Our WellSpring

Uva: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] So, Alicia, welcome, welcome, welcome to Wellspring. I am beyond delighted to work with you. And of course, we've gotten to know you through our Delta priority, which I'll explain in just a few minutes for those who may not be as familiar before we actually bring your voice in. Delta, of course, looks at access to safe and affordable water services. is to examine, support and amplify community representation in utility leadership. So I think if I, if I could distill this, it really means we want to ensure that those in decision making roles in influential roles in the sector reflect the communities they aim to serve. So as we have been thinking [00:02:00] about Delta, And thinking about all of the wonderful work that's happening across the country, we, of course, got an opportunity to get to know you over some time and got really excited about the things you are doing but beyond that, just who you are and how who you are, I think shows up in your work.

So welcome and thanks for being with us.

Alicia: Thank you for having me. I'm very thankful to be part of the Delta Partners and learn so much from so many of our partners that are present. So this is a great opportunity.

Uva: I'm happy to hear that. I have to do I have to, I have to set the table by just kind of laying your flowers at your feet. So if you will indulge me and just give me a few minutes so that others can know a little bit about you.

You are a proud native of Detroit, Michigan, mother of three children and Together. You live in Toledo, Ohio. You currently serve as the executive director for [00:03:00] Junction Coalition in 2020. You were awarded the UWLN Environmental Justice and Equity Expert Award. Your passion flows from your belief that all citizens need information to thrive, and you are steadfast in spreading the gospel that justice work is not limited to the environment, but touches on issues of social and economic justice with the goal of promoting peace, public health, and a better quality of life for all citizens.

If that's not enough, I'll give you a little more. Your unequivocal commitment to this work led you to spearhead the Junction Neighborhood Master Plan in 2018, the very first of its kind since 1968. I am really looking forward to learning a little bit more about that. And in your not so spare time, you are completing your PhD. Of equal importance in Delta, you are known as someone who lives the work, upholds community voice, and believes there is a [00:04:00] junction coalition in every community that can be invested in to partner with city leaders to do right by their people. Your focus on the intersection of water, people and justice is exactly the reason I so look forward to being in conversation with you with all of that being said, Alicia.

I know it's a little bit awkward to have someone talk about you, but trust me, it is a pleasure to just learn about you and tell everyone your story. But let me begin by just asking you, how are you doing? How are you feeling? How are you breathing through this moment?

Alicia: Well, through this moment, I immediately went to do not cry. And I thought about my grandmother and, you know, her investment into a young woman who came to her not quite sure of what I was going to do, what I was going to be. And she took the opportunity to show me, teach me that I was enough. That, you know, no matter what the [00:05:00] community is that you live in, whether it's low socioeconomics, disadvantaged, that there are opportunities for everyone through an equitable lens of justice, fairness, and a system of equitable distribution of services.

And that meant. You're going to go to school, Alicia. You're going to do what you're supposed to do, and you need to come back and give it back to the community from who that took care of you. So to hear those things and to breathe through the moment, I'm, I'm honored. I'm humbled. And I appreciate not only the accolades But the love and the appreciation that goes along with it.

Uva: Thank you for accepting the flowers and the love, Alicia. I think there's a lot more where that's coming from. Your grandmother sounds lovely and so well aligned with, with who you, who you are and the way that you show up in the world. So, of course, I want to learn more about you and about your family.

But let's begin with a little bit more about your organization, about the organization you currently lead. Maybe we [00:06:00] start with that origin story and then transition to your own. So if you could tell us, I think names have meaning. And so when I hear. Junction Coalition. I think there is a lot rooted in that.

Tell us more about the name, the why of it.

Alicia: we started back in 2014. It wasn't Junction Coalition at first. It was Maturing Young Men and Inspiring Young Women, which was spearheaded by a 14 year old young man after the Trayvon Martin loss. He said, we don't have to be What the media portrays us in a predominantly African American community.

