[0:00] Welcome to the ONS podcast with your [0:03] host Lana Jacobson. [0:05] >> Good morning community. It's the ONS [0:07] podcast brought to you by our partners [0:09] at Face toface Academy. For those who [0:11] are tuning in for the first time, ONS [0:13] stands for Office of Neighborhood [0:15] Safety. I'm your host, Lana Jacobson, [0:17] and I'm part of the ONS team. This [0:20] podcast was created for departments like [0:22] ours and community organizations to [0:24] connect you to alternative public safety [0:26] measures, programs, and your local [0:28] growth and healing opportunities. [0:31] Today we have Dr. Darlene Fry. Hi. [0:34] >> Hello. [0:35] >> Aka Dr. D from the Irreducible Grace [0:39] Foundation's Black Youth Healing Arts [0:41] Center. IGF is a nonprofit organization [0:45] that is focused on creating safe spaces [0:47] for people of color, particularly youth. [0:50] Their programs teach stress management [0:52] techniques and how to deal with trauma. [0:55] So, first I'm going to start with [0:57] icebreaker questions and then we'll just [0:58] get into a little bit more about you. [1:00] >> Okay. [1:01] >> You have to choose one. Okay. Coffee and [1:04] coffee cake or tea and crumpets. [1:07] >> Oh, I'm a coffee and coffee cake kind of [1:09] person. No, I'm I'm not a crumpets. I [1:12] don't really know what crumpets are. [1:14] >> I just found out what a crumpet was. [1:18] I'm so silly. I just found out what a [1:19] crumpet was the other day because my [1:21] cousin just had a grandbaby. And when I [1:24] saw her, she just was like so poised. I [1:27] was like, "Oh my gosh, she's like tea [1:28] and crumpets." Like, you know, did you [1:30] would you like tea and crumpets? And I [1:32] was like, "What is a crumpet?" And then [1:34] I looked it up and it's like it's [1:36] basically like a um like a scone, little [1:38] biscuit. Yeah. And she's so cute and [1:40] poised. She looks like she should be [1:42] drinking her bottle with her pinky up. [1:44] >> Oh, [1:44] >> okay. So, what goes in your coffee? [1:47] >> I am a cream only, a flavored cream. [1:50] >> Okay. [1:50] >> Kind of coffee person cuz I'm, you know, [1:52] trying to stay away from the sugars. [1:54] >> Okay. And grounds or those little pod [1:57] things? Those little cured [1:58] >> I like little pod things. [2:00] >> Me neither. [2:00] >> It's like a lot of waste, you know, a [2:02] lot of extra plastic, [2:03] >> right? Well, and then it's like they [2:05] give you this much coffee and then you [2:06] have all this water. It's like really [2:08] that's not enough. Like I need my coffee [2:10] is stronger than that. It's like [2:12] drinking black water is what it really [2:14] is like. [2:16] >> Okay. So, colorful socks or just give me [2:19] black, white, or gray socks. [2:21] >> M colorful. [2:22] >> You seem like a colorful person. I wrote [2:24] this question for you this cuz you just [2:26] seem like a colorful person to me. You [2:28] do. [2:29] >> Okay. Waffles, French toast, or [2:31] pancakes? [2:33] >> Very much French toast. [2:34] >> Okay. [2:35] >> Yeah. [2:35] >> Maple syrup or blueberry? [2:37] >> Oh, maple syrup. [2:38] >> Okay. Dr. D, can you please take one [2:40] minute and give us some info on your [2:42] background? [2:44] >> Um, my background is varied and windy, I [2:48] guess. Uh, I grew up in Chicago, a kid [2:51] of the 80s, 90s, and went to college at [2:55] a very small town. Uh, it was the only [2:57] college I could get into because Dr. D [3:00] was not very academically focused in [3:02] those days. [3:03] >> Okay. [3:04] >> And had a lot of great experiences. [3:06] decided to go on to grad school, picked [3:08] a even smaller town in the middle of [3:10] Wisconsin and that brought me up to this [3:13] area and after that I was in college [3:16] residents life around the country in [3:18] California, Missouri, some other places [3:21] before coming back to the Twin Cities to [3:23] settle down and get my doctorate at the [3:24] University of St. Thomas. [3:26] >> So since then I've worked at uh colleges [3:29] and universities again on the faculty [3:31] side teaching in schools of education [3:33] and also moved to St. Paul public [3:36] schools and worked there as the [3:39] coordinator for the AVID program and [3:41] then moved into the director of college [3:43] and career readiness [3:44] >> and left there to start my nonprofit [3:46] irreducible grades foundation. [3:48] >> So I was reading your bio on the website [3:52] and I was like oh my