Fundraising Countdown, Part IV: Focus on the Dart Society

Hearing the story behind this picture by John Moore is just one of the many treats of being in the Dart Society.

I hope this series of posts isn’t becoming like the Rocky series, peaking with the first entry and gradually heading downward into utter absurdity.

I can say with confidence that this will be the final entry, so we’ll definitely avoid the Rocky VI scenario of my coming back in three decades to write again!

In any case,  I’m getting very excited about Saturday’s fundraising bike ride, which will take Dunreith and me up to Glencoe and back, and then will see me head south from the northernmost point of the Lake Shore Bike Path all the way to the South Shore Cultural Center and back home.

I’ve already written about the three other organizations for which I am raising money.

Today’s focus is on the Dart Society,  on whose board I am honored to serve.

The Society is an outgrowth of the Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships in which I participated almost two years ago.   Started by a group of former fellows, the Society seeks to create a community of, and give support to, journalists who cover issues of trauma and violence.

After this year’s fellowship class meets in Montreal in November, there will be a little more than 100 members, and we are starting to expand our ranks by having former fellows invite other journalists to apply.

It’s a remarkably talented crew of people.

In my class alone, we had a large number of courageous, dedicated and decorated journalists like photographer John Moore, reporters Kelly Kennedy and Moni Basu and producer Devin Robins.

Naming these folks is by no means intended to slight any of the other classmates or any other talented Society members.

This year at the Society we started a blog in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and next year we are planning to launch a magazine dedicated to covering issues of trauma and violence.  We are doing this in the midst of the growth plan that will require significant fundraising work on our end.

The bike ride is part of this campaign.  Even if you don’t donate to the Society, I hope you consider learning more about our work.

Fundraising Bike Ride Countdown, Part III: Focus on Society of Saint John the Evangelist

My stepmother Diane gained spiritual sustenance and strength at the Society of Saint John the Evangelist.

We’re down to just three days until the 100 kilometer fundraising bike on Saturday.

I’m getting my bike tuned up today at the bike shed at Millennium Park, the weather looks to be clear and about 55 degrees on Saturday and people’s support has continued to come in in the form of donations, words of encouragement and general good wishes.

All are appreciated.

Today is the third in a series of posts about the different organizations for which I am raising funds.

This entry is about the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, at which my stepmother Diane Lowenstein spent a lot of meaningful time over the course of many years.

The society’s web site contains the following information:

Our Ministries

We aim above all to be “Men of the Moment,” responsive to the call of God and the needs of our world in the present day. At our home and in our ministries, we aim to share with others gifts from the Spirit:

Silence and Sanctuary

We offer our monasteries as places of silence, sanctuary, and simple beauty, renewing them to meet changing needs. At home and wherever we minister, we accept and welcome all who come, including them in our worship, meals, and fellowship.

Guidance in Prayer and Spirituality

We offer guidance through preaching, teaching, retreats, workshops, and spiritual direction. In our guest houses in Cambridge and West Newbury we extend our hospitality to guests, who may come for an individual retreat or may attend group retreats on topics related to prayer and spirituality. We are especially available to students and others at critical stages of life formation, and to those whose vocation is the formation of others.

A Vision for Wholeness

We serve a wide spectrum of people, from the disempowered and marginalized to the influential and privileged. For several years, we have been affiliated with St. George’s College in Jerusalem, serving as chaplains on a number of pilgrimages to the Holy Land each year. Recently, we also have conducted mission trips to Africa. Individual brothers work in a variety of local and regional ministries—with students, with prisoners, and with persons affected by HIV/AIDS. We aim to be ministers of reconciliation, hope, and transformation. Our work helps people uncover their deepest desires, live with authenticity, and discover their place in the heart of God.

Diane found all of these qualities and more at the Society, particularly enjoying the silent retreats on which she often participated.

Many people at the memorial service in August and afterward have spoken about Diane’s spiritual practice and presence: the Society was a heavy influence in both.

Dunreith and I will be thinking of her as we bike on Saturday.

New Record, Milestone.

A record day for page views has me ready to celebrate, Kool and the Gang style.

