Broadmoor Demands Racial Justice
Updated: Jul 15, 2020
On Saturday, July 25 from 9:00 am-1:00 pm, the Broadmoor Improvement Association will host Broadmoor Demands Racial Justice: A Journey Toward Healing Racial Trauma. This half-day summit will ground us in the lived realities of race in our bodies, facilitate deeper conversation about our neighborhood's history with racism, and generate an action plan to learn from other models for community care that take steps toward eliminating police presence and creating community healing.
The summit will be held via Zoom. Please register in advance using this link in order to receive the link to join the meeting.
The agenda includes meditative practice, grounding in shared definitions of racism, learning about our country, city, and neighborhood history, and exploring action steps for Broadmoor’s wellbeing. We will close with an interactive ancestral healing session.
Summit presenters include:
James E. Brinson is author of the book Graceful Reflections and founder of Sirius Gold Media. As a New Orleans native, James is passionate about cultivating community, and a satisfying way of life for all its members. James is also a Facilitator/Host with the NOLA Meditation Group, Yoga Assistant with Y.E.A.H. Yoga (formerly Youth YOGA NOLA), Minister’s Assistant with the Circle of Sacred Nature, volunteer with Compost N.O.W., and a former Mentor with the Jefferson Parish Juvenile Services. Through his activities, James utilizes his zeal for discovering and sharing multi-faceted life approaches. For more information, visit www.jameseditor.com.
Ernest Johnson is the President of The Broadmoor Board of Commissioners and is also a Board Member of Us Helping Us New Orleans (UHUNO,) a community-based organization in Central City, and a member of the Ride Coalition for quality transit in New Orleans. Prior to working in the areas of workforce development reentry and fatherhood, Ernest held a number of administrative positions in government and community based organizations like Strive International in New York and other cities across the country. In San Diego, he was a member of the city's Workforce Investment Board and the operations head of the Black Contractors Association. There, he administered a fatherhood initiative in partnership with the Urban League for two years. Prior to that, Ernest worked for four years as the Economic Development Administrator for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had programmatic oversight for several workforce development programs and a large healthy relationship fatherhood initiative. In 2015, Ernest moved to New Orleans and became a Trainer for The People's Institute and a consultant in workforce and economic development. Ernest holds a B.S. Degree from Syracuse University in Psychology and a Masters of Science Degree in Counseling Psychology from Long Island University.
Jenna Losh is a Data Analyst at The Data Center. Jenna’s skills include statistical and predictive modeling and optimization. Jenna joined The Data Center in 2018 excited to dig in to the data that describe us as members of the southeast Louisiana community. She is especially interested in the patterns that emerge from data on social, political, and economic activity. Before coming to The Data Center, Jenna completed a BS and MA in Applied Mathematics at the University of Alabama, where she founded the Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence Club. Her research was in game theory, and her final project explored the use of game theory with machine learning techniques to create effective algorithms for predicting from data.
Nana Sula was initiated in Ghana, West Africa in 2007 at the Shrine of Impohema and has studied the mysteries of Ghana since 1992. Her initiation title is Nana Okomfo Kokwe Ama Tawiah. Nana Sula has also been a student of Ifa/Orisha mysteries of Nigeria since 1985. In 2014, Sula Spirit authored and produced the Book and CD Project entitled Spirit of the Orisha – a Yoruba language preservation project that is a 38 track CD in the Yoruba language with a matching book of translations. Sula is also an instructor of Sacred Music and travels globally to teach Orisha & Ghanaian chants. She was born and raised in New Jersey and has been a resident of New Orleans, LA since 1996. Nana Sula Spirit credits all that she is to the Father and Mother of Creation, her Parents, Grandparents the Orisha and Ancestors.