gosh. So, I want [3:55] you to describe a little bit more about [3:59] why you started the Ireducable Grace [4:00] Foundation because it starts from from [4:03] children and I just want you to really [4:05] go into that. [4:06] >> Yeah. So, I as part of my job [4:09] responsibilities had to pull this on [4:11] time for graduation report for uh the [4:13] school district and found that there was [4:16] like 300 students who weren't going to [4:17] be graduating in their class on time [4:20] >> and worked with my staff, mostly [4:23] counselors at that time, to figure out [4:24] what was going on, what was happening. [4:26] And 90% of those 300 kids had been in [4:29] out of home placement [4:31] >> and the bulk of them had been in foster [4:33] care. At the time this report was [4:35] developed and pulled together, I had [4:37] recently adopted my own daughter from [4:39] Ramsey County [4:40] >> and I just felt like she would probably [4:42] be one of those kids if something [4:44] different didn't happen. [4:46] >> Um I felt like God was tugging on me to [4:49] do that something different. And in [4:51] Sunday school class, the uh question [4:53] was, "What are you not doing that God is [4:56] calling you to do?" [4:57] >> Amen. [4:58] >> I just began to kind of cry. Um I'm one [5:01] who usually holds in tears fiercely. So [5:04] I didn't know that I was crying. The [5:06] room just got blurry. And afterwards, my [5:09] pastor said, "I think we need to talk [5:10] about something." And I said, "I do." [5:14] And it was that I felt like God was [5:16] calling me to create a new entity, a new [5:19] organization that could help young [5:20] people who had been in foster care to [5:22] graduate from high school. I knew a few [5:25] folks, but not a lot. So myself and [5:27] another colleague pulled some young [5:29] people together who had already revealed [5:31] they had been in foster care and said, [5:33] "If you could create something new and [5:34] different that would help you, what [5:36] would that organization do?" And they [5:38] said, "It would help us to have folks [5:40] listen to our experiences. Mhm. [5:43] >> And so that was our very first session [5:48] and one of our staff members at the [5:50] time, Jan Mandel, helped them create a [5:52] play called Fostering Voice and that [5:54] began our organization and it really was [5:56] to help them to be seen and heard in [5:59] their lived experience to matter. Our [6:01] goal was to have them be able to trust [6:04] adults again, to have an adult present [6:06] walk with them through their life. So, [6:09] and then we were trying to think of a [6:10] name of this new organization [6:12] >> and because I had just adopted my [6:14] daughter and she was two and a half [6:16] >> um but she was the size of a [6:18] one-year-old because of her neglect [6:20] >> and um but she just had this light and [6:23] aura about her. You know, when adults [6:25] came in the room, she'd want to be [6:27] noticed and held and hugged and and we [6:29] just thought that that was amazing for a [6:31] child who had been emotionally and [6:33] physically neglected for so long in her [6:35] early life. And we wanted to encompass [6:38] kind of that same thing. We wanted other [6:41] children who had been in foster care to [6:42] give us that kind of openness and to be [6:45] open to letting adults back in their [6:47] life. And so we were trying to [6:48] encapsulate what was in her spirit. And [6:51] so we came on this word irreducible, not [6:54] something you can add to or take from. [6:56] >> Um and her name, the second part of her [6:58] name which I gave her was grace. And so [7:00] that's where irreducible grace came [7:02] from. [7:02] >> Gosh, that is beautiful. Oh, I didn't [7:04] know that this is where that was going [7:06] to go. [7:07] >> That is beautiful. Oh, thank you. [7:09] >> I love it. How old is Grace now? [7:11] >> Uh, Monday she'll be 21. [7:12] >> Oh, wow. That is beautiful. [7:15] >> Yes. And if you ever introduced If you [7:17] ever meet her and she introduces herself [7:19] at an event of ours, she'll go, "I'm the [7:21] person the foundation is named after." [7:23] >> Oh, [7:25] that proud moment. [7:26] >> Yes. [7:27] >> Tell us about the Black Youth Healing [7:29] Arts Center. Well, the Black Youth [7:32] Healing Arts Center is a new space in [7:34] Frogtown. Uh we're relatively new, two [7:37] years old, and it came out of listening [7:39] to young people again. They said they [7:41] wanted a space where they