Gathering Because We Can

Hello! 

We know we’ve been quiet for a bit - remember when on December 31st we were all like, yes, 2020 is going to be so much easier, we’ll have more time, take on less stuff, the world will be less crazy, etc.? And then 2020 actually came and none of that happened.  The last two weeks have really put things in perspective. Thanks for your continued support, for the encouragement to keep moving and for making it through March. 

During all of this, we’ve been working on a new slate of interviews and dispatches that we hope will bring you some joy during self-quarantine coopies (Beth’s term for when her dogs get cabin fever), provide respite from the general anxiety and despair that seems to be around every corner, or just give you something new to read. Based in LA, San Francisco and Amsterdam, we’ll add some of the ways we’re coping, helping and connecting to the end of the letter. 

Our new normal, physical-distancing and sheltering-in-place, has provoked us to really grapple with our social relationships and the meaning of gathering. Today’s interview is with Elisha Greenwell, brand strategist extraordinaire, community advocate and founder of the Black Joy Parade, a three-year-old celebration of history, culture and community that runs through downtown Oakland each February. 

Elisha’s focus on the critical role of gathering in building community and culture has us thinking deeply right now. In her own words, “We gather so much when we’re resisting, which is really important. But what if we could just gather because we can.” 

*Lightly edited for length and clarity.

DISCLOSURE – Beth and Clare have both done stints at 72andSunny, where they met Elisha.

ON MANAGING A CAREER IN MARKETING VS. THE DNA FOR GIVING BACK

I think growing up in the advertising business was really important in my understanding of how to empower people. Core to being a strategist is empowering creatives with something very focused and insightful, but not so specific that they can't find their way. I also always worked on stuff that had some kind of positive benefit to the world. I don't know if that was a chicken or egg thing. I grew up volunteering. My parents were very adamant about that. It was such an important part of my life that as I got older, the thing that I wrestled with was not ‘should I give back?’ It was ‘oh, wait, I have to work too much. When will I find time to give back.’

My first big girl job in advertising was at Venables Bell in San Francisco. I was really struggling to do what I wanted to, like go serve at a food bank. But I couldn't leave work on time because in advertising you work 20 million hour days. I went to my boss at the time and said ‘this isn't going to do, this is important.’ It's like working out or if I had a kid to care for, I need to go do these things. They allowed me to set up this program where I had three organizations -- the San Francisco Food Bank, The San Francisco Conservation Corps and Glide -- and I set up a time slot once a month to volunteer for each program.

In addition, I was working on PG&E, the electricity company. At the time they were really obsessed with sustainability. It felt like, ‘oh, wait, is this possible? I think this can work where we're not separating these two worlds, where you can integrate some kind of like goodness into the profitable side of the business. And in a weird and unconscious way I became obsessed with that.

Then I came to 72andSunny and worked on Target “Back to School,” launched “Oprah Chai Latte” with Starbucks, and the Starbucks ASU Education initiative. And while I definitely had products that were all about money, like selling Frappuccinos, I always had a third of my work on programs that existed because the company cared about something bigger than their profit. At the same time, I still struggled with the things that I wanted to do outside of work. I remember I was working so much and I really wanted to start volunteering at the Downtown Women's Shelter in L.A., and I could not. My shift was Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm or something like that, and I couldn't for the life of me get out by 6pm, let alone 5pm to be on time.

ON DISSECTING "THE POWER OF TECH FOR POSITIVE CHANGE"

When I left 72, I was burnt out. I went to a place called MOFILM, which is a crowd-sourcing content company. We had a couple thousand filmmakers around the world we were connected to. I’d curate our Kenyan filmmakers and our Kenyan creative and filmmakers from around the world. I was there for three years and I loved the work. I was traveling all the time, meeting with all these really ambitious, hungry creatives.

One of my clients at MOFILM was Facebook. We worked on a bunch of stuff for their Internet.org initiative when that was the thing. The head of that group was a guy named Kofi, and he recruited me to Facebook. He said, ‘I see you are the kind of person that feels like marketing can change the world.’ I was drawn to the narrative around tech, and while it might not always be true, that it is the biggest scale in which you can create change because it reaches everybody and is so integrated into our lives. The power of technology for positive change. I went to Facebook with that ambition.

