“Are you with me now” A J Ryder
What a Difference a Day Makes – Dinah Washington
Really, it is more like two days than a day but in the course of 48 hours we received word from the San Diego Foundation, Pam Roy, Jack and Deb Forrest and Schwab and Stuart Foundations awarding us funding of over $1million for B-Unbound, International Big Picture Learning Credential, BPLiving and ImBlaze. Many of us put in lots of time including Andrea, Anthonette, Andrew, MR, Scott and yours truly. Not bad for 48 hours.
Starbucks
A couple of things about Starbucks. I was reading an article that explains why Starbucks is in a heap of trouble. Basically, they went awry of their core values that created personal and friendly environments. At least that was their vision. I remember writing a piece that discussed how not all Starbucks were the same i.e. the non-standardization of standards. My New Orleans Starbucks was not my NYC Starbucks and back then both made me feel at home. These places – third spaces took on a local identity where employees knew customers and customers knew one another. Now for the sake of efficiency and cost-saving, they introduced drive throughs, ordering online and coffees that have way too many ingredients that consequently take too long to make. This makes walk-in customers wait and wait until they walk out. Starbucks has gone from personal to impersonal and now they are trying to get back to their roots. This is what happens when you get big and don’t maintain your small. It is a reminder about how we do what we do going forward. It doesn’t have to be like this but very few places have really figured out how to stay small as they grow. We’ve figured out a great deal about how to do the things we do with youth driven learning. Now, we will figure this out as well. The BPL board meeting today was a good step in that direction. I’m really happy with how Carlos, Andrew and Gislaine are moving the board along. So far so good as the person falling out the 20-story building said, “So far so good.”
On the international front this week, we started conversations with Macedonia and The Philippines and I had my weekly call with principals in Winnipeg.
From White House to Blues House
In 1964 Dizzy Gillespie ran for President. This was no joke. Well, I guess it sort of was. In response to the times, he threw in his hat. One of Dizzy’s songs, Salt Peanuts became his campaign song. VOTE DIZZY! VOTE DIZZY! Da..,da,da,da.., VOTE DIZZY VOTE Dizzy ….. His cabinet consisted of Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis (Director of the CIA), Max Roach (Secretary of Defense), Charles Mingus (Secretary of Peace), Ray Charles (Librarian of Congress), Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture), Mary Lou Williams (Ambassador to the Vatican), Thelonious Monk(Travelling Ambassador) and Malcolm X (Attorney General).[5][6]He said his running mate would be Phyllis Diller. Gillespie pledged to provide housing and hospital care for all those who needed it and to withdraw American troops from the Vietnam War. When asked why he was running for the presidency, Gillespie replied "Because we need one", this became the slogan for his campaign. Diz said, if elected he would change the name of the White House to the Blues House.
I’m mentioning Diz because for decades I felt we needed an artist as president, not a con artist, businessman, politician, athlete or scientist but a true artist. Until then I wait and of course, I Vote. Thanks Naseem and Joshua and anyone else I might have missed here for their attention to BPL Votes - https://www.bigpicture.org/_files/ugd/10a73d_a413bedaf55848378ec943c82dd3ad6e.pdf.
In closing, I just had a great catch-up with Debbie Meier. She’s in good form and is in the process of raising funds for a documentary on the alums of Central Park East Secondary School. Recently, it was their 50th Anniversary.
Next week, I’ll be meeting with Anthonette, Pam and the Working Wardrobes crew to get B-Unbound of the ground in Orange County. Then off to Providence for meetings on the 30th Anniversary of BPL and the Met. Coincidentally, Juan Huertas one of our students from the first graduating class emailed me about starting his own skilled trades business. Juan has been a union carpenter for 18 years. Luckily, I had a call with Phalana Tiller at the Harbor Freight Leadership Lab and Beth White about an important panel they are putting together on women and people of color in the skilled trades and Phalana knew someone in Boston that is a connection for Juan. “And so it goes….”
Be well!
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