We're so much more. And he said, will you help me get young men and young women to help the elders to get their homes fixed, cut their grass teach people about. things that are hurting us and then can we work with the police? Can we work with entities that are stakeholders to lift up the voices of young people and to lift the voice [00:07:00] of the community?

And at the time I was Going to school for education, I became a kindergarten teacher and I said, sure, we can do that. And this young man being 14, he didn't know all of the ins and outs of a nonprofit. So we did that work as part of a physical agency with the partner we already had. Well, young people age out.

So in about two years, he was 16 and no longer interested in cutting grass. And he said, well, can't miss Alicia, can't you find somebody else to do it? Like the community, the community has seen what we've done. We, you can do that. So we had a community meeting. We started to go door to door, knock on doors and because junction.

is a business district, the name of our business district. We said, why not go with what the city has invoked upon us as our business is junction is our business. And so we went and we said, and why not create a coalition of more [00:08:00] than just community, but of public utilities, the people who serve us. And that way we will be the public in the public service, the public in the public health, the public in the public utility.

And so we got together and we got voices that were strong, like Mr. Robert Rivers who lives in the community. We created a, at first we were not a non profit because there were so many non profits. And so we said, no, we're going to just stay, you know, like we are working through a physical agent. But Mr. Rivers said, no, we're not doing that. I've been here for over 35 years and we need something to call our own. And this was the community speaking. And Ms. Bush, one of our young ladies at the time who was 96 years old said, you get to do this work because we've supported you. And so now you get to support us.

And we're Junction, Junction Coalition. And so we. Truly became organic from the community ground [00:09:00] up. It was the people living on Junction, living in the community, living in within the business district who said, we want to be able to have safe, affordable drinking water. We want to be able to have not vacant land that is just urban green space, but also beautiful, usable green space.

So we adopted Junction Coalition from hugs to bugs. Holistic urban green space to beautiful usable green space. And that's what we did. We started with 5, everybody gave 5. So we went from 5 donations to, you know, writing grants and philanthropy and support and being able to buy our own building and create.

support and benefits for the entire community.

Uva: It's an incredible story. That is an incredible story. And I love hearing that it all started with just a young person's desire to do good work that mattered to the [00:10:00] community. And then at some point he handed the baton over to you to continue with it. And, and to hear all that you're doing is, is incredible as well.

For those who may not know just yet, all that there is to know, and we probably can't cover everything in just the time that we have together, but what do you want the world to know about not just the work you do, but how you do it?

Alicia: I think that it's important for everyone to understand that Junction Coalition is built on four pillars. We ensure that those four pillars intersect. So there's economic justice, social justice, environmental justice, and peace education. As a doctoral student, I was sitting in the classroom and my professor, Del Snowart, Dr.

Snowart who I was sharing a lesson on environmental justice, said it just can't be environmental justice. And I was thinking to myself, as a student coming from a predominantly black, low socioeconomic [00:11:00] community, it's not just even environmental justice, because we were suffering from all kinds of harm.

And I began to look at what we were learning. We were learning about social justice. We were learning about economic justice. And I am a student of peace education. And so, for me, I said, everything we do, I want it to be founded in those four pillars. So when we began to do, the city of Toledo received the 5 million for combined sewage separation.

And we said, We're going to have a social, economic, and environmental friendly space around combined sewer separation that will invoke peace for the community. So, folks were, Alicia, what are you talking about? How do we do that? It's just combined sewers. But we begin to teach people the importance of having the separation.

We begin to Teach people about the green infrastructure that was going into place. We took three abandoned homes that were just blighted [00:12:00] and had to come down and created bioswales that reduced the flooding for 15 miles and those things changed the lives of the individuals who were suffering.

economically, having to pay for Roto Rooter, having to have someone come in and, you know, get their basements back in place. We helped families who were walking across abandoned, blighted buildings to see beautiful spaces that had native plants and monarch butterflies and things that their children could be proud of.

