This Week @ NewComm: CREATING WORLDS THROUGH WORDS

Dear NewComm Community,

I hope this message finds you well. We are excited to share some fantastic news with you all - NewComm's first-ever studio session at Horace Mann School was a resounding success!

During this session, our fellows had the incredible opportunity to not only view our final documentary but also engage with Bernice Pass-Stern, Assistant Dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Mt. Sinai Nursing School. Ms. Pass-Stern provided invaluable insights into how her institution actively engages with local communities to amplify their impact. Her expertise and experiences left a lasting impression on our fellows, shaping their perspective on community engagement.

The second part of our session was equally impactful, as our fellows delved into the design of our capstone project. From budgeting to identifying the target audience and determining the scale of our impact, our students made crucial decisions that will propel our project forward. The energy and dedication they exhibited during this process were truly inspiring. I can't wait for you all to see the fruits of their labor.

Also, I must say, it was so great to see our fellows again, and we are eagerly looking forward to our next Saturday studio session. We are deeply grateful to Horace Mann School for providing us with the space and delicious food, making this session all the more enjoyable.

As we continue to grow and evolve, these studio sessions are becoming an integral part of our journey at NewComm. They provide us with the space to learn, collaborate, and make meaningful decisions that will shape our projects and impact our communities positively.

Thank you for your unwavering support and belief in our mission. I can't wait to share more with you in the coming weeks.

Warm regards,

Chidi

Founder and CEO, NewComm PROJECT

RESOURCES THAT HAVE INFORMED OUR WORK THIS WEEK:

Legacies of Philanthropy in Africa

• "One of the legacies of colonialism is the narrative that African states are incapable of effecting inclusive and transformative impact without foreign aid, either in the form of multilateral and bilateral funding or from private foundations. The consequence of such narrative in addition to the current philanthropy landscape, is a dependency culture on global North aid, invisibilisation of realities of implementing partners and loss of autonomy and decision-making processes. In the rise of fundamentalism and shrinking of civic space in Africa, there is an urgent need to rethink philanthropy in a way that will truly sustain feminist, decolonial and liberation movements and collectives in Africa. [...]" / Liberation Alliance Africa

"Miss Brown To You": An Exhibition of Protest, Defiance & Resilience

• "Newly on view in our “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience” exhibition, “Miss Brown to You” (1970) is a vivid oil and acrylic portrait by Barkley L. Hendricks. Hendricks revolutionized portraiture through his stylized realist and post-modern images of African Americans. He began painting life-size portraits as his primary medium to address the lack of Black representation in the American art canon. Hendricks chose his models from his family, friends, people he met on the street and himself. This portrait of Suzanne Brown exemplifies his personal relationship with the sitters he painted. The title references his relationship to Brown, as well as the song “Miss Brown to You,” first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1935. Learn more about this vibrant portrait in our digital collection" / Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

An Economic Justice Glossary: Creating Worlds Through Words

• "To imagine and create a world rooted in values of economic justice and economic democracy, we need to devise a new vocabulary. We must be able to describe what we want if we are to have any hope of making the structural changes we desire.?But new language can create new barriers. To address this, we offer short descriptions of key words in the economic justice field, alongside links to a few related articles that provide examples of each concept in practice.?Can anyone truly define complicated concepts like the commons or bargaining for the common good in 200 words or less? Maybe not, but these brief glossary entries offer useful entry points for further exploration." / Non Profit Quarterly

The Corporate World & The Crown Act: A Podcast

• "In this 170th episode of Heads Talk , I am joined by pioneering Orlena Nwokah Blanchard, Co-creator of The CROWN Act and Managing director of Seven Elements Group. This was an impactful conversation about the 'Politics of Hair' and the role business, government, social bodies and in particular corporations play. "The CROWN Act, stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, is a law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, which is the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locs, twists or bantu knots" [...] In an enlightening conversation, Orlena comments for further information about this groundbreaking act as well as the world of marketing, the concept of cultural marketing and longstanding hair discrimination in the social and corporate worlds. Topics Covered: The Crown Act; Morphing of Marketing; Cultural Marketing Strategy; Brand Management in the era of Generative AI; Marketing Thought Leaders & more [...]." / Heads Talk

FEATURED CONTENT:

From Harvard GSD: This keynote panel hopes to explore the varying meanings of the Black home and the multitude of ways in which it is created, shared, protected, remembered, and remade. This keynote conversation will set the stage for other conference panels and workshops that will delve deeper into these themes of representing, making, keeping, and connecting to the Black Home and cultivating, archiving, sustaining, stewarding, and imagining new futures.

Panelists: Germane Barnes, Renata Cherlise, Nina Cooke John, Bryan Mason Moderator: Toni L. Griffin

___ The Black in Design conference, organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Design African American Student Union (GSD AASU), recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields and promotes discourse around the agency of the design professions to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by Black communities. The fifth biannual conference, The Black Home, will take place in person September 22 – 24, 2023 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138.

INSIDE NEWCOMM:

Have you seen our documentary? See it below!

HOW TO JOIN IN

Donate!

Email Us

Meet with our Founder, Chidi!

Thank you for reading! Feel free to reach out to us?HERE?if you have any questions. We would love to hear from you. We’ll see you again next week!