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FeaturedLGBTQ+ EqualityWriting

Queer Liberation and Black Liberation are Inseperable

by Crystal Paradis June 18, 2021
written by Crystal Paradis

Originally published at: https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2021/06/18/paradis-queer-liberation-and-black-liberation-inseparable/7734383002/

This week, Somersworth became the first city in New Hampshire to raise the Juneteenth flag. Juneteenth, also called Liberation Day or the Day of Jubilee, marks the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation — two and a half years after it became law — in the final state of the union. Since it is also Pride month, and there are two flagpoles at Somersworth’s Citizen’s Place, the Juneteenth flag now waves next to the rainbow Pride flag, where they will wave together for a week (the Pride flag stays up all June long here in the Rainbow City).

This visual symbolism of intersectionality — the flag of Black liberation flying next to the flag of Queer liberation — is not lost on me. It brings to mind so many justice seekers throughout our history who knew that the struggle for LGBTQ+ liberation and Black liberation were joint struggles.

Bayard Rustin was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest advisers, and a major historic figure in nonviolent protest. Rustin was a gay Black man who often spoke of his joint identity as a gay man and a Black man — and as a Quaker, which informed his peaceful values.

Pauli Murray was a trailblazing Black and queer woman lawyer who also influenced Dr. King. Murray was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, and was one of the first lawyers to argue that the Equal Protection Clause (which was written to address racial discrimination) should apply equally to gender-based discrimination.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson were trans women of color who were leaders at Stonewall, two women who many credit with throwing those first bricks that brought the movement for queer liberation to the forefront in 1969.

Intersectionality is a framework or lens that we can apply to understand how various forms of oppression, when combined, result in not just an increased, but a fundamentally different experience for the people who hold those multiple marginalized identities. In short, it’s a recognition of humans as complex, whole people. Aspects of our identity cannot be separated from each other. And our fight for liberation should not be separated, either.

Audre Lorde, a self-described “Black lesbian feminist warrior poet,” in her essay, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” said, “To survive in the mouth of this dragon we call America, we have had to learn this first and most vital lesson — that we were never meant to survive. Not as human beings. And neither were most of you here today, Black or not. And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength. Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak. We can sit in our corners mute, forever while our sisters and our selves are wasted, while our children are distorted and destroyed, while our earth is poisoned; we can sit in our safe corners mute as bottles, and we will still be no less afraid.”

I’m proud that we are not afraid to speak, that we are not afraid to raise these flags — that visibility which is the source of our greatest strength.

This month, we also mark two historic anniversaries of marriage equality: the passing of LGBTQ+ marriage equality on June 26, 2015; and Loving Day, celebrating the Supreme Court decision on June 12, 1967, that ended the unconstitutional prohibition of interracial marriages. Our struggle has always been a collective struggle.

It took two and a half years for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in the final Southern state. This year, 156 years later, our governor is poised to sign into law a budget containing language that would prevent teaching our collective history. Attacks on trans students are unrelenting in our state legislature and across the country. Our Senate passed recognition of Juneteenth as a national holiday, but has yet to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act or the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

As we celebrate both Pride month and Juneteenth, let’s recommit ourselves to the work of ongoing emancipation — our collective liberation.

Crystal Paradis is a city councilor at-large in Somersworth, secretary of the New Hampshire Stonewall Democrats, and director of strategic communications and community engagement for the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation. The views expressed are those of the writer. She can be reached at cfparadis@gmail.com.

June 18, 2021
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Community EngagementEvents

Passing the baton of TEDxPortsmouth — A look back and excitement for what’s to come!

by Crystal Paradis May 13, 2019
written by Crystal Paradis

As I pass the baton of TEDxPortsmouth to two of the most capable people in our Portsmouth community, co-organizers Anna Goldsmith and Amy Sterndale, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on how TEDxPortsmouth, originally TEDxPiscataquaRiver, has played a significant role in my relationship with my community.

I was asked way back in 2012 to join a team that was exploring the possibility of bringing a TEDx event to Portsmouth. I knew about TED Talks, but this was my first introduction to TEDx — locally-organized events that brought big ideas to their local stages, in the spirit of TED’s Idea’s Worth Spreading. I said yes right away and joined co-organizers Evan Karatzas of Proximity Labs and Chris Greiner of 3S Artspace to assemble an advisory board that included 12 local leaders across various industries. This board would set our vision of what a TEDx event would look like that reflected our unique city of Portsmouth. It was the big idea of Sherry-Lea Bloodworth Botop to bring a TEDx event to Portsmouth, but it quickly became a truly community-led endeavor.