We helped individuals who needed a place to just go and sit, we put benches in those spaces where they could see it sit not far from their homes and realize in internalized peace. And so not just the environment, but all of us, all of it as part of a healing habitat that we could create through environmental justice.

Uva: You explain it so beautifully. And you're explaining very complicated systems [00:13:00] I think in such a connected way. I think the average person. probably doesn't understand those interconnections. I'm wondering if you could share with us how you became so steeped in understanding how these systems of harm, how these systems of oppression, how these injustices kind of scaffold or scaffold it right and really interconnect. How have you been able to build this holistic view and understanding of environments and economics?

And peace and how all of these things work together to either create systems of justice or injustice.

Alicia: The one thing that was important as a kindergarten teacher, I would see students come in and they were sponges. They would absorb whatever their educator gave them. But I would also, I learned about the school to prison pipeline, where children who were not reading by third grade [00:14:00] would be, it would be decided that they would enter right into the prison system because they could not read.

They would become delinquent and then become criminals. at some point in their lives. And for me as an educator, that wasn't enough. So after finishing my bachelor's, I went into criminal justice as my master's in juvenile law. And the most important thing was that if a child is drinking lead, there is zero amounts of lead that is safe for human consumption.

And so if a child does not have a filter in their home, that's a system of injustice because the lead, the child can't help. whether or not it's in their, their pipes or in their soil. And so community education and water democracy became extremely important to me that our children were being impacted by environmental issues that they knew nothing about, that their parents knew nothing about, that there was no voice at the table in regards to what they needed to do.

Sure. We had The Clean Water Act and a host of [00:15:00] legislation, but the mandates needed to be stronger. We needed to have conversations with legislators and partners become partners with the public utilities. So everybody was speaking the same language. So that those that were responsible for the service understood the suffering.

And so we began to have conversations, community meetings with the. Families in our community and the aha moments when you ask someone, do you know a third grader? And they would, I would have them say all the third graders names and then say to them, does that third grader know how to read? And you would see the puzzle look on their faces.

And then I would say to them, are your children drinking water that is infused with lead? And folks would say, do you have a filter? And that concern, because we know that neurotoxins, even when you deal with algal blooms and all of the things within our water system, we need water to live. [00:16:00] Not just, you know, we're going to bathe in it, but in 2014 there was 500, 000 of us who could not drink.

Touch or cook with the water that was provided to us. So it was a very scary moment. And again, it was the process of getting young people, elders, and middle aged folk to interconnect and learn that environment impacts our lives socially and that we begin to have to live off of bottled water. That was an expense.

So how do we continue to work to help each other if you can't afford your water? If you can't afford the bottled water. Thankfully our public utilities, our administration was able to take care of that and the governor and different folks came together to work together, but it was a lot of door knocking even then to tell people, no, you can't drink your water.

When we got to one of the seniors homes and we knocked and we knocked and [00:17:00] she answered the door, finally, she came to the door with a green cup of java because the water was not safe to drink from the microsystems. So I think that the greatest thing for us to look at is educating community. And then allowing that community to lift their voice.

When we say, what is that? What does that mean Alicia? It's water democracy for the people, by the people, with the people and not just the community, but the public utility. There are folks that want to do what's best. Just don't know how. So we created a system called the RING: resources, information, network, and guidance.

If you give people the resources and the information and you help them network and navigate by through guidance with them, they don't feel alone. You create an intensive system of support for not only the public utility, but also the community. Then that's the true us in the [00:18:00] US That's the us we need to be working on and focusing on

Uva: This is personal to you. It's very obvious as, as you speak that although you are lifting the community, thinking about the community, supporting their voices it's very clear that this is work that is meaningful to you in a more personal and urgent way.

So I want to delve into that just a bit and, and. Kind of segue a little bit into your own origin story and how you found your voice. I suspect your grandmother is somewhere in this story as well. You shared a quote with us in advance of our time together. Do you have it with you?

