For Tzedek, the Brilliance Awards are one way to UPLift the UPLifters! Tzedek Brilliance Awards honor Asheville leaders who have engaged in impactful, intersectional efforts to further racial justice and LGBTQ equality or to combat antisemitism.
Listen in as our past Brilliance Award winners Marta Ligia Alcalá and Philip Cooper join in to speak truth and share experience. We're talking wealth generation and exploring how grantmaking to individuals serves Tzedek's mission to redistribute wealth in Asheville.
We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
For Tzedek, the Brilliance Awards are one way to UPLift the UPLifters! Tzedek Brilliance Awards honor Asheville leaders who have engaged in impactful, intersectional efforts to further racial justice and LGBTQ equality or to combat antisemitism.
Listen in as our past Brilliance Award winners Marta Ligia Alcalá and Philip Cooper join in to speak truth and share experience. We're talking wealth generation and exploring how grantmaking to individuals serves Tzedek's mission to redistribute wealth in Asheville.
We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
We're profoundly, profoundly interconnected. We don't always live that way.
Speaker 2:We don't always acknowledge it. But if we're going to hear it, we have to live it, experience it and create institutions that celebrate it. Can we create a we where no one's on the outside of it? Welcome to the Uplift Real Talk for Real Change with Zedek Social Justice Fund.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, thank you for tuning in to the Uplift with Zedek Real Talk for Real Change. You picked a good day to dial in, but before we get into it, a quick reminder of what we're about. We are here to build authentic community relationships and help fuel social transformation in Asheville, north Carolina. We believe collective liberation is not only possible but probable as we share, listen and learn together. We're here for the process. However, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent. All right, let's jump in. My name is Michael Hoven and I'm the Director of Communications at the Zedek Social Justice Fund, and today I am joined by the new Executive Director of Zedek. Yes, miss Libby Kiles, how are you feeling?
Speaker 2:I am wonderful today. Thank you All right.
Speaker 3:So, libby, part of Zedek's mission is to redistribute wealth. Can you share a little bit about what the Brilliance Awards are and why they exist, before we introduce our guests?
Speaker 2:Yes, the Brilliance Awards are one-time, no strings attached award that we give out twice a year, or we give to two recipients each year, recipients who have consistently shown up to dismantle systemic oppression in the Asheville, north Carolina region.
Speaker 3:All right, sweet. Well, it is my honor to welcome Martha Alcala-Williams and Philip Change AJ Cooper to the table. Martha, tell us a little bit about yourself and the work you do.
Speaker 1:Thank you, michael. So my name is Martha Alcala and I am the Executive Director of Equity for Asheville City Schools and I am also involved in many, many things in our community. Obviously, so many years ago I would say nine years ago we started a group in Hillcrest called Mother Reed and we're still going strong and just really everyone just kind of like created some sustainability and moved out of I think actually everyone's moved out of Hillcrest. That was in it and then also the Co-Founder of Marvelous Math Club here in Asheville in Piss Give you Apartments and that started in 2016 and it's just kind of like a celebration. It's a club. It's a math club where we just celebrate leadership and we play math and we build relationships and just really grow together, right, and so there is no hierarchical or any things that you would see in a school setting or in an after-school program. It's a club and we are very clear that we are guests in the community and that we are learning alongside each other. So just a lot of different things in our community.
Speaker 3:Beautiful, and my apologies on the name front. I will get that right, promise you for that. All right, mr Cooper, what about you? Do you share a little bit about your journey?
Speaker 4:Hey, hey. Well, I would just say straight up one thing I ain't going to do is I ain't going to name no employers right now, because I'm speaking freely. Amen Today, because I heard somebody say Dismantle Systemic Oppression. And that's what I'm about. You heard, economic justice is what I'm about. You know. I'm fighting for the underdog. I don't care what color you are, what your gender is, whatever. You know what I'm saying. I'm fighting for anybody that's oppressed economically.
