In loving memory of Marissa Snoddy 1985-2021
On January 3rd, 2021, our beloved Marissa Snoddy, RYSE Clinical Director, passed away suddenly at the age of 35. Marissa was a community leader, healer, friend, colleague, sister, auntie, and daughter. She is now shining on us as an ancestor. RYSE truly appreciates all the love and care sent, shared, and held as we have been grieving and remembering Marissa. We celebrated her life this month, forging community, trading stories, sharing laughter, shedding tears, playing her favorite music, and honoring her essence. Our staff member TJ Sykes wrote an amazing poem to honor her, as you can read below.
Queen Bee
Gentle Giant
Could start a riot.
If you tried it.
If I tell a secret
You’re sure to keep it.
Strong silence.
Powerful embrace.
Grin engraved face.
Therapeutic existence.
Light radiates from your heart chakra.
The Essence of Lead with love.
Left me with love.
I need.
A hug.
From you.
I guess I’ll see you next lifetime.
Before I let you go.
You should know.
I love you so.-TJ Stykes
Marissa always reminded us that healing is our birthright and we commit to staying grounded in the love, rage, and joy she called us into. We will continue to honor Marissa's legacy.
Black History/Futures Month Piece
by Temba Kamara, RYSE Communications Manager
This is a word on our sense of time.
What’s happened then is still happening now. I think it is important we fortify that idea in our minds: the reality that black and white photos happened in color. Here at RYSE we celebrate Black History Month with a slash to include Black Futures. We look backward in order to celebrate and observe our ancestors and their actions while we look around and look forward in order to celebrate ourselves and our potential. Sometimes when we speak on Black History it is with a tone that the chapter is done and actions in the past brought us to a place where no further action is needed. Really, this is a relay race. And we who have the privilege of being here are simply at the latest baton pass.
There’s a sign from the 1966 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that says the words “we demand an end to police brutality now.” 55 years later we are deep in the middle of only the latest movement to bear that same message. That speaks volumes. So does the fact that the 1960’s affirmations “Black Power” and “I’m Black and I’m proud” were as necessary to the times as today’s “Black Lives Matter.” What does that say about where we’re at? What does that say about the nature of our country? And what does that say about the obstacles that we are up against? We need to make sure to adjust our sense of time as well as our sense of what we’re facing.
Our country bends and warps our sense of time to inspire complacency. When in reality there are occurrences like an 89 year old man named Daniel Smith living in Washington today. Smith is the son of a former slave. Born into slavery at its end, his father had him in old age. That baton pass basically happened yesterday and as wild as it is a concept to digest, so is the idea that Daniel lives in a country with a prison industrial complex; legalized slavery. A thought like that can throw your whole sense of time off.
We are tasked to pick up where our ancestors left off.
RYSE’s Black staff and members know to be Black in America is to be so much at once. It is joy, it is light, it is laughter. It is pride, it is strength, it is richness. It is not white supremacy. We are not the white supremacist violence enacted on us, but this violence is a very real reality we confront every day no matter how much or how little we are cognizant of it. And ultimately the goal of that violence is to rob us of our joy, light, laughter, pride, strength, and richness; for that violence to become us. RYSE has a core mission to combat that violence and to create space impervious to that violence.
So in February we celebrated our ancestors, our heroes, as we celebrate ourselves: both existing at different points in time within the same struggle.
Black History/Futures Month Programming!
The month of February was extremely eventful for RYSE as we prepared to slide into the first full year of virtual activity. Our community was resilient, our staff was creative, and our members were energized and the month reflected it. We managed to help facilitate space for our youth on multiple levels, including some excited Black History/Futures themed programming. See RYSE’s February 2021 below!
Shared over Zoom, our staff, members, and alumni enjoyed a virtual game of Family Feud!
Music & Movements was a workshop uplifting Black liberation through the history of music, social dances & freedom movements. We had a special live performance by the Xandal Bois, a hip-hop duo fusing upbeat tempo & relaxed vocals.
Our Black Brilliance Blockbuster Movie Night shared over Zoom featured the film Black Panther!
Spring Programming Officially Launched!
Amazing Highlights Of Youth Leadership & Power!
RYSE Commons Building Updates!
Our Staff toured the new RYSE Commons construction site for the first time, seeing all of the progress made the past year. The power is newly installed and some of the windows have gone up, revealing a key component of the building: light. For the first time we got to experience just a little of what the space will feel like. It's almost serendipitous that after a year plus of literal isolation, we will enter a building constructed with a large focus on openness. Though we were indoors, there was no change in feeling when walking in and out. The space is filled with seamless transitions. An outside that transitions to inside, a yoga room that transitions to a theater space that transitions to a studio, among other things; all of which shapeshift in function. Spaces influence thought and as RYSE youth imagine, this space is meant to inspire and empower.
RYSE is Hiring!
COVID-19 Info For Contra Costa County
In February the country reached the 500,000 death toll mark and even as the first waves of vaccinations begin, precautions are necessary and they will be for some time. Below are some stats, tips, and thoughts on best practices to stay safe and protect your community.
Click on any photo and it will take you to the full post.
