Our generous Endowment Fund donors keep on giving! This is truly awesome! We have not only reached the $50,000 needed to become a fully established endowment fund that will provide interest income for ISAAC way into the future, and we have not only reached the $57,175 that we celebrated at the January Leadership Board meeting […]
our goal of $50,000 total raised $57,175! We went past our goal! Way past! So many awesome donors contributed to the ISAAC Endowment at the end of the year that we exceeded our goal of $50,000 and raised $57,175! December donations alone totaled $12,545! Hallelujah! This means that we will now have a “fully established” […]
Dear ISAAC Family, we are excited for “Women’s March Kalamazoo” on January 18th. ISAAC Clergy/Leaders will be giving the opening blessing. YWCA Kalamazoo will be hosting this powerful and impactful event on January 18, 2020, The mission of Women’s March is to harness the power of diverse women in our community to create transformative social change. This women-led movement is […]
On December 10, 2019, I attended another Racial Healing Circle sponsored by ISAAC. The first half of the meeting was similar in content and style to other such meetings I have attended over the past two years. I thought the meeting was going well, as the others had. But then something happened. One of the […]
The 6th Annual Service of Remembrance for Victims of Gun Violence will be held on Sunday, February 16, 4:00 pm, at Galilee Baptist Church. Please be there to remember lives taken, especially in Kalamazoo, and to pray for peace and call on our representatives to enact reform. Everyone who has a loved one who died […]
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 […]
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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