With Nick Allen (who would be my co-organizer at our 2014 event), Sherry-Lea Bloodworth Botop (whose idea it was to do a TEDx in Portsmouth) and Mary Jo Brown (who was on the inaugural advisory board) at our first-ever TEDx event, at what would soon be 3S Artspace.

On this team were folks like Lisa Butler, who led the speaker coordination efforts for that first event; Kate Martin, who coordinated day-of event logistics; co-organizer Chris Greiner, who was working on bringing his 3S Artspace idea into physical reality at Vaughan Street; and co-organizer and inaugural TEDxPiscataquaRiver licensee, Evan Karatzas, who extended that fateful invitation to me at the start.

I joined this incredible team, working alongside community members who were all putting in countless hours to create a TED-like day-long conference in our Port City. Eventually, we selected 319 Vaughan Street building, then just an empty warehouse with the future promise of becoming 3S Artspace, as the site for Portsmouth’s first TEDx event. What better way to help the community imagine what a space like 3S could bring to the community, then to transform it for a day into a dramatic and (hopefully) life-changing event?

And life-changing it was — for me, at least, and for many others as it turned out. My personal memories of that weekend were frantic long hours and late nights at 319 Vaughan (thanks to Mary Jo Brown for the Savario’s calzone delivery!), in a revolving door of mini-panics about name tags, license requirements, and coordinating with folks across the community including the press, folks on our guest list, lottery ticket winners and others. I couldn’t *wait* to find Evan and Chris after the event, thank them so much for the experience, and let them know that I wouldn’t be able to do it again next year. It was too much — no way was I doing this all again!

The the morning of our event came. Starting in the wee hours that morning, I was frantic about name tags (still) and guest lists and parking and a hundred other details. But then it happened. Show time came, the lights went down, and a quiet, anticipatory hush came over the crowd. It was in that moment that I realized that this room full of people had absolutely no expectations beyond excitement for what was about to happen. As we cold-opened on a wonderfully weird tech-device band, I saw people’s eyes light up. As our first speaker and then our second and third took the stage, I stood in the back, watching silhouetted heads nod along in resonance with the ideas coming from the stage, and my eyes welled up. That was the moment — I was hooked.

TEDxPiscataquaRiver’s opening act: iOS ensemble Giants in the Wood (Jon Briggs, Shawn Crapo, John Herman, Jeremy Murphy, Brian Sullivan) open TEDx PiscataquaRiver at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, NH on May 3, 2013

That 2013 event was the first of six annual TEDx events that I either co-organized or led over the next 6 years in Portsmouth, the city where I was born. There were many moments that stood out across those years, but that moment standing in the back of the darkened warehouse that we’d somehow managed to transform into a world-class theater/conference experience — that’s the one I remember most.

And that moment is the one I wait for every year, for all of my co-organizers and teammates to have. We dream big, putting months of volunteer work and love and passion and ideas into these events. But it’s not until it happens and you get to watch something you’ve been obsessing over for the entire year be experienced by your community for the first time — that’s when you’re really “hooked” on being a part of TEDx.

Setting up for our first event in 2013
With 2014 co-organizers, Kate Martin, Lisa Butler and Nick Allen
With 2015 co-organizer Halie Olszowy
With 2016 hosts
With 2017 team
With 2018 co-organizer Anna Goldsmith

Over the next five years I was happy to work with some incredible co-organizers: Kate Martin, Nick Allen, Halie Olszowy, Devan Meserve and Anna Goldsmith; and with many outstanding volunteer team leaders and members, some of whom got new jobs through their TEDx volunteer roles, or are now recognized as a world-class singer when they pick up their kids at Little Harbor.

After seven years of planning six life-changing events, I am thrilled (and sure, a little nostalgically sad) to be passing the license on to Anna Goldsmith, my co-organizer last year for our biggest event ever — the 2018 TEDx event where we moved to The Music Hall, changed our name to the much easier to spell “TEDxPortsmouth” and got to welcome more than triple the amount of attendees to experience TEDx in their community. Taking my place as Anna’s co-organizer for Portsmouth’s 7th Annual TEDx event will be Amy Sterndale, an invaluable member of our team for a few years now, and the force most responsible for the caliber of last year’s most acclaimed speaker lineup yet. Anyone who knows or has heard about Anna or Amy knows that this event is in the most capable of hands, and I am so proud to see this event continue on as I step back from TEDxPortsmouth and onwards spreading big ideas through my new business, Feminist Oasis.

