The UPLift with Tzedek: Real Talk for Real Change
Welcome to The UPlift - Real Talk for Real Change! We're here to build authentic community relationships and help fuel social transformation in Asheville, NC, believing collective liberation is not only possible but probable as we share, listen, and learn together.
The Tzedek Social Justice Fund is a social justice philanthropy fund that redistributes money, resources, and power to support systems change and community healing in Asheville, North Carolina. Through adaptive, trust-based philanthropy, we resist oppressive systems and work to transform our collective home into a place where everyone flourishes. We fund mission-aligned work centering LGBTQ Justice, Racial Justice, and/or Dismantling Antisemitism; this means we give money to organizations and individuals invested in creating a more fair, equitable, and flourishing society.
We dream of a thriving Asheville where everyone's needs are abundantly met - where everyone is safe, respected, and celebrated. We believe that a community rooted in joy and love is possible - that is, if we can connect and build our shared vision on the value that liberation is for all.
Sound good to you? We hope so!
Let's be real. Let's go deep. Let's get liberated.
The UPLift with Tzedek: Real Talk for Real Change
Rise UP! Part 2. From Response Reflections to Reimagined Revolutions
When disaster strikes, how do we rise—not just as individuals, but as a collective? In this episode, we reflect on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and ask: Can 2025 be the year of revolutions, not just resolutions? Let’s find out!
Join the Tzedek team as we reflect on how shared humanity and bold collaboration can help us rebuild—not only in the wake of Helene but in co-creating a more equitable and sustainable future. Our conversation explores the transformative power of connection—how meaningful relationships and radical compassion can turn response efforts into long-term movements for justice. Together, we examine lessons from Helene’s impact on Asheville and discuss the vital role of genuine relationships in driving practical shifts toward equity in 2025.
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We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
We're profoundly, profoundly interconnected.
Speaker 2:We don't always live that way, we don't always acknowledge it, but if we're going to heal, 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?
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Uplift with Zedek Real talk for real change.
Speaker 3:Before we jump in, a quick reminder of why we're here and what we hope to achieve. We're 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, welcome back to the Uplift. We're kicking off our first episode of 2025 with Zedek's staff. As we're still navigating the impacts of Hurricane Helene and reflecting on 2024, it's important to identify what's grounding us as we set and pursue our bold intentions for the work ahead. So in this episode, we're talking about revolutions, not just resolutions, and how we seek to show up for ourselves, each other and our communities in deeper, more intentional ways. Let's introduce ourselves. My name is Michael Hoban. I'm the Director of Communications at Zedek.
Speaker 1:My name is Libby Kiles. I'm the Executive Director of Zedek. I use she her pronouns.
Speaker 2:Hey, I'm Zeke Christopoulos. I use he they pronouns, and I'm the Director of Mindful Operations and Finance.
Speaker 4:I'm Tara Coffey. I'm the Director of Community-Led Grantmaking and I use she her pronouns.
Speaker 5:I'm Jennifer Langton. I use, she pronouns, and I am the Director of Grantmaking and Funder Advocacy Beautiful.
Speaker 3:So in 2024, we shared and strengthened our commitment to honoring our shared humanity and centering joy. Has Helene shifted this thinking and, if so, how? Libby, you want to jump off.
Speaker 1:Has Helene shifted this thinking?
Speaker 1:1,000% Helene has shifted this thinking.
Speaker 1:Helene, for me, required that we put theory into practice. One of the things that we focused a lot on last year was shared humanity, and we defined it as the understanding that all people shared basic needs, emotions, qualities and experiences, reminding us that, despite our diverse backgrounds, cultures or belief, we are fundamentally connected as human beings and are all worthy of safety, dignity, celebration and love. And the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to me, really highlighted so many of the ways in which there are inequalities, that folks who are a part of certain demographics don't really have security, they don't really have their basic needs met, specifically in moments of natural disasters, and it really has been weighing really heavy on my heart and in my mind around how does ZEDEC do its work to be even more intentional about ensuring that when we say shared humanity, we're talking about all humans and that the work that we're doing is really intentional toward making sure that all of Asheville's basic needs for all people are being met and that there is love and compassion in the work that we're doing?
