- [Victoria] Facing Race is about not looking the other way.
We have to turn towards it first.
- [Wokie] We as human beings have an opportunity to make sure that everybody is doing well.
- [KingDemetrius] There's still a lot of work need to be done.
That calls me to do something.
- [Valerie] We need to make this world a better place.
It's hard work, but the change that we will see, will benefit so many.
(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone.
I'm the Nadege Souvenir and I am delighted to welcome you to the 15th annual Facing Race Awards.
- And I'm Pahoua Yang Hoffman.
Each year, the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation recognizes anti-racism activists who are nominated by the community.
Through the Facing Race awards, we celebrate and share the stories of those who are fighting racism and challenging flawed racial narratives as they work to make Minnesota welcoming for everyone.
- We are coming to you today from Indigenous Roots in Saint Paul, which is an incredible organization, dedicated to cultivating opportunities for native, black, brown, and Indigenous peoples.
We want to thank them for allowing us to share their beautiful space.
And I just have to say it, we are in for a treat.
Our four award recipients have incredible stories to share.
- [Pahoua] From Wokie Weah, whose lifelong passion has been supporting young people as they become architects of their own future.
- [Nadege] To KingDemetrius Pendleton, who just like his inspiration, Gordon Parks, uses a camera as his weapon of choice to fight racism.
- [Pahoua] To Victoria McWane-Creek, who's challenging her rural community to have honest conversations about race.
- [Nadege] And Valerie Shirley, who is advocating for equity in the deaf and hard of hearing community.
In all of these stories, you are going to see that there are many ways to combat racism.
This work is hard, but it isn't insurmountable.
We all have a role to play.
- Not only will you meet these incredibly inspiring individuals, we're also going to hear from our special guest, writer Kao Kalia Yang and Ujamaa Music Group, performing an original song from Paisley Park.
And later in the show, we'll be joined by Dr. Eric Jolly, President and CEO of the Foundation.
- All right, let's get to our first Facing Race Award recipient.
Valerie Shirley is an educator and advocate who works in the deaf and hard of hearing community, and beyond, to build bridges and fight inequity.
(soft piano music) - Are we gonna play Catan while we eat?
- My work as an activist began when I was very young.
I remember growing up and starting to understand what discrimination and racism was and seeing how me and my family was impacted by it and just wanting to make a change.
From there, I just moved into standing for justice everywhere I saw injustice.
I first became involved with the deaf community through my deaf son, who is now 20 years old.
He was born hearing, but, from meningitis at five months old, he was profoundly deaf.
After that, I started to learn sign language.
What I noticed is that individuals with disabilities are very much overlooked.
And I always bring them to light and speak out and advocate for the person that is not getting their needs met.
A lot of the deaf Muslims and deaf immigrants that I met here in Minnesota, weren't highly educated.
Some had come from a country where there was no deaf education.
Some of them had never been in high school.
So that's what made me form the Minnesota Deaf Muslim Community.
I'm trying my best to build an organization that is a system dismantler.
There are things that are in place in our system that just keeps people from opportunity.
We have an apprenticeship program that's specifically for black, Indigenous, people of color, who also are deaf and hard of hearing.
And we just give them whatever they need to be successful in it.
We hand pick people who have the least job experience, maybe they never worked, maybe they didn't even graduate high school, and we placed them at the job that they would love to learn how to do and give them the tools they need to be able to learn how to do that.
We just focus on the people who have been excluded to make sure they get what they need.
We need to make this world a better place.
We can't afford to have anybody sitting on the sidelines.
What drives me today is seeing the change.
People are making real changes and there is real hope.
I wanna see a better world for my children, for my grandchildren.
This work is not easy, and sometimes I wanna give up because it's not easy.
But looking at the changes that my ancestors made for me and imagining the changes that I can make for future generations, that's what keeps me going.
(soft guitar strumming) - I work and live and play in this place that I love being and that I want to have become an even better place for more folks.
I live in the community of Fergus Falls.
It's lovely, it's luscious, it's green.
I just love how much nature is present and the amount of water that is around.
It gives me life.
I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to set your feet in the water, and to feel it just, the life of it all.
To me, it feels very rural and it feels very much like a place where people like myself who are black or brown don't necessarily think of as a place to call home.
Yet, it is definitely home to me.
I got to raise two young folks to adulthood here.
There are significant challenges to being a woman who has a black face and black body in this community.
