The Lost Files, Ep. 2
A Special Edition of Fluency w/ Dr. Durell Cooper
In this specially commissioned series with Grantmakers in the Arts, The Lost Files, Dr. Durell Cooper invites artists, community organizers, researchers, cultural and racial studies experts, and scholars to think about the narratives driving the arts and cultural sector – as it intersects with systems of structural racism and economic exclusion – and what opportunities for narrative change exist.
A full transcript of this episode is available below.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Hello, dear listeners, welcome back to another episode of Fluency, this episode is being brought to you in part by Grantmakers in the Arts, and I could not be more thrilled to be joined by the one, the only, the incredible, Majora Carter if you know, then you know, I'm so excited to be sharing this virtual space with you, you are amazing, welcome to Fluency.
Majora Carter:
Well, thank you, and like likes like, that's all I could say, so right back at you.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Majora, you do so many things, it's like community revitalizer, entrepreneur, but just all around dope individual, for those who might not be as familiar with your work or your background as I am, tell us where you're from, tell us your origin story.
Majora Carter:
Sure. So I'm from the South, South Bronx, which is Hunts Point in New York City, and so birthplace of hip-hop, also sometimes known as frankly the poster child for urban blight, but for me it's home and I've spent the last 20 plus years working on developing and refining what I consider to be a talent retention approach to community development and revitalization, that really does rest on the idea that the biggest assets within a community are the people themselves and how we view our community is literally how we will determine how we or don't invest in it, either financially or emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and I work on building the kind of projects that make people want to stay and reinvest in our own community.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
And along with that, you have a new book out, well, this is actually your first book as well, Reclaiming your Community, and I still would like an autographed copy, my apologies for not making it out to the Boogie Down Grind to be able to get it, but I listened to it on audiobook this entire weekend and so I feel like I got double the Majora because not only was I listening to your words, but then I was hearing you say them, so this has been a Majora part weekend for me, so.
Majora Carter:
Oh, joy.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
And I've loved every moment, I loved it, every moment of it.
Majora Carter:
Oh, I'm so glad, I'm so glad, was my favorite part of the audiobook is the actual end where there's a local hip-hop artist named Rowdy who actually redid one of his original songs to include me in it, it's so cool, so there you go, I love it, but anyway, I do really appreciate it, but thank you for listening and of course, you got to get that book. But yeah, so the title of my book is literally all about the talent retention Strategy, so the title of my book is called, Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One, because that really embodies what our approach to community development is, which is a talent retention strategy, so it's same as if you own a company and you hire your talent, right? You hire people to work for you, and you hire them in the hopes that they stay with you, that they lean into the mission of your business and see their wellbeing tied up in yours.
But I realize in low status communities, which is what we call the kind of communities, whether they're the South Bronx or inner cities or Native American reservations or all white communities that might have had lots of industry before, but there are no jobs and no real opportunities there now, we call them low status as opposed to an underserved or underprivileged or anything like that for a couple reasons, one, is that frankly the word status is a very uncomfortable one, it implies that there is a lower status and that there is a higher status, and those kind of communities where in which billions of philanthropic and government dollars have been spent for decades long, long time, but the health outcomes, educational attainment, higher rates of incarceration, bad policing, all those things keep going up despite the money that's spent in low status communities as opposed to what happens in higher status ones.
But really those low status communities are the places where inequality is simply assumed by everyone, philanthropy, our government, people both inside and outside of the community, so we took a page out of a business book, which is basically like if you run a company, you support your talent so that they can actually... So that the bottom line comes right back to you, we don't do that in low status communities at all, we actually have a talent repulsion strategy, as a matter of fact, I think, because you don't see the kind of things that our market research showed us that people in our communities wanted to see things, that they literally left the neighborhood to spend their money on, whether it was cafes or our coffee shops or housing that matched their income, that was quality, things that made them feel... Great parks and experiences, those type of things that made them feel like their community was worth living in.
