Our shift to a 4-day workweek
Beginning this month, Headwaters permanently shifted to a four-day work week. This means that full time staff now work 32 hours per week and that Headwaters’ business hours will be Monday – Thursday, 9AM – 5PM, closed Fridays.
Over the past two years, Headwaters has been in conversation with staff and peers, both nationally and locally, about how we can support our people while living more fully into the Foundation’s commitments to center liberation and disrupt systems of exploitation. Our leadership believes that when institutions can do more or better, they should.
With that and the wisdom of movement leaders, healers, and workplace advocates in mind, Headwaters leadership made the call to shift to a four-day work week, while maintaining staff salary and benefits unchanged.
Janiece Watts combines power and wisdom
February's installment of our Donor Stories project features powerful environmental justice advocate and Headwaters champion, Janiece Watts!
In her story, Janiece shares how the Giving Project deepened her understanding of her class background and how her involvement at Headwaters has helped expand her analysis and advocacy in her environmental justice work.
"Headwaters is my movement home because it opens space for me to do a lot of the justice work I'm already doing, but with this added layer of understanding around money – moving money and wanting to understand how money can be medicine, not just a tool of oppression and evil, which is what I always thought."
We invite you to get to know Janiece, learn about her journey with Headwaters and all the way she activates her power by reading her story on our website.
(Photo by Nance Musinguzi)
Accepting nominations for The Black Seed Fund
We are proud to introduce The Black Seed Fund – Headwaters’ newest grantmaking fund!
The Black Seed Fund makes grants to Black-led work that move us closer to liberation This fund honors the revolutionary spirit, context, and times from which Black identities emerge.
We are currently accepting nominations for Black Seed Fund grants. The Fund is open to Black-led nonprofits and fiscally-sponsored groups that are based in Minnesota and serving Minnesota populations. Grants will provide $20,000 to $50,000 of general operating support over two years.
The nomination deadline is Friday, March 18 at 5 p.m. CT.
In a first for Headwaters, the Black Seed Fund will be accepting nominations of organizations from peers in community, rather than applications from organizations themselves. More information about this nomination process can be found on our website.
February Community Events
AICHO’s Aadizookaan: Anishinaabe Winter Legends Storytelling
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 6:30 p.m.
Michael Sullivan Sr. and his 14-year-old son Preston will share traditional stories about Wenabozho, a historical and spiritual icon of the Ojibwe-Anishinaabeg. Both will share a story and each story will be translated into English. The Sullivans come from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation in Northern Wisconsin.
Muslim & Jewish Women's (Virtual) Day at the Capitol
Monday, February 14, 2022 at 10 a.m.
Join us for our fourth annual Muslim and Jewish Women's (Virtual) Day at the Capitol! If you're wondering how to get involved for 2022, start here.
As Muslim and Jewish women, we're socialized to believe awful stereotypes about one another. When we come together in resistance to create change in our state, we actively combat systems of white supremacy and white nationalism. Join us virtually this year to fight for things we all care about.
Community Conversation | A Story Disrupted: Indigenous Perspectives
Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 5 p.m.
Friends of the Falls and the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) are partnering with the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board to consider the future of the Upper Lock at Owámniyomni (meaning “turbulent waters” in the Dakota language), St. Anthony Falls. The lock closed to commercial navigation in 2015 and now presents an opportunity to not only restore public access to the river, but to create a place of healing and celebration that acknowledges the past and advances a more equitable and inclusive future.
Attend an upcoming Community Conversation to connect with Native leaders, the design team, and neighbors and discuss topics like restoration, programming, connectivity, and economic opportunity.
Steven Premo: Avenues of Creation Opening Reception
Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 6 p.m.
Through his lifelong artistic career, multi-disciplinary artist and designer, Steven Premo (Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe), learned that there are many different avenues for creation, and each requires a particular medium.
In his Twin Cities solo exhibition debut, Steve reflects his pride in his Ojibwe heritage through a variety of retrospective works highlighting narratives of the Mille Lacs Ojibwe people and the evolution of Ojibwe art forms.
Embracing Our Roots: John Wright and Brittany Delaney
Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 6 p.m.
On Thursday, February 17, 2022, Spoken Word Artist/Arts Educator, Brittany Delaney will join Distinguished Professor Emeritus John S. Wright in a conversation about Dr. Wright’s storied career at the U of M beginning with his leadership of the Morrill Hall takeover in 1969 when he was an undergrad – the event that led to the founding of the African American Studies program. They will also discuss his role in the acquisition of The Givens Collection of African Literature which holds over 10,000 books, magazines, and pamphlets by or about African Americans, and the performative history of the traveling multimedia "Langston Hughes Project -- Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz" that he created and toured the country with beginning in the 1990s.
Virtual House Tour
Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 11:30 a.m.
Join Executive Director, AsaleSol Young and the Real Estate Development team on a virtual house tour.
Walk with us through a newly remodeled home as we talk about the importance of homeownership in creating housing equity in Minnesota. Learn more about the ways Urban Homeworks creates opportunities for first-time buyers and ask questions about our Real Estate Development program. Come ready to learn more about how we can all help eliminate barriers to homeownership for our neighbors
Tribal Enterprise & Value Added Products
Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 12 p.m.
Sakari Farms owner Spring Alaska Schreiner will guide you through their journey as an Indigenous Farm and Tribal Food Producer. Information on tribal business planning, tribal commerce, marketing, labeling and packaging will be discussed. Presentation will be centered on and be focused on emerging and established American Indian/Alaska Native entrepreneurs.
Breaking Cycles of Childhood Sexual Violence: Is It Possible? Film Screening -- "Hollow Water"
Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 2 p.m.
Many of us know how horrible Shadow Prisons in Minnesota are, and if you don't this is your chance to learn.] But as we work to phase out and reinvest these $100 million a year unconstitutional facilities -- prison after prison for what someone "might do" -- we also need to know that the cycle of sexual violence can be stopped.
This is what inspired us to learn from and discuss this powerful and heartwarming film "Hollow Water", about the First Nations people in a Canadian reservation of that name.
Carl Gawboy "New Paintings, Old Stories" Solo Art Exhibition - AICHO Galleries
Saturday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. – Saturday, March 19 as 6 p.m.
AICHO is beyond thrilled to host Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe citizen and Finnish painter Carl Gawboy this March through May 2022 in our AICHO Galleries with a series of brand new – never-before-seen work created in 2020 and 2021! The exhibition will include a collection of over 30 watercolor, acrylics and ink washes that feature Anishinaabe and Finnish cultural life, landscapes and spiritual teachings. Also on display will be Carl’s artist awards, his book/ publications and visual accolades for the work that he has created.
