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The Progressive Leaders
of
Glide
Memorial United Methodist Church
Rev.
Cecil Williams & Janice Mirikitani
Rev.
Cecil Williams
CEO and Minister of
Glide's National and International Ministries
In his 37 years as Pastor of Glide Memorial
United Methodist Church, Reverend Cecil Williams has created a
church that practices diversity, spirituality, and compassion.
As a minister, community leader, author, lecturer, and
spokesperson for the poor and marginalized, he is respected and
recognized as a national leader on the forefront of social
change. His vision for a truly inclusive church has attracted a
10,000 member congregation, an extended family, who reflect the
diversity of the world- all races, ages, genders, ethnicities,
sexual orientations and religions. What brings this community of
people together is the common search for acceptance, spiritual
growth, and social justice. Cecil's spirituality demands action
through good works, as staff and thousands of volunteers feed
over 1 million meals a year to the hungry, and offer the hope of
recovery and healing in the lives of the city's most
marginalized. His tireless work over the last 37 years has made
Glide one of the most active, dynamic churches in the world,
receiving national and international acclaim. Reverend Williams
is married to Janice Mirikitani. He has a son, daughter, and 2
grandchildren.
Janice
Mirikitani
Executive Director and President of the
Glide Foundation
Multicultural visionary. Poet. Executive
Director of Glide's 52 programs. Janice Mirikitani, also the
President of the Glide Foundation, has been a powerful force at
Glide since 1965. A third-generation Japanese-American, Janice
has developed groundbreaking multiracial, multicultural programs
which have transformed and empowered the Tenderloin community -
especially the lives of women and children. Glide programs,
recognized for their relevance, inclusiveness, and effective
outreach to the most marginalized populations of the city, are
comprehensive and designed to help break the cycle of
dependency. These essential services include a free meals
program, a health clinic, recovery programs, educational,
tutorial, recreational programs for children and youth,
counseling and job training services. Guided by Janice's
leadership, Glide's growth has been phenomenal, with an annual
budget of $11 million, a diverse staff of 230, and a volunteer
cadre that swelled in numbers to 35,000 in 1999. As an author,
Mirkitani has written and edited dozens of landmark books,
journals, and anthologies, and her own three books of poetry. In
2000, her achievements as an author were recognized with the
prestigious appointment as San Francisco's Poet Laureate. Janice
Mirikitani is married to Reverend Cecil Williams. She has one
daughter.
History of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church: www.glide.org/ourstories/timeline.asp
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From San Francisco's New Poet Laureate
Selected
works of Janice Mirikitani:
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| Yes,
We Are Not Invisible
(excerpt)
No,
I'm not from Tokyo, Singapore or Saigon.
No,
your dogs are safe with me.
No,
I don't invade the park for squirrel meat.
No,
my peripheral vision is fine.
No,
I'm very bad at math.
No,
I do not answer to Geisha Girl, China Doll, Suzie Wong,
mamasan,
or gook, jap or chink.
No,
to us life is not cheap.
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Salad
The
woman did not
mean
to offend me,
her
blue eyes
blinking
at
the glint
of
my blade,
as
I cut precisely
like
magic
the
cucumber in
exact,
even
quick
slices.
``Do
you orientals
do
everything
so
neatly?''
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A
Longer Tanka
For Cecil
When
oak trees shed
in
October air,
I
remember my seeds
were
thrown into a ditch,
trashed
with violent words,
disregard
for smaller, too sensitive
body
parts.
After
April,
after
gentler rains,
thin
tendrils of lupine,
mustard,
jasmine,
a
tree rotting silently,
break
the still, wintered soil.
I
await this warming.
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 14 December
2011
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