Speaker 5:For me. I think, COVID, as you said, that really revealed the inequities in our area. But I also maybe think about what can we do to help and we're challenged to meet the moment right now for people but what does it look like to actually focus on long-term sustainability and thriving and resiliency, Like how do we look at that? I feel like sometimes there's so much band-aid going on in our community we're helping people and we need to help people in the moment, but what does it look like to really focus on long-term goals and solutions? I think that's a big challenge for not just SETI, but for everyone.
Speaker 4:Yes, especially because with the response with Helene, things were so immediate. I think people could really put their finger on what exactly people need and the idea that we all need these things. We have these immediate things. It was really simple get their basic needs met and let's do it for our entire community. So there was this kind of act of almost brotherly love type stuff you saw throughout Asheville, with people banding together to support one another, and what I would love to see is we use that as our guiding light, like that is when we're talking about that shared humanity, that compassion that we're seeking to actually have throughout our entire community. How do we roll that forward, even when we're dealing with things that are a lot less concrete. It's a lot less immediate needs, but more about what does it really mean to be thriving? How do we carry forward that compassion that people dug into in order to support their neighbors? And so it's kind of meeting that moment, but actually taking that energy and carrying it forward into this more social justice centered work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me, shared humanity. It's about those basics, you know, starting with life, and Helene took that from us and took that from so many of our relationships, our relations, our neighbors, our loved ones, people in our community. You know, being without electricity for weeks on end, being without water for months on end, that brought humanity home into a very different way for most of us. Not many of us have lived outside of the first world experience. Many of us have lived with getting our lights and our water cut off, yes, but it's a little different when it's the entire city, the entire town.
Speaker 3:That's a great point, because when we talk about shared humanity, it's like we're trying to sensitize people like, hey, these people also matter, we're human too. But having a shared experience allowed us all to tap in to that shared humanity, because we had the same needs, the same suffering and the same situation. But that's not the case in normal life. That's where those inequities pop back up. So do our focal areas still have relevance in the work that we're doing? Our focal areas definitely still have relevance in the work that we're doing.
Speaker 1:Our focal areas definitely still have relevance in the work that we're doing.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that was really powerful and sad for me in doing the work in the aftermath of Helene is also seeing how culturally different people respond to disasters and even though, as Tara said, we all had that same basic need, but seeing people afraid to ask for what they needed, afraid to get support, because they've been taught that they shouldn't have to need it, they've been taught that they aren't worthy of it. Yeah, and that goes from Black folks that came, from trans folks, just seeing different people within our immediate community who were struggling to say this is what I need. And so the reason that persists again is because we've all been swimming in this cesspool of white supremacy culture, and it's not one group, all of our groups have been experiencing it, and so, even when a natural disaster happens, there's a type of thinking that has been so ingrained that without those focal areas, without that focus, those inequities will continue to persist, and our job is to try to support the work that is erasing those inequities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it gives you a shared experience of thriving Right Right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it feels like there's some real shifts that are needed in how we perceive things, our perspectives, our mental shifts Sometimes that's the hardest work. Shifts Sometimes that's the hardest work Like, how do we work with people to see that, you know, even though we're we've come from very different backgrounds and experiences, like we all have that shared humanity. There's a person on the other side, right, how do we support that shift and thinking of other people as the same as yourself and deserving of everything that we have Outside of?
Speaker 3:crisis.
Speaker 5:Right, right, exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and I think about people who you know, myself included, will not ask for help when we so desperately need it. But I also think about groups that are traditionally overlooked when there are emergency responses and those are very flagrant and very obvious misses of whole groups of people who just aren't even thought of.
