Documents are living. On Jan 12th, we received the incorporation papers that birthed the Lace On Race Center for Racial Equity. Eighteen days later, we had a christening of sorts.

The inaugural Board of LORCRE convened and officially named and held our baby to the light. 

This organization lives. After a three year gestation. My heart is so full. 

This will forever be the time of the year, when we are still basking in the glow of our anniversary; this will also be the perfect time to also usher in what is both brand new and already in force. To celebrate who we are now in this moment, as we turn our faces and our walking sticks to our shared North Star.  

And to look to the future. Since the founding, and also as I labored and witnessed the growth of Lace on Race, I have also had my eye on what we now call our Western Star: a commitment to health, sustainability, and longevity of this living breathing organization. There was a time I said out loud something I had barely even articulated internally: I want this space, this community, this ethos, this method–I want all of this to outlive me. 

So, I began pouring ever more into my staff and leadership team, as well as people outside our community. I wanted them to have every drop of all me: my mind, my heart, my soul. I wanted to hold nothing back from the community I love oh, so much. 

So I knew I had to start planting the seeds for a new tree: a tree I may never live to see to fruition, but will nurture with every fiber of my being. 

That I have so many people nurturing the tree with me has been incredible: breathing on it; pruning it; caressing its soil with compost; singing to it. 

The tree will live beyond me. The tree will live beyond me. Kind candor will live beyond me. The Five Tenets will live beyond me. 

And Now.

The Cafe in the middle of Welp Street. Takeout. All the Dining Rooms and the Bistro (and we are putting finishing touches on even more!!).

And the Chef’s Table. My Magnum Opus, soon to open. 

Yes, documents are living. The foundational documents we have crafted, including our Bylaws, are the fertile, rich soil from which our newest tree, the sapling that is the Lace on Race Center for Racial Equity will grow. In and Up and Out. 

Just like us. 

Yes, yes. 

Read the documents. But also feel the love embedded in the words and inhale our shared fragrance that swirls in and through and around the words, words that are by no means dry, but misted with Hesed, and cultivated and crafted with care.

And Lace on Race is Here. Enter in. 

LORCRE-Bylaws-Adopted-and-Certified-1.30.2021