, and share their own success stories. Our job is to help identify and provide tools that can get them there. That is why our tagline is “Empower. Educate. Engage.”
Michelle: I would say the way we execute our Amplify US! initiative relates directly to the listen and learn principles. We would usually have listening sessions in invited communities, and then we create workshops in response to the information gathered from the listening sessions. This process makes the workshops relevant to the community Story Tapestries is in partnership with every time.
Learn more about Story Tapestries.
Featured Photo: Amplifying Voices for Racial Equity in MD-DC-VA by Story Tapestries Inc.Find exactly what you're looking for in our Learn Library by searching for specific words or phrases related to the content you need.