Speaker 2:You know, and we saw some amazing things that happened when our community came together through a shared human experience and you know some of the organizations that we partner work with have done just a phenomenal, incredible job responding to that crisis and to those needs Can you add anything to the groups that you felt were overlooked in the healing response. I don't know that I'm always the best person to speak to that, but I definitely feel like what we saw and allowed of our housing communities people who couldn't get in couldn't get out and not just in public housing communities, but also in rural areas of Buncombe County.
Speaker 1:There are folks who it took days for there to be efforts made to reach people and to try to support, whether it was with shelter, with food, whatever the need was. When we talk about those people who are not always top of mind when disasters happen, those are the people that we typically serve. Those are our focal areas. We are talking about Black community, we're talking about trans, lgbtqia communities. We are talking about are rule areas in this topography of Buncombe County where, if you don't have a certain zip code, somebody will get to you eventually, but you won't be at the top of the list.
Speaker 1:Shared humanity should exist beyond our economic status and it should exist beyond however we identify personally. So when, jennifer, you talk about, there needs to be a shift. There needs to be a world shift in our country, where we are so egocentric, and in our society, where people are taught that it's about me and mine versus us and ours. A part of the work that I'm hoping that Zedek will do moving into 2025, is being able to really highlight what it means to be a functioning community where, when we say shared humanity, we mean it, the importance of lifting all people up. It's not a catchphrase, it is a lived experience in all of the facets of work that we do.
Speaker 3:So what does that mean? Give me an example. What does it really look like to make shared humanity tangible instead of just as an idea?
Speaker 1:A part of what it looks like is this right here, it's having these conversations not just within the walls of Zedek, but it's taking it out to community. It really is about making sure that when we say we care about all people, that we show that right. We show that in the different ways that we ourselves show up within our community.
Speaker 5:Especially as we enter into a new political climate. I think that tendency to like, preserve oneself and feeling like if you help someone else have equal access to what you have, then it takes away from your livelihood, your life experience and you will thrive less. I don't know what the solution is, but I feel like those challenges we can look at and start maybe to have community conversations around. What are those fears and are they really relevant fears or are they just self-created?
Speaker 4:To Jennifer's point.
Speaker 4:It's really, how do we start to have conversations that shift people into this way of thinking, where they're not so self-focused on what they might lose and to a place of we're all living in a society that, as a whole, we have so many resources and we have so many opportunities to live our dreams, to thrive truly, that the idea that some people are without those opportunities no-transcript, not having access to those resources, not having basic needs met, but also not able to live in a place where they can live in dignity in the same way that you or I or anyone may be living, to not really think about that, to ignore that piece, I think is a symptom of how we have become so egocentric, how we have allowed this idea of a status quo to just stay, and to me, putting real action to that is the first step and it is a big step.
Speaker 4:It's to no longer be okay with seeing atrocity after atrocity, people living without housing, people unable to access their medical care, people unable to live their fullest self with dignity and respect from their neighbors, when you can no longer stand to see that I think we've moved, we've shifted as a society into a much better place. When I can't sit comfortably and look at the way that people are being kept from resources and from thriving, then I'm going to have to do a lot right. My actions have to then match the fact that I can no longer stand to see that. When that actually is spread across our community, I think we'll see a lot of really incredible things. Jennifer won't have to have the answer, because other people will also be demanding solutions and coming up with solutions as well. I hope that's what we see. We can have these conversations in community and source that amongst ourselves, and that's maybe the direction that we find.