Hey,  folks,

Just a quick note to say that yesterday a record 6,047 people came to the site!

Thanks to everyone who did so.  We hope you return.

We also passed the 400,000 page view mark yesterday.  Given that last year at this time we had close to 40,000 page views,   that’s pretty impressive stuff.

Please keep the comments and page views coming.  You are what makes this community work.

Thanks again, and enjoy the day!

Fundraising Bike Ride Countdown, Part II: Focus on Kuumba Lynx

These youth are just some of the many Kuumba Lynx members.

So we’re down to five days until Saturday’s 100 kilometer bike ride.

In just about half an hour, I’ll be heading out to meet 10 young performance artists who will be joining me for part of the event.

The performers all belong to Kuumba Lynx, the hip hop youth organization on whose board I am honored to serve.  KL, as it is commonly known, is the second of the organizations I am featuring during the countdown.

Founded in 1996 by three Chicago Public School graduates who saw a hole in arts programming they wanted to fill, Kuumba Lynx has transformed hundreds, if not thousands, of young people’s lives.

Co-directors Jaquanda Villegas and Jacinda Bullie have created and cemented a safe space for young people of all backgrounds and parts of Chicago to come together and express themselves as they are.  This would be impressive enough in its own right, but is even more so when one considers that the home base of America’s first black president remains one of the nation’s most segregated cities.

At this point, some of the teaching artists at Kuumba Lynx are young people who have come up in the organization, gone off to college and returned home to give back to those who nurtured them during their formative years.

Like many non-profits, Kuumba Lynx has found the current economic climate challenging, to say the least.  The group has taken another blow recently as Bullie was hit during a bike ride and is at home recovering from the injuries associated with that accident.

We welcome anything you can do to support KL, whether by attending an event, spreading the word about the bike ride or making a donation to this remarkable organization.

Fundraising Countdown Continues: Focus on Alzheimer’s Association

Raising money for the Alzheimer's Association in honor of Marty Kelly is one of the four organizations I'll be biking for next Saturday.

The countdown to next Saturday’s 100 kilometer fundraising bike ride continues.

I know that some may be a bit confused by the number of people in whose honor I am riding and the multiple organizations for which I am raising money.  As a result, I am going to write during each of the next four days about the people and causes for which I am biking.

The first one is the Massachusetts branch of the Alzheimer’s Association.  I chose that organization in conjunction with my riding in honor of Marty Kelly, my father-in-law who died in late March after a multi-year battle with the disease.

We have set up a page for interested people to contribute if they are so inclined.

I have written before and am happy to restate hear how much Marty contributed to my life in direct and indirect ways, and am excited to pay a tribute to him for the many gifts he gave to my life.

Anyone who has seen Alzheimer’s ravage the brain and, on some level, the soul of the person it has in its clutches know that the decline can be lengthy and painful.

For Marty, it lasted several years, becoming particularly acute in the last few months of his life.

One of the disease’s many ironies is that while the person’s basic sense of identity is systematically eroded, in many cases her body remains intact.  This means that people affected with Alzheimer’s can live years after they no longer are able to recognize their loved ones or even their own names.

Mercifully, that was not the case for Marty.

The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research.   Its website has all kinds of useful information about the disease,  tips for family and friends, available resources and local events.

Dunreith and I chose the Massachusetts chapter because Marty was so deeply rooted in his home state.  Thanks for reading this post about Marty and the disease, and for considering a contribution of any form to our ride.   This can include financial support as well as spreading the word about the event.

Facing Race Conference Opens in Chicago

Melissa Harris-Lacewell will deliver the keynote address at the Facing Race conference tomorrow.

The Applied Research Center’s Facing Race conference opens here in Chicago, and promises to be a gala event.

Packed with presenters ranging from science journalist and friend Sally Lehrman, our editor Kimbriell Kelly and anti-racism activist and author Tim Wise, the conference is sure to provoke, challenge, and hopefully inspire its attendees.

I’m sure it’s also exhausted Terry Keleher, who has, I understand, been coordinating all kinds of logistics for ARC here in Chicago.