For a lot of people in this community, the way things are works.
But it doesn't work for everyone.
And that's the key.
This is an area where there is deep denial around the fact that racism happens.
And a lot of that is cause people aren't talking and sharing about experiences.
We have to figure out how to work together.
And do the things that that make communities run.
I've always been an advocate and a community builder.
Part of my work is structuring dialogues so that folks can be heard and can deeply listen at the same time.
I'm all about instruction, coaching and guiding folks from where they are to where they want to be.
And each and every connection is crucial to supporting the goal that I have of being able to create a community that works for each and every one of us.
(upbeat music) I've got some partners in power who really support me personally and professionally in this work, as well as doing the work themselves, on some level.
Thanks for having us.
Now, that Adam is here, he gets to meet Troy, coming in just from Portland for a couple of days.
We support each other by helping each other to process different things that are going on and to, to problem solve and to just be that, that listening post.
Sometimes, it's all we can do is listen and hear, there's no solution to offer.
And this is a group of folks who are steeped in the work and who have belief and faith in what we can do together.
I wanna make it so that everybody can fully participate in our community life and live and learn and love in this wonderful place.
- Victoria clearly loves her community.
Her work has the potential to allow more people to feel comfortable calling it their home, too.
- The Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation is a community foundation, the largest in Minnesota.
We work across the state to create an equitable, just and vibrant Minnesota, where all communities and people thrive.
- The Facing Race awards is just one way we advocate for equity.
Through our grant making programs, we invest in nonprofits, like Indigenous Roots, that are developing community-led solutions.
Last year, we were able to make more than 9,000 grants to non-profit organizations.
- We also inspire generosity and donors who entrust us to partner with them as they support the causes they care about.
Now, onto our next Facing Race Award recipient, independent journalist, KingDemetrius Pendleton, takes his anti-racist work to the streets, using his camera to shine the light on injustice.
(soulful music) - One of the most gut wrenching things led me to the camera.
In November of 2013, my daughter, Brandy, and her friend Melvin Jones was tragically killed by a drunk driver.
Brandy was such a good spirited person.
She just wanted to learn and teach people.
When Brandy was killed, that calls me to do something.
I must do something.
There was no voice to Brandy and Melvin Jones.
And I wanted to make sure that I was able to lift their voices by any means necessary.
I decided to get my degree in Digital Imaging Photography.
And it was just totally amazing.
(upbeat music) The day that I walked across the stage, just like, life-changing moment, Brandy motivated me and put that spark in me.
And I felt that it was important for me as a black man to go out and engage the world.
To give the world a piece of me.
And when Brandy was killed, I was always documenting things.
But what heightened it, it was when Jamar Clark was killed.
And that was just so close to when Brandy got killed and it was so many people boots on the ground.
I wanted people to listen to the voices of the unheard, like people were not listening to us with a critical ear.
My body of work of photography represent the voices of the voiceless.
Being a part of the movement and documenting things of the movement.
When you see images that I take, I'm out on the street, I'm documenting action.
It's like my photograph tells stories.
But what makes me different from other street journalists, I'm able to live stream my work.
I'm able to document it.
And I'm able to let the community speak their power to truth.
I want people to know, like, this is our community, our neighborhood.
Here's what's happening in our neck of the hood.
And it lets you know that you're not alone.
You're not alone.
So it's important for me to let people know their voice matter.
It's amazing to see the power of photography.
You can change the frame, but the picture will always remain the same.
It's telling a story.
(soulful music) - I have a lot of passion around young people and also race and equity.
I believe that young people will inherit the future and their say-so is going to be critical.
So, it's important to have them help to design what that future looks like.
I am the Founding President of Youthprise, we were established 10 years ago.
Our mission is increasing equity for Indigenous, low income, and racially diverse youth.
A key lesson for us at Youthprise is how can we approach this work around change, and race, and equity, through the lenses of young people who really are not going to be content with the status quo.
You know, how can we disrupt it and replace it with something that is gonna work in a way that is better for everybody?
If I am known for anything at Youthprise, it's my conviction that young people really have a voice.
I've been in the youth business for a long, long time.
The energy they bring to this type of work is what gives me hope for the future.
And I believe that young people should be at tables when it comes to things that concern them.
I really believe that young people are really the architects of their own future and they need the support and guidance of adults.
My legacy at Youthprise will undoubtedly be my investment in young people and also in social entrepreneurship.
