Category Archives: KI Perspectives

Highlights from the Crime and Safety Youth Summit

Posted on by
Reply

This past Tuesday, Mat Davis, Kheprw Institute (KI) youth leader, played the master of ceremonies at the Mid-North Quality of Life Plan (QOL) Crime and Safety Action Team youth summit. The summit, which was organized by two community leaders, Dominique and Carlene, focused on the issue of youth gun violence and gun safety. Mat opened by drawing attention to the root causes of youth gun violence: “I think that issues of youth gun violence are symptoms of a larger problem. Young people don’t have constructive outlets for their time and so they make choices that may lead to gun violence.” The Kheprw Institute (KI) was originally asked to participate in the summit by Carlene, who is a resident elder. Paulette Fair, another resident elder, invited Carlene to KI to talk about the importance of youth involvement in the Crime and Safety Action Team, which connected closely with KI’s youth engagement initiatives.

KI centers its events and programming on youth empowerment and plays a key role in the QOL as the lead organization for youth engagement. Acknowledging the importance of activities and programming for youth, such as those held at KI, Mat mentions that, “When I work with youth at the KI EcoCenter I strive to create space for young people to have that constructive outlet.” However, even though this summit was focused on youth involvement in community issues, Mat pointed out that, “I am the only young person speaking at this event and when most adults think about youth engagement this is as good as it gets, but there is so much more that can be done.”

Executive Director of KI, Imhotep Adisa, remarked that, “I normally don’t come out to events like this because I often find that these events don’t really address the core issues our communities face. Today, however, I came to support Mat Davis, one of our youth leaders at KI, who had volunteered to MC this event.” With youth gun violence being an important issue in the Mid-North community, residential involvement, especially youth involvement, needs to play a central role in addressing these issues. Imhotep goes on to further say that, “It was rewarding to find that residential leaders, such as Dominique and Carlene, had the understanding of the importance of youth voice, particularly at an event focused on young people. It’s always refreshing to see young people speaking to the issues that are relevant to their own personal experiences.”

In order to further develop a stronger youth voice in events such as this youth summit, KI further strengthened its commitment to being involved in the QOL plan. Explaining this continued commitment, Mat mentions that, “The KI EcoCenter has been focused on youth engagement since its inception. We have now decided to lend our expertise and experience to the Quality of Life Plan to assist their youth initiatives. Our goal is to broaden the scope of youth engagement work so that adults can create more meaningful experiences for youth.” Imhotep echoed this sentiment: “The Kheprw Institute looks forward to the opportunity to work more deeply with the Crime and Safety Action Team to host an event that is truly youth-led and youth-directed.”

Music As A Form Of Resistance

Posted on by
1

From BB King to Tupac, Billy Holiday to Erykah Badu, the expression of resistance through music has historically been a viable liberation tool for African Americans.  Music with such flavor has captivated the hearts, ears and minds of connoisseurs while touching the souls of those connected to the African American collective memory.

Rhythms, cadences, and illustrations birthed by the struggle, have been passed from generation to generation without the brick and mortar of bureaucratic educational systems.  The neighborhood porches, the neighborhood corner stores, and the parks where all the family gatherings take place are the classrooms, where music as a form of resistance and a wide variety of other topics are taught.

When oppression is an everyday reality, your freedom depends upon your creativity because it is your creativity that is able to create freedom.  Therefore music/art expressing the bondage liberates by echoing the insights gained into the future and past.

So it is a must for those of us who claim to be artists working towards empowerment, to continue the fight by contributing our lessons learned for the classrooms in our communities. This is what I mean by represent or resign.

Diop

Please Support the artistry http://diopdiop.bandcamp.com/track/empower

Looking for all the Unreasonable People

Posted on by
Reply

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

- George Bernard Shaw

Over the past few years, KI participants have been part of the discussion around bringing meaningful and lasting change to our local and global communities. One of the challenges arising from this discussion is how to effectively interface with traditional institutions.

As our interactions with traditional institutions have increased, our critiques advocating for resident voice and inclusion could be easily perceived as uncompromising and disruptive of progress. It’s my belief that these challenging times call for creative and critical thinking that resists the tendency to adopt a go-along-get-along paradigm of beliefs.

Recently a friend of mine gave me a copy of The Power of Unreasonable People by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. The book focuses on how voices viewed as extreme drive progress by shifting the paradigm toward alternative perspectives.

