48 hour countdown!

Today is Wednesday, August 3rd. In just 48 or so hours we will kick off Indiana Black Pride. I just cant really wrap my mind around it. We have been working on this since last August. In the beginning it was myself, Nita McBride and my friend Neil. About the time that we realized that we had to have a board Neil and Nita dropped off for various reasons. Thats when I met Tiffany, Jasmine, Jeremy, Antwann, Stephion, and Tricky. I have half jokingly referred to them as my 6 kids, but if the truth be told they have become my closest friends and my family. Each of them is as different from each other as the moon is from the sun. Tiffany is our Vice-President and Treasurer. We took a long road trip to bloomington together once and I really got to know her. She is one of, three girls all bi-racial, and the only one that is lesbian. Tiffany is super intelligent, analytical thinker, micro-manager, and detail oriented. When it comes to numbers and policies she is the glue that has kept our organization from becomin a ragtag sloppy group and has us on the track to becoming one of the most talked about start up not-for-profits in our area. If I had to draw a Treasurer for IBP on a blank piece of paper, my rendering would be an exact replica of Tiffany. Jasmine fills the position of Secretary of our organization. What Jasmine brings to our group is much more than a notetaker and minutes keeper she has become the embodiement of our collective spirits. Its quite strange really because I asked Jasmine to be on our board because I learned that she had experience organizing and running a black student group in college. I knew she would be organized and articulate and could represent IBp well. What I didnt know about Jasmine was her spiritual energy and how it would be so vital to the success of our organization. As cohesive as we have become over the past few months, there have been plenty of arguments and disagreements. Too many times to mention here it has been Jasmine that has calmed everyone down and helped us to make sense of the chaos. I value Jasmine. Next, I have to talk about Stephion. I never would have thought that I would consider Stephion as close to the executive committee as I consider him today. Over the past 8 months Stephion has mixed it up, wrangled, and had words with EVERY board member. Some of us more than once. But the one thing that we have always been able to say about him is that he has passion! Stephion is our marketing man and like any marketing man worth his salt he is a grand dreamer. He has ideas and schemes and ways to make things HOT and SIZZLE! If we could have afforded to give him $50,000 we would have had the hottest marketing campaign this side of Atlanta. I truly believe that. But we haven't had $50,000 and sometimes we have had to shoot his ideas down. But rather than be discouraged Stephion just keeps showing back up at the table. Maybe pissed, maybe not but he always comes back to the table. Over the last few weeks Stephion has really stepped up his game. Always present for IBP events, lately Stephion has been on fire for IBP. Working overtime to get the word out. Stephion is invaluable to IBP. I guess Jeremy will be next. Jeremy is our operations chair and at 25 years old the youngest member of our team. I love Jeremy with all of my heart because he can get excited about a project or an idea and light a fire under everybody in the room until we are all fired up. Jeremy has done all of the footwork and leg work to make the pride in the park event come together. I call it the grunt work because it is a lot of behinds the scenes detail stuff that I dont always have time to pay attention to and he does it with a glowing smile on his face. When I first met Jeremy he was a young aspiring black gay film director and he was eager to be a part of something that was a positive change for the better. He jumped at the chance to help us on this project and his attitude has always been I will do it! We can do it!! woo, woo, wooo!! Antwann is our business development chair and his job is to make sure that we remember what we are trying to accomplish and that we are not just a pride planning committee. Antwann is the one who sits at meetings and furls his eyebrow and starts doing the math in his head when the ideas are floating around the room. Antwaan is our smarter, wiser, younger brother. Now Antwaan will cut up, I remember the road trip to Ft. Wayne for a bowling social. Antwaan is another one of our anchors keeping us grounded and realistic about our plans and goals. Finally, there is Tricky. Tricky trick trick is our entertainment chair and he is amazing.........................gotta go for no