With co-organizer Anna Goldsmith at the end of TEDxPortsmouth 2018, on The Music Hall stage.

I launched Feminist Oasis last year (with an event that was also on Vaughan Street, actually!) and have been so excited to see it grow over its first year. We’ve had hundreds of people attend our events, dozens join as members and have partnered with scores of other businesses, nonprofits and individuals to co-create our events. Please check us out at feministoasis.com learn more about what we’re doing (building feminist community and exploring feminist values in action), who we’re partnering with next (UNH Women’s Studies Program, NH Theatre Project, 3S Artspace, Teatotaller, Sue’s Space), how to join as a member (and get Feminist Action Plans, event discounts and member social invites), and all the other fun ideas we have to integrate solidarity, resilience, sustainability and systemic justice into our lives and work.

I’m committed to giving my all to grow Feminist Oasis into a sustainable social enterprise. I’m so glad to say that that feeling of watching my community experience something that I’ve worked on for months — that feeling that TEDxPiscataquaRiver got me hooked on — is continuing on: for me with Feminist Oasis and, gratefully, for Anna and Amy and their incredible team at TEDxPortsmouth.

With some of our incredible 2018 team at the end of the day

Thank you to all the people who have supported TEDxPiscataquaRiver and its growth into TEDxPortsmouth. The team members, speakers, sponsors and volunteers who have made these first six events possible is now well into the hundreds, and happily many have become dear friends of mine and with each other, all through this magical event based around ideas. I can’t wait to see where Anna and Amy take it — and I’m thrilled to be one of those silhouetted heads on September 13, 2019, as I show up with no expectations other than excitement for what is about to happen.

— Crystal Paradis

May 13, 2019
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lift each other up
FeminismValues-Centric WorkWriting

Lifting Each Other Up — Support networks are crucial to our existence

by Crystal Paradis December 21, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

I had a vision a few years ago, while in a Kundalini yoga class. It wasn’t like an other-wordly revelation or anything, just an image that came into my head as we were in the meditation portion of the class. It was an image that simultaneously felt so profoundly truthful, while making little logical sense.

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December 21, 2018
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Domestic & Sexual ViolenceFeminismSocial Justice

A letter to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, after her testimony 9/26/18 #BelieveSurvivors

by Crystal Paradis September 29, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

I was moved to write a letter to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford during her testimony and subsequent questioning, on Thursday, September 26, 2018. I wrote this letter after she left the hearing, in the early afternoon, and sent it to her, in care of her lawyer. I am so glad that I wrote this before I saw the second half of the hearing — because it’s a capsule in time of what I felt after seeing her part of the day. Things certainly shifted after that, and have many times since.

Friday night, September 28th, I pulled together a Solidarity Gathering at South Church in Portsmouth, NH. I was compelled to hold space for everyone feeling like they needed community. Only a few people showed up, but many more expressed gratitude for knowing that it was happening at all. It felt important, urgent. It was totally necessary for me. We lit candles, we shared our stories, we shared our feelings, we talked about how we could change our culture from perpetuating the dangerous circumstances that make situations like these all too common. It was healing.

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September 29, 2018
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FeaturedFeminismSocial Justice

Feminism is empty without intersectionality and action

by Crystal Paradis July 29, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

The word “feminist” is on my business card. Not as a title I’m using to define myself, but because it’s in the name of my business. Even with its recent rise to acceptance in mainstream popular culture, the word “feminist” still prompts startled reactions most times I hand someone my card. Since I’m so frequently reminded of the baggage of this word, I’m also increasingly aware of my responsibility to define, and demonstrate by my actions, what I mean when I use the word “feminist.”

Feminist theorist bell hooks (no, the lowercase of her name isn’t a typo – she consciously declines to capitalize her name in favor of putting the emphasis on her ideas) defines feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.” Defining feminism as a commitment to end oppression is notable in that it is not (as it is sometimes misperceived to be) seeking to reverse it. Taking power from one group and giving it to another doesn’t solve the problem – it simply perpetuates domination and systemic injustice.