Speaker 5:And gosh. If you think of that vision of everyone thriving and having equal access and equal opportunity, Think about the richness that we all gain from that. It's incredible. That means that we don't have to like all be the same and think the same and experience the same things. We can actually open our hearts and our minds to just feeling the richness that everyone brings when they're thriving.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's a total vibe. Yeah, and that vibe can feel overwhelming when you think about the fact that it needs to be a worldly shift, the societal shift. And so, for Zedek, what is that start that starts with us internally, making sure we are all on the same wavelength, and then it ripples out to us making sure that we're in community with people who have values aligned with us and having those conversations, and then it ripples out to a greater community right Our being able to have these conversations internally with our immediate stakeholders, be that the organizations that we're working with, our board, and then the greater community philanthropically. Where do we put our energy and our time in making sure that we are being thought partners with other philanthropic organizations to fund the kind of work that needs to be funded, that can help make that mental shift in our local community?
Speaker 2:We support us, we take care of our own needs. I think that's going to be a real heavy theme.
Speaker 3:One of the gifts of Helene is that us was made readily apparent, because in this situation we're right in it. There's a wealth of opportunity for what we can do together, but still that has been a challenge. So how do we bring this being able to see, feel and be touched by into the local work that we're doing, to maintain that momentum and support and compassion? What's missing? How do we do that when we're not in a crisis situation?
Speaker 5:Touch it deep down. It's a recent memory, right, so really evoke that feeling of what did it feel like to help strangers that you didn't know, with different backgrounds than yourself. I think too, just with this coming year, one of the most beautiful ways to give the middle finger to you know forces out there. I think reaching out and just doubling down on our humanity, our shared humanity, is one of the most radical and beautiful things that we could do. So I hope that we can carry that forward into this year and really fill out strongly.
Speaker 1:In addition to feeling it strongly, we also have to commit to not being distracted. There's already this looming sense of fear that when this new administration takes over, all the different things that are going to happen and all the many different ways that people will be impacted and oftentimes fear is a tactic of distraction and we become so distracted with what we anticipate is going to happen that we really can't function in what's really happening. So for Zedek, it is going to be very important that we my granddaddy used to say, you keep the main thing, the main thing, and we got to really focus on making sure that we keep the main thing, the main thing and that we don't allow all the many distractions that are going to come up Because there will be many and they're intentional to take us off of the work that we know we need to do and to divide us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a commercial that I saw need to do and to divide us. Yeah, there was a commercial that I saw there was a gentleman and one of the things that he said is when those who are oppressed recognize that they have the same oppressor and begin to work together, they'll recognize their strength and be able to move differently. And it's true At the root of 99.9% of the things that are happening is one oppressor. When we realize that we are so much better together, that we're stronger together, when we recognize our shared humanity, we'll be able to work in a way that is able to dismantle all the s**t that impacts us, that divides us, that in some way makes one group think that they are more oppressed than the other, or one group think that they're more deserving than the other. We all deserve basic human rights. We all deserve love. We all deserve to get our needs met. We all deserve to live and thrive.
Speaker 3:And we depend on each other.
Speaker 1:To make that happen.
Speaker 3:One of the big things in Halinga Tittla is collaboration. Is that something that Zetica is going to be looking for more in 2025? Say more. So. Funders typically push for collaboration. Then they get kickback for requiring collaboration, because each organization has its different mission, vision, focus and ways, and when the s*** hits the fan, it's truly collaboration that gets us fed, housed and safe.
Speaker 1:But one of the things I feel like we saw with this natural disaster called Hurricane Helene is that organizations naturally gravitated toward each other and naturally collaborated. Is ZEDEC going to put something out that says, oh, we need people collaborating no, but will we foster relationships that provide space and opportunity for folks to collaborate?
Speaker 5:Yes, yeah, natural collaboration makes sense, right, but forced collaboration Fun to work.
Speaker 1:It needs to be done. Yes.
Speaker 3:Yay, all right. So what lessons from 2024 are guiding you and how you show up in this work and for community in 2025?