Two months after I got there, Cambridge Analytica happened. My job 360ed. It went from ‘you're here to find these beautiful stories and empower people with the power of social media’ to ‘Facebook’s ruining the world. Ruining democracy. Now you’re in damage control.’ My job became just as much about policy and protection and putting boundaries on the company as it was about unleashing the power of the company for the world. It was a crazy learning experience because it helped me realize the shadow side of businesses that a lot of times were so focused on growth. When you're so focused on growth, you often overlook the unintended consequences of what you're doing, especially when you're pressured to move as fast as a tech company.

I had never worked at a company that big with so many layers of hierarchy and yet it was like a teenager. It was like Justin Bieber, growing up in the public eye, stumbling and messing up and no one giving it the benefit of doubt because it’s famous and rich.

We gather so much when we're resisting, which is really important. But what if we could just gather because we can.

ELISHA GREENWELL

ON COMING BACK TO OAKLAND

I moved back to the Bay Area after being gone for almost 7 years. When I got back, I was super excited to move to Oakland because I own a home there. Oakland was just the first place that I really embraced my blackness in its fullness because I'm mixed, and I think that's a complicated thing as a kid - ‘where do I fit in?’ I’m not this, I’m not that. I'm not black enough or not not black enough. I'm a woman. There was just all this stuff going on, and living in Oakland was always the place I felt accepted and very welcomed. And there was so much joy in that. When I moved back, the demographic in Oakland had just changed like crazy. In a decade it's gone from almost 40-50 percent of the population down to 15-20. Just visually, I'm like, ‘where the black people?’

That was the first thing. But then more troubling is, where's the support for black art? Where’s the black restaurants, all of these foundational things were not being supported. There was no credit for building Oakland's culture. The community wasn't getting credit for the history, the Black Panther Party, Black Lives Matter. I'm like, God, people are just taking this for granted, and you're starting to see the disappearance of this community. That was in my mind and it's a classic strategist move to ask, “How can I solve this?”

ON AN IMPORTANT INSIGHT: WHY DO WE ONLY GATHER OUT OF RESISTANCE?

And then I went to a Black Lives Matter rally. And then I also went to a Trump protest because he'd just been elected. And I was like, ‘Oh, here's the black people! They're all here.’ This is what I was looking for. But also, ‘Wow, this is really sad that they're only here when it's sad. We’re only motivated or feel welcomed or like there is space for us when there's something wrong going on, when we have to fight for something, when there's injustice.’ And it was tragic.

This became the brief, the tension for Black Joy Parade. We gather so much when we're resisting, which is really important. But what if we could just gather because we can. Like what if we can just gather because we're celebrating. There's all this positive in our community, what if we gathered with smiles on our faces versus signs? So, I asked my sister, ‘ Why don’t we I don't have a parade for black people?’ She was like, ‘OK, random.’ But as a creative person at heart, I have a lot of ideas. Half the time I don't do it. And this I did. I set up a Facebook meeting and I invited people in. Eight people showed up

We just started the process. Last month we had the third annual Black Joy Parade. 25,000 people came. It is such a blessing in my life. It's crazy to think it was born as just an idea. I have a beautiful team, a beautiful community that it could not happen without. Now it's sort of a coalition to bring it to life.

ON PRACTICING JOY

Year one was myself and my small volunteer team saying ‘Can we do this?’ This year it was ‘Can this be a legacy. Could this be something that sustained over time?’ In the first year, in addition to coming off the frustrations around the election, and Black Lives Matter, Black Panther had just come out, there was a lot happening in culture for that tipping point. Three years later, not that any of those things are not interesting or important, but that bubbling trend is not necessarily top of mind. So for it to continue to be successful is pretty amazing. And, to know that even when we're not super upset about something, we still are excited to celebrate. We still are excited to gather for positivity.