In their book they list 10 characteristics that they have found among social entrepreneurs:
  1. Try to shrug off the constraints of ideology or discipline.
  2. Identify and apply practical solutions to problems, combining innovation, resourcefulness and opportunity.
  3. Innovate by finding a new product, service or approach to a social problem.
  4. Focus  first and foremost  on social value creation and, in that spirit, are willing to share their innovations and insights for others to replicate.
  5. Jump in before ensuring that they are fully resourced.
  6. Have an unwavering belief in everyone’s innate capacity, often regardless of education, to contribute meaningfully to economic and social development.
  7. Show a dogged determination that pushes them to take risks that others wouldn’t dare.
  8. Balance their passion for change with the zeal to measure and monitor impact.
  9. Have a great deal to teach change-makers in other sectors.
  10. Display a healthy impatience.

In the introduction the authors state:

Being unreasonable is not just a state of mind. It is also a process by which older, outdated forms of reasoning are jettisoned and new ones conceived and evolved. As the process unfolds, those mired in the older, obsolete paradigm can become threatened by – and aggressive towards the innovators particularly if those innovators move into the mainstream world of business, finance, and politics.

As the world experiences deeper and deeper financial crises and global environmental crises from climate change to water shortage, the need for more unreasonable people with the aforementioned characteristics has become dire. Let us all look fo , encourage , and run to the unreasonable people. In fact let all of us develop and acquire the characteristics of the unreasonable. Our world demands it.

At the end of the day our firm positions, which are often seen as “unreasonable”, are redefining reality to serve our community.

Fish food

Posted on by
Reply

Fish Food

Chinyelu Mwaafrika                                                                                                April 24,2012


What is one of the basic things that a creature needs to live? That’s right, food. In an aquaponics system there are many choices of fish feed. Depending on the different fish, different kinds of food may be desired. Some people decide to go with duckweed, which is a plant that floats on water. However, duckweed can be expensive and for people operating on a budget, it may not be the best choice. Another food is worms. Worms are a good source of protein, and are what some fish eat in the wild. Another choice is just regular fish food that can be purchased at a pet store. This feed is considerably cheaper and easier to find. Grains such as soy, barley and beer also show promise for fish feed. If raising a species of fish such as tilapia, do not put grown tilapia in a tank of fingerlings, as the adult tilapia will eat the fingerlings.

SocEntre

Posted on by
Reply

Social entrepreneurship in relation to the buzz word sustainability is rapidly becoming the new sexy of our time.  Interestingly enough, social entrepreneurship, and the vastness of definitions associated with it, all appear to have a common goal: the creation of a symbiotic framework promoting both business and social health.  This trend has increasingly grown primarily due to the negative economic and educational climate in the nation.  A simple focus shift brought upon by the insights provided from our current experience will not alone create the desired frameworks.

To clearly outline some of the major difficulties or challenges for approaching this mind state, we must view social entrepreneurship as the creation of a culture within a culture and examine the complexities associated with that context. For example, there is a strong “entertain yourself to death” and “consume till you die” cultural flavor ingrained in some of our youngest and oldest minds.  Acknowledging this brutal fact is necessary when constructing an approach for human redirection.  Until we are introspectively honest and critical, traction will just be a word.

Another major challenge when shifting frameworks, is the habitual urge to attempt to solve new problems with old framework methods.  In addition to this urge, there are sight blinders associated with all paradigms and cultures.  Thomas Khun’s work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions touches on this aspect in the following way, “Moping-up operations are what engage most scientists throughout their careers.  Closely examined, whether historically or in the contemporary laboratory, that enterprise seems an attempt to force nature into the performed and relatively inflexible box that the paradigm supplies”. (pg 24)  We must attempt to identify the parameters of our paradigms and be flexible enough to diverge from them when necessary.

Quite often individuals repackage old ideas with new language and technology in order to broadcast and promulgate them as newness, fully knowing they are advertising brass as gold. So as we watch business and social sector practitioners and theoreticians attempt to squeeze these frameworks together, we must filter these experiments critically.  Which puzzle pieces should remain or be reshaped?

The People Priority

Posted on by
2

TIF and other economic development methods can be useful tools in improving the quality of life, business opportunities, and aesthetics in a community provided that they are implemented with each of those goals holding appropriate weight. Economic development can either succeed by replacing residents with more economically advantaged inhabitants, or by providing resources so that neighbors can prosper because of the economic trend.

One solution to mitigate the negative effects of TIF is to create a clause that prohibits an increase in property tax for the current residents. Certain residents, who have lived in the community for a given amount of time (whether that is five years, ten years, or some other determined number), would be “grandfathered” into their current tax rate at the time that the TIF district is created. The tax cap would endure for a specified number of years; this would allow current residents to benefit from the economic advancement in the area and give them time to “catch up” with the trend.