Speaker 4:Oh, I want to take this. Take it Okay. We've been talking a lot about what if our society had more compassion, what if we did these things. I'm very much of a mindset that I'm not going to ask any person to do anything that I'm not going to do, and so for me, a big strategy has been being a little bit more introspective when it comes to how do I seek to have compassion, how do I actually push myself to have compassion and how do I look to engage with people who can at least meet me somewhere, even if it's not necessarily where I would like to start. How can I be in relationship with people who, I hesitate to say, challenge my thinking, but who certainly don't subscribe to the same kind of basic ideas for how we get somewhere, but who maybe actually do technically share value with me?
Speaker 4:I'm starting on a personal kind of approach to seeing how I can incorporate more compassion and seek baseline values so that we can have conversations that say hey, group who is uncomfortable with the concept of social justice, let's actually sit down and talk Like why do you have that kind of feeling?
Speaker 4:Why do you genuinely think that?
Speaker 4:Because I bet at the core of it it might be something a lot closer to what Jennifer said earlier, where people think, if you have something, therefore I don't have it. And coming from that approach really helps my thinking and helps guide the work that I do, because, again, at the end of all that disdain people have for one another, there's a person. So trying to find that person and figure out what to do with that person right is a lot harder to do than in practice, than even I probably think in this moment it is, and also I think it is actually a lot simpler as well. As we just saying. You know, collaboration when it happens organically is really beautiful and I think when we're able to find opportunities to connect with people, we'll see that they're much more willing to collaborate. Within all that is wrapped up like, yeah, it's unfair to you know, all those the feelings of being the black woman looking to do that right, trying to solve the problem, and also I want to be a part of a solution, so I got to do something.
Speaker 5:I often feel like deep listening is very helpful. Sometimes there's these layers, right, and you peel back the layers by sharing conversations with people that you don't necessarily often commiserate with. You know what's going on there and you talked about that fear of like, but that will take away from something that I have. If someone else has, you know, equal opportunity or what have you? So really listening and, yeah, just sitting down and being with people to find out what's going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's hard for me to sometimes think of doing that as a group, but on that one-on-one basis I can always care and connect with someone as just a human being struggling through life. Any other thoughts, Libby?
Speaker 2:and Zeke. Collaboration comes when there's abundance and when there's not a scarcity mentality as well, when people's needs are people and organizational needs are being met so that we can be clear on what our visions are, what our missions are, what our goals are, and then we can look around ourselves and resource each other be part of our toolkits. Other organizations are part of our toolkits. Other individuals are part of our toolkits. We can't do this alone. We've got to do it together.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite things to say is clarity is kindness and, as an organization, zx clarity around the fact that we truly do believe in shared humanity. And ZX clarity around the fact that we can be in conversation with anybody who's willing to have the conversation right, and that's our work is being in conversation with people that we don't necessarily always agree with, but we're willing to be able to have the conversation, to shift and to consider others' perspective with the clarity that says we all deserve the same things.
Speaker 3:All right. So, to wrap this up, what's your New Year's revolution? What are you focusing on for 2025 yourself? That is just going to shift it all.
Speaker 4:Terry had mentioned, compassion, frustration at like how do we get here? And a level of just like kind of ill ease from this feeling of man, oh, to enter into my, my 30s, ready to take on the world and the world really just like wanting to just smush me as hard as, as hard as it can, down to the very like core of who I am right, like seeing all these things that seem to be working against me at my core and my resolution around that. And the compassion has to do with refusing, as as Libby named it earlier, like to fall into this intentional sense of fear that's being put, that paralyzes you from being able to do anything because it is such an overwhelming feeling. And so I've been practicing being really aware of that feeling and then also that part of challenging myself to seek a compassionate response, because my initial response is absolutely not one of compassion. That's just like not who she is, not one of compassion, that's just like not who she is. She is not that that like lovey person, you know as much as this little conversation they make it seem.