And so by building those things we realize that what we can actually help people see is that they have the power to reclaim their own communities, so instead of listening to a predatory speculator when they want to buy your family's house for cash, for what may seem like a lot of money for what the neighborhood is now, you know understand, no, that could be the way to retain my family's wealth, generational wealth, or maybe this is the kind of place where I could start a new business or at least support one that's already here, or perhaps even just we create the kind of places where again we are creating more economic diversity and the kind of lifestyle infrastructure that makes people want to stay right where they are.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
You have so many beautiful jewels in this book just about the process, your experiences, but also when it comes to community, you have such a deep understanding of collective thinking around ideas and phenomena, and one of the themes or motifs that you keep coming back to in the book is this idea of far too often in these low status communities, the measure of success is how far you get away from it, in that it's almost that, like you said, instead of a retention strategy, it's a repulsion strategy in a lot of senses, so a lot of your work, first, has to come into a retraining or a rethinking in the ways in which we see the possibilities of where we are and where we come from.
Majora Carter:
Absolutely, and the retraining literally has to come with actual, physical reminders and understanding that things can be different here, so because we can't expect for people, whether they're artistically or academically inclined and who grew up in low status communities who have been led to believe that, yo, there is a great big beautiful world out there and you are well poised to be a beautiful part of it, but it's not here, so why would we expect them to want to stay in a place that doesn't have those things? It's just like that's not human nature.
So it is up to us to build it, and so that's why I use my neighborhood as a research and development laboratory where I literally have been building these kind of things and even before I even discovered in my mind that this is a talent retention strategy, the same kind that a business would use, we were building those things because I was an artist at first and I realized that the idea of people... That if you lived in a place that wasn't beautiful, that told you on every single level that it was not a nice place that nobody saw it as a good place to be.
And that's how it felt growing up in the South Bronx during the era when it was literally burning, we felt like, or so I'll speak for myself, but I know I share the sentiment with a lot of other people that if the area's burning around you, it's going to reflect badly on you, you saw the nightly news, everybody allegedly, we were all pimps and pushers and prostitutes and I was just like, "I don't want to be associated with that," even though I knew there were wonderful people in my neighborhood that loved us and that were super talented and that just were amazing, but again, the popular perception was that there was something wrong here. So yeah, if you were the bright kid, and everybody told you, "Oh, you're going to grow up and be somebody," the thought that you could be somebody in a place this was just not even, just outside the realm of possibility.
So for me growing up and then becoming... I was a writer, I was an artist, I was a filmmaker, I wanted to see things and I did see things in different ways, I was just like, "If people don't see it, they're not going to believe it, so we got to show them, so yeah, my very first effort was the development of a park that was literally a dump prior to that, and we did it because when I came back to the neighborhood under duress because I was going to graduate school and needed a cheap place to stay, which was mommy and daddy's house, and literally that's why I came back to the neighborhood, if I had it all together the way I'd hoped never would've happened, but God's amazing and was just like, "Nah, you're going to go back home, baby," and that's what I did, but I found out about this huge waste facility that was being built on our waterfront and got involved in a lot of the community activism that was around that.
And I ended up realizing that activism was great in terms of advocating for a more sustainable, solid waste management plan, but it became clear to me that there was still this general undercurrent of people feeling like, "Well, of course the city's going to dump on us more, this is the South Bronx, that's what happens here," and I was just like, "Mmm" as Jimmy Hendrix would say, "You got to give people something to dream on," and I was just like, "This is true, we have to think about what people see so that they could become inspired," so I literally, and I talk about the story in the book where I knew that that needed to happen, but I didn't know what that actually meant and kept getting these notices from someone who was working with the parks department through the National Forest Service and there was a really small seed grant to transform places along the Bronx River.
And I discovered that there was this, literally a dead end street that ended at the Bronx River, that was literally hidden behind mountains of trash, and my dog literally pulled me into it just totally by accident, and then I realized, I was like, "Oh, crap, there is a river in our community," and that's when I realized, "Oh, wait, we can use this dump behind me and transform it into what is now a national award-winning park," but seeing what happened to people as they would go to this place that no one had been to literally, well, that's not true, kids would sort find, pick their way through and because that's what kids do.