Nonetheless, time itself will not provide a cushion that can protect households and individuals from being displaced when the period has transpired. Economic development agencies and CDCs need to actively provide resources for individual economic progression. In the Mid-North area specifically, there are countless people with valuable skills that may not be recognized due to lack of accreditation, the absence of a certification, or a blemished record. There are master mechanics, electricians, beauticians, carpenters, etc. who may not have attended a formal institution but have acquired excellent skill through experience and serving their communities. If economic development initiatives can focus on capitalizing and improving these skills, residents can be employed in the mainstream market and new businesses will have a wealth of qualified employees to choose from in that neighborhood.

Currently, the TIF Study Commission recommends that a maximum of 15% of TIF dollars be allocated to job training and education. If policy makers increase that maximum to at least 30%, making affordable job training one of the main concerns, individuals can expound on their abilities and interests while attaining certification that will make their skills more marketable in the mainstream job market. These training programs should give residents who were “grandfathered-in” first priority acceptance, ensuring that long standing residents will be able to increase their own quality of life alongside aesthetic and business development.

This community has a wide variety of resources, that when polished can be used to serve both community members and businesses. Local hiring must be a priority and creating space for more locals to be able to compete in the job market is the first step.
Allowing time for people to attain and utilize resources and making said resources readily available for all those who wish to take advantage of them are the most important factors in creating an economic development plan that serves neighbors, businesses owners, and the economy.

 

“TIF DISTRICTS AND HOW THEY IMPACT TAXES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MARION COUNTY”

If you are interested in participating in a discussion about TIF and the way it could affect your community, please attend the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (MCANA) meeting this Saturday, July 21st, from 9am-11am. The meeting will be held at North United Methodist Church located at 38th and Meridian.

Food Highlights from Convergence

Posted on by
Reply

Many of you may already know, two weeks ago the Convergence came into town. For those who do not know, the Convergence is a conference where past members of a social justice-focused study abroad program in Thailand come together somewhere in the U.S. to do work around a community issue. Previous years have included locations such as New Orleans and Kentucky and this year’s Convergence was hosted by KI and focused on food justice. Two parts reunion, one part conference, and one part service, the Convergence was not only a way to keep people engaged in social justice work after coming back from Thailand but also a way to connect issues happening in Thailand with those happening in the U.S., expanding a collective perspective on the reality that is the interconnectedness of the Global South.

As part of the plethora of workshops, conversations, and dialogue that took place during the Convergence, two other members of the KI team, Annie and Mat, and I planned a series of workshops around food justice. The key goal of the workshops were to paint a larger picture of what food justice looks like using personal narratives, stories, farm tours, and service work. According to Mat:

Annie and I had done some similar workshops about systematic issues and community work but we took a much more personal approach this time. Our intent was to not to have a broad philosophical or analytical discussion that was disconnected from emotion. Too often people put way too much emphasis on the jargon and not how they feel about it. Everyone has experience with these social constructs and we wanted to tap into that collective expertise.

The convergence was smaller than what we prepared for but the flow of the workshop was nice with an intimate group. Also everyone who participated knew each other so it was easy for the dialogue we started to carry beyond the workshop.

Personal experiences are often discredited as legitimate forms of knowledge, seen as biased or too subjective. Through these workshops, we hoped to reclaim the process of teaching through story. Narratives can also be seen as puzzle pieces and sharing narratives also allowed participants to fit their own narratives within the context of the struggles of other individuals and communities.

The first workshop of the series acted as an orientation and introduction to food justice. Annie and Mat focused on sharing food stories, particularly those about how we sourced the food we ate. With people coming from all over the nation and some just returning from Thailand, there was a wealth of experience, which shed light to the backgrounds and histories that led to our different understandings of the importance of food.

As a basic human need, food is also an important tool in exploring other social issues, such as discrimination and the intersection between how race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation with food security and accessibility. After this personal approach to food, I facilitated a discussion about the larger structures and systems underlying the continued oppression and marginalization of working class communities of color. We discussed the assumptions people might have when they enter a community they were new to and also the assumptions communities might have of them. Tying in the concept of cultural hegemony (for more information, take a look at my previous blog), we sought to find ways to carry out community-based work without perpetuating those same oppressive structures.

To give different perspectives on what the movement looks like outside of KI, the group also went on a farm tour of four urban farms around Indianapolis: Big City Farms, Fruit Loop Acres, the Paramount School of Excellence, and Felege Hiywot. As we visited each location, we spent time talking to farmers, learning about the history of each farm and their future directions. Each farmer had their own food story to tell, giving insight into how they became involved in urban agriculture and their place within the larger food justice movement.

