Today we’d like to introduce you to Healing Justice Santa Barbara.
We’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Healing Justice Santa Barbara started from a place of grief and mourning over the continued loss of Black lives, locally and nationally in the midst of 2020. Further, Santa Barbara can be an isolating place for Black people who are often targeted while simultaneously erased. Our work took many forms including healing circles, artivism, advocacy around community safety and intergenerational connections.
One of our beloved elders, the late Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, called on us to think about community safety and protecting Black people in Santa Barbara through community archiving. WIth her guidance we mobilized our local community to leverage the historic landmark process to prevent further gentrification and the literal destruction of Black created meeting spaces and centers.
We are who we were yesterday, and we are proud of that. We are a Black-led and women-founded organization with a focus on preserving, protecting, and uplifting Black history. Founded by Kryslte Farmer Sieghart and Simone Akila, we are led today by Co Executive Directors Leticia Resch and Simone Akila. We continued and expanded the work that Ms. Sojourner set us on. We were key advocates and collaborators in researching and archiving the African American and Black Historic Context Statement, in partnership with the City of Santa Barbara and Page & Turnbull. We have written Black studies curriculum that is now included in local high schools, and we’re excited to share our newly published children’s book We Were Here, We Are Here: A Living History of Black Santa Barbara, which vividly documents Black history in Santa Barbara.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While we love this work, it didn’t start with us. We have so much appreciation for community elders like Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Cedric Robinson, Anita Mackey and E. Onja Brown that started collecting local Black histories. As we have continued their kinkeeping, we have had folks question our mission or not see how community archiving is a part of social change, but now is the time for aunties, neighbors and pastors to hold on to and save histories so that we are not dependent on institutions, which may change their allegiances and priorities. Our history is sacred, always.
Sacred and political, for example, the first Black church in Santa Barbara had been trying to be classified as a city landmark (and received city and state protections) since the 1990s, but the city of Santa Barbara used its processes and paperwork to stall the process. In 2020, we and the community helped the church, St. Paul AME, to become a city landmark within a few weeks. But this church was an essential past of Black history in the central coast long before the City of Santa Barbara recognized them as such.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We stay busy. We co created Black studies curriculum in local high schools, facilitate Black history trolley tour through the eastside (a historically Black area of the city). We also hold space for high school students through our Black Student Alliance clubs at the local high schools in partnership with Santa Barbara Unified School District. We self published our children’s book, We Were Here, We Are Here: A Living History of Black Santa Barbara illustrated by the talented Reyna Iman. And finally, we’re hosting our 2nd Annual Black Is Beautiful Gala to celebrate Black brilliance, resilience, and community on November 1st. This event directly supports our ongoing work to affirm the safety, equity, and joy of Black lives on the Central Coast.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
They can support Healing Justice Santa Barbara in two ways: donate directly at our website: https://www.hjsb.org/donate or purchase our new children’s book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-were-here-we-are-here-simone-akila-ruskamp/1148504542;jsessionid=721122C44D3EF6CC537B611D81F97C15.prodny_store02-atgap08?ean=9798993515014
Pricing:
- Hardcover books are $25
- Softcover books are $20
- Spanish hardcover books are $25
- Spanish softcover books are $20
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hjsb.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healingjusticesb
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealingJusticeSB
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@healingjusticesb
Image Credits
Woven Lens Photography, Rex Bridgeforth II, Jon Dixon
