Humanizing this Moment

“This being human is a guest house.” - Jellaludin Rumi

Dear PIE Community, 

Amid all that is rapidly changing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re taking time to pause and pivot. We are considering how best to show up in (virtual) space for each other and our community. And we’re remembering our Rida framework, which begins with focusing on the context within and outside learning spaces.

This crisis demands that we stop to process and adapt to our current context. As such, we are: 

• Working remotely and practicing social distancing until further notice. 

• Collaborating with our partners on supporting families, students and educators.

• Pausing all programming in schools and after school spaces.

During this time of uncertainty, it's easy (and human) to panic and lose sight of hope. Now that there is so much we can’t predict, we can focus on how we feel. This transition is hard for many, including all of us at PIE. We have felt grief, frustration, sadness and hopelessness. We have also felt gratitude for the presence and work of those around us, so we take this time to embrace and focus on our shared humanity. 

We continue to practice radical hope and look for joy, and we support you in doing the same. To start, check out a few resources below - and there’s more where these come from, so stay tuned.

Lastly, we invite you to pause and embrace being human with us as we read one of our favorite gems together, Rumi’s “The Guest House.”

If you think of anything to share, ask or affirm as we adapt and embrace this change, you can find us at pie@alliedmedia.org.

With love, 

The PIE Team

PIE 2019: New Spaces, New Faces

It has been a transformative 2019 for PIE. A year ago, we set intentions around our leadership transition and doubling down on our commitment to grow through relationships. Guided by those intentions, 2019 has been full of creative programming, building new muscles and embracing change. This year has been a reminder that our strength is fueled by the people and partners that make up PIE.

New Work with Our Woes

We’ve continued to adapt the pop culture “working on excellence” or Woe concept to this work by partnering with some of our favorite people in education to create more youth-led media and tell our stories nationally.  In a collaboration with MiStudents Dream and 482Forward, we presented at the Free Minds Free People Conference in the Twin Cities and made local connections in faraway places. We also worked with 482Forward on their first ever youth-led conference in the spring and with Youth Leaders on a participatory action research project over the summer. Look out for their upcoming media project in early 2020 which documents their process and findings from exploring the question, “What makes school inhumane?”

Evolving Our Programs

The Rida Institute was fire this year, with alumni returning to share their stories of incorporating humanizing practices into their learning spaces. During the summer intensive, alumni also gathered with the newer Rida participants over pizza in Southwest Detroit.

This spring, we wrapped up the 2018/19 Artist-in-Residency program, and this was our first year diving into a single theme with each media project.  We focused on the theme of school lunch, and we did so within new classrooms and a more non-traditional learning space with Alternatives For Girls. 

Connective Storytelling

Last year, we built a team of communications and graphics support to enliven the stories we tell about PIE’s work and community. This year, we’ve refined and diversified our communications, experimenting with multi-media blog posts and merging social media with fundraising on #GivingTuesday.  Your shoutouts, kudos, generosity and continued engagement have affirmed our efforts and made us feel so seen. Thank you. We can’t wait to level up once again in 2020 with dynamic content that connects you to our work.

Squad Goals

Lastly, we expanded and reshaped PIE’s leadership! We brought on a new director and adjusted leadership roles that will position us to achieve our most ambitious goals. We are overwhelmed by the continued support and critical friendship that have kept us sharp and guided us through this process. As such, we’re closing out 2019 with an advisory board retreat; creating this valuable space to collectively set intentions for the years to come. 

2020: Let’s get it 

Wow, it’s hard to believe a new decade is approaching, but with our community and leadership team, PIE is ready for 2020.  We loved this year’s expanded partnerships with our faves, and we look forward to diving in again with WOEs new and old. Of course, we are geeked to reunite with global media justice homies during the return of our beloved Allied Media Conference! And as we gather all our research and learnings from programming in years past, we’re looking ahead to media project releases and collaborative content no one will want to miss (don’t worry, we’ll keep you in the loop). 

PIE’s mission to humanize schooling is powered by connection. Our resolution to grow through relationships is still so resonant today as we partner with educators, young people, artists and communities make space for innovation, co-creation and discovery. 

Yours in partnership, 

The PIE team

Reshaping PIE: Different shape; same elements

Last spring PIE began a search for a director. After a long, intentional journey, we are excited to introduce our new director and the reshaping of our team.

a note from PIE’s outgoing director

Hey Loves,

Last spring, we launched our call for a director and I announced I was beginning my transition out of the role of PIE Director. Our aim was to find a new leader who had the passion, drive and skills to take on this role and move PIE’s work to the next level. I am excited to tell you we’ve found that person-- introducing the Director of People In Education, Siobhan O’Laoire!

Over the last few months, Siobhan and I have been working closely together to make this transition happen. In this time we’ve had to navigate challenges big and small. I’ve gotten to experience her facilitative leadership, her love for detail, her contemplation of the complexities of our work and world and I am honored she chose to join our team. I deeply believe in Siobhan’s leadership and I’m so excited to be a part of the team as she steps into the role of Director.

Here’s to the folks who put the people in PIE!

n8

Different shape. same elements.

Our leadership change is part of a larger reshaping of PIE that expands and distributes leadership across the organization. We are excited for our new form that will ensure PIE continues to shine bright long into the future. Despite our new shape, our core elements remain the same. This shift enriches our commitment to the resonant work and impact of PIE: humanizing schooling by facilitating space for connection, curiosity and reflection.

Today, the key people that make up our sparkling new shape include:

• Cyrah Dyras, Teaching Artist for the Artist-in-Residence program

• Erin Allen, Communications and Fundraising Assistant, supporting PIE storytelling and sustainability

• Nate Mullen, Special Advisor, spearheading PIE’s programming

• Siobhan O’Laoire, Director, leading PIE’s organizational strategy and impact

• Tulani Pryor, Media Intern, supporting design and media production

Between Two Directors

During the past two months, Siobhan and Nate worked together as co-directors, transferring  knowledge, reflecting and dreaming. Check out some fun and interesting highlights from an interview between the two directors that capture their reflections, intentions and directions for PIE:

My job is enabling the space for people to practice and explore what humanizing schooling means… The beautiful thing about the mission is that this question is never going to completely be answered because we’re going to keep uncovering truths and solutions related to it. Every time we get better there’s going to be something else that we need to learn and shift… This space needs to continue to be here to enable that.

- Siobhan O’Laoire

Something that’s special about PIE is that it is the home for humanizing schooling. For me that’s the spiritual home for this work. I’ve done work with other organizations, but that being the driving force of our work makes PIE really distinct. The principal of humanizing is applicable everywhere... Part of humanizing is about tapping into what is essential about being human, which is inherently connective, empathetic and caring.

- Nate Mullen

Cheers to N8:

In the last five years as PIE’s Director, Nate took on the transformative and sometimes challenging work of becoming the leader that the organization needed. PIE stayed committed to changing our minds and practices around learning, teaching and schooling and it evolved into what would become its current team carrying out its current mission: humanizing schooling. Nate’s commitment brought PIE through this transition and into the dynamic and vital work we do today. We are grateful and fortunate for his direction thus far and so excited that we get to work with him moving forward, as he continues to shape and carve out a space for himself in the work of PIE.  

Questions about the reshaping of PIE? Email us at pie@alliedmedia.org.