But for the most part it wasn't a part of the community at all, but to turn it into something that just had a pier and a water park and all this other stuff was just like, "Wait, this is in our community?" It was really just, I think, a transformative moment for so many folks when they realized that something that beautiful could be in their neighborhood, and that just really as far as it really was the foundation of my approach to development
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Majora, I would say that you are a genius and I do say that you are a genius, but the MacArthur Foundation has already said that as well back in 2005, not that we need whiteness to define our greatest, but to say you're a genius is nothing that you don't already know. What I love so much about your book was the brutal, in that story that about how your dog, Zena, at that time helped you to find the river was such an amazing story. What I love so much about your book is the level of honesty, brutal honesty and transparency about not just your approach and things that have happened, but almost how in your life in general, we look at all of the accomplishments that you've been able to make in your field and you go, "But I didn't train in this," you learned by doing it, it was almost your love and passion for your community and for your people, it's actually what's propelled your entire career, even back to their first building and squatting in it and that story there, it was really just a passion and love for coming home, and for your people that has navigated you this far, how do you describe how you feel about your community and about the people in it?
Majora Carter:
Yeah, wow. It's so funny because that was beautiful and in part because you're right, I don't, I have no training in anything I do but professionally, which is the weirdest thing, right? But you're right, the training that I got really was the love of my community, it's like that was the foundation of everything, when I realized that just being... That it was, I think just how effective white supremacy has been in helping, I think in particular communities of color hate on ourselves, and it struck me that my feelings of inadequacy for wanting to run away from the community that did love me because that's what we did, especially after the trauma of being literally in a space where financial disinvestment, redlining and all that stuff was literally hurled at us, and that there were still people who made sure that they loved up on the kids and each other here to make sure that we made it out.
So the fact that I didn't have any plans or understanding of what I could do or basically that there was this whole professional world that I knew nothing about urban planning, I was like, "What's that?" I mean, still don't really fully understand it at all, but business development, I had no idea about any of these things, but it was just like, "Oh no, hell no, I don't want to see my community suffer the way that it did before," and because I did, I felt like I was a part of the leaving, that I could have been using my talents to support my own community, but we would led to believe that that's not what we do, and I was just like, "No," so I got caught trying all the time and I still do, that has not changed at all, but yeah, it's a beautiful way of looking at it.
And I don't think I've ever... That really was the fuel, it was the love, and now, I mean, looking back on it, I feel like all roads that appointed me to this and my faith, which is basically I feel like this is just the work that I do now is an expression, it's my ministry, it's like I love God and I love my neighbors and this is the physical manifestation of it because I do, whether or not people follow the same faith that I do, which is Christianity and to love and to see Jesus is the perfect example of love, that's not even the important part, the important part is the love and the fact that I actually do have a very particular skill set that allows me to show my love for my neighbor in ways that inspire them.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
That sounds so beautiful and you do such a great job too in the book just describing the different ways that love manifests itself in the community from the nosy neighbor, like the stereotypical of nosy neighbor that knows everybody's business, but at the end of the day, is so proud of your accomplishments and school and stuff, so it's like it really does take a village, not an impossible leap to see how you're able to love your community so much because of the love that had been poured into you, from your family, from your community, and so in many ways, you're living your life, this is your ministry, but this is your give back, you're giving back, and what I would love for people to take away from this too is how possible it is for them as well, how possible it is from them as well.
Majora Carter:
Yes. Yo and that's so cool, Durell, I mean, this is the thing that makes me super happy, is that I know that my example, literally me as a black woman coming from a low status community, still working in a low status community and the one that she was born and raised in, literally, that's the example, but the bottom line is whether or not people know that it's me, folks have seen, whether it's a park show up in a place like the South Bronx, like a national award winning park, not just like, "Oh, that's cute, there's a basketball court," nah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is world class, and in the book we discussed how it got there, which was no joke but good, so building a coffee shop, the first cafe that we've had in our community since I was in high school in the 1980s, a real cute little fancy coffee shop that made people feel like, "Oh, this is kind of cool, I could chill and hang out in this place and build relationships and build community here."
We just started opening up our event hall, which is a part of... Which called Bronxlandia and it's a former rail station, actually this is the reason why my father decided to buy the house that I was born and raised in our community, because he was a Pullman porter and this was where he was hoping they'd reopen that rail line, they never did, but that's the reason why we're here, and to see people actually feeling as though they could do community because of these places, because community is not just a place, it's also an activity, but you do have to have these places in which to build community if and so they're- What?
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Ooh, Majora, can you say that one more time for the people in the back?
Majora Carter:
What?
