Over the past two months, BRIDGE’s work — and my own journeys in October as its steward — has stretched across local, national, and global landscapes. What is happening here in the Berkshires is deeply connected to a wider movement for healing, liberation, and Black feminist world-building for our communities of color and allies.
Even as our Fawohodie Center filled with messages of gratitude — “Your energy is grounding,” “Much needed sacred healing space,” “You’ve given us an in-between place,” “I feel so held here” — I was also carrying our local community into global conversations.
Recently, I was invited to Amsterdam for Minor Music: End of the World, where I spent days in circle with global Black feminist leaders, thinkers, artists, and cultural workers. That gathering transformed me. We sat with questions about grief, imagination, climate, community, and survival — and I felt affirmed that the work we are doing here is part of a much larger tapestry. Our small, rural, multicultural home is resonating on a world stage.
From there, I traveled to the Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) Conference, where I presented BRIDGE’s model of cultural organizing, healing, power building, and racial equity. It was powerful to be affirmed by how many funders and cultural leaders recognized our approach as visionary, replicable, and necessary in this moment.
And in the in-between, I met in person with Saidiya Hartman, Michelle Alexander, and other Black feminist thinkers and organizers whose work is shaping our past and future of liberation, joy, and struggle. To be in conversation with them — to exchange visions, strategies, and spiritual longings — reminded me again that BRIDGE’s work is not peripheral. It is essential.
Why us?
Because we are a local community organization that is now part of a global network of cultural workers, healers, scholars, and justice leaders shaping new futures. Our local work is resonating far beyond our region.
Why now?
Because everything I have witnessed — from Amsterdam to national conferences to our own community rooms filled with handwritten love notes — tells me that people everywhere are longing for what BRIDGE offers: a place of belonging, a home for cultural memory, a site for healing, joy, liberation, and community transformation.
These past two months have made one truth undeniable:
BRIDGE is standing at an inflection point — called to meet the needs of our region and also to help shape the future of global solidarity, culture, and justice.
And the world is asking for more.
In early November, our Board gathered for an Open House focused on development and fundraising — because the political landscape has shifted, and the lifelines that once supported our mutual aid efforts have been cut. The need is immediate and real. We were deeply honored to spend five hours on November 2nd with Michael Bobbitt, who closed out his MCC tenure by coaching our board and development team. His guidance affirmed the urgency of this moment, and we wish him the very best in NYC.
This is our reality: to continue building this global vision — and to sustain the healing, culture-building, and mutual aid our communities depend on — we need your support now, in the here and now.
Your investment makes this work possible.
Your partnership ensures our future.
Your belief carries us forward.
More coming up….
