Jamela Pettiford
The Mamas
How Can We Breathe: The Mamas
Thursday, August 27 | 5:30 pm–8:00 pm
Image © Esther Osayande
In the first virtual community circle of the Minnesota Humanities Center’s How Can We Breathe series, we will learn from three Mamas who have lost a child at the hands of the police and other forms of violence. Now working to advocate and organize for change, Princess Haley, Marilyn Hill, and Mary Johnson-Roy will discuss how protest and uprising can serve as a catalyst to drive systemic change in our society.
Participants are called to join this virtual space to learn, heal, understand, and share through this experience. This conversation centered on the African American experience will identify strategies and resources that advocates and allies for a racially just society can use to ensure that African Americans are fully empowered within our democracy.
Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, a Minnesota grassroots organization advocating for racial justice, will facilitate the conversations and collaborate with individuals and organizations in several Minnesota cities during the virtual series to provide comfort pies and build community.
We look forward to seeing you at The Mamas and having you join us for future conversations with Elders and Youth, Artists and Meaning-Makers, and Policymakers and People.
The Mamas
Princess Haley
Princess Haley is an educator, a healer and a community organizer. She creatively shares her efforts as a writer, speaker, and actress about possibility thinking, individual, social and systemic change. Since the transitioning of her son Anthony "Prince Charming" Titus, who was 16 for 2 weeks, she found that healing is a daily choice, a lifelong journey and imperative in stopping the cycle of victim to offender. Her healing circles, Individual Healing Plans and Personal Liberation Plans are tools used during her self-study that she now offers families through her work at Standard Edition Women or SEW.
Marilyn Hill
Marilyn Hill's son, Demetrius Hill, was shot in the back by a police officer in 1997 in the Westminister apartments on the east side of St. Paul. This is where her parents lived. "Although 23 years have passed, I still feel this hole in my heart. No justice no peace," says Marilyn.
Mary Johnson-Roy
Mary Johnson-Roy is the mother of a murdered child, and the founder of “From Death to Life”, an organization dedicated to ending violence through facilitating healing and reconciliation between families on both sides of the tragedy of homicide. Through participation in the restorative justice process, Mary transformed the hatred she had for Oshea Israel, the 16-year-old boy who took her only son's life, into forgiveness and love. When Oshea was released from prison in 2010, after having served 17 years, Mary welcomed him home with open arms. She now considers him her “spiritual son” and together they share their powerful story of healing and reconciliation in forums around the country. Mary also leads the Two Mother’s healing group, for mothers on both sides of the tragedy of homicide. She lives in Minneapolis, MN, with her husband Ed Roy. Learn more at www.fromdeathtolife.us
Partnership
Sweet Potato Comfort Pie ®, a Minnesota grassroots organization advocating for racial justice, will facilitate these conversations and collaborate with individuals and organizations in several Minnesota cities during the virtual series to provide Sweet Potato Comfort Pie ® and build community.
Rose McGee is a sweet potato pie philanthropist and creator of the Sweet Potato Comfort Pie ® approach – a catalyst for caring and building community. It was 2014 during the racial disturbance in Ferguson, Missouri, when Rose felt compelled to bake 30 pies, loaded them into her car and drove to Ferguson to offer comfort. Upon returning home to Golden Valley, she felt a deeper calling to get something done right here at home. Since then, Sweet Potato Comfort Pie ® has become a cornerstone service approach during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday weekend when Rose, along with dozens of volunteers of all ages and ethnicities, bake the number of pies Dr. King’s age would have been. Then, hundreds of community members convene in tough conversations around race and equity. Among themselves, the participants determine who to gift the 91 pies (Dr. King’s Age in 2020) and distribute them to individuals and organizations throughout the community as a symbol of concern or celebration.
Since the murder of George Floyd, her immediate response by leading people (virtually) across the country in making sweet potato pies so viewers would then gift the pies to community and first responders, caught national and international attention as she was interviewed by NBC Nightly News, Huffington Post, Buzz Feed, Access Hollywood, People Magazine, numerous others including, New Zealand, Japan and the upcoming October Reader’s Digest October November GuidePost.
Rose is a Humanities Officer with the Minnesota Humanities Center and a story circle practitioner. She is a member of Women Who Really Cook, the Women’s Business Development Center, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and one of the 2018 Minnesota Super Bowl LII Businesses. The 2018 and 2019 Charlie Awards Nominee resides in Golden Valley where in June 2017 she was named “Citizen of The Year” and in December 2018 was presented the “Bill Hobbs Human Rights Award” by the Human Rights Commission and Golden Valley City Council. In April 2019 she was awarded Bush Foundation’s prestigious Bush Fellowship recognized as a Minnesota 50 Over 50. She is featured in the PBS documentary, A Few Good Pie Places, author of the books, Story Circle Stories, Kumbayah The Juneteenth Story and has a TEDx Talk on The Power of Pie. In spring of 2021, her children’s book, Can’t Nobody Make a Sweet Potato Pie Like Our Mama, will be released by Minnesota Historical Society Press.