Speaker 4:And here in Buncombe County specifically, I have witnessed it, you know, from working as a service provider as well as a service recipient you know, and I've seen injustices in the cubicles, I've seen injustices in the offices, and it ain't happening no more on my watch, because I'm in the room now.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you both for taking the time to be here today. So before we get into our discussion, let's look at some numbers real quick. So in 2019, on average, white Americans had about five times more wealth than black Americans, and black Americans earn about 50 cents for every white dollar earned. So if you're thinking well, at least there's been progress. We'll feel this. So it's 2023. We have cars that drive themselves, billionaires taking their own rockets to the moon, and the US wealth equality snapshot looks the same as it did in 1950. That's a problem. And look, we get that. $50,000 is not enough to build an empire, but the brilliance awards are one way Zedek tries to make a dent in the difference. So let's talk about generational wealth. What part does it play in creating more equitable systems and societies?
Speaker 4:Well, I'll speak from the lens of what I've seen.
Speaker 4:You know, being a native of Western North Carolina, you know playing ball, going to school with people who were available the opportunity to go to college and get a degree that they can't use and then come back home and run the family business. You know I've seen that with multiple people coming out of AC Reynolds High School. You know one of them even I've been able to partner with for some employment referrals. I ain't going to name the company, but you know they do trades, I'll just say that. But you know, having something to pass down on folks as far as the trade, and even with the trades these days, you know those blue college jobs make a mold in a 40-year degrees, you see, and there's a demand as the baby boomers phase out who's taking their place, and so you know it's time for us to get the trades and us to have companies and we ourselves be able to benefit from a lot of these workforce development resources that they have for smaller businesses. But we can't do that unless we own the business to pass that down generationally.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to piggyback off that, because another thing that is very important when we think about this idea of generational wealth is land ownership. So, as a native of Asheville who had a grandmother and grandfather who lived on the street called Velvet that no longer exists in Asheville, who at the time owned two houses when they were uprooted during urban removal, what was lost is land and money, and where they tried to relocate them was not in a place that was going to be as valuable as that land in that area is today. So my family has been impacted in a way with urban removal that has taken wealth away from us instead of helping us to build wealth. Another issue is that when they relocate it folks, they try to relocate most people into public housing, and what is the track to generational wealth coming from? Public housing, right? So this whole idea that wealth is built through land ownership is important.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to uplift that and also say that when I moved here in 1989 from Miami, I remember Momford being still a black neighborhood and when you walk around it right now you know the gentrification is just unbelievable. And I don't know even why I'm saying unbelievable, because it is actually designed right. It's by design that it's going to keep moving this way. And what I'm noticing since 89 till 2023, right is everything that Libby just mentioned and in addition to that is the Black families that are not in public housing right are wanting to move Right. It's kind of like I'm gonna go to Greenville, I'm gonna go to Charlotte or whatever, because it's like All of the housing and everything is outside of Asheville in order for there to be some affordability and able to Live comfortably in the city that you were born right, like like Phillip and Libby just stayed it. So I think it's really important for us to really recognize that, as we are saying that we're growing and it's the best city and all of that, that we should also say whom it is the best city for right. So I think it's really important.
Speaker 1:And then for us, as black and brown folks, right, what does that generational wealth look like? Well it's, it's just disappearing, right? And so when we have situations where we can, you know, start building, there's obstacles and barriers that keep being presented on a regular basis, right? Like what percentage are you gonna get for a house, or your Mortgage, and things like that, and so as many obstacles as you can put in front of the person of color so that you can Do as impossible, so you can be moved out even further, right? So that's why we have a little bit of sprinkle and we reveal a little bit of sprinkle and like mountain a little bit in our day. No, a little bit of Fletcher, whatever, and I believe that that's done intentionally in my design.
Speaker 3:That's a lot of some amazing talent loss of amazing talent too, so can't touch this real briefly on. You know how being a brilliance awardee has, like impacted your ability to serve your mission, vision and passion.
Speaker 4:Man, shoot, I can talk about something I'm doing right now. You know, it was funny. I remember asking questions because they said it was no strings attached and they meant that when they said it because, like I was, I Was wanting confirmation about certain things I could do. That's like why he cut me sleep. It's like why you come with me. It's like we said no strings attached, that's what we meant. But, like, for me, it was about blessing my family, you know, and and being able to take, because I've watched people take vacations. I take no vacation. I've been going hard bro, like if I'm not in the room, there are some rooms. If I'm not in the room, the community might not have no Representation at all. And just cuz a person look like me, don't mean that they got our back, because all skin folk ain't can folk. You see what?