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Community is not just a place-
Majora Carter:
Oh, yeah, sorry, community... I say it's a lot all time that I forget what I totally just said, but yeah, but community, I mean, it's really kind of weird because folks think it's only just a place and it's just like, the word community, you've got to be in relation with somebody other than yourself, right? But community is not just a place, it's an activity, so you have to be in places where you can build that, and so that's why in a cool urban planning term, it's called third spaces, which means a place that's neither work nor home because obviously at work you're allegedly on a mission even though at least when the boss is around and at home, that's your private sanctuary because just everybody needs that so it's super important that when the activity of building your community happens when you're in relationship with other people, and it generally can only happen in places that allow that interaction to happen.
So whether it's a park, whether it's a cafe, whether it's the kind of community center that makes people feel like there's not just arts and crafts, which unfortunately in low status communities often that's pretty much all you'll see at community centers, which is why they're sort of synonymous with low status communities, but I don't know of anybody who was able to move out of a low status community and into a place just because they had community centers because again, that's sort of like the stigma associated with them, which also includes things like homeless shelters, lots of dollar stores, liquor stores, the kind of places where there's only very low income, affordable housing, or even homeless shelters, those are the kind of things that literally make people feel like, "That's not where I want to stay," so we have to be mindful of that and create the kind of third spaces that make people feel like, "Oh, I can stay in my community because we need [inaudible 00:23:12].
Dr. Durell Cooper:
And this is a perfect too segue because I had to get this in, speaking of third spaces, right? And the creating of those, we got to talk about the Boogie Down Grind, we have to talk about the Boogie Down Grind, which you do also write about in the book so I feel like I can ask that question.
Majora Carter:
Absolutely.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
So tell us a little bit about the origin story of the Boogie Down Grind and, people please go out, if you're in New York City, please go visit the Boogie Down Grind Cafe-
Majora Carter:
Please-
Dr. Durell Cooper:
It's incredible. But yes, tell us a little bit about the backstory of the Boogie Down grind.
Majora Carter:
It was so interesting because we acquired a couple of leases from a local landowner that actually has been doing since the burning of the Bronx, they actually had a lot of leases, ground floor, commercial leases, and most of the places in our neighborhood were empty and they didn't need the financing so they left them, they just left them vacant, and so went to them, asked them to loan to give it to us and we were able to afford it and it was very, very inexpensive, and so the idea was to get a cafe to come and lease from us because we were actively looking for that, and so we tried to find somebody who wanted to open up a cafe, we went to Starbucks, they were not remotely interested, but the market was too emerging at the point, at that moment, and everybody that said they didn't want to open up a cafe, didn't really...
We could tell, did not have the capacity to do so, it was just like, "We can't do that," so anyway, didn't work, so then we realized, oh then a lot of other things we're going to have to do this, and so we found am amazing partner, Birch Coffee, which is got, I think, I don't know how many stores at this point, but they had a bunch of different coffee shops downtown in a roast house in Queens, and we were going to be the first Birch Coffee out outside of Manhattan and their roast house in Queens, and it was super exciting and they were very specialty, fancy, high-end coffee, trained up our baristas, it was really amazing, but then we realized that they were awesome and a great partner obviously, but because our competition was Dunking Donuts and the McDonald's cafe and who did syrup and whipped cream and stuff like that, we realized that we had to do coffee a little bit differently then than what they just did for their business model.
And so then we had a little uncoupling, but still good because their coffee is still... We still sell their coffee, it is amazing, and we ended up deciding since we were had this moment, how about we just rebrand ourselves completely differently, but again, going back to our own roots, and so we renamed ourselves the Boogie Down Grind, Grind for Coffee and Boogie Down because that's the original name or one of the nicknames for the South Bronx or maybe the Bronx in general, but I think South Bronx because that's where hip-hop came from, and then we really decided to embrace our hip-hop roots and our culture and just completely transformed the way that the cafe looked, we moved into a little bigger space, lined the walls with spaces for album covers and the original, well, they're not the original, mimeographs of the reproductions of the invitations to hip-hop jams in the park and in community centers back in the day.