Speaker 4:But I want to be somebody who, who sees all the things around us and sees it as a symptom of lots of people being in very deep pain and that our society is as a whole. You know, we we mentioned things like oppressor and oppressed earlier, but as a whole, as a whole, and I mean that with every single person the way that our society is currently structured, where we ignore people's pain, we ignore their grievances, is showing that we are all actively oppressed. We are all actively oppressed, we are all suffering. And so, remembering that part, we are all suffering and everything that you're saying is just a symptom or reaction to the fact that you are suffering.
Speaker 4:I am suffering, we are suffering, and I'm just going to keep trying desperately to root into that because, at the very end of the day, I don't want everything that's happening, all those feelings, everything that's happening on a political level, on our everyday intersocial level, to change and jade me. I want to keep being idealist, I want to keep being an optimist and I want to keep seeking idealist. I want to keep being an optimist and I want to keep seeking compassionate responses. And so that means continually challenging myself because, as deeply petty as I find myself to be in my core, I want to be able to change that, to say I'm deeply compassionate. That's my resolution.
Speaker 2:You know, tara, when I hear that, it really makes me think about. Yes, I also have fears about what's forthcoming, but I also have this deep and innate knowing of who we are as people, who we are as part of the movement, the movements that we're all involved in, and we have a rich history. We are standing on some amazing shoulders. We have been in tough, rough, untenable places in our past, and, while it's unconscionable to think that we may go back there, I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:I often think of Libby's sage words don't be distracted, because there's a lot of distractions, right, you know. Keep your eyes on what's actually happening, and one of the things that is actually happening people and movements are preparing for this time. For me, my New Year's revolution is to be part of that revolution, to be part of those movements that are building and building networks, building resources, so that we take care of us, and I'll take as much pettiness as I can for myself and put that energy into building. I'm going to be upset with what's going down, but I'm going to use that to fuel myself and fuel my revolution.
Speaker 4:I love it. The pett is the mortar that holds the bricks together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and you know, with pettiness too, it's like you know, in these times there is a piece of beauty that comes out of it, and I am a very strong proponent that silver linings are stupid. I don't like that terminology, but what does come is that people that I may have had grievances with, even major ones, who are my movement siblings, I will fix that. I will get right with myself. I will get right with people. I will make apologies, because we need to work together. We need to get beyond our bickering where we have beef and get together and get it together and support each other. And that's something that I see in collaboration that has come out of Helene, for example, and hopefully we can push that and move it forward within our community and beyond.
Speaker 5:I like that distraction, too, that, libby, you talked about. For me, it's clarity of purpose in 2025, like to be really crystal clear and that also means respecting boundaries around that, too like really, what is the purpose for me, both personally and professionally, and just be really clear about that. Yeah, and I mentioned, you know, sticking the middle finger. That's just all part of it, right? If I can be as clear and purposeful around my values and shedding the rest and just doubling down on that, then that's what I'm working towards.
Speaker 3:I'm hearing compassion, community collaboration, clarity of purpose. What about you, michael? I'm going to throw in creativity. I mean, I know communications. I think that this moment, especially with all the fear mongering that's coming in our future, that play and finding joy in ways to share stories, share strength, but also just the creativity of response. Helene taught me there are many ways to do one thing, and so I want to try all the ways. I want to keep us floating, keep us rising, but for me it's creativity.
Speaker 2:And that creativity buoys our spirits as well. We're whole beings in this fight right, and we've got to stay positive, we've got to stay happy, we've got to stay centered. Creativity is such a huge piece of that. Thank you for naming that, michael.
Speaker 1:And for me, 2025 is all about right relationship, and that's within Zedek, outside of Zedek, because my goal in everything that I do is to work toward a better world for my people, and particularly my young people, and really a part of that work is standing in our truths, acknowledging fear because it's real and making sure that we respect others' fear, but also making sure that we are clear. I love that whole clarity of purpose, that we are clear about who we are, what we believe, and not just that we do this work, but how we do this work, with integrity, with great intention and with great care. Beautiful.
Speaker 3:All right, beautiful humans. Thanks for listening in. We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
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