2024 Alain Sylvain Creative Fund Recipients

This year, we proudly welcomed the first recipients of the Alain Sylvain Creative Fund, which shines a light on individuals who demonstrate Alain Sylvain’s commitment to design, creativity, and strategy to drive positive change. This inaugural class embodies the spirit in which Alain carried out his work. It’s an honor to introduce Richard Walakira, Hadiya Masieh, Dillon St. Bernard, Marcy Brown, Christian Labossiere, and Christina Vang. Check out PopTech board member Steven Jumper’s announcement of the fund and tribute to Alain. Thank you for helping us sustain Alain’s legacy with a tax-deductible contribution.

Really?

Five Ways to Lower Post-Election Stress by Leetha Filderman

I am getting lots of notes and calls from friends and colleagues sharing election anxiety, trauma, and the like. Many of us, myself included, found the election stressful. In the lead-up there was the fretting about polls, fake news, finger-pointing, and all those emails from candidates asking for money but not for my vote. Then election day came, and there was that inevitable moment of sorrow or joy, depending on which side you were rooting for. Let’s commit to relieving stress and making the world the best it can be, regardless of who’s at the helm.

Here are a few tips:

1. Stop musing about becoming an expat. We need you and your ingenuity here at home! There’s a lot to do to get the ship on course.

2. Take some advice from Toni Morrison, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

3. Listen to Jon Batiste’s new album, Beethoven’s Blues.

4. Read the 2024 Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

5. Think local! Lots of positive change comes about when citizens get involved in their communities. When did you last attend a town hall or school board meeting?

We invite posts that capture the astonishing, engaging, and entertaining. Submit via REALLY?

Worth a Watch

The PopTech 2024: Uncharted Territory playlist of talks is now available on the PopTech YouTube Channel. Check out 2024’s videos and revisit old favorites from past years. Each talk provides a treasure map of possibility and potential, a balm for an uncertain world.

Don’t miss UNION, a Sundance-winning documentary that captures the grassroots unionization efforts of warehouse workers at Amazon’s JFK8 Staten Island Fulfillment Center. This modern-day David vs. Goliath story speaks to the vulnerability and fragile future of labor organizing. You can stream the film on your personal devices via Gathr.com. 

Like these talks? Visit the PopTech YouTube Channel – home to a treasure trove of timeless content.

Reading Corner

In the spirit of literary award season, we highlight this year’s Booker Prize and National Book Award winners!

Orbital by Samantha Harvey captures the quiet beauty found in human coexistence with Earth through the reflections of six astronauts orbiting our planet in the International Space Station.

James by Percival Everett reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of Huck’s companion, the enslaved James. Add these to your holiday reading list and consider rereading Twain’s original as a side-by-side with James.