I have always embraced diversity and loved diversity, and I felt you could really learn so much from each others strengths.
We, as human beings, have an opportunity to make sure that everybody is doing well.
You know, that to me is very, very important.
And, sometimes, out of fear of change, we don't take advantage of the opportunity.
For the last, maybe 30 years, 40 years or more, I have really worked hard to face race.
But to be publicly recognized, it's, it's a wonderful thing.
(people cheer) - Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Eric Jolly.
I am honored today to celebrate our Facing Race Award recipients.
I am fond of saying that one first step toward justice is the courageous recognition of injustice.
This year's award recipients have not only recognized injustice, but they have also taken that next step.
They have put forth creative solutions, pursued brave conversations, and dedicated their lives to working toward an equitable, just and vibrant Minnesota, where all communities and people thrive.
Here now, to offer additional perspective is our special guest, Kao Kalia Yang.
Kalia is a gifted writer who joins us today from a place that has brought her comfort and inspiration since childhood.
- My journey into the world of books began right here at the East Side Freedom Library.
When I was growing up, it was the Arlington Hills branch of the Saint Paul Public Library system.
I lived half a mile down the hill in an old house that no longer exists.
We were new refugees from an undocumented war.
Our mother and father worked at the factories at night and paid the bills so that we children could go to school during the day.
Every week on a Friday, my father used to drive my older sister and I up the hill to the library so that we could breathe away from the moldy air of our house.
Our father never came inside the library with us.
He was shy, unused to the world of books.
He, like our mother, had been forced out of school long ago, by the war in Laos.
American bombs had rained and decimated their schools.
In America, they were told, you're here to talk to the machines, not us.
Unwelcomed into English and the country's institutions of learning, our father waited patiently outside.
Inside the library, my sister and I navigated the shelves carefully.
We were explorers in a fragile world.
We walked like the floors had crumbled beneath our feet and the ceilings could cave down on us at any time.
Refugee children, used to such things.
The library, though, held steady for us and countless other children.
Most poor and eager to learn of a world beyond the ones we inhabited.
The library was a treasure trove.
There was a globe where we could run our hands over its surface.
We traced rivers of black ink, touched oceans of expansive blue, felt the rise of mountains against the pads of our fingers, discovered the lines of red and black, that marked the boundaries of people in places.
Our eager hands shivered on the spines of the books.
In the books, I learned of the stories of native Americans here in Minnesota and across the nation.
I read up the diseases that ravage the people, the children who were separated by their families to be taught how to undo their identities.
The treaties that were broken time and again by white men with guns.
I learned of African-Americans, how they were captured from their homelands, tied into the hull of giant ships and sent here to become slaves.
I learned of a movement toward freedom that has taken hundreds of years on this soil, by all kinds of Americans, communities that did not have the privileges of being white, being Christians, being read and understood as normal and good.
In this place, the heart of a writer was forming.
The heart of this writer was forged.
Today, I am the author of books for children and adults.
I write of Hmong people and other people.
I write of wars others have written of and wars that only live now because of the people who have survived and refuse to forget.
I write of race and class in America, the foundations of injustice in this country and others.
I return to the spaces where I've been formed and do the work that my mother and father had dreamt of.
The work of using my energy, my heart, and my mind to build a better vision of the world, not just the things that the rich and the powerful demand.
Today, I'm here, to speak to all of you, individuals who are here because of all of the people who've waited patiently across seasons and years, decades of time, for you to take up the mantle of justice and through your life's work to call forth and bring on a world that is more open and kind.
Today, we have gathered to build a community that believes more than anything else, in the power of one individual to reach another, to be part of a movement to document our stories and lives, to push them further than the very people who have lived them.
Today, we get to inspire each other, to meet the problems of the places we share and love.
Today, I'm here to thank you for your service.
Today I'm here to offer gratitude to the places that have made us and continue to make us who we are, the hopes and the dreams that have fueled generations before us, birthed our journeys, and will one day bloom and blossom those who will follow.
- Thank you, Kalia.
It will indeed take all of us working together to make those hopes and dreams a reality.
There isn't just one way to fight racism, but this year's award recipients do have something in common.
Each of them chooses work that impacts and influences the lives of others, including those who agree with them and those who may not.
This is what we mean by Facing Race: to have the conversations that allow us to see our differences as a strength and through that to make room at the table for everyone, knowing that if we do, we will all be better for it.