And then all of our baristas are all great lovers of hip-hop or something similar, and they became the best DJs as well, and it was just a vibe that we opened up the space for and lo and behold, folks started to fill it, in particular with programming things like open mics, art exhibits, credit repair workshops, the kind of things that the community felt need for but also wanted to share with each other, and I thought that real most amazing thing, we had amazing poetry readings, one fortunately bought to us by you, Dr. Yolanda, who I was just still so amazed that she actually graced the stage at the Boogie Down Grind, just sharing all, but that's the thing, it's like we created this vessel because we knew that there was a huge appetite for those type of spaces and for people wanting to fill them, so that's what was super important for us then.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Thank you so much for sharing that, and I just loved how in the book too, you weave in, obviously you're from the South South Bronx and you don't hide it, you're very proud of that, but the way you weave hip-hop into this book as well, you cannot tell the story of Majora Carter and her career without telling the story of hip-hop, and you bring in quotes from different artists and stuff throughout the book, Beyonce makes a few appearance in there, and I just love how you do that because it's so authentic to who you are, and so it's just a beautiful way, it's a great read, I strongly encourage anybody listening to this, please go out and buy a copy of Reclaiming Your Community, it's amazing, you will not be disappointed and it's going to inspire you, I'm inspired now to go back and give back more.
I'm originally from Alabama and yeah, look how far away I've gotten living in New York City, I mean, I do have a house down there, one, but looking at how for you, you keep finding ways of being able to make your community more in the image of how beautiful you see it, and you're never finished, and I think that's also the beautiful thing with it, and I guess with that idea of never being finished, what's next? What is next for you? What is coming up that you're excited about?
Majora Carter:
Well, I'm excited about a whole bunch of things, but I'm really excited about the fact that we have Bronxlandia, which is our event hall, former rail station, is just showing up and out in this beautiful, beautiful way, I mean, first of all, it's much larger than the Boogie Down Grind and it's also been filled by all sorts of different artists and gatherings, entrepreneurs who are participating in pop-up markets, there's musical reviews, our local school is going to be taking it over for teacher trainings and just having this space and because the gates kind of open all the way up to the public, you see it's this beautiful free flow of both information and style and love that folks get to see, and it's just like, "Huh," and it's also even if it's an estate, it's not fully developed just yet, we're working on the financing now, but you can see the beautiful bones in this building right now.
And folks are just like, "Wait, that used to be a strip club," and it was, but it's not anymore, but people are just flipping out about it and you realize how awesome it is again, when you change just what people are looking at and it's almost like their heads spin around on their, because they're just like, "Wait, was that just? What was that?" And then you realize that that's all people are really looking for, they want to see something different and special and beautiful in their own community, and that's why our approach to really trying to figure out what those things are and not figuring out, we ask people what their hopes and dreams and aspirations for the kind of community of their dreams, and I really take that to heart as a developer, what are those things that make them go like, "Oh yeah, I'm here, I feel it, I see it, I want to do more," that is just a super exciting thing to be a part of.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Majora, thank you so much for sharing that. I'm going to let you go, I promise, there was just one more thing I had in my notes I wanted to ask you about, it's the Majora Carter of fan club, this is like, I don't want to give too much away and I want you to be able to explain it-
Majora Carter:
Oh, I'll tell you.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
But this is such a positive way to be able to look and I think this is just going to help a lot of people out there as well, which is why I want to make sure we talk about it, but could you tell us a little bit about the Majora Carter fan club.
Majora Carter:
Yeah, well, I certainly, believe me, I've got enormous... That gets all sorts of love, I've got folks from around the world, certainly in my own neighborhood that see the value of what I do and that send all sorts of love and blessings and sometimes beautiful notes and even cookies but other time... But there's a small group, I think, of folks who I've decided another folks would call in haters, but I've decided to call them my fan club because I do really think they kind of love me but just don't know what to do with that kind of feeling, but they've decided that I am not a good person and that they're not really... And they think that the work I'm doing is just counter to what they consider something good in community development, so I have actually been protested, I've been called literally everything except a child of God, never really to my face, which is kind of just like I'd like to hear that, so maybe we can talk about it, and I do, and I won't give that story away, but there is one story in the book where I described actually having a face-to-face with someone and what happened during the, which I still cannot believe happened, but I swear it was true.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
I won't give that part away either, but it's so interesting that you bring that up because there's a part earlier in the book when you talk about coming back home from school and you're like, "And I never threw a punch and I was not planning on starting today," You talk about that, and then it's that story later and you really, I just saw this beautiful art of this black woman who has come into her own in such an authentic, powerful and purposeful way, and I don't know, it's a brilliant story, it's a brilliant life that you have created that you are the architect of, and again, I encourage anyone to go out and please purchase Reclaiming Your Community, and again, if you're in New York City, please drop by the Boogie Down grind, and you might be lucky enough as I did to get a private tour of Bronxlandia.