Speaker 4:I'm saying and so, like, there have been times where I'd be afraid to miss out. You know I'm saying and so I was able to take my family to Disney World. Man, I used to hear it when I was going to school here, people tell my day they went to Disney, where their parents took them to Disney World, not took my kids to Disney World. You know I'm saying like my daughter threw up on the plane, but for real, for real, like but, but talk about how it furthers my mission. Like when we talk about economic justice and we talk About access to education and training, because, see, that's a determinant of health. People like to talk about social determinants of health Because it's sexy these days to talk about it, but let's talk specifically about tangible tactics. Man, I just just finished up talking to a brother Putting him through CDL class, a training because it's limited, funded, available for it. Like, everybody want to talk about this training that we had available at the college, but is there funding available for people? You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:And so I was able to me make the decision to tell them send that invoice, homie. You know, saying I got you bro. He's like, man, these people I can't get, did it. I got you, you know. So I was able to do that more than one time. More than one time, you know. So people still be reaching out on Facebook now like, hey, I heard you can. Well, that's gone now, bro.
Speaker 3:It's gone now.
Speaker 4:But you know that was one of the things I got to do with access to education and training. And then another thing, like what people don't understand. Like there there are needs that can pop up in a person's life and they might not qualify for Evelyn or they might not qualify for the county, or the county might say dad is no right. Here you can get rental assistance. Sound good, it was. I knew several people that doubt that number and they couldn't get help. In our because of that brilliance award Was able to help somebody with a rent. You see what I'm saying with they, actually with their mortgage. They had got laid off I tell you her name whenever we outside of here but she had to get a. She had to get like eye surgery and stuff like that. So she was out of work. You know what? She couldn't get no help, but because of that I had say so over those resources and I could easily pay. They pay that mortgage.
Speaker 4:Wow that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Hmm, all right. Well, so thank you, philip. For me it was just Very magical and so opportune. My mom had just passed in 2021 and I kept saying I have to get my own house. I got a bill. You know, I got to build this wealth. And how are you gonna do that here in Asheville, right, like, I don't think that's gonna happen, and although you know I'm employed by the state and everything, you still are like, oh, that's the only good. I got it, and especially not here in Asheville. So that has been a blessing for me to build that wealth of having that, knowing that I can buy a home now. I mean, I'm in the middle, in the process of it or whatever, and it's coming and I'm very excited and, like Philip Just said, the no strings attached. At the beginning You're a little bit like but what does that mean? I? What do you mean?
Speaker 1:No strings attached before real. For real, though, and it's like, yeah, no strings attached and and? So how do you Ensure that you are moving and growing and that you're also bringing folks along with you, right? So it's like the ability to have this award, right? It has also freed up different resources in my regular job or in other ways that I would always have to plug in and now Just make it much more accessible and being able to Connect with other organizations that really see what it is that we're doing and then want to contribute without you having to.
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna say, prostitute yourself and kind of say, like for the needy and the poor and the children who dis in, the Disenfranchised, in the marginalized, because that's not what it is right.
Speaker 1:It's about how you see the unique royalty in each of us and that you want to contribute to that, to grow.
Speaker 1:That, because that is where we came from and being pushed to the margins and being pushed into all of the different derogatory terminologies that we use is what continually perpetuates and keeps us down, and so we have to turn that narrative around and say, no, we come with a lot of magic and we come from kings and queens, and we do have a lot of power and what we have to do is stop being so distracted by white supremacy culture that always gets in our way and bamboozles us and trips us up, and really tap into the free medicine that we have from our well ancestors, and that it's free, it's right there and we just have to connect and be combined with each other, and especially us black and brown people, so that they continually they're always gonna try and pin us against each other so that we don't win right. It's kind of like the Martin Luther King fight that many people think that it was a black and white fight.
