The time is always right...

The community I want...

Even though it's after 10pm and I'm full of fried chicken, I am also energized and hopeful. This is always how I feel after a Swirl dinner and I get to talk to others who similarly want to be honest about the flaws in our society, and think about positive ways to confront them. And this is not about getting together to pat ourselves on the back for knowing better. We acknowledge our own shortcomings and biases too. And our own inabilities - at times - to confront the very things that we also question.

Multiracial families: Counted but still misunderstood

In the past couple of years, I have noticed a certain complacency that I never noticed before, in my eleven years of leading Swirl. The same passion and the same excitement around building multiracial communities had faded a bit. In the one year leading up to the Presidential election, we launched five new chapters (the norm had been a chapter every year or every other year). People were excited by the energy created by Obama's campaign, and they were motivated and eager to be a part of creating supportive and inclusive multiracial communities.

A new year...for community

How often do we truly feel seen by others? A part of a community that will hold us in the good times and the bad? I have been reflecting on how rare that feeling has been for me - of true love and acceptance from a community.

We need new vocabulary

Tonight's conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Museum (BHS) was thought-provoking and energizing.

Concrete Steps

I wrote this poem during the One City One Prompt event coordinated with Swirl and the Creative Righting Center on September 18, 2011.

Concrete Steps

The streets of New York City
become more smoothly choreographed.
We don't bump or push or
get into quarrels because of such small infractions worsened by ego.
We glide past one another,
light breezes, punctuated by easy smiles.

Practice makes progress

In my years of diversity work, I am pretty sure about one thing. The people who are "good" at talking about race issues are those who have practiced.

As a participant in discussions about race, I have heard certain white individuals (not all) lament, "I just don't know how to talk about this stuff." And then I have heard some people of color (not all) in turn, say, "I am tired of talking about this stuff every day."

What me, vulnerable?

It has been nearly two months since I left my full-time job to start out on my own - consulting non-profits and educational orgs, and building my own organization, Swirl.

Coffee talk with my new "co-workers"

I have traded in a water cooler for decaf lattes with skim.

Instead of a cubicle, I share my space: six laptops to a hulking wooden table with many knots.

I have different co-workers every day, though some are recurring.

Back to the beginning

A friend recently asked me about the beginning of Swirl.

I told her how I started it. And why. She interrupted to clarify - she wanted to know how I felt. What specifically I was experiencing when I came up with the idea, when I took the first steps to incorporate, when it all came to fruition. I had to think about this - after all, it was nearly eleven years ago.

My very own Rosh Hashanah

by' Jen Chau

Now, if you don't know me well, you might be wondering why I am writing about Rosh Hashanah. If you do know me well, then you know that my mom is Jewish. That I am Jewish. I am not religious and never have been. Still, a lot of Jewish holidays and traditions are meaningful to me. I grew up with them and they hold feelings of love and family for me. I am what you would call a "high holiday Jew." And even that's being a little generous. Past experiences of exclusion have left me feeling quite distanced from the Jewish community. That...

...and then there was Rita's passing...