On this episode, Aja speaks with Sarah Carlson about artistry, documenting local history, cancer and personal transformations.

Sarah speaks openly, for the first time, about her breast cancer diagnosis and the journey it takes her on. She emphasizes the importance of owning your wellness and how to not become just another object on the medical conveyor belt.

Sarah Ann Carlson has spent most of her career as a filmmaker and artist passionate about social justice and personal and community healing. At the end of 2020, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. What followed is a deep plunge into health, genetics, and methods of detoxification as she figured out a roadmap to prevention, vitality, and resilience. Having just recently celebrated the one year anniversary of her diagnosis, she is eager to share the  information with others in her new health coaching and healing practice at sarahanncarlson.com

Terri and Helene welcome Kwame Holmes to this episode of the Good Work Hour. Kwame’s Good Work is expressed through many channels. One is through the Kingston Housing Lab, a project which, in his position as a scholar-in-residence at Bard College, Kwame and students have geocoded and collected information on hundreds of properties in Kingston’s Midtown section. Through KHL, data is emerging about the role of corporate ownership in the local property market, the impact of Airbnbs and other vacation rental sites on the rental market, and the realities of gentrification.

In addition to his work focused on the Kingston housing market, Kwame provides leadership to the Bard Baccalaureate program (BardBac), a full-scholarship pathway for adults  to complete bachelor’s degrees from Bard College.

Kwame Holmes is scholar-in-residence in the human rights program at Bard College. He has worked at the intersection of academic and community activism throughout his career and, since moving to Kingston, is working to transform the public discourse on housing justice through the Kingston Housing Lab. 

[email protected]

bac.bard.edu

Hosted by Susan and Terri

At the start of a new year, our guest Helanna reflects on a transition in her life, sharing learning from 17 years running a program growing youth and experiences that motivate and support her movement toward working in healthcare. She finds that these two types of work use different tools and vocabulary, but come from the same place in her mind and heart, where she is guided by her values. 

Helanna Bratman is a GWI Fellow from the 5th cohort and mother of two daughters who was the founding coordinator of the Green Teen Community Gardening Program in Beacon under the auspices of Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County from 2004-2021. She’s worked on farms, counseled teens at a crisis shelter, educated with arts and other orgs, studied photojournalism and humanistic multicultural education, grown vegetables and raised chickens.

Decades of experience in transformative mediation and focusing on human rights locally come together in the past experience and current work of Jody Miller. When asked what links constructive approaches to conflict and responding to incidents of bias, Jody names “amplifying voice and choice” and “listening” saying that “coming together in community and collaboration is critical.” In this interview, Jody reflects about the work of the Dutchess County Commission on Human Rights – whose mission is Defending Human Rights, Bridging Differences and Embracing Diversity – in a context of increased incidents of bias and hate speech, and shares insights about navigating community or interpersonal conflict constructively from her previous role serving as executive director of a community mediation center.

Dutchess County Commission on Human Rights

What s a Moolah Doula? A money mentor, a financial friend, a compassionate counselor who works by your side as you learn tools to become financially grounded and directed.  No sales pitches, no commissions no management fees.

On this episode of The Good Work Institute, co-hosts Terri and Susan welcome Joanna Leffeld, the Hudson Valley’s own Moolah Doula! Joanna helps women give birth to a healthier and more grounded relationship with money. A former Certified Financial Planner, Joanna helps individuals and couples relieve stress around money in order to live more abundant lives. 

www.joannaleffeld.com

Co-hosts Terri and Susan first met Elizabeth Audley when she became a Good Work Fellow in 2018. Elizabeth has been working in theater for more than 20 years, as an actor, director, writer, producer, and has been a planning and relationship building consultant for non-profit arts organizations of all types and sizes. She has a keen interest in new, devised, and community based work in all its forms.

On this episode of The Good Work Hour, we learn about Elizabeth’s beginnings as a theater kid, her journey through NYC as a working actress, and what brought her and her family to the Hudson Valley. We also talk about the reckoning happening in the theater industry, as multi-generational “artivists” call out racism, inequity and abuse and are growing a movement calling for justice in their professional sphere and the world at large.

Resources:

Broadway Advocacy Coalition

We See You White American Theater