Alicia: it is an amazing quote from Fania Davis, she's the little sister of Angela Davis, but a phenomenal quote that helps us understand that there's unity in the healer and the advocate, the warrior and the advocate. She's a restorative justice practitioner and I had the privilege of working with Angela Davis as Junction is [00:19:00] built around peace. You have to have reconciliation and truth telling. And so. Even as we work with what we, our habitat, and what has been created for us to use, it is important for us to preserve it as well, to care for it as it cares for us.

It's a give and take in any situation. But you can be the warrior who fights for and fights with you can be the advocate who lifts the voice and you can be the healer that takes care of and simply that quote was her way of saying we can be all these things and there's not one separate. They all align.

And that's our responsibility as we teach multi generations of folks and multi racial individuals. This is what makes us the us. That's why we're all together. Because in all of us is the healer, the warrior, and the advocate.

Uva: Let's talk about how those pieces live in you [00:20:00] live with you. Can you talk to, to me, to us about your own background? Tell me about young Alicia finding her voice.

Alicia: Young Alicia was definitely, if I didn't know how to do anything else, I knew how to fight. I have plenty of, that's the warrior. Cause coming from where you come from, you're not taught. You said someone hit you, hit them back. And that was the Youth, you know, that's what, that was our system of protection.

But thankfully my, my grandmother taught me, you don't have to hit back. You don't have to fight. You can speak up and you can use your words. You can say, no, don't do that. You can take your pen and write an agreement. And we learn about social contract agreements, even, you know, in our education. I grew up in Detroit. My grandmother is here and was here in Toledo. She passed in 2020 [00:21:00] due to COVID. But I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Motown, to which I love. So music is a part of my whole being and my mother and father were able to have the blessing of Godparents for me, which is the time they took care of me and helped my mom and my father to raise me.

And again, as a fighter, you know, where there was just not things that were permitted. So I ended up in Toledo because I couldn't be told not to fight whether it was to fight for what was right to fight. I didn't too much care for bullies. So I couldn't stay in Detroit long because of the issue of just not tolerant, very not, not tolerant at all around bullies.

And so when I got to Toledo, my grandmother asked me why I didn't like a bully. Why I always felt I had to fight a bully. And, you know, I said, it's not right for folks to pick on other people who, you know, can't defend themselves. And she says, does that mean you defend everybody? Does [00:22:00] that mean that you speak up for everybody?

Maybe if you give someone a chance, they might speak if you teach them. And that helped me understand that, I didn't always have to be in to, to get in trouble and be the voice for everyone else. So when I began to go to school. Here in Toledo, that was what Miss Piltz, my 10th grade economics teacher said, you know, Alicia, you have a way of helping other folks find their voice.

And I thought about all the years of fighting that I didn't have to do, not the way I was fighting. And so the advocacy began to say, well, how do you feel? And why do you feel? And what would make it better? And so instead of being anger driven. I was solution driven. I became result oriented and not just for myself, but helping people to do critical thinking for themselves.

And I was maybe about [00:23:00] 15 years old, 15, 16 years old, went off to the University of Toledo. And More of the same continued to happen, you know, whether it was in the Upward Bound programs, if it was in my master's program and now in my doctoral program, to which my desire is to write around community education and water democracy.

Because how can we expect the community to understand anything that is done to them without them? You can't. Nothing about us without us. You have to begin to teach the individuals that we are being served, that are being served, what we're doing to them. It doesn't mean that they agree all the time or that the mandate will stop.

If there's a mandate from the EPA, if there's a mandate from the local government, but it will give an opportunity. It feels really different when you can say, I don't like that. Even if it has to happen. You can say that doesn't feel good. And that was something that my [00:24:00] grandmother would always ask me, where does it hurt?

And many times when we go into communities, even in my, in our work and in the work I do, I don't get to go in a community and extract information and not teach people. Why I extracted it and how it's going to benefit them. That's the human social impact of whether it's tree canopies for heat island effects.