And so, my ask of you today is that you have that conversation that might impact and influence someone in your life.
And share with your friends and family The stories of how our neighbors are working to change the narrative.
Go to facingrace.org to learn more.
Thank you for joining us for Facing Race.
Before we go, I'd like to introduce Ujamaa Music Group as they perform, "The Color of Your Skin" - an original song they created for the Facing Race Awards.
Performing inside Studio B at Paisley Park, here are Bayo, Kip, DeTrell Melodies, Young Light, Ju$$ Lyfe - Ujamaa Music Group!
♪ I have a dream ♪ ♪ That one day ♪ ♪ We'll live in a world where ♪ ♪ They don't judge you by color of your skin ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself ♪ ♪ We can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself ♪ ♪ We can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ You wanna tear me down ♪ ♪ By the color of my skin ♪ ♪ Racism in the world still locked in the pin ♪ ♪ So many people really crazy in the world today ♪ ♪ You ain't really tryna listen what we got to say ♪ ♪ Sad when they killed Philando ♪ ♪ All they wanna do is put our faces on a photo ♪ ♪ You ain't tryna hear me though ♪ ♪ I was up in Alabama walking on the Selma bridge ♪ ♪ Change my whole life ♪ ♪ Real talk amazing what we did ♪ ♪ Anxious but patient how we facing the races ♪ ♪ A couple smiles upon the faces ♪ ♪ Cause the aim is for greatness ♪ ♪ Know to not sit back and wait ♪ ♪ No if you want it you take it ♪ ♪ And make an opportunity better for next generations ♪ ♪ Hear the words feel the rhythm like kick drums ♪ ♪ We're here to rearrange all of the kinks in the system ♪ ♪ We follow in the steps of Doctor King if you missed him ♪ ♪ I'm speaking from the spirit ♪ ♪ No this ain't just a written ♪ ♪ Just listen ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ You can reinvent yourself just like Malcolm X ♪ ♪ Book smart, street smart I can pass the tests ♪ ♪ Gordon Parks showed images my people stressed ♪ ♪ Broke down racial barriers don't jump the fence ♪ ♪ Police got trigger fingers ♪ ♪ Where's the respect ♪ ♪ Get pulled over then wonder what happens next ♪ ♪ I got a lil message hope it reaches the youth ♪ ♪ You can do anything you put your mind to ♪ ♪ You still wanna knock us down but we not surprised ♪ ♪ You still tryna kill us now my skin you despise ♪ ♪ You really wanna stop us ♪ ♪ We will always rise ♪ ♪ School system wasn't really true ♪ ♪ They told a lot of lies ♪ ♪ Thanking God for Rosa Park for never giving up her seat ♪ ♪ We was always starving for our rights ♪ ♪ Like we had to eat ♪ ♪ All my people come together walking on the street ♪ ♪ Can you hear the crying of my ancestors blood ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ I wake up asking myself how I can better myself ♪ ♪ For everybody else around me I know that is true wealth ♪ ♪ Need to be true to myself ♪ ♪ And everything will be butter ♪ ♪ As long as I got my brothers ♪ ♪ I'll never need any others ♪ ♪ We overflow with passion ♪ ♪ Turn the focus to action ♪ ♪ You got a dream then go live it ♪ ♪ Don't need permission or asking ♪ ♪ God he got me he told me ♪ ♪ I know his blessings is holy ♪ ♪ He turned the water to wine ♪ ♪ He brought me back from the old me ♪ ♪ Everyday is a chance to do your best ♪ ♪ Some millionaire started on the project steps ♪ ♪ Run this marathon til I have nothing left ♪ ♪ Got my energy from God yeah I stay blessed ♪ ♪ I'm not taking any handouts I'd rather grind ♪ ♪ Came from last place to first on the finish line ♪ ♪ Easy to become complacent and waste time ♪ ♪ Focus on the goal everything will be fine.
♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me.
♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Getting kinda bold pointing fingers at me ♪ ♪ It's not the color of your skin ♪ ♪ It's the color we breathe ♪ ♪ If we focus on ourself, we can all be free ♪ ♪ We all could just live happily ♪ ♪ Yeah, so when you look at us ♪ ♪ You shouldn't focus on the exterior ♪ ♪ You know we all breathe and bleed the same ♪ ♪ At the end of the day.
♪ - The Facing Face awards is a TPT partnerships co-production of St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation And Twin Cities PBS.