Reflecting on a Momentous 2017
The Goldin Institute’s Board of Advisors had a busy year fundraising, donating their own time, and contributing other resources toward our mission. Month by month, Goldin’s Board represented us at international conferences, collaborated with our partners around the world, and established funding streams that will be essential to expanding our efforts in the near future.
Founder and Board Chair Diane Goldin was positively peripatetic, visiting Haiti this April along with Executive Director Travis Rejman to get updates from our partners at KOFAVIV and the Bureau of Avocats Internationaux as well as to learn about the initiatives of the Jakmel Ekspresyon community arts center and the expansive work of Father Joseph Philippe in the rural Fondwa region. Diane and Travis were awed by the way these groups cobble together scant resources to create schools, social services and housing, and battle against gender-based violence, all in a context of dire poverty and shattered infrastructure.
In May, Diane and Travis led a delegation to Panama City, Panama, for the #EndChildViolence global forum. This was the fifth global forum hosted by our partners at Arigatou International and the Global Network of Religions for Children, and proved an excellent opportunity for Goldin’s staff from Uganda, Columbia and the United States to interact with each other as well as with other grassroots activists from around the world.
Under the leadership of Board Member Mimi Frankel, co-founder of the Frankel Family Foundation and longtime champion of refugees, the Goldin Institute co-hosted Chicago’s World Refugee Day commemoration in June. Organized in partnership with local groups and the City of Chicago, the World Refugee Day events offered participants a chance to hear testimony from refugees about their experiences, connect with social services, share interactive educational experiences, eat food from refugees’ countries of origin, and otherwise celebrate the added diversity refugees bring to Chicago and the nation.
Also during the summer, Advisory Board Member Akif Irfan launched a fundraising drive with his family and friends to support the work of Global Associate Dr. Susana Anayatin and her team in the war-torn Philippine island of Mindanao. A former intern at the Goldin Institute who is now a vice president at Goldman Sachs financial firm, Akif has raised $5,085, with an ultimate goal of $12,500, an amount sufficient to pay for water pumps at 10 new schools that will serve thousands more children. In partnership with a broad coalition that includes both the Philippine and the Moro Liberation Army, a former rebel group, Susana and her organization have provided water pumps to more than 113 schools, serving over 40,000 students in a region where more than 70 percent of the population face obstacles to accessing safe water.
In September, Board Member Nathan Shapiro and his wife, Randy, were recognized by the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) at a special gathering with Aviv Ezra, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest. The FIDF Central Region recognized Nate and Randy for the vital role they played in rescuing Ethiopian Jewry, especially during the decade Nate served as President of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ). Under his leadership from 1983-1993, the AAEJ provided relief, rescue and advocacy on behalf of the threatened Ethiopian Jewish community in Ethiopia and Sudan, leading to the successful immigration of the Ethiopian community to Israel through Operation Solomon in 1991.
Dr. Aziz Asphahani, an engineer, educator and entrepreneur with more than a decade of involvement with the Goldin Institute, received a prestigious appointment to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering this year. Dr. Asphahani, CEO of QuesTek Innovations, is internationally recognized for his work in the advancement of materials, reliability, alloy development and corrosion control. One product resulting from his award winning patents was used in the restoration and preservation of the Statue of Liberty during its repair in the 1980s.
UCLA Professor and Board Member Gaye Theresa Johnson came to Chicago in November for a discussion of a new book she co-edited, “The Futures of Black Radicalism.” Some 40 activists, journalists, scholars, students and others attended the event and participated in a lively conversation around the themes raised in the book, which reflects on the seminal work of scholar-activist Cedric Robinson, who helped define the black radical tradition and the concept of “racial capitalism.”
Finally, Board Member Tom Hinshaw marked a milestone in his involvement with YOLRED, our Uganda-based partner organization that is designed and run by former ex-child-combatants. Tom provides financial and moral support to YOLRED’s music therapy program, one of a menu of services that directly address issues affecting ex-combatants, and this month, that program and others held a mass gathering and celebration for several hundred young people. It was a joyous event that demonstrated unequivocally how returnees contribute positively to their communities.
[quote]“The Goldin Institute - because of philosophy - can be effective, getting grassroots people involved in these issues. I just think you have to be engaged and to me, life would be much more shallow if you aren’t.”[/quote]
- Tom Hinshaw, Board of Advisors
A roofing contractor in Columbus, Indiana, Tom’s involvement with Goldin attended dates back to 2004, when he attended Institute’s event in Manresa, Spain. Tom became interested in YOLRED after helping facilitate discussions regarding the reintegration of child soldiers in Cartagena, Colombia in 2007.
“If you’re going to be responsible, be engaged, and if you’re going to be engaged, be effective,” Tom explained in a recent interview.
Exploring the Futures of Black Radicalism
The Goldin Institute hosted the editors of a new book, “Futures of Black Radicalism,” Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin, for a conversation with nearly forty activists, journalists, scholars, students and others interested in the themes raised in the book. The book reflects on the seminal work of scholar-activist Cedric Robinson, whose writings helped define the black radical tradition and the concept of “racial capitalism.”
In her opening remarks, Goldin Institute Advisory Board member Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson explored how grassroots political movements based in African American communities are expanding their views to a global level. Co-Editor Alex Lubin began by reviewing the central themes raised in the book, including important essays from Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelly and many others on topics that range from reflections on the life of Malcolm X, activism in the Americas, and the struggle for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.
Providing highly relevant analysis in the wake of the mass organizing and coalition building against police brutality in Ferguson, Baltimore and Hong Kong, “Futures of Black Radicalism” is dedicated to the work of Cedric Robinson, an influential scholar and author of “Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition.” Robinson died in June 2016, just as “Futures of Black Radicalism” was being finished.
[quote]“This is a difficult time to have this conversation. We thought about the future of black radicalism and realized there is no future without a deeply rooted past.” -- Gaye Johnson, Goldin Institute Board of Advisors and Associate Professor at UCLA.[/quote]
Jimmie Briggs, the Goldin Institute’s Coordinator of Community Learning and Collaboration, moderated the lively conversation following initial comments by Johnson and Lubin. Audience members discussed the challenge for radical movements operating in capitalist countries, the role of youths, and asked for practical ideas to create coalitions between activists, academics and neighborhood residents.
[quote]“When regimes of race seem most firm, it is precisely where they are weak.” -- Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico.[/quote]
A special thank you to Gia Biagi, Principal for Urbanism and Civic Impact, and the team at Studio Gang for hosting the discussion in their offices.