Blackness doesn't exist only in opposition to whiteness, it exists because it exists, because it's beautiful all on its own. It's its own culture, its own joy, its own beauty. The orientation of that is very different even at the event now versus the first year. We saw a lot of people that had never been to a parade for black people. So they came militant, ready to talk about their cause and wearing very polarizing statements on their shirts. Because that's the gatherings that they were used to. None of that this year, people were just like, ‘I'm so happy to see you. I'm so happy my family's here.’

I can see the shift to really embracing the full positivity of it. Just one day setting aside that tension. There are 364 other days for that. I think it took some practice in our community. For them to even accept that there could be a day just for celebration.

ON PRACTICING REAL INCLUSIVITY

You can't help but compare things to other seemingly comparable things. So the only really big positive gatherings in the black community were Afropunk and Afrotech that I knew of. And even they are niche audiences within the black community. Black Joy Parade, at its infancy, was always meant to be fully inclusive because I had recognized after I started organizing that there were tensions within the black community. We talk a lot about black versus white or some other ethnicity or race or whatever. But didn’t talk much about the tensions in our own community, like the church and the LGBT community…there's a lot going on there.

And specifically in the Bay we have non-tech and tech people, the ‘you're not from here’ people. The gentrifiers, the not gentrifiers. You have older and younger, the millennial dismissiveness. There's a lot of weird segmentation happening. I only realized this planning it because I would go to a church and say we're gonna do this queer night and they say ‘Oh, we don’t know about that.’ So there's another thing I need to do, which is figure out how we can all get along and celebrate our full culture in a really inclusive way. That was really hard in the first year. We had to make a very concerted effort and answer a lot of questions.

This year, it just seemed like nothing. No one was questioning that. They're just happy to see each other. I think that's an interesting transition of the movement - people being more open minded or maybe just recognizing black joy is inclusive for all of us and setting those biases aside. I'm not sure what the emotional or mental transition was, but I could feel it very much there.

ON LEADERSHIP, LEARNING ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR CIT

Oh, God, I learned so much about myself. I learned a lot about my leadership style, and hopefully improved it. I think I had a tendency to, at least in the beginning, tell people what their role was in the situation. Now, I ask ‘What are you excited about? And how can I marry that with what's needed?’ Especially because I run a team of volunteers, I couldn't pay anybody, including myself, so it's really important to keep them motivated. So making sure that I'm listening to them as a leader and being a leader from the bottom as well as from the top.

Oakland probably has a lot of the same woes that a lot of cities have had, in many ways it has been living in the shadow of a bigger city. That has created this dynamic, nimble hustle culture that's being threatened because that big city is spilling in. From the outside, things like housing prices seem really easy to solve. Like, of course we should have affordable housing and rent control. I’m involved in the city of Oakland now and it's not easy at all. There are so many moving pieces. There are so many legacy organizations without new ideas and people have a hard time letting it go. And there are new organizations that have great ideas, but no execution and implementation practice. It's harder than you think it is to navigate the government. It's harder than you think it is to be a part of systemic change. Planning the parade with the city and all of the organizations, government agencies, etc. has made me more empathetic about what it really takes to run a city and create systemic change in a community. And that's something I probably took for granted or just overlooked before I was involved.

ON LEGACY

In a really tangible way my three year vision for Black Joy Parade is that it becomes a destination for Black History Month, so you think of it the same way you think of Carnival and Trinidad, the 4th of July, Essence Festival, you know, like a marquee moment in the year. I think that Oakland is deserving and has the ability to hold that for Black History Month. I would love Black Joy Parade to be the anchor of that. The reason that's important to me is because it's a part of stoking a black economic system. We cannot expect people to move back and live and thrive there if they can't pay their bills, if their kids don't feel welcome.

Black Joy had 185 vendors this year and we guess that our vendors are making upwards of 20% more at Black Joy Parade than they are at any sort of general market event. That's just one piece of this little ecosystem that we're starting to build for Black Joy.

I want that to be a thing that people look forward to and come to every year. It's super good for Oakland, it's super good for reversing this demographic decline. I personally would love it if kids grew up not having the feeling that I felt. Kids grew up knowing that there are black celebrations just because you are amazing just the way you are, that you don’t have to fight for something to be worth something.