Speaker 1:This was a fight about people experiencing poverty, because if they came together, it was a wrap right, and so that is happening right here in Asheville right now as well. And so I think we finally understand the assignment and again in the memo not all of us, but some of us and really knowing that we have to be present for each other and uplifting each other and actually providing the support so that we can get to the executive director positions, and that we know that the appropriate supports are gonna be put in place. Because that is what happens to us as black and brown folks is that we end up being in a position that has a big title and then we also have to do the 17 other jobs that come with it, and at this point it is just like something that is so ridiculous and we need to start calling and we need to name it and the people who are running the organizations or whatever. They need to know that we know what's happening and we know what y'all are doing and I wanna just name for me.
Speaker 2:I think it's important that when we say they, that we put some context into it. For me, the day of the people who are in power who intentionally or unintentionally juxtapose black and brown people in a way that causes harm.
Speaker 3:I love the phrase unique royalty because what I'm hearing here these kings and queens are doing everything opposite of what the kings and queens quote right how they're rolling out their power and giving back to the community and taking care of bills and just uplifting all like that. That is the heart of the work that we try to do, or strive to do, at Zedek. But let's see how. There's no strings attached. A little bit more Liffy. Fill us in on what that really means.
Speaker 2:So I really want to be very clear. The brilliance award cycle is open right now, so there are many people out there who are doing amazing work, and when we say that there are no strings attached, we mean there's no strings attached. You apply for this award. If you receive this award, there's no reports that you need to do for Zedek. There's no extra thing that you need to do for Zedek. We cut you the check and that's that. What you do is what you do. There's no stipulation as to how you spend the money. The one thing I also want to make sure that it's very clear that, even though this is an award from Zedek, it is an award that you have to pay taxes on, and so it's very important to understand that, when you apply for the brilliance award, that if you are a recipient, you are required to pay taxes on that money, but in terms of what you need to do for Zedek Social Justice Fund, it's nothing.
Speaker 3:Say that one more time. It's nothing.
Speaker 2:Nothing. You don't need to do anything for Zedek Social Justice Fund. We are uniquely situated in a way that we can recognize your brilliance and not require you to do anything for your own recognition.
Speaker 3:Beautiful and also password right. Yes, already did it. There's no ties to what you need to do Exactly. Or the value. You've already done it and we were saying thank you, because I fucking rocked that rocks, and so no strings attached. Anyway, let's move along.
Speaker 2:Can I say one more thing about that? I also think it's important to understand that, while we give out two awards each year, if you don't receive the award and you apply, it is not because we don't recognize your brilliance. We also try to work on other ways to recognize our leaders in Asheville, in the Asheville area, because I don't want to ever give the impression that your worth is tied to whether or not you receive an award. This is not a competition pitting you against other people. Everyone generally who applies for this award is so worthy and beyond, so I just want to make sure that's clear.
Speaker 3:Let's talk a little bit about the nomination process. Riley, who are we looking for and what are the steps to get there?
Speaker 2:So let me. Our awards are based on two amazing human beings. The Ella Baker Brilliant Award is a award that is offered in honor of civil rights legend, community organizer and strategist Ella Baker, who co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. The Ella Baker Brilliant Award will be given to a Black community leader in Asheville who has empowered and organized others to address systemic oppression in our area and have lived in our area for at least five years.
Speaker 2:The second award, the Polly Murray Brilliant Award. This award is offered in honor of Polly Murray, a brilliant Black legal scholar, priest and activist who fully embodied the concept of intersectional activism. Their legal work was the inspiration for Thurgood Marshall's victory in Brown versus the Board of Education and Ruth Bader Gainsberg's victory in securing employment rights for women. The Polly Murray Brilliant blah let's try that again. The Polly Murray Brilliant Award will be given to a community leader who has lived in the Asheville area for at least five years and who, like Polly Murray, has been involved in a wide variety of social justice efforts and who understands that all struggles for liberation are connected. So the idea with Polly Murray is all about intersectionality, right, recognizing that my liberation is tied to Martha's liberation and Martha's liberation is tied to Michael's and Michael's is tied to Philip, so that we are all connected in this work.
Speaker 3:Okay, and you talked about self-nomination and nominations.
Speaker 2:Yes. So there are two ways to nominate for the Brilliant Award. You can nominate yourself or someone can nominate you. So in nominating yourself, there are three questions that you three don't quote me on that people I don't have in front of me. It might be more than three, but I believe it's three questions that you answer. That talks about the work that you've done and then, if someone else nominates you, they will fill out that information. Here's the most important part of this piece. If someone else nominates you, we will reach out to you to make sure that you're okay with the nomination and to give you an opportunity to tell your own story. So what is it that you want to be known about the work that you do, so that we have a complete picture?
