If you know the words you can sing along as well.
I know the people on this side do, yo.
Cause I don't need money.
I don't need fame.
I just need something, nah.
That will get through this pain.
We are in Jefferson Park, and today we were attending one
of our concerts that's been funded by the Welcome Back Seattle grant.
The Welcome Back Seattle grants were for
all of the city to come back and do some healing
and to do some work in the communities that really are underserved.
We gave out a total of 38 grants, so some will be
happening in later in the summer and fall, and some have started already.
We've got people that are feeding the homeless.
We've got people that are teaching young people how to be entrepreneurs.
We've got people that are of all different races, creeds
and colors, doing wonderful work in the communities.
I would say 90% of our members
are senior citizens, so people over 50.
This year we have 15 exercise
sessions and 5 in-person and 10 on Zoom.
The majority of our members also really have low income.
So by having food. The people, buy food during lunch hour for them so that
keeps our program going.
It's a big deal for us.
It's, I would say, more or less put during the pandemic.
It's survival for some of our members some of our
seniors who doesn't go out at all in the last two years.
This draws them out, and the program
also provides, we can provide PPE.
So it's a matter of surviving for
our, senior citizens to be able to come out and socialize with their friends.
These grants are
important because we haven't been able to enjoy
the things that we got so accustomed to.
We're essentially recreating
our open practice sessions that we used to have at the Massive Monkees studio, the Beacon.
And with that closing down, there
was nothing else for us to do, nowhere else for us to go.
It just was able to provide funding for us to be able to staff it with
seasoned and experienced dancers to be able to facilitate the program.
Having an actual space for people to come together, to be able to dance again,
regardless of whatever their house life is.
I think it's important.
It's open to all skill levels of dance.
As long as they're willing to try and do something fun and just hang out
with some good people, that's what we're here for.
COVID took a lot from us,
and this is a way for us to give back.
It still allows us to be a community again.
I see the Welcome Back Seattle grant
as like Seattle Parks and Recreation's way
of activating
community parks in a really relevant way to that neighborhood.
We're doing equity parks, which are parks
that are not as popular or that are
underused in our spaces.
We're at Judkins Park and,
Griot Girlz tells stories
and allows others to tell their stories
through dance,
theater,
drum, music,
chant., and song.
I'm able to serve more people with the grant,
and I think
it builds relationships
between artists and the community,
so it allows us to be here and to serve.
We are having lots of
violence, lots of death and destruction going on in our world right now.
And to be able to have things that are family-oriented,
that are safe, that are
accessible to people is very important.
2 jumping jacks, step it out, step it out.
We have a number of fitness programs
that are running right now.
We are a nonprofit health and fitness organization.
We started in February 2020, so right before corona hit and then we had to go virtual.
And then, when it was OK to come outside and do
group fitness in person again, we started going back in person. First in Tacoma
but then when we got the grant from Seattle, the
Welcome Back grant, we then started going to Seattle Parks.
Part of our mission and
vision is to change the culture of fitness, health and wellness within the BIPOC community.
So these are communities that don't have the
resources that our counterparts, white counterparts have.
So what some people may take for granted because they already have it handed to them?
We don't have that all.
So what it means is giving them the resources that they should already have.
So it's filling in those huge gaps that we have in our community and fulfilling it,
so it means a lot.
Words can't even express it. Yeah, yeah.
And we don't give these grants to large
organizations or government agencies.
It's just for those community groups and we're saying,
tell us what you want to do in your park and they apply.
We have, you know, community leaders, small groups, small groups that gather
together as partners or small organizations from those neighborhoods.
It's diverse.
It's all different kinds of people bringing their
their thoughts, their ideas and their compassion to the work that they're doing.
So it's beautiful.
Out. Love you all.
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