could heal and [7:43] be safe. And some of our young people um [7:46] were coming off the traumas of, you [7:48] know, dealing with the death of Philando [7:49] Castile, which some of our young people [7:51] have been classmates with at Central. We [7:54] had the George Floyd, Dante Wright, all [7:56] those incidences where they felt like [7:59] where is their safe space? where is a [8:00] space that they could just go and be and [8:02] talk about what they need and what they [8:04] feel and they just didn't feel like they [8:06] had that. And so we had already been an [8:08] organization for about 10 years. We were [8:10] programming out of camper Memorial [8:12] United Methodist Church and the young [8:15] people just said we need a bigger space [8:17] with more things happening so that you [8:20] know you can find your space to heal or [8:22] to be well or just to be calm or just to [8:24] be quiet or to be really loud. And so, [8:28] um, we began to look around and we found [8:29] this building in Frogtown at 643 [8:32] Virginia Street. And it was the old St. [8:34] Paul City Schools, but before that, it [8:36] had been the Red Schoolhouse, [8:38] >> okay? [8:38] >> Which was in the 70s a school that was [8:41] by and for and bought for uh Native [8:44] American families so they could teach [8:45] their kids language and culture. [8:47] >> Um, and they were there for 20 years. [8:49] And so I think part of when we drove up [8:53] to the building and saw it that it [8:55] pulled us in and we feel like the spirit [8:58] of those who were in the red schoolhouse [9:01] is still there. And so we wanted to [9:03] build on that legacy. [9:05] >> But it's a space for young people to [9:06] come learn different ways to utilize art [9:10] or to to get out their creativity and [9:12] then also learn healing modalities. [9:16] >> I love it. I love it. What are some of [9:18] the programs you offer at IGF's Black [9:21] Youth Healing Arts Center? [9:23] >> Yeah, so we have a weekly schedule. It's [9:25] pretty diverse. Um, we have Afro [9:27] Drumming, [9:28] >> um, which is led by one of our young [9:30] people, and it's Afro Bomba, which is [9:34] derived from Puerto Rican drumming, [9:37] although they do drumming from every u [9:39] multiple diasporic areas. Um, we have [9:42] sewing, we have afro dance, we have a [9:46] garden out front, which is a community [9:48] garden that kicks off in the end of this [9:50] month. And we also have poetry with DZ [9:54] Smith, who is an internationally known [9:56] poet. He has a book on the New York [9:59] Times and he was just chosen as the [10:02] Minnesota author of poetry for this [10:05] year. So we have other programming such [10:07] as chess. Uh we have rhymes and rhythms, [10:11] cooking up rhymes and rhythms. So you [10:13] can cook one week and you can make [10:15] poetry the next week or a spoken word or [10:17] a song about what you cooked. [10:19] >> We have affirmation arts, uh ceramics. [10:23] >> I almost came there on Sunday. You guys [10:25] had massages, free massages. I got this [10:27] pinched nerve girl in the back. [10:29] >> Oh yeah. [10:29] >> Of my neck. [10:30] >> Mhm. Yes. [10:32] >> I was looking at your flyer. I was like, [10:34] should I go over there on Sunday? [10:35] >> You could have. [10:37] >> Yeah, I probably should have took the [10:38] time. I was in the bed, though. [10:40] >> Yeah. So, some Sundays we do self-care [10:43] Sundays, so two two times a month. So, [10:45] those are topics that young people have [10:46] asked for certain things to be offered. [10:48] Um, so yes, this past Sunday was really [10:50] busy with massage, ceramics, uh we have [10:53] painting, uh with the local artists as [10:56] well. So, yes, we have a variety. So, [10:59] that's a good segue into the next [11:00] question because I'm getting ready to [11:02] ask you, why is self-care and healing an [11:05] important part of rehabilitation when it [11:07] comes to community violence? [11:09] >> Yeah, it's very important because we [11:12] have to learn to deal with the physical [11:14] aspects of those emotions, um the [11:17] physical aspects of trauma. If we don't [11:20] move it out of our body, it stays. We [11:24] attach certain memories to it and then [11:26] we hold on to it and it becomes a muscle [11:28] memory. And when it becomes a muscle [11:30] memory, it's just reactive. So anytime [11:34] something flares up that muscle memory [11:36] again, you will get a reaction that's [11:38] probably going to be negative. And