Speaker 3:And how was that process for you both? I mean, it's hard to write, get up there like pump yourself up, yeah somebody had actually brought up to my attention.
Speaker 4:I knew about it. I remember back then it was like it was a little bit more back then, though I forget how much it was when Shanika and who was it Nicole Townsend the council, the Ramford Astro City Council.
Speaker 4:Yeah, back then I had knew about it then, but I hadn't been like keeping my finger on the pulse or everything. But I have been involved with Zedik. So Zedik has been instrumental in a lot of the work that I've been doing over the past several years, like even the smaller grants. I was able to use those to cause ripple effects in other arenas. You know what I'm saying. But, like, whenever it brought kind of my attention, I think I reached out to somebody to see if they would be willing to nominate me, because I thought it was kind of awkward to nominate myself. You know what I'm saying. It was just kind of awkward because I really don't like to brag about the work that I do. But I am popping, like just to be clear, like right now, like it is solidified, my track record speaks for itself. You know whether the system level leaders like me or not. You know what I'm saying. The community knows what's happening.
Speaker 4:But when I had done it, though, I just really answered the questions you know what I'm saying, like what I'm doing, and it wasn't hard at all. You know I'm gonna say I did a video. I did a video and a YouTube link because that's how I like to do, because I like people to see me. You know what I'm saying, see my passion, hear me, you know, look at my face. You know what I'm saying Because you could type something up real good, but you know because I've seen people get grants that ain't about the work from that good typing. You know what I'm saying and so, like I did the video. He liked that video.
Speaker 3:I did I did.
Speaker 4:I didn't go cussed, but for real, for real, for me it wasn't hard, you know, and it is actually three questions, you know, and I enjoyed what I done because, like, even if I wouldn't have got it, just sometimes really reflecting on what I'm actually doing gives me peace because I remember why I'm doing what I'm doing. I always have to remind myself that so I don't get caught up in ego, because ego, I don't see people get caught up in ego and then it makes it hard for them to collaborate with other leaders. You see what I'm saying. But when I done that and then I reflect on how far I came, just that video in itself was empowering, just to remember what I do.
Speaker 4:And my prayer is that for anybody that's applying for this award, when they're doing their application, they're really reflecting on what they're doing and they be okay with it Because, like Mr Libby just said, you know it ain't about awards. Some of the people that's most effective might not be even knowing what they're doing because they're doing it on the low. So I mean, the award is great, but people don't need to be validated by awards only.
Speaker 2:And I just want to highlight something that Phillip just said. He's like, don't get it twisted, I'm popping and I'm serious about that. I think that it's really important and I'm going to say specifically for people who have been pushed to the margins to be able to look at themselves and reflect on the work that they do and recognize just how much they are popping right, and so I love the fact that we have the ability to provide this opportunity for you to gloat and brag on yourself. I know it's hard sometimes to say just how amazing and wonderful you are, but that is also a part of recognizing your own worth. It's a part of being able to, and not just for yourself, but for your kids and for your future grandkids and for your parents. I have a proud mama, and you know why she proud because she thinks her daughter's popping, and we all need to get that and feel that.
Speaker 4:We all need to feel that Thank you, yup, sorry, that confidence yes I love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for that, phillip and Libby.
Speaker 1:So for me, michael, I was nominated and then I was called to see if I was okay with the nomination, like Libby just described, and I was nominated through Marvelous Math Club, and so that just sounded like an alignment.
Speaker 1:I was like, okay, I didn't know what the process entailed or anything, and it was just a moment, like Phillip just described, where you're kind of like, okay, let me see what this is about. And as I started being interviewed and the person that was interviewing me brought so much information, like when I was on creative mornings or things of when mother reads started, just things that you have forgotten because, I mean, we're talking about I've lived here 32 years and when you're in it, you're not paying that close of attention. You just know that you're in it because it's a responsibility and obligation right to move the community forward, to be in it, to be learning alongside the community, and so when she was showing me some of the videos or some of the work, I was just like, oh yeah, that's right, I did do that right, Like you start like, like Libby just said, right, you start kind of like recognizing and at the time I still wasn't seeing it as like yeah, I'm popping.