Feminist poet Audre Lorde wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” The goal of a hooks and Lorde kind of feminist movement is to dismantle systemic power structures altogether in favor of equity for everyone – all genders, all identities.

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July 29, 2018
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content managementCopywritingMarketing

Does Your Site’s Navigation Menu Tell Your Story? How Menu Copy Creates Clarity (or should, anyway)

by Crystal Paradis July 4, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

If all of the page copy on your website disappeared, leaving only your menu navigation items, would people still get a good idea of what you do? How you name and structure your menu items (“nav” items, for those in the web biz) should tell your story.

Depending on what type of website you have, the primary goal may differ. Whatever the primary goal of your site is should be reflected in the taxonomy (or naming convention), order and heirarchy of your primary navigation and menu items.

The Menu Basics: From About to Contact

The most common menu items include such staples as About, Contact, Team/Who We Are, Resources, etc. — and for a company business page which is mostly what we used to refer to as a “brochure” site, these may still be the best menu items. If your site exists mostly for people to get to know you on their way to becoming a customer, client or fan, this may be enough.

Menu Taxonomy: How to Write Easily Navigated Menu Items

Be consistent.

Reading across your menu bar should make sense, and should not change tenses.

Going for simplicity? Try “Team,” “Services,” “About” and “Contact.”

Want to get a little more friendly and conversational about introducing yourself? Your team page could be called “Who We Are,” and your services page “What We Do.” Your About page can become “Why We Do It” or “How We Do It” but is probably best left as “About” unless your About page specifically outlines your “why” or “how” or is more about your history (“How We Started” or “Origin Story”).

Starting with verbs that a site visitor can take? If your team page is named “Meet Our Team,” then your services page should be called “Work With Us.”

Pro tip: while it may be tempting to get cute or creative in your page names, straightforward is the best way to write your menu items. Trust me, I love a great pun, but potentially confusing a visitor who came to your footwear site with “A-Boot!” will likely backfire when, instead of the boots they were looking for, they get “gotcha-ed” by your hilarious about page. There are plenty of opportunities to show off your personality in the site copy, if you so wish. The navigation menus are neither the time nor the place for such shenanigans!

Effective Ecommerce Menus

Ecommerce sites should make one thing really easy: shopping (commerce!). This doesn’t mean that one menu item should say “Shop” — rather, your primary nav menu on an ecommerce site should be the top 3-5 categories that people are searching for when visiting your site. Some retailers split these top items by gender or department, others by item type, genre or attribute (size/color, etc.). The way you decide to categorize your top menu categories will vary depending on the types of products you’re selling, and how your best customers typically shop.

The Best Blog Menus

If your site is primarily a blog, your most popular categories should make up the majority of your primary menu. If your blog is super populated (like, say, HuffPo), you’ll probably need a mega-menu or at least a robust drop-down menu, for the many subcategories in your blog topic hierarchy.

These are just a few top considerations for a menu that clearly communicates your core business services to your next potential client. Next time: taxonomy for your blog categories!

 

July 4, 2018
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Commander Emily Basset of USS Manchester speaks to Women in Leadership: Next Generation luncheon at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH
EventsProductivity

Advice from Commander Emily Bassett of the USS Manchester: Breathe, Envision Success, Repeat a Mantra, Begin

by Crystal Paradis May 23, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

Commander Emily Bassett of the soon-to-be commissioned USS Manchester, was honored at the Women in Leadership: Next Generation luncheon at Strawbery Banke. Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig was also a guest of honor, and the two both shared inspiring words to the local women leaders and their young women guests at the TYCO Visitor’s Center today. I was grateful to be at this lunch along with local leaders including city councilors, city officials, business leaders and representatives of the Shaheen family. (More on the Shaheen family’s connection to the USS Manchester here).

In her remarks, Commander Bassett outlined a four-step mental practice that she adapted from the Navy SEALS. The four steps are:

  1. Breathe
  2. Envision Success
  3. Repeat a Mantra
  4. Begin

She used this simple yet powerful 4-step practice when the USS Manchester was entering the Piscataqua River on Monday. The plan was to welcome aboard the Senator and her family, and the Governor and his family, by meeting the a smaller boat on the river and having them climb the ladder to get on deck. While navigating into the Piscataqua River with our world-famous powerful current, Commander Bassett reached Step 2: Envision Success, and got stuck.