so [11:41] the healing work is very important to [11:44] mitigate those feelings and so you don't [11:47] attach memories to them unless of course [11:49] they're joyous memories but that usually [11:51] doesn't happen in trauma right [11:53] >> so the importance of it is so we also [11:56] stop that in its tracks because we also [12:00] tend to pass on those muscle memories to [12:02] those around us. It can also become a [12:04] legacy of sort if you hold trauma in [12:07] your body when you have children. [12:09] science has demonstrated that there's [12:11] epigenetics so that you literally pass [12:14] that on to your child and they react and [12:17] they don't know why they're reacting. [12:19] Yeah. [12:19] >> Um and so that's a lot of times [12:21] sometimes you see that a lot in schools [12:23] um with children very young that they [12:26] react to things that have been passed [12:28] down to them and it's an adult of peace [12:32] is not their own. [12:34] >> Do you have any testimonies that you can [12:36] share in how your organization has [12:37] helped victims of trauma? Yeah, I think [12:40] that you know and again it takes some [12:41] time but one of our young people who has [12:46] had a lot of trauma in their life um [12:47] because their parent well both of their [12:50] parents I guess met in rehab and over [12:53] time had had different relapses uh and [12:55] that type of thing and the way that they [12:59] um co-parented and the way that they [13:02] raised her sometimes was not what she [13:05] needed and I think over time and her [13:08] working with us. She learned to have the [13:11] words and the skills to have [13:12] conversations with them. It took a lot [13:15] of selfwork for her own development and [13:17] self-care to know and understand that [13:20] what she was experiencing sometimes [13:22] wasn't her own. It was probably her [13:24] parents and it could have been something [13:26] as they um received from their parents. [13:30] M [13:30] >> and so that to do that generational work [13:32] as well and over time I've seen herself [13:35] as a mother do things very differently [13:37] and very intentionally because of the [13:39] work that she has done with us over the [13:41] years. [13:42] >> Praise God. [13:43] >> What are your goals for healing the city [13:45] of St. Paul? [13:46] >> Oo, that's a lofty one. [13:51] >> Manifest it. Put it out there. [13:53] >> Put it out there. I think we look at our [13:56] work as a ripple and we want to be that [13:59] boulder that goes in the pond that makes [14:01] a big ripple about knowing that [14:04] self-care, self-standing and self-love [14:07] is the basis of healing trauma and that [14:10] we all deserve that and it's really hard [14:12] to get to that point when things around [14:14] you say differently. And so we hope that [14:18] we are models and can be models of what [14:22] healthy, loving, caring relationships [14:26] can be in community. One of the things [14:28] about having our building that I love so [14:30] much is that we've had a lot of elders [14:33] come into our process now. And you know, [14:36] you think about coming out of CO and how [14:38] elders were specifically really isolated [14:42] because of their vulnerability and [14:44] susceptibility [14:46] >> and to have them in our space and to [14:48] have that intergenerational connection [14:51] and community has just been a blessing [14:53] that we didn't foresee. And I think that [14:55] that is something else I would want to [14:57] wish for the city of St. Paul, that we [15:00] can have those relationships that go [15:02] from birth to, you know, end of life [15:04] cycle and that people are included and [15:06] seen and heard and understood. [15:09] >> Thank you, Dr. D. And thank you for [15:11] sharing your story in the very [15:13] beginning. Like I said, I got to read a [15:15] little clips of that, but just you going [15:17] into depth, that was just that's [15:18] beautiful. That whole story is [15:20] beautiful. [15:21] >> Thank you. [15:22] >> The city of St. Paul is working to [15:24] rehabilitate, intervene, and provide [15:26] safer neighborhoods. If you'd like to [15:28] learn more about Ireducible Grace [15:30] Foundation and its programs like the [15:32] Black Youth Healing Arts Center, you can [15:34] find them at irrce.org. [15:39] If you'd like to learn more about [15:41] Community First Public Safety and the [15:43] Office of Neighborhood Safety, please [15:44] visit us at staul.govs. GV/ONS