Whether it's bio swells and rain gardens to reduce storm water and flooding. Whatever it is, we all owe those who we are doing that work to. We talk about a duty and a right. And so the duty is to make sure that we are transparent. And then people have a right to the information.

Uva: I'm thinking about you as a leader in a sector that is certainly progressing, trying to evolve. You're a big part of that evolution, but it is still Not as diverse. It is still complicated. It is still struggling with issues of [00:25:00] equity. So when you show up a woman, a black woman, a black woman from the community that you hail from and you show up with your full voice right in the fullness of your tenacity and talent and knowledge.

What does that look like? Feel like for you?

Alicia: I'll be honest, when I first started in this work I would be one of 50 sitting in a room And when I would speak, there would be some that would say, well, you know, we were talking particularly about water affordability and you would hear folks murmur. Well, if folks weren't buying expensive purses and fancy cars and just so stereotypical and un-understanding because If we don't know how to do anything else, as a people of African descent, we know how to save money.

We know how to, you know, come over a bargain. And so if you don't know people's walk and you don't know their lives, we should not judge. Because you'll find that the community that we live [00:26:00] in, not too far from that community, is low socioeconomic Caucasians. Low socioeconomic Asians, low socioeconomic Latinx.

So making sure that we stop the falsehood of division. Division has been used for so long in this country to ensure that we cannot come to a agreement. The agreement is that when COVID was in place, What was the one thing that stopped COVID? Make sure that you wash your hands. But there were people living without their water.

So we went and we began to help folks get their water on. So for me, it doesn't matter the color of my skin and the gender that I, that God has blessed me to have. and then you have to think about the young people that are dealing with all kind of identity issues. So we have to be, compassionate, understanding.

There's such thing of a veil of ignorance. It's making sure that everybody feels that they are all on the same level and the decisions that are [00:27:00] made for the best interest of everyone. It's not based on your income. It's not based on the color of your skin. It's not based on your gender or your gender preference.

It is about you, your children, your family. I always tell my children, and now I have a grandbaby, five years old. I say to them and I say to my husband, I do this work out of self interest. I cannot imagine my grandbaby being without safe, affordable drinking water. I cannot imagine her going to school and there being issues of contamination.

I cannot imagine elders who live in this community and held this community up, who are aging in place, not being able to access safe, affordable drinking water, and not being able to understand that their public utilities can't, has responsibilities, but not know how to talk to them. So it's my [00:28:00] responsibility, the individuals who work with Junction Coalition's responsibilities.

Our partners to spend the community money wisely to educate in an equitable way to create a form of action that not only we can take because of a digital divide and we don't other folks don't understand computers, but to put all of the innovative access in the hands of the people we serve. That's the most important piece.

If they can't do it, then why should I be able to, and it doesn't mean that we're all going to make the same amount of money. It doesn't mean that we're going to all have the same processes. That's equal. But it can be equitable, where you can give people an opportunity to better themselves, create the world they want to see, the change they want to be and see in their lives.

And that is why so many of the programs that Junction has and the partnerships we [00:29:00] have are about teaching. It was education that will change the trajectory of how people think. If they don't know and they feel as if they can't ask the question, that's our fault. That's on us. Public deliberation and discourse is part of democracy.

They should be able to speak up and speak out.

Uva: What is most rewarding about the work you do?

Alicia: It's watching young people decide to become environmental engineers. Watching elders trust that they'll be treated fairly. Watching middle aged folks take their children and rush them to get their blood lead levels checked. Knowing that my father and my grandmother, prior to their passing, knew that.

There's not a day that I wake up that I wouldn't do what I'm doing. Not because of finances. We know that in the nonprofit, there's not a whole lot of [00:30:00] finances, but what there is, there's a whole lot of life. There's a whole lot of purpose. There's a whole lot of hope when people can wake up and turn their faucets on and good quality drinking water comes off the faucet.