Among other activities, the Applied Research Center publishes ColorLines magazine.  Former ColorLines editor Tram Nguyen, my brother Jon and I were all Racial Justice Fellows in 2007.  During that experience, we hatched the idea, along with ColorLines publisher Rinku Sen, of doing a collaborative project on fatal police shootings.

The project resulted in a national look at police shootings that focused on Chicago, New York and Phoenix and in a project that had impact in each of the three cities.  It was, and remains, one of my favorite journalism projects.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell will deliver the keynote address tomorrow.  The Princeton University professor is the author of Barbershops, Bibles and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, the book that resulted from her dissertation at Duke University.

The book’s central argument is that public spaces like barbershops are frequent places where conversation among black people leads to the formation of political opinion and thought.  Harris-Lacewell uses qualitative and quantitative methods to advance her ideas.

I’ve written before about my general distaste for converted dissertations that stems more from the authors’ demonstrating that they understand and can apply the tools of the trade than because of the weakness in their argument.  I generally find that scholars’ second and subsequent books are a more valid reflection of how they actually write than the more constrained voice that customarily appears in books like Barbershops.

Harris-Lacewell’s book is not an exception to this rule, although I will say my favorite chapter is the one she co-authored with Quincy Mills.  This section of the book delved into the barbershop conversations and engaged me to a greater degree than the other ones.

Dunreith was hoping to attend today’s panels, but Aidan’s continued ill health prevented.  I’m optimistic that we’ll make it tomorrow to Harris-Lacewell’s comment and connect again with the ColorLines and ARC crew.

Nine days until the 100 km fundraising bike ride.

Dunreith and I will be biking in honor of her father and my stepmother on October 2.

The countdown is on.

On Saturday, October 2-that is, in nine days-Dunreith and I will head out on a fundraising bike ride.

She will join me for some portion of the ride, which will be 100 kilometers in all.

The most I’ve ever ridden in a day before is about 44 miles, so I’m anticipating the ride to be a stretch, but not an unduly burdensome one.

I’m riding to raise money for four separate causes.

As readers of this blog know, this year has been a tough one in our family, as we’ve lost Dunreith’s father and my stepmother.

Dunreith and I have created a page on the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Association where people who want to give to that organization can do so in honor of Marty, her dad.

For those people who are willing to contribute, our first name is “Dunreith and Jeff” and our last name is “Kelly Lowenstein.”

We'll bike in honor of Marty.

We’ve also set up a page in honor of my stepmother Diane Lowenstein on the Society of Saint John the Evangelist who are so inclined.

We'll ride in honor of Diane, too.

I’m also honored to serve on the boards of two remarkable organizations-Kuumba Lynx and the Dart Society.

I’ve set up pages for each of those groups for anyone who wants to support them.

Here is the Kuumba Lynx link to give and here is the Dart Society link.

In addition to Dunreith’s joining me for the first leg of the ride, about 10 performance artists from Kuumba Lynx who are doing their own fundraising will go along, too.  A friend and Dart Fellow may join me for one of the event’s latter stages.

My goal is to raise $1,000 per charity, or $4,000 in all.

We welcome any help you can give, and want to be clear that spreading the word counts.

Richard Mollica on Healing Invisible Wounds

Richard Mollica's Healing Invisible Wounds shares his knowledge from the past 30 years.

I’ve mentioned here before that in November I’ll be traveling to Orieto, Italy for two weeks as a participant in the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma.

The opportunity thrills me for many reasons.  In addition to being held in a glorious setting, the program includes clinicians and other people from all over the world who work with refugees.

Richard Mollica is the program’s director.   A long-time veteran of the field, he has done pioneering work in trauma and communities in Boston and in countries across the globe like Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodian that have suffered mass violence.

As part of our preparations for the course, we are expected to read a number of books, with Mollica’s Healing Invisible Wounds heading the list.

Omri Casspi, swastikas and Chaim Potok’s history of the Jews

A mural of Omri Casspi has been defaced with a swastika twice within a week.

