Our ISAAC Breakfast was a blessed fellowship! ISAAC would like to send a special thank you to ALL who were able to attend. We greatly appreciate you and your commitment to cultivating The Beloved Community in Kalamazoo County. We would like to send our heartfelt gratitude to our powerful speakers, Stephanie Hoffman, Deacon Pat Vinge, Micheal […]
THANKS to all of these very generous donors, the ISAAC Endowment Fund needs only $5,270 more to reach $50,000 and be “fully established”! With your help, we believe we can reach that goal by December 31! Then ISAAC will be able to receive interest income from our endowment, or we can let that interest grow […]
Twenty-two members of the newly constituted Anti-Racism Task Force focused on learning at the first meeting of the task force following the Issues Convention. We learned the importance and value of deep listening and how it can connect us to each other. We learned about ISAAC’s 2-year cycle of listening, issue identification, training, research, partnering, […]
The new Gun Violence Task Force met on Tuesday, November 26. Twelve members were present with a few unable to attend this first meeting. Subsequent meetings will be held each 4th Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 29 at St. Luke’s. The members present spent some time […]
With six new members on the Housing Task Force since the Issues Convention, we have become an even more impressive gathering of expertise—with leadership positions at Open Doors, CARES, The Ark, Kalamazoo County Public Housing Commission, the Center for Transformation, and the City Commission, as well as partners who come when needed from Housing Resources Inc, […]
The last weekend in October, ISAAC, El Concilio, and TRHT (Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation) co-sponsored Kalamazoo’s Black & Brown Unity and Healing and TRutH Talks events, for a powerful weekend of shared history, synergies, healing, truth telling, sharing of our stories and future brainstorming. We want to extend a special thank you to our […]
Sometimes when doing the work of justice, we may feel alone or like the problems we are working on are too big to impact change! During this time when we are experiencing and witnessing anger, barriers, fear, uncertainty, isolation, oppression, disparity, segregation, trauma, hatred, exhaustion, bigotry, mourning, silencing, loss of hope and violence, May We […]
Elder King opened the Issues Convention by asking us to take “selfies” with our neighbors! You can see how much fun the crowd had with building the Beloved Community this way! Click on any of these wonderful photos to enlarge them. Huge thanks to our talented photographers Rick Johnson and Amy Peterson!
Over two hundred gathered on Tuesday night, October 29, and chose Anti-Racism and Gun Violence as ISAAC’s focus for the next two years, along with Affordable Housing and Group Violence Intervention. Everyone present was invited to “vote with their feet,” whether or not they were from one of the 31 ISAAC member congregations and organizations. They heard facts on […]
Al Dixon Good evening. My name is Al Dixon, I am a co-chair of the Anti-Racism Task Force. How many of you think racism is dead in our community? How many of you think that racism is alive and well in our county? Yes, there may be some skeptics. A young Hispanic woman was cussed […]
Wendy Flora Last May I talked with Shequita Lewis at a block party. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she told me about her new job with a football team. Shequita was a mom, a community activist. She ran for County Commission and truly cared about making a difference in Kalamazoo. About two months […]
Kalamazoo’s Group Violence Intervention has many myths that we as a GVI Team would like to dispel tonight. Wendy Flora: Myth #1 – GVI was brought to Kalamazoo by Law Enforcement Actually, GVI was brought to Kalamazoo as a part of ISAAC’s 2011 Holy Ground Campaign listening sessions in our neighborhoods where community members voiced […]
Ed Genesis is an artist, poet, musician, organizer, entrepreneur, and community leader. Born and raised in Gary, Indiana and moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan permanently in his early 20’s, his love of art/music, his passion for his people and community, and his gift of creativity are evident in all areas of his work. In October 2018 Ed Genesis released a song to accompany the campaign he was working on around school push out, entitled Junior High, which was distributed nationwide including on his own iHeart radio station, Spotify, and iTunes.
In 2017 Ed Genesis created Poetic Justice, a monthly open-mic that was hosted/led by 5 local poets. He has performed as well as hosted several events such as the Black Arts Festival, the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival, and the National Day of Racial Healing.
Ed Genesis is Lead Mentor and head of community relations at Speak It Forward where he teaches youth at Lakeside Academy, Starr-Commonwealth, and the Kalamazoo County Juvenile home healing through music and art. In 2017, he started WE ACTIVE! a community organization aimed at fighting against mass incarceration and the school to prison pipeline. The organization was recognized by the State of Michigan and presented with a Special Tribute by Representative Jon Hoadley for its work on Criminal Justice Reform and Mass Incarceration in the Kalamazoo Community. Ed Genesis has been a panelist and featured speaker in Washington D.C., Chicago, and Milwaukee. He has and continues to collaborate with artists local to Kalamazoo, youth included, to create music to address social justice issues. In 2018 Ed Genesis joined Truth Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT). He leads the Racial Healing design team with a focus on healing justice and is also part of the Law Design Team.
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