Speaker 1:It's more of like looking at are you mobilizing the community enough in every sphere of influence that you are, and no matter where you're moving, to ensure that most of the people that you are in relationship with are able to move forward too, that you don't always have to be leading or be in the front with the baton or the balloon or anything that you could just say like your turn, what do you want to do? What does this look like? And for me that just seems like such a beautiful path because then everyone wins, right? It's like, like we just said a few minutes ago, my liberation is tied to yours and vice versa and all of us. And if we really look at it that way, I know that freedom will come. It's just all of the barriers that we put in front of ourselves all the time.
Speaker 1:Right, if you see a child and you want to be over the child and you want to get into a power dynamic with that child, whatever, because you have a title or you have the power, or you are the teacher, you're the whatever right.
Speaker 1:Already, you are diminishing right Like the royalty in that human being right Versus saying, like you know what, I have my ways I'm, and I'm getting old too, so I'm going to want to fix things my way and I love you being present because it keeps me alive, it keeps me young, it keeps me thinking and learning and growing instead of going to where I don't want to learn anymore. So I see every opportunity, be it with LGBTQIA, with black and brown community, with whatever is happening. Right Is that I'm going to show up exactly the same way every single time. I do not waver, I do not show up in a different room and show a different side. There are a lot of people that think that there she goes again and roll their eyes or whatever, and I am used to it and I embrace it and I welcome it because as long as the youth and the kids really know that this is for all of us and that I believe that they will carry us through deliberation, that's all.
Speaker 1:I need to know, hi everybody else, it's not to be my friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, one of the things that that Marta touched on is this idea, you know, oh yeah, I did that, but it was because it's an obligation, it's a requirement. You have to do these things. You know, for some of us, by the nature of the way that we were raised and by the fact that we are black and brown, we are really trained and conditioned to believe that we have to do more and be more, and we don't even see all this amazing work that we're doing as work. We see it as our obligation because, we got to be, you know.
Speaker 2:you got to make your race look good, you know all those things that we've heard for many, many years. And no disrespect ancestors love you lot, but they gave us what they felt we needed for us to be successful and to bridge that divide that was keeping black and brown people in oppression.
Speaker 1:I was just, I was going.
Speaker 4:I wanted to speak to something she had said about not wavering. You know, for me you know John Lewis like I'm not going, I'm not a historian, I am not a historian, but I'm a listener. And so when I did finally learn about John Lewis and what he says about good trouble, I embraced it.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 4:I'm so glad we I mean shout out to MLK, but we can't forget Malcolm X, we can't forget John Lewis. You know what I'm saying and so, like I was, I'm so glad to see like, even with these awards, they just start doing the John Lewis awards. We got to start celebrating good trouble and saying good trouble out loud, because some people trying to be safe, but some of us have to sacrifice it all so you can even have the opportunity to be safe home. So, like, not wavering and understanding like everybody can't like you, phillip, they ain't supposed. If you doing your job, you they shouldn't they should absolutely.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry we got to wrap it up, but you both are so dynamic and when I keep so, let me take us out here for a minute. What I keep hearing right is like showing up, lifting up with integrity. So our process may be simple, but the decision making is not not at all. But in these two humans, right, I'm hearing consistency and authenticity, right in community. Thank you both, libby. When do our people need to apply by?
Speaker 2:So the Brilliance Award process is open now. It is open until June 9th. Again, you may do a written application or a video application, but by June 9th at 1159 pm all applications need to be submitted. If you have questions or concerns, you are welcome to reach out at info at brillianceawardorg.
Speaker 3:And you can find information on the website at wwwzetic. That's TZEDEK socialjusticefundorg People. Thank you very much for listening in. We will see you same time, same place next month. Peace.
Speaker 2:I'm Snow. Who are these bad cops are?
Speaker 4:That it ain't no gun that can kill myself.
Speaker 1:We will bring you justice, I promise.
Speaker 4:When God got us then we gon' be alright, start making some changes.