UPDATE:

Former student Vishan Vallabhjee added the following comment:

Completely Unacceptable !!! I’ve noticed in recent years that more and more anti-Israeli views are held by middle-class educated youth particularly in the UK, Ireland and South Africa. There seems to be a shift from hate for hates sake or a hate of Jews (there will always be a mono-neuron wid a pen, unacceptable) to one of a hate for Israel due to the unacceptable situation between Israel and Palestine, that Israel is perceived to perpetuate. I have gathered,amongst students who have a well developed understanding of the dynamics in the mid-east there exists a very palpable frustration with the State of Israel and its inability to end suffering on both sides….this is the common view, though I feel levels of responsibilty are certainly worthy of debate. In my opinion this frustration will result in more and more disgustin acts like the one you mention, and I anticipate that more frequently the perpetrators will be those who hold progressive leftist views. I’ve seen Phd students reduced to hate mongers in recent years; rational, insightful and intelligent individuals. I’ve also seen lecturers call for a boycott of Israeli academics. Much of the hard work done by civil groups to educate and stop hate could be lost as we see a broader spectrum of society choose to hate and justify hate towards Israel. Recently in South Africa documents were published in a leading Sunday paper that detailed the cosy relationship the apartheid regime and 80′s Israel shared. This has galvanised most of the progressive individuals I know to adopt an anti-Israeli stance……often this stance raises its ugly head and manifests as hate towards all things Israeli…..oranges included. Many in South Africa view Israel as a pariah state, the same way the apartheid regime was viewed globally for decades. So the question I now pose is. Does the burning of an Israeli flag in downtown Johannesburg or the booing of an Israeli soccer player in the UK amount to hate or is it an expression of frustration with the status quo in the mid-east. I feel a distinction is called for as hate in any form cannot be tolerated and protest should be heard/understood and not mis-construed as hate. Further, its important that protest remain just that, hate can never be justified.

ORIGINAL POST:

NBA forward Omri Casspi is the first and only Israeli player in the league.

Much of the Sacramento community has taken to the lean Casspi, whose aggressive charges down the lane, fierce dunks and strong rebounding have, along with the player last year’s Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans, breathed new life into the moribund franchise.

But not all of the community has been so welcoming.

For the second time in a week, a mural of Casspi was defaced with a swastika.

Both actions have occurred around the time of our Days of Awe, the most holy days of the year.

After the first incident, Casspi said, he “was not shocked, but kind of hurt.”

Both parts of his response seem appropriate.

Although lower than in previous decades, antisemitism still exists here in the United States and throughout the world.

It has also been a dominant, but far from exclusive feature of Jewish history-a history that Chaim Potok records in Wanderings: A History of the Jews.

I am about 50 pages into the book, so cannot speak yet with too much authority about it.  But I can say that Potok, the author of The Chosen, writes engagingly in the introduction about his having grown up and learned about Jewish history before having his horizons expanded during military service in Asia, where no one had heard about Jews.

From reading the table of contents, I also know that he will cover the major events in Jewish history, many of which include moments of challenge and attack such as Casspi has just experienced.

The positive news is that a number of people in the Sacramento community, including the Maloof brothers who own the team, oppose the action.

The brothers issued the following statement:

“We’re disgusted by this act of hate. It’s certainly not reflective of the diversity and tolerance of the Sacramento community. We stand with Omri and his family and are grateful for everything he brings to the Kings and Sacramento. Hopefully, law enforcement can swiftly find whoever is responsible for this sickening crime.”

The bad news of course is that such actions continue to occur and that it is so unsurprising when they  do.

I’ll continue to read Potok’s history and to follow this story.

Anita Diamant and Howard Cooper on Living a Jewish Life

Anita Diamant and Howard Cooper's book has informed our Yom Kippur reflections.

It’s Yom Kippur today, and, as we do each year, Dunreith and I are fasting.

We are spending the day contemplating both how we have missed with mark with ourselves, with family, and with others during the past year, and how we can use those experiences to gain wisdom and increase our ability to live true to our values and dreams in the coming year.

We often like to have a  Jewish text to help guide and inform our reflections.

For me, this year, the book is Anita Diamant and Howard Cooper’s  Living a Jewish Life.