REFLECTIONS/Jonathan Gramling
Community Notes
I hope everyone is doing well today and always. The last several weeks have seen several milestones that I have been privileged to witness. September 28th was itself a pretty eventful day.
It started out with the 16th Annual Black Women’s Wellness Day that was founded by Lisa Peyton — then Lisa Peyton-Caire — in Maryland where she grew up. Lisa’s mom owned a beauty salon — if my memory serves me well — and died of a heart attack when she was only in her mid-50s. Outside of losing her mother at such a young age, it also served to remind lisa in a personal way of the health disparities that Black Women face. This was no statistic. This was Lisa’s mom.
And so the next year to commemorate her mother, Lisa held the first Black Women’s Wellness Day perhaps at a local library where a group of women gathered. A tradition had begun.
When Kaleem Caire got the job at the Urban League CEO, Lisa and the kids followed behind. And Lisa continued with the observance on the first floor of the Urban League’s new offices on S. Park Street. That is when I first covered the event.
Lisa established — with help from her friends — The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness after that to continue the work that the Wellness Day called for. One day only scratched the surface of the health disparity and it would take years of intense programming and education to be able to turn the tide while also pointing out to the mainstream health systems the things that they needed to do to reduce and eliminate the disparities. The foundation was going to do the work year round while Black Women’s Wellness Day allowed women — particularly Black women — to come together to learn, support each other and celebrate.
Both the Foundation and the Wellness Day have grown considerably since those modest starts. In 2022, the Foundation had $2.41 million in revenues. While that is not enough to solve one of society’s most persistent health problems, it does represent quite a community investment to provide workshops, exercise programs and other initiatives on a constant basis to raise Black women up in a healthy way. Of particular note is the Healthy Babies campaign. The model that has been developed and tested did begin to move the needle for healthy outcomes for Black women and their babies. We pray that the needle keeps moving in the right direction and continues to gain momentum.
From its very humble beginnings that first year, Black Women’s Wellness Day has grown by leaps and bounds. While it took an in-person hiatus during the COVID pandemic years, it came back strong. For the past two years, it has attracted about 1,000 people to Monona Terrace. It has become almost a spiritual event with the participants being uplifted believing that they can make a positive impact on theirs and their children’s health. A lot of optimism fills the air.
And it is almost like a family reunion. I got all of the hugs I needed on that day. There were people whom I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. And while there weren’t as many of us Baby Boomers there as there had been before, it is heartening to see so many young people embrace their health and the health of their children. It gives me hope that we can eliminate the health disparities for Black women — and Black men. And on the day that happens in the future, people will look around and realize that the elimination of those disparities benefited everyone, financially and socially. May that day come soon.
I went from the Black Women’s Wellness Day at Monona Terrace to the Concourse Hotel on the other side of the Capitol Square for the UW-Madison’s PEOPLE Program’s 25th Anniversary Celebration. I had begun reporting on the PEOPLE Program when it was established in 1999. At thje same time, I took over as editor of The Madison Times when the late — and great — Betty Franklin-Hammonds died of an asthma attach in April of that year.
My first article on PEOPLE was titled Up with PEOPLE and I remember it featured Akbar Ally, Vice-Chancellor Paul Barrrows and then State Senator Gwen Moore. If I am not mistaken, the state legislature had just approved the creation of PEOPLE and it led to the first cohort of 66 students from Milwaukee.
About five years later, the late Jackie DeWalt — the director of PEOPLE — and Walter Lane tapped me to teach a three-week course for the PEOPLE middle school students, where we would go out in the community, interview and write about scientists and other professionals of color and then publish The Diversity Times with the students’ stories and photographs. We handed out our newspaper proudly to the other PEOPLE middle school student a the celebration to end the summer session. I truly enjoyed working with the students. I taught that class every summer until the middle school component ended.
Anyway, it was so awesome to see so many people connected who were or are connected with the program. Former students spoke and some staff spoke as well including Kia Hunter who is the program’s director and Goodson Vue who has been with the program for 16 years and is now the assistant director in charge of the collegiate program. It has been awesome to see the two of them grow professionally with the program over the years.
It was also cool to see three of my former TAs from my newspaper class at the program. All three are at least working for the university now and at least one is working in the PEOPLE Program in Milwaukee.
I am so glad to see the program continue. It has had a positive impact on my life and I know that it has positively impacted the thousands of students who have participated in it for the last 25 years. One good 25 years deserves another for the sake of — dare I say it — the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion that should guide us all.
Up with PEOPLE!