In this episode, we speak with Sharon Dunn and Gwen Johnson — two members of Hands Across the Hills (HATH), a grassroots group working to build bridges between communities in rural Western Massachusetts and in the Eastern Kentucky coal country. Formed in the wake of the 2016 election, this group seeks to build empathy and unity between diverging perspectives through structured dialogue and cultural exchange. Sharon and Gwen share their experiences and the lessons they draw, illuminating how a...

Welcome back to Cultures of Care, a special new miniseries from Who Belongs? hosted by Evan Bissell and Giovanna Fischer. This series celebrates people that practice collective care in unconventional and insurgent ways. Visit the project, read more about our interviewees, and check out transcripts for this episode at https://belonging.berkeley.edu/cultures-of-care. In this episode, we hear from photographer Naima Green and DJ Rich Medina. Naima is an artist, photographer and educator from...

In this episode of Who Belongs?, we're debuting Cultures of Care, a special new miniseries hosted by Evan Bissell and Giovanna Fischer. This series celebrates people that practice collective care in unconventional and insurgent ways. Care is an essential, immediate and practical way to create belonging. Perhaps most vitally in our urgent times, at the heart of each profile you will find provocations that are seeds for reshaping society and how we relate to each other and the world. Visit the...

In this episode we speak with two of the founding members of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the President Desmond Meade and the Political Director Neil Volz. Together, Desmond and Neil have been working on restoring the rights of people who have a prior felony conviction, referred to as returning citizens. In 2018, they were successful in passing amendment 4 that restored the right of over 1.4 million Floridians to vote. How were they successful getting 65% of Floridians to support...

In this episode we speak with Reverend Ben McBride. Ben McBride is a spiritual leader and longtime activist for peace and justice in the Bay Area. McBride serves as a national leader around reconstructing public safety systems and gun violence prevention work. In 2014, McBride launched the Empower Initiative to support bridging and belonging work across the country. McBride shares how he conceptualizes the building, bridging, belonging, and becoming frameworks. He outlines how cultural and...

In this episode we interview with Debbie Lacy. Debbie is the founder of Eastside for All, which serves communities outside of Seattle, WA including Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and Sammamish. Eastside for All has a mission to transform East King County into a place where racial, economic and social justice are realized, and belonging is made possible for communities of color. Debbie shares about her Build for Belonging Initiative and specifically her use of the co-creation framework...

In this episode we speak with Angel Mortel and Aleena Gonzalez. Angel is a lead organizer with LA Voice, which is a multi-racial and multi-faith community organization that awakens people to their own power and trains them to organize together. LA Voice has been implementing the Belong Circles with their partner network, including at Dolores Mission Church. Aleena Gonzalez is a high school student that is part of the Dolores Mission community who has participated in Belong Circles and is now...

In this episode we speak with Ashlin Malouf-Gashaw. Ashlin is the Chief Formation Officer at PICO California, the largest multi-racial faith-based community-organizing network in the state. PICO is leading The Belong Movement, which aims to address the polarization and racial anxiety across California by bridging across race, faith and status through facilitated Belong Circles. Ashlin shares the intention and design behind the Belong Circles, and how anyone, including our listeners can...

In this episode we speak with Roberto Bedoya. Roberto is the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland in California. He developed the City’s Cultural Plan, titled, Belonging in Oakland. Throughout his career Roberto has consistently advocated for inclusion and belonging in the cultural sector. In our conversation, Roberto shares how he’s utilized belonging in his city planning work through intentional grant giving, and encouraging city departments to re-think how Oakland residents...

In this episode we speak with Tamia Dantzler & Dashley Concepcion. Tamia is an alum and Dashley is a current student at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. In a previous episode we spoke with Frances Lucerna, founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. We heard from Frances about the school design and intentions, in this conversation Tamia & Dashley share with us their personal experience. They tell us what it has meant to be students at a school that makes...

In this episode we speak with Frances Lucerna. Frances is the founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice is a public school located in the Southside community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City. El Puente is Spanish for ‘the bridge’ - which is exactly what the school is doing: creating bridges between the school and students, parents and the community. Frances shares how she and other community leaders created and designed a...

In this episode we interview two of the founding members of The Wind & The Warrior, Ife Afriye Kilimanjaro and Nana Korantema. In 2020, The Wind & The Warrior led a Sacred Waters Pilgrimage to connect Black and Native culture-bearers and advocacy leaders working to address the climate crisis for ritual and conversation. Throughout the pilgrimage, they made 7 stops along the Mississippi River. In each stop The Wind & The Warrior coordinated with local Native womxn to connect...

In this episode we interview Byb Bibene. Byb is a professional performer, choreographer, dance artist, director and dance educator originally from the Republic of Congo. Currently he lives in the Bay Area in California. Byb has participated in the African Diaspora Dialogues hosted by Nunu Kidane and Gerald Lenoir. In our last episode, we got to hear from Nunu and Gerald about what it means to organize dialogues. In this conversation, Byb shares his experience as a dialogue participant and how...

In this episode we hear from Gerald Lenoir and Nunu Kidane about their work on bridging African American and African immigrant communities through dialogues. Gerald is OBI’s identity and politics strategy analyst and was the founding executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). Nunu was a founding member of BAJI and is currently the director of Priority Africa Network. Gerald and Nunu share their experience facilitating Diaspora Dialogues, which are intentional...