When people can see that the EPA. We'll come to junction just here in June of 2023, July of 2023. The EPA was here passing out filters, teaching people about filters in our community. And everybody you could see felt that our community felt like the most important people in the world. When director Reagan came from the EPA, same concept, it was like, they coming to see us.

Yes. You, you deserve that and going to Benton Harbor. This work doesn't, Junction just does not do work in Toledo. We work in Benton Harbor. We work in Flint. We do work in Detroit with We the People of Detroit. You know, Reverend [00:31:00] Pinckney and his community, creating spaces where people have voices is work that should happen all over the world.

Because when people have voices, and when they trust their government, and when they know that the government will be present and accounted for, and then you have philanthropy that puts the cushion around pre existing funds. That's the real economic change that our United States needs. It needs the ability to look and be able to put a lens of equity, a matrix if you would.

This is what we did, this is how well we did it, this is how we're going to do it moving forward. If you want to fix something, you go and find the most tattered and harmed. You fix it, you can fix anything else.

Uva: If we keep that lens looking forward, right? And think about what the future could look like, should look like what would the finish line look like for you? You, you started this organization, you know, it was that tiny little seedling, that tiny conversation [00:32:00] that then led to new buildings, new work, community centered work.

And quite frankly, changing systems, right? So if we were to fast forward 5, 10, 20, maybe a century later, what does the end look like for you so that you can come back and say, it is well, job well done. The job is complete.

Alicia: What it looks like for me is This three year succession plan is someone else sitting in the seat of executive director, someone else loving what they do and doing it better than I ever could imagine to do it. And me being responsible financially to continue to give back. Me being responsible from a mentorship space and always being available.

I can recall, you know Ms. Sheila's mom standing on the porch, she's our next door neighbor, to my grandmother. And she says, now you can't go and get all this education and leave. You [00:33:00] need, you know, you gotta come back here. And I realized that that's 15, 20 years from now, whether I'm a college professor or have started another business.

The goal is to always leave something that someone can benefit from. Dunn't ever go and touch something and it does nothing but harm. And then to evaluate, ask the people, do you feel benefited? Do you feel as if a change has been made? And if the answer is yes, ask them what the successes are and repeat them.

And if the answer is no, through humility and understanding, ask, how can I do better? Apologize for the wrongs if there were any. Forgive yourself and be able to move forward. And be able to say thank you for folks being able to open their homes. Even as we did our case study in support to the city of Toledo for the service line replacement.

Those folks didn't have to open their [00:34:00] homes. Over 50, 000 folks said, come on in Junction, come on in retired vets, come on in plumbers who have been trained because of trust. So I would say that building trust, building a space of voice and opportunity, I think that's the greatest thing that I will be able to leave and come back to.

It's that the community I work for, trust, and, you know, my family has trust me with because my family has had to say, okay, she has to go and do this or that. It's that there's a continuum of trust, a continuum of care, intensive care, and a continuum of holistic beliefs that we can all do better.

together

Uva: I love how your face lights up as you think and talk about the future and trust being kind of at the center, at the center of that work which is a good place to transition as we're closing out [00:35:00] Alicia to maybe do a quick round of What's Alicia doing, listening to, reading, what are the things that really matter to you that we can learn from as well?

So in this moment, what, what are your heart, ears, and mind consuming these days? What books, podcasts, movies are you engaged with?

Alicia: Oh my goodness. So my fun time is young Sheldon. I love watching young Sheldon. Young man who is a scientist. My, my daughter's a bioengineer, so I get to watch, you know, how her brain works and my son and. But all of my Children are such thinkers. And but now, as I gracefully going to grandmotherhood, you know, reading books like I am enough to my granddaughter by Grace Breyer reflecting as we do work with the community on books by Imani Scott and sharing, The racial restrictions that have been placed on us for years, Joel Spring [00:36:00] around educating folks about, you know, the denial of education and saying to them they can no longer have that take place because that's a lot of time how oppression lives is by denying people education.

