Seeds

I started the week on a stage with my mentors and former bosses–all brilliant Black women–at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. It was truly a full-circle moment. Dr. Deb Willis, my former undergrad professor and mentor at NYU, moderated a conversation with the early leaders of the beloved community-based arts organization The Laundromat Project (The LP), the organization where I cut my teeth as an arts administrator following grad school at California College of the Arts.

(L-R): Dr. Deb Willis, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University; Novella Ford, Associate Director, Public Programs and Exhibitions at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Your truly as The Laundromat Project’s first Program Director; Ayesha Williams, the current Executive Director of The Laundromat Project; Kemi Ilesanmi, The Laundromat Project’s first Executive Director; Risë Wilson, The Laundromat Project’s Founder

The LP was conceived by Risë Wilson in 1999. We met a few years later while I was an intern in my sophomore year of college in the Education Department at the International Center of Photography. But, we reconnected when I came back to New York in 2008 to the barren job-scape that was the arts and most industries.

I was desperate to find a job, to work with artists, and to continue scratching the itch that was working in community with art as a catalyst. I turned my relationship with Risë into my first post-grad school job as the organization’s first employee and subsequently turned the opportunity of being The LP’s first Program Director into the platform that the rest of my career to date would be based on.

(L-R, Top-Bottom): Deb and I, Risë setting an alter to honor the historical work of Black women; Kemi getting mic'ed up; Ayesha glowing before showtime; and Deb looking up from her panel notes.

Risë was very intentional about her relationship to this organization. While she founded it and fundraised for it, she did not lead it day-to-day. She ultimately hired one of my favorite board members who had been serving for some years, Kemi Ilesanmi to lead. Kemi was looking for her next professional challenge–leading and growing a community-focused arts organization. Previously a visual curator at the Walker Art Center and Director of Grants & Services at Creative Capital, she joined as The LP’s first executive director two months before I delivered Ila.

The Laundromat Project was founded on the ideas of organizing and resourcing artists of color and their neighbors toward repairing broken systems impacting their freedom and general well-being. I shared towards the end of the talk how this organization has impacted our work at Sugar Hill Creamery. Our mission to turn strangers into neighbors, neighbors into friends, and friends into family got seeded during my tenure building this organization with its founder and first executive director.

The Laundromat Project’s Values

Being able to sit alongside my former supervisors and teachers to speak about our collective work to build a movement of creative change on this panel titled “Echoes of the Seed” was my highlight this past week. One of the last things I said on that historic stage was that we, anyone who has had the benefit of working with and in The LP—are all seeds, seeds for carrying forward the organization’s values in whatever we do.

Sitting in gratitude for my past, present, and future,

Petrushka

Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach

P.S. SHMOMS Registration - We do charge for this group to ensure that folks are invested, but if cost is a barrier, we will always work with your budget. Send us a line at hello[at]sugarhillcreamery.com.

I just found this testimonial about the group on Reddit and response to the registration fee:

“I did the sugar hill creamery group and had an absolutely amazing experience. It’s set up by cohort for moms that have given birth in a 3 month window so everyone is going through the same stuff at the same time - which was very helpful while folks were on mat leave and needed an excuse to leave the house. I too was initially put off by the sticker shock, but it ended up being a motivator to keep people engaged. My cohort was 8 women - which felt like a manageable number to get to know everyone and everyone / almost everyone attended every session. We have continued to keep in touch a year later via moms nights, an active WhatsApp group and the bday party circuit. 10/10 would recommend.”