The final workshop acted as a space for critical analysis and reflection of our experiences with food justice at KI and Indianapolis. Anthony Perry, a cook at the restaurant Duos, gave an account about his experience graduating from the Second Helpings Program (http://www.secondhelpings.org/), a food rescue program that also trains unemployed adults for careers in the culinary industry. While food justice is often seen as eating organic, building urban farms, or cooking slow food, his experience further reminded us of the role that employment and economics often play in impacting food accessibility and food security. In the discussion of the farm tour, we were able to deconstruct the purpose urban agriculture serves within the food justice movement and the impact it has on working class communities of color. Overall, the workshops were successful in demonstrating how the work at KI was grounded in the community we work with and painting a larger picture of the food justice movement and the role that KI plays within it.

Go With the Flow: Community Building and Developing Relationships

Posted on by
Reply

Throughout the last month, I have had the opportunity to connect with  several different groups of people and organizations through my work at KI. These interactions have given me valuable insight into the different ways people engage community and how that engagement can or should be measured. The question that arises the most through these conversations is: “How do we engage communities as outsiders?”

There is no cookie-cutter answer to this question, and the search for a one-size-fits-all community engagement handbook hinders ones ability to build relationships. Such a pursuit ignores individuality in “impoverished”, “underdeveloped”, or “blighted”neighborhoods where social justice minded youth converge to make change.

The idea of “help” also stands as a roadblock in building community. The statement “I want to help but I don’t know how” is thrown around in conversation. Help and service is traditionally seen as one sided. Volunteers often go into a community thinking they are going to bring value and information to the neighborhood without realizing the wonderful resources and lessons they can gain themselves.

We need to focus on building community instead of “helping” and understand that our way is not the only way. I was at a presentation today where the facilitator said it is easier to go with the flow of nature rather than against it. When you come into an area with your own agenda without respecting the culture and values of that neighborhood, you will cause more disruption than unity. Seek first to understand, and then to be understood.

Community building is not a job, and it is not a project with an end goal, it is a life style. When we look at community development through the lens of a project or experiment, sustainability can not be reached.

During my short time working with KI, I have expounded upon tools that I use in my everyday life to build relationships. For example:

When trying to engage a community as an outsider, you first have to engage community members. Get to know the community at an individual level instead of just a statistical one; actually build relationships for the sake of relationships, not just as a means to an end goal. Listen and open yourself up to learning; professors and professionals are NOT the only people who have something important to say. Recognize and respect alternative views of reality; the United States is a culturally pluralistic society, the popular model isn’t always the appropriate one. Furthermore, it is best not to impose yourself or your ideas on a community, work on  their terms, and your opinions are much more likely to be considered, maybe even received. And don’t work to hard to be accepted or people will see right through you! Be yourself and know not everyone will like you, and that is OK! Build trust and gain respect by knowing your boundaries as well as the boundaries of others.

Lastly, improvement cannot always be measured. Numbers are not able to capture everything, and sustainable progress can’t necessarily be made in 3 months, 6 moths, or even 2 years. Make community building the goal, and the issues that uphold the status quo in all of our communities, underdeveloped and elite alike, can be tackled simultaneously. This allows neglected residents to be empowered, and creates a space in the dominant culture for that agency to be received.

 

 

Open Source Activism

Posted on by
Reply

In today’s society, technology is often heralded as a solution to many of the world’s problems. Advances in medical technology allow diseases to be diagnosed much faster and more accurately. The internet is able to share information and connect people across the street, nation, or ocean faster than ever. Mobile phones can access and capture data, photos, and videos on the go everywhere. Recent progress has also made technology more accessible, driving down costs and making it more user-friendly. More and more people have access to cameras, laptops, and mobile phones; wireless internet has also become more ubiquitous. While these tools can provide hours of endless entertainment, they can also be used to bring people together, build community, and meet community needs.

One of the initiatives I have recently become involved with at KI is called “Open Source Activism” or OSA. The premise of OSA is to use technology to meet and serve community needs with a focus on developing mobile web applications to craft portable solutions to community issues. For example, a project I am working on as part of the OSA initiative is a mobile web application to collect data for community surveys. As the KI team surveys members of the community about different initiatives or events, we can collect location data, demographic data, photos, videos, and more, developing community while also creating a database of community data.