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May 23, 2018
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Gun ViolenceSocial Justice

Will One Less Gun Make a Difference? On Overcoming “Activism Overwhelm.”

by Crystal Paradis March 5, 2018
written by Crystal Paradis

In her TED Talk, “The danger of the single story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns that knowing only one story about people different from you can result in a vast misunderstanding. A single story can never be representative of the entire group that the subject of the story represents. The power of stories is that they show one possibility. That possibility, if it resonates with beliefs we already have, is very motivating – for better or worse.

“Single stories create stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” Allowing single stories to speak for the identity of a vast group of people is, to say the least, problematic. But that doesn’t mean stories themselves are the culprit.

Adichie goes on to say, “Stories matter. And many stories matter.” Our job is not to stop telling stories, it’s to stop repeating the same tired stories, listen to new stories from others and start telling our own.

What does all this talk of stories have to do with guns?

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March 5, 2018
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Community Engagementcontent managementCopywritingMarketing

Why SEO is really community engagement optimization

by Crystal Paradis October 16, 2017
written by Crystal Paradis

SEO isn’t gross. Its reputation has suffered from years of being associated with hacky marketing pitches, but it is an invaluable skill set to draw upon when engaging any community online. SEO best practices these days simply mean writing, organizing and attributing content online that is easily indexed by search engines, so that it can be found by your target audience — the community you’re looking to engage as a community organizer.

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October 16, 2017
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content managementFeaturedMarketingValues-Centric Work

WordPress Content Management for Socially-Responsible Businesses

by Crystal Paradis October 8, 2017
written by Crystal Paradis

If you’re a business or nonprofit with a social mission, and you’re looking for some help managing your online presence, we just might be a perfect match.

You might need help with content management if…

  • If you have a website but people who visit it can never figure out how to find what they’re looking for
  • If *you* can never find what you need on your own website
  • If you know what you want your website to say, but don’t have time or skills to make the edits yourself
  • You want to figure out how to make it easier for website visitors to take an action (share a post, contact you, buy something, book a consultation)
  • You want social media to play nice with your website
  • You want to come up higher on the search engine / Google results pages (SEO Copywriting can help with that, too)

What is content management?

Content management is managing (editing, publishing, updating, rearranging, freshening up) your content (blog posts, web pages, photos, videos, infographics, memes, sidebars, menu items, forms, etc.) to help you reach more people more effectively online.

Content management is not a thing that non-techie folks are necessarily able to learn intuitively — and even if you are able to add or edit blog posts, you may not know enough about user experience (UX) or search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. That’s where a content manager — like me — comes in.

Okay, what’s WordPress content management?

“WordPress content management” simply means editing, updating and maintaining your website on the WordPress platform. Not sure if your website is on WordPress already? Well, since WordPress is still the most widely-used content management system (or CMS) out there, chances are good that your website is on it.

Why WordPress content management for socially-responsible businesses?

I care about helping teams that are working to create better communities.

Many socially-responsible businesses and organizations have service providing as a top priority, but their digital /online presence might be taking a back seat.

I’ve written before about how search engine optimization is community engagement optimization.  If people can’t find you online, they can’t advance your mission.

A robust communications strategy is really important. And, a fair amount of communications strategy can be demonstrated with a really clear website content strategy — and that includes everything from menu structure to clear and compelling calls-to-action.

Therefore, providing WordPress content management for socially-responsible businesses is critical to building better communities.

So, should we work together?

If you’ve ever worked with me before, you know about my commitment to working with socially-responsible, values-aligned organizations and businesses — aka values-centric work. If you’ve seen my Services page, you’ve seen the list of the types of organizations and businesses I will and won’t work with. Socially responsible is a category that encompasses many attributes that my favorite clients share.

So, if you’re part of a socially-responsible business or organization in need of some WordPress content management assistance, I’d love to talk. Since I work freelance, I can typically offer rates lower than agencies — and if all you need is content management (organization, re-organization or optimization of your existing site), you likely don’t need a pricey agency anyway.

Drop me a line, and I’d be happy to give you a free assessment, take a walk outside with you or grab a beverage and talk about your communications and marketing goals and whether I’d be a good fit to help you achieve them.

October 8, 2017
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About Crystal

As a writer and organizer with a background in digital marketing, event organizing and community engagement, I help values-aligned individuals and organizations improve their message, online presence and reach.

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