EPIP Boston Steering Committee member Grace Savage Loughborough (left) and EPIP Boston co-chair Candace Burton (right) in front of the Community Book Center pop-up at the EPIP 2024 Night Market

Our Why

Grace: I discovered EPIP during the pandemic and it quickly became one of my go-to sources for solidarity and joy during my darkest days as the only staffer of color at a traditional family foundation. When EPIP 2024 was announced, I couldn’t register fast enough. New Orleans in June? Bring it!

Candace: I registered for EPIP 2024 because I needed a break! This year, I’ve been managing my expanded responsibilities as a program officer, coordinating with my fiancé’s new job that requires out-of-state travel, and planning our wedding. This conference was a chance to get out of Boston and to have some restoration time. I was also excited to meet some dope people from all over the country.

Our Takeaways

Music makes you feel. We kicked off with something I’ve never experienced before. Wendi Moore O’Neal and her brother, William Edward O’Neal, lead us in collective singing. Some of it was improvised and about doing what felt right without knowing the melody. It was a real lesson in learning to trust yourself and your instincts. So, we collectively were singing freedom songs, and I felt the power. From the jazz band to the DJ at the night market to the second line to close the conference, there was music every day.

Community Singer, Wendi Moore O’Neal and her brother, William Edward O’Neal bringing us together in song

Place is powerful. New Orleans is the love and music and food and labor and tradition of Black and Indigenous people. Candace and I spent Day Two on a Learning Tour of the city that took us through time and space, from the gathering places of the enslaved to the childhood neighborhood of chart-topping rappers. Meeting Leona Tate at the former McDonough 19 elementary school, which she desegregated in 1964 then bought in 2005, was life-changing. “Miss Tate,” as our head tour guide, Malik, lovingly referred to her, is a living legend. Visiting the Tate Etienne Provost (TEP) Center cemented my place in her legacy; after all, had Miss Tate not risked her life to desegregate McDonough 19, would I even have the life and career that I have today?

Leona Tate in front of a TEP Center mural by renowned artist B-Mike and youth from his nonprofit depicting the McDonough Three in childhood and adulthood.  

Find Child-like Moments. When Miss Tate was six years old, she walked to school with two other black girls through an angry white mob. While other girls were outside on playgrounds during recess, these girls had to play under the stairs for their safety. This both warmed and broke my heart at the same time. I’m glad these girls were able to find joy but also, they had to hide while doing it. This photo makes me optimistic because with all these girls went through, they were still able to have child-like moments.

Allowing Yourself to Be. I'm just thinking about the conversations I had with the wonderful women at the black-owned bookshop. They were so knowledgeable and had quite the collection. I don’t have the privilege of being surrounded by my older black family members since moving to Boston, so it was nice to just hang out and chat. The Night market was another time to just drink, eat and shop. The DJ was great, so I danced as well. I have never been so relaxed or joyful at a supposed “work conference.” But maybe that is part of what makes EPIP different. It is permission to bring our full selves to these spaces.

Philanthropy is expansive. We are professionals who execute at the highest level AND shake our backsides to brass bands AND exchange knowledge AND mainline beignets (in no particular order).

Black is beautiful. I am more deeply rooted in my Blackness thanks to EPIP 2024. It took me 40 years to free myself of the White Black Girl identity that was thrust upon me against my will. Never before have I felt so proud to be exactly who I am and so certain that I am perfect for it. EPIP held Black and Indigenous people firmly at the center of the conference. Black Joy, doing my thang, with my people.

Our Black Joy

At EPIP 2024 we were happy. We were at peace. We just felt like we belonged. Oftentimes we’re so hyperfocused on how we appear in a space, how we come off in a space and we just had no worries about that. Full disclosure: we found ourselves wondering if that’s how white men feel on the regular– but that’s a topic for another newsletter.

Words fall short to describe our post-conference state of being so we’re relying on a visual:

Ashley Lorraine “Lady Buckjumpers, 2022”  Digital Photography on Canvas

On exhibit/for sale at New Orleans African American Museum)

The countdown to EPIP 2026 is on. We can’t wait for Boston to show up and show out.