We would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest ISAAC Family Member, Galilee Baptist Church! Galilee is a faith in action congregation with involvement in justice work, voting, racial & economic empowerment and service in the community. As a founding Congregation of ISAAC in the early 2000s, under the leadership of Bishop J. […]
With a sad, but also loving and glad heart we say farewell to Rev. Steve Charnley! Kalamazoo has been blessed by Reverend Charnley, Pastor of First United Methodist Church. We thank God for his leadership, justice work, prayers & for being a blessing to ISAAC. We send God’s blessings and love to you into retirement, […]
ISAAC is a respectable, responsible, caring group of people who help to lead Kalamazoo in the right direction! They have also helped me get onto the road of success! -Travontae McFerrin-Brown, 2016 Phoenix High School Graduate and KVCC Student Elder Douglas King, What Happens When… What happens when the promise of a young man is tragically […]
A gentle reminder in song as we continue through this Pandemic! Sending a special thank you to our Awesome Singers: Elder Dorla Coleman-Bonner Wendy Flora Juliana Hafner Sofia Ovalle-Lopez Nathaly Olavarria Valencia Nick the Drummer
We need your circle of family, friends and colleagues to add their names to at least one of these letters! If you didn’t yet, please add your own name. Please also ask members of your congregation or organization to add their names. Choose any one or two or all three ways to show that you […]
If you can make a gift to the ISAAC Endowment Fund by June 30, it will have extra power to sustain our work to build the Beloved Community, where every single person is held as beloved. Gifts received by June 30 will count toward the funds available to ISAAC in 2021! If there are much […]
Meet Cathy Phason, our new Housing Advocacy Intern Cathryn Phason is a 48-year-old black female that was born and raised in Park Forest Illinois, the second oldest of six children. She lived in a world where she was taught not to share her personal business outside of the home, but she knows it’s time to […]
May We Be Encouraged. Click to hear ISAAC Clergy and Community Leaders share what passages encourage them during difficult times. Rabbi Schicker Adrian Vazquez Rev. Gy Ludvig-McCartney Josephine Brown Maliha Raza Khan
The Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence (FFE) made a great choice for their board by appointing Stephanie Hoffman, Executive Director of Open Doors Kalamazoo and co-chair of the ISAAC & TRHT Housing Task Force.
In ISAAC we’ve been painfully aware of housing inequities for so long that it feels like a “silver lining in the storm cloud” that COVID-19 is changing the conversation about ending our housing inequities. All this is being discussed for those impacted most by housing inequities: Essential workers having no sick pay, no health insurance, and […]
On April the 21st, the Anti-Racism Task Force (ARTF) held their meeting by Zoom as they continue to engage in one-on-one listening in preparation for the ISAAC Public Meeting, this Fall. 22 members were in attendance for the one-on-one conversations with Komal Razvi and Daniel Hamilton of the YWCA, and an update from Vice Mayor Patrese […]
On April 28, the Gun Violence Task Force met through Zoom and talked to three local leaders involved in gun violence prevention work in Kalamazoo: State Representative Jon Hoadley, State Senator Sean McCann and Sherry Brockway of the YWCA. Rep. Hoadley talked about the current session of the MI House as it has been affected […]
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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