How to respond?
What to say? How to take action to be helpful, to help correct the imbalance in our society, to be part of the solution? It has to be more than hashtags, posts, words.

Our message and firm foundation of who we are as a Cultural, Artistic, and Humanities Council, unequivocally supports and acknowledges the suffering, oppression, and injustices of Black Americans, Indigenous Peoples, People of Color throughout our nation.

Personally, I am looking locally, where there are people deeply in need, to see what actions would be meaningful – making contributions to local places like Haven House, Family Promise, the Food Bank, Healing Hand, among others, and national social justice organizations like Black Lives Matter and the Southern Poverty Law Center– and wondering where can I show up to work, or is staying home right now the action/non-action to take?

There are online reading lists, and time for reading and researching, plus weeding and self-reflection and weeding out, and listening.

We call on our community of Juneau, our arts partners, and colleagues around the state to collectively demand changes that will end the unjust systemic racism, colonization, and implicit bias that plague our country.

Our page has some resources: Juneau Arts and Humanities Council Statement on Racial Equity Let’s take action together, now.

Some things:

• It is First Friday this week – we are happy to offer both the Virtual First Friday option and a Stroll By option at the JACC: Come by to see seven wonderful murals by artists Bo Anderson, Meghan Chambers, Andrea Cook, Dan Fruits, MK MacNaughton, Pua Maunu, and Glo Ramirez. The weather forecast is promising for a pleasant walk around downtown.
• As the community slowly emerges from quarantine, posters and flyers are becoming a thing again. We will begin our postering service next Tuesday, June 9. Because the JACC is still closed, posters can be dropped (or printed) at Capital Copy no later than noon. Tell the Capital Copy crew to put your poster in the JACC pick up box.
• The two facilities continue their service to the community as shelters. We hope to have updates at the end of June with more news.
• Huge THANK YOU  to everyone who participated in the Virtual Clink! raffle. Congratulations to Tracey Miller, Debi Ballam, and Chris Schapp, our winners! and a special thank you to Specialty Imports for their support of this event.