Reflections On 2023 As We Look Ahead

Dear Friends,

For the past two decades, I have made a calendar using photos I have taken in the preceding year. At first, the calendar featured my children. Once the teen years settled in, the topic of the calendar switched to the family dog.

I like making an annual calendar of photos of the year gone by because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on that time period. The photos transport?me through a range of memories. The retrospective also allows me to plan for the year ahead. What are my goals? What adventures should I plan? What should I spend time learning?

While preparing the family dog calendar this year, I went through the photos with another eye — this one toward our work to decriminalize mental illness. What had I experienced that inspired me to think differently? Where did I draw new ideas from? What made me curious??

The result of that work is below — 12 photos of events or objects that inspired me in 2023; feel free to reply and share photos of what inspired you.

Warmest Regards,

Melissa M. Beck, Esq.

Executive Director

Sozosei Foundation

Winter Silence

Winter begins and brings quiet to the landscape, a reminder to consider: how can we use seasonal changes to shift how we approach our work? ?

Henry R. Kravis Hall at Columbia Business School

The new Kravis Hall rising high over Harlem. Contrasting wealth with a community that was historically under-resourced. I took the photo as I walked across town to be a guest speaker in a class on non-profit management. Jarring contrasts can, and do, ignite provocative and important conversations. ?

Santa Monica Ferris Wheel

A trip to Santa Monica, CA, includes standing at the base of – but absolutely not riding – the iconic Ferris wheel on the Pier; and a visit with colleagues at RAND, the authors of this report, on how to measure the impact of the Foundation’s efforts. The RAND building, architecturally significant as two half circles that form a figure 8, makes it purposefully difficult to find the front door. Both led me to wonder: how do fear and confusion help or hinder our efforts to make change?? ?

Looking Upward from the Lobby of The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Photo taken during?The Kennedy Forum's?Align for Progress convening, this setting, rich with optimism and promise, inspired my keynote and November?newsletter?topic: the top 10 things philanthropy can do to decriminalize mental illness.

“Edward Hopper’s New York” Exhibit?at the?Whitney Museum of American Art

Movie and theater ticket stubs from the shows that Hopper and his wife?Jo Nivison?saw during the time they lived in Manhattan.?Theater and cinema became their own work of art. ? ?

The ceiling of the new Moynihan Train Hall in NYC

Taken en route on a business trip. The new station is intended to replace the previous grand station, demolished in the 1960s to make way for Madison Square Garden. Waiting in that station inspired the idea for our virtual convening, The Role of the Built Environment in Decriminalizing Mental Illness. ?

"The Jungle" at St. Ann’s Warehouse

Photo taken at intermission, this play takes place in an improvised refugee encampment in Calais, France. Intertwining narratives are woven together to tell the story of immigration and?migration, belonging, and being cast out. The heart of that story is our shared humanity. ?

Demon Copperhead

A mid-year fiction audiobook listen about the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic in Appalachia. Well-told stories can change the course of history. Learn more at https://barbarakingsolver.net/ ?

Reading of "The System That Failed Jordan Neely"?

A?Theater of War?virtual reading of an article from the May 22, 2023 issue of The New Yorker entitled, "The System That Failed Jordan Neely," by Adam Iscoe, brings a thought-provoking article to life and framed a compelling discussion about the criminalization of mental illness. ? ?

Palenque, Colombia

A visit to?Palenque, Colombia,?known as the first “free town” in the Americas, was founded by enslaved Africans who escaped slavery in Cartagena, Columbia in the 17th Century. In 2005, UNESCO named Palenque a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Preserving stories that are at risk of being lost to history is as important as telling those stories. ?

International Museum of the African American

A visit to the?International Museum of the African American?in Charleston, SC, explores the history of enslaved Africans, their descendants, their journey through slavery, and emancipation, and their impact on American Culture. ?

While You Were Out?by Meg Kissinger

Last book read in 2023, a powerful and moving memoir by journalist Meg Kissinger about one family’s experience with intergenerational mental illness. Learn more at:?https://www.megkissinger.com/