Everyone has ideas for new mobile applications and people often say, “wouldn’t it be cool if,” “what if there was,” “there should be.” However, the idea of developing an application can be intimidating, especially for those without previous programming experience. OSA proposes a solution through training local community members on mobile web application languages and tools, such as CoffeeScript, CouchDB, and Kanso. The classes are held at KI and are geared towards community members who may not have previous programming experience and focused on deconstructing this culture of fear around technology. More than just a series of classes, though, this project is also a way to bring people with similar interests together, continuing to building community at KI and strengthening the center as a hub for information.

As a concept, open source means access to the design and implementation of software is accessible, open, and transparent. Anyone who is interested in a project can help to develop it and even tweak it to meet specific needs. Since anyone can work on the software, community is built around creating, developing, and maintaining it. At KI, we are building a similar sense of community around mobile web applications by bringing a diverse group of people together to teach and learn from one another. Classes have been a space for sharing; people with different levels of programming experience, from completely inexperienced to seasoned and professional programmers have been learning together and working with and besides one another, making new ideas for mobile web applications slowly come to fruition.

Through this project we are not only building community locally, but also nationally and internationally as well. As we connect to other communities throughout the globe that have similar initiatives, we can use our collective knowledge and resources to build further. Similar initiatives are being developed in Kenya and hopefully we can create a bridge between what is going on here with what is happening there, making manifest the old adage of “think locally, act globally.” There is great potential for this concept of “Open Source Activism” and as this initiative grows here at KI, I hope to see it spread to other communities as well, connecting different organizations using technology as a tool for transformative social change.

For those interested in joining the class or learning more about “Open Source Activism” and ways to use technology to meet community needs, classes are held every Wednesday evening from 5:30-6:30PM at the KI EcoCenter. For more information, email us at osa@]kheprw.org or visit is us pm the web at osa.kiecocenter.org.

OmniMic

Posted on by
Reply

 

To Creep through Cracks Concrete

 

To creep through the cracks in the concrete requires clarity

It is what it is an acceptance of reality

Real recognizes real is a nigga version of Namaste with an inner city honesty

The hood creates psychopaths that are really genius that are buried deep in dichotomy

Pressure from the paradox and peeped polarities put me in position to be a pothole prophet so I can express the vision of what the hell my eyes have seen

And when I close my eyes

I am grateful to hear the voices of my mentors and my enemies

Because the way it was laid out for me I was supposed to be laid out in these streets with white chalk adorning the contours of my 6’2” fisque

But the block was a book I made sure I was street smart

That blue light district intelligence don’t be fooled by the way I look all of this is strategy there is still eastside asphalt coursing through my bloodstream

I heard what you get back what you give out

So I gave out good and I got back great and OGs gave me game in gamma rays

Those old school quotes that speak straight to the soul

They told me to communicate the pain of spitting masterpieces with broken notes sturdy bones and battered backs

Making lemonade out of hand grenades

I stayed focused and cut out a path with the precision of a corner chemist on cooked crack

I said screw school

Right now it’s a huge distraction

I make moves that others call extreme but they forgot that I failed calculus, I never learned my limits there is no ceiling to these dreams

People call me cocky but it’s been a minute since they seen a young nigga this confident

Brightwood insecurities tried to get the best of me but I conquered them by grabbing the globe and connecting together a conglomerate of contacts cobbled from across the continents

Glued in tune with collective consciousness

The hood aint seen leadership like this in 50 years so they callin me the Haley Comet kid

New image of young black and intelligent tryna to undo what Obama did

I speak for those asphalt embryos the generations after me , a message that ripples across the planet

Overseas I am an ambassador for every nigga burning at the bottom of the melting pot

A vessel for the knowledge that lays dormant on the corner

It all started when I crept up out the cracks in the concrete and now I am trying to furfill these pothole prophecies steady grindin and growin

I go hard in the paint, a beast on the baseline

Mid-range 15 footer no degree just bread and butter

85 young Jordan you marvel at my moves but I am just floating in my hangtime

I’m a 4 eyes that has seen 4 continents

Born in the belly of the beast

And now on world stages where I make bowel movements and shit on all the haters

And even though I am global poster boy postin I am stilled focused

I never wanted to make it out , I wanted to make it in

White folks told me I could beat the streets instead I hug the hood

Because I see the value in my struggle it gives me the perspective to see the cracks in the empire before it all falls and in the same gave foresee the end of days where the have nots will have all

I’m breathing work into these words over rhythms that are known by some and practiced by few

Resonating wisdom to my folk on a level to leave them moved

Mat Davis

 

The KI EcoCenter is having an open mic every 4th Friday. Come feel that neighborhood vibe and get your mind right with the OmniMic in the parking lot on the corner of 28th and Capital. It’s a $5 donation and the revenue supports our youth focused initiatives See u on the fourth Friday