Happy end of June! As we prepare to transition into July (which seemed to us at the 10.27 Healing Partnership to come so quickly!) we have been reflecting on the learning and community-building we’ve been doing this month.
At the 10.27 Healing Partnership, we strive to make our programming, events, and space as accessible as possible. We recognize that the community we live within is not homogenous—we must not just stand in solidarity with communities that we might see as “separate” from ours. We must fully acknowledge and respect the diversity within the community we call our own. Within our Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill, and Jewish community, there are a plethora of people from all different walks of life, ethnic and spiritual backgrounds, and LGBTQIA+ and Queer identities. Serving our community means continuously learning and growing to serve everyone.
Acknowledging the intersectionality of each individual’s life experiences is key to this journey. This interview with Kimberly Rooney 高小荣, a writer, copy editor, and Pittsburgher, explores what it means to live at the intersection of many different identities, and both the struggles and the joys that can emerge from this. Many of our friends and neighbors may empathize with being connected and invigorated by their communities, and yet sometimes feeling only some aspects of their whole, authentic selves are truly being seen.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about how there has been so much solidarity that I have seen in response to these shootings because, unfortunately, so many different marginalized groups are targeted. It’s a shared understanding that we have now, which is horrible. I wish that the connections and solidarity could solely come from joy and sharing our cultures with one another. It’s so exhausting to just constantly have to live with this. But I do hope that if there is empathy to be extended during these times that it can be foundational for further coalition building. I really, really hope that because white supremacists are already organized. And we gain nothing by fighting separately.” — Kimberly Rooney