Majora Carter:
Oh, yeah. Now, you got to come back because there's many public events there, I mean, every Sunday we're there, and it's sort of like a version of Sunday service where there's a popup market, the Boogie Down Grind actually does, it has a catering license, so we are selling drinks and stuff and there's food and there's music, all the gates are wide open and it's just this beautiful flow of people that are just there and just being in that third space and enjoying each other.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Well, I would definitely take you up on that and Majora, thank you so much for coming today, you are amazing, you're phenomenal, you are a force and since no one else has ever said it, I will call you a child of God because clearly God is shining upon you, so thank you so much for everything and yeah, more soon and I wish the book all the success because it's amazing people need to hear it.
Majora Carter:
Thank you so much and yes, please do by my book because I do, I want to be a New York Times best selling author and only because I don't even know if I put that in my book that I was on the front page of New York Times in the gossip piece, I think that's in the book.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Oh-
Majora Carter:
I don't even-
Dr. Durell Cooper:
It is in the book.
Majora Carter:
Oh good, good, good.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
It is in the book.
Majora Carter:
Yes.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
It's in there.
Majora Carter:
I just think it'd be so great for me to be like, "Yeah, New York Times bestselling author, also New York Times cover girl of the gossip piece, yeah, same person."
Dr. Durell Cooper:
It's going to happen.
Majora Carter:
Let that happen.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
And in less than than 10 years too, because that story, yeah, it would be less than 10 years, absolutely.
Majora Carter:
Yep, yep, yep. Totally.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Wow.
Majora Carter:
I'm just waiting.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Well, when it happens, please allow me the opportunity to be able to maybe throw something at Bronxlandia or the Boogie Down Grind like a celebration, yeah, we'll do a-
Majora Carter:
That'll be my party. Yes. That will be like my party. I love it. Alrighty, well, thank so much, it was so nice to-
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Thank you so much, Majora.
Majora Carter:
It's always nice to see you and hear you and you're just the jewel, you really are, Dr. Cooper, we are lucky to have you walking on earth with the rest of us, that's all I'm saying.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Oh, thank you. You better stop. Thank you, Majora-
Majora Carter:
No, it's true-
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Have a great day. You're amazing.
Majora Carter:
Right back at you.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Thank you.
Majora Carter:
All right, love to you.
Dr. Durell Cooper:
Bye. Love to you too.
About the Contributors
Majora Carter is a real estate developer, urban revitalization strategy consultant, MacArthur Fellow and Peabody Award winning broadcaster. She's responsible for the creation of numerous economic development, technology inclusion & green-infrastructure projects, policies and job training & placement systems. She is also a lecturer at Princeton University's Keller Center.
Majora is quoted on the walls of the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture in DC: "Nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one” - which is also the subtitle of her 2022 book, Reclaiming Your Community.
In 2017, she launched the Boogie Down Grind, a Hip Hop themed speciality coffee & craft beer spot, and the first commercial “3rd Space” in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx since the mid-1980s. This venture also provides a rare opportunity for local families to invest through SEC approved online investment platforms. Majora was born, raised and continues to live in the South Bronx. She is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science (1984), Wesleyan University (1988 BA, Distinguished Alum) and New York University (MFA). After establishing Sustainable South Bronx (2001) and Green For All (2007), among other organizations, she opened this private consulting firm (2008) - which was named Best for the World by B-Corp in 2014.
Dr. Durell Cooper is one of the nation’s most prominent cultural strategists specializing in systems change and collaborative thought leadership. Prior to founding cultural innovation group, llc, he was a program officer at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). He also worked at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, inc. In the marketing department conducting outreach to veteran service organizations and for Lincoln Center education recruiting and training teaching artists as well as several community engagement initiatives aimed at increasing equity and inclusion in NYC public schools. Prior to that he was a public-school teacher. Durell is also a proud veteran of the U.S. Navy. He is also the creator and host of the web series, Flow, and the podcast, Fluency with Dr. Durell Cooper.