And Also working in programs that bring people together around career and technology. Those are some of the things that I enjoy academically and professionally and personally, I love, I'm a fanatic about just I love the snow. So it was snowing today and it was just the most beautiful thing you could ever see.

But to watch my grandbaby be able to do math and she was already reading before going to kindergarten. So I was, I love to watch her come and think that she's teaching me something because her teacher's just phenomenal. And she does teach me something. She teaches me that every day. You should honor being a lifelong learner.

You know, if you can learn something, even from a child from an elder, [00:37:00] from this conversation, that quality of education will change your life for a lifetime. And so I enjoy good music. I love music. Whether it's from Frankie Beverly and Mase, We Are One, to NDRE, to King George. I'm a music fanatic, so I used to sing really loud when I was upset after Grandma said I shouldn't fight anymore because I didn't know exactly what to do.

And then so I, voice has always been important and I think that music helps us to express who we are. My granddaughter and I were coming home last night and she was singing Lift Me Up by Rihanna. And so, music and communication. And community heals plethora of things. You don't have to be hurt and harmed.

You can talk to each other and just heal, heal through the wounds, heal through the misunderstandings under, you [00:38:00] know, right now, there's a video by Milwaukee water commons, liquid gold. And water is the new commodity. It is the new wealth. We need to protect it. We need to be talking about it, being about it, doing about it, so that we can continue our lives and taking care of our beautiful, amazing world that we've been given.

We need to give back.

Uva: Thank you for that closing out. Just a few prompts that I'm hoping you can close. Close for me or end for me. When I say water democracy, what comes up for you? Water democracy is,

Alicia: Public deliberation, an opportunity for community to be heard.

Uva: I am grateful for,

Alicia: I am grateful for my family. The community and a trusted group of stakeholders who knows that when the task needs to be done, we'll get it done together. [00:39:00] That's the public utility, the philanthropy, the government, and those that those entities serve.

Uva: I want the world to pay attention to.

Alicia: The children and the elders. The coming in to life and the going out of life. Pay attention. How we live, what we do. Pay attention to the beginning and the end. It makes a difference for the middle.

Uva: I am learning that,

Alicia: I am learning. In the past couple years, I've lost a lot of loved ones. So I'm learning to put more life into living, take the time to trust, to write, to record, and to speak as much love as possible, because you never know when you will not have the opportunity to do so.

Uva: Alicia, I am so sorry for your losses for your pain and grounded in and thankful for [00:40:00] your optimism and your commitment to getting this beautiful work done and passing the baton the same baton that was passed on to you, By that young person. I love that you are passing that one, but many of them over to the community.

And I am confident that the ancestors and the people you've lost are deeply proud of you as well. Love that you focus on healing.

Alicia: My dad would say, it is the process. to get to the progress. You can't think you're going to progress without first the process. And sometimes the process is learning how to go through, adversity and then understanding how to celebrate. I think that that's the one thing we need to learn how to celebrate, celebrate, the things that we come out of.

Before something else comes for us to go in to celebrate.

Uva: Sorry for your tears, but I hope you [00:41:00] know they are. They are nourishing. They are nourishing the ground you stand on. So I'm thankful for you. I put in the chat the quote and I would love if you would consider reading it as we close out.

Alicia: Okay. Ahem. Today, I believe there is nothing more submersive, then helping to midwife a new evolutionary shift of the human species into an era where we will no longer be entranced with social economic formations and the ways of being and thinking that produce disconnection, domination, and devastation.

Instead, we can be present upon the earth. In ways that bring healing, wholeness, and a sense of scarcities in our connections with one another and with all of creation. My mentor and an amazing, [00:42:00] beautiful sister, Ms. Fania Davis.

Uva: I suspect that you are a mentor and I know you are an amazing human being as well. Alicia, thank you so much for spending time with us on Wellspring. Thank you. [00:43:00]