Category Archives: Isisara Bey’s Blog

Douglass Then and Now

It was only after a few years of working with a colleague at a D.C. museum that I learned that she is a descendant of Frederick Douglass. It is not something she readily reveals. She shared the fact during her welcome remarks at an event presented by the March on Washington Film Festival (for which I am Artistic Director) and hosted at her venue that featured Daughters of the Movement. The Daughters are the offspring of Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, Malcolm X, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, and Bill Lynch.

And a Child Shall Lead Them

Adultism – ever heard of it? I hadn’t until a few years ago, when I attended a program by the brilliant facilitator, coach and trainer, Nanci Luna Jimenez. Nanci is a distinctive voice on transformational social justice for individuals and organizations. Over three days of training I got to confront my own biases on racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and adultism.

At the Door of Here and Everywhere

It’s called the Façade Commission – four sculptures at the Fifth Avenue entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Although the four niches were built into the stonework when this entrance was opened in 1902, this is the first time they have actually housed sculptures. These could not have been four timelier, more other worldly and energetically powerful works of art.

Flow and Inflow

All across the country and around the world, things are speeding up. It’s nearly summer. The planet is warming up, budding and blossoming. The season of alphabetically-named tropical storms is brewing. For better or for worse, we are in various stages of emerging from our collective long pause with an overlay of mass protests – long-simmering discontent bursting forth in a deluge of defiance, anger, hope and a persistent demand for change we cannot just feel, but see.

I Can’t Breathe Either

George Floyd is dead. After gasping, multiple times, those words we’ve heard before, “I can’t breathe,” he passed out, his neck mashed under the knee of a peace officer sworn to protect and serve. I can barely breathe myself. And I have few words to add to the many being written in articles and blogs nationwide. Many of them are more eloquent than I. So in lieu of my pontificating, this week I am sharing the writings of two people.

The Trinity of Leadership

This week I am participating in a three-week Facebook Group event called Impact Giveaway. Produced by the dynamic duo, Iman and Afrin Khan of Red Elephant, it features expert high performers in Business, Personal and Impact Development, speaking three times a day. Each expert has also provided giveaways of white papers, consultations, videos and trainings in their areas of expertise.

Ida and the Prize

It’s about time. On May 4, 2020, it was announced that Ida B. Wells Barnett had received a posthumous Special Citation Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Wells had a much fuller life than can be described here. But several of her outstanding characteristics continue to appeal and inspire: the crusading journalist, savvy newspaper owner, piercing orator, organizer of tactical genius, pioneer of marriage equality and working mother –in short, a woman ahead of her time.

The Art and Science of Giving

My friend Sylvia, a hospital administrator, has been working from home during the pandemic. Her boss, who is the chief executive, sent her home as soon as the dimensions of the Coronavirus’ impact became clear. She foresaw there needed to be a clear mind and able hands beyond the front lines of critical care to help with the immense coordinating tasks that lay ahead.

To the BaddDDD Bards

In 2018, the March on Washington Film Festival paid tribute to the great Sonia Sanchez on its Opening Night. Seminal figure of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, now in her 80s, Sonia Sanchez continues to raise her indomitable voice for art, power, racial justice, women’s liberation and peace.

Travels

Picture this: climbing Kilimanjaro and a Mayan pyramid, scuba diving in a school of sharks in Tahiti, riding on top of a vintage train in the English countryside. Along with pursuing these adventuresome experiences, Michael Crichton was a medical doctor, a bestselling author, a film and TV director/producer, and inveterate adventurer of the outer and inner realms whose fame and fortune continues to outlive him.