Meet the minds behind BH!
How did this began?
Black Humboldt began in April 2018 by visionary Dionna Fletcher as a response to Humboldt County's social climate and injustices, the overwhelming whiteness (or buzzphrase "lack of diversity"), and safe black spaces. Dionna wanted to provide a platform for all black and brown bodies who shared similar needs and interests while existing in Humboldt. Black Humboldt seeks to promote existing black businesses, professionals and organizations, support black navigation and to help unify people of color. It all started as a social media platform to gauge what the 1.5% black population could look like and a future vision for creating events, workshops, and forums. Black Humboldt hopes to provide a space where people can see a positive and beautiful reflection of themselves.
Black Humboldt’s goals are to 1. create, maintain and sustain economic monetary for POC owned businesses and 2. Create, maintain and sustain safe spaces for POC bodies. To acheive these goals BH has had a series of events hosted at local businesses in Humboldt County. They’ve had networking mixers, a performance arts showcase and featured a local artist at an open mic event hosted by a local troupe, Word Humboldt. The events have been growing and so is the community and it’s beautiful. In the next coming months you can expect events like the ones that have already happened as well as educational opportunities for Black History Month and Black self care events around Valentines Day. Lastly, Black Humboldt wants to be able to educate the entire Humboldt community on race relations, alliship and social justice.
Monique “Mo” Desir is a local educator, activist, and mother skilled in various artistic methods including poetry, music, dance and visual arts. She is first generation Haitian and identifies as multi-racial, with her mother coming from an Irish and French background. She's been an arts educator for ages tk-college for the past 8 years and is actively adding her arts passion to educate her community and others about social justice to create action. Monique fills many hats; teaching dance and art as well as being an entrepreneur for herself in hopes to open a nonprofit. locally, you can find Monique working to create and maintain blackhumboldt as well as teaching dance and fitness at Healthsport. On a larger scale Monique presents her art and leads educational opportunities at conferences all over the world. Her super power is being able to do it all with a smile on her face. Follow her dreams becoming a reality at www.MoHDcreates.com and on Socials at MoHDcreates and Movements_W_Modesir
Dionna "Dee" Fletcher is a dance and theater performing artist, arts education advocate, community organizer and lover of all things black and brown. Dionna, is first generation Nigerian-American from Yonkers, NY by way of Baltimore, MD and has been living in Humboldt County since October 2017. Because of her personal family experiences with immigration and ICE, she whole heartedly supports movements that protect families living n the U.S. Dionna currently works for HSU Sponsored Programs Foundation on The North Coast Arts Integration Project which serves Eureka City and Klamath Trinity Valley Elementary Schools, teaches afrocentric movement classes, and loves doing community service. Her superpower is U.N.I.T.Y. www.linkedin.com/in/dionnafletcher | www.DionnaFletcher.com