ON MARRYING BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN A GOOD WAY

The first year a lot of people told me, don't bring corporate money in. I was like, ‘Well, you don't know who I am because, this is my thing. I figure out a way for corporations to support communities. This isn't happening without corporate money. I don't have any money. So how do you think it's gonna happen?’

The first year was such a success, we had such successful partnerships, and I actually think it may have motivated some of the other smaller festivals in Oakland to consider partnerships more. And now I've even some of the small street fairs dreaming bigger with partnerships. The discipline that we brought from advertising and corporate America into community work is now reverberating into a lot of other things with Black Joy Parade and Oakland and I’m really, really proud of that. It's a testament to the strength of my team.

ON PRACTICING CAUTION

The thing I'm cautious about is the economic divide. The divide means that the corporations now have so much control. It is almost impossible to throw community events without sponsors or some kind of funding. Because the government doesn't have the money, and you don't have the money. Unless you have some rich donor guy. I don’t. So if you don't approach it right, if the corporation doesn't really have your mission internalized, there can be some taking advantage of happening. There's nothing really to do about that other than to be conscious of it.

I can help organizers and activists work through partnerships and help them figure out how to navigate that world. Most activists and organizers are not part of this world and they easily get taken advantage of. This is something I worry about. I'm just really fortunate to speak that language. So to anybody out there, looking to build something - have it in your mind all the time, that they need you just as much as you need them. Find a partnership that's really meaningful. If you feel taken advantage of, walk away because it's gonna do your movement more harm than the money will do good. And it's hard to say when you just need to pay bills.

ON WHAT NORMAL PEOPLE CAN DO TO HELP

Donate to the cause! Like I said, we are an all volunteer run on profit and events are not cheap. Especially free events. So it’s great when folks with means can help support us so that those without can experience the joy too. Also - come to Black Joy Parade 2021! It’s one of the best days of the year. I promise. And then of course, follow up on all the internet things. Share your joy with us so we can continue to normalize black joy.

HER BOOKSHELF

I just finished Talking with Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. Pretty sure I’ve read all of his books and also pretty sure he’s the only non-fiction writer I can ever get through. With all the articles and medium posts I get really overloaded with social science and ‘leadership’ pieces. So for the most part I read fiction - lots of historic narratives and some sci fi stuff. My dear friend Margaret Wilkerson Sexton just released her second novel called the Revisioners which was a good read. And I also own every Octavia Butler book because she’s the GOAT.

MOST INSPIRATIONAL WOMAN TO HER RIGHT NOW

Can I say myself? I know that seems hella vain but I think I, and most women, were raised to be overly humble to the point that we don’t allow ourselves to recognize our greatness. Through therapy and the support of my good friends I’ve been trying really hard to bask in my own light a little more. To stop being so damn hard on myself. Especially right now while we’re all locked up - I’m eating healthy, sleeping well, being generous, patient and productive. Basically - I’m amazing. I think I’ll look back on this time and my quarantine self will be an inspiration to my non-quarantine self!

HOW SHE'S MAKING IT THROUGH QUARANTINE:

Routine. Trying to be structured so that I don’t slip into the lazy abiss. Because I know myself and once I get on that binge train it’s real hard to turn back/ get off the couch.

Petty progress. This is my term for setting little goals that really don’t mean anything but tap into my competitive spirit and keep me motivated. For example, seeing how many days in a row I can stay off Facebook. Ha! Or I’m trying to create less trash each week. Or committing to wearing fly earrings everyday. Stupid things really. But I’m also a big believer in trying to turn good habits into hobbies by forcing myself to stick with them for a while until they just become part of the way I operate.

The biggest one is finding things to look forward to. Which sometimes means holding myself back from them for a bit so that when I do get to do it it’s really fun. Social media falls into this category on occasion. But so does eating dessert! And I’ve been setting aside time to primp which is really fun when you don’t get to or have a reason to do it all the time.

Interested in learning more
about The Black Joy Parade?

Find them online at blackjoyparade.org
and follow them on Instagram.