The 3 Step Formula to Creating Social Change - Taneshia Nash Laird

3:18AM Jun 21, 2021

Speakers:

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Taneshia Nash Laird

Keywords:

people

symphony hall

community

newark

called

arts

building

created

symphony

princeton

talk

mission

thought

nisha

staff

campaign

nonprofit

renovation

performing arts center

incredible

Hey, I'm john. And I'm Becky. And this is the we are for good podcast.

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So let's get started.

Welcome, welcome. He's beaming. I'm beaming. That's the first time I feel like we should not have had our actual traditional intro. We should have played some Beethoven's Ninth Yeah, to like our guest. And I am so jazzed I have a very, very deep love of the arts. And we are diving in with one of the rock star leader fundraiser, disrupter innovators today, and we are so blessed to have tonisha Nash Laird on our podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about how to use arts and culture as an economic development tool. And what tonisha has done in Newark, New Jersey, buckle up my friends, because even as I was looking through your bio, there are so many nuggets here that are worthy of having an entire podcast conversation about what you've done. But I want to give our listeners just a little bit of background to Nisha is a social change agent and community developer who centers cultural equity in her work. And I just want to thank you for doing that. And you're gonna see that threaded in this entire conversation. She is the President and CEO of Newark Symphony Hall, a historic Performing Arts Center located within the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. And so since she's been appointed there, which was like in November 2018, she is expanded programming to respond to community needs, which guys, why aren't we doing more things that connect our missions to the community, fostering economic development, I mean, this is going to be a masterclass and how to integrate all the things. And so as she's restoring this 1925 vintage concert hall, with, you know, a mere $40 million campaign renovation, she leverages it for a neighborhood right revitalization project that she called Symphony works. So stay with me, Symphony works is pulling in all these local residents and entrepreneurs for the 500 jobs and opportunities that 50 small businesses that just created new work and Symphony halls, renovation, all of this technical assistance, it turned the funding, you know, into all of this economic promise for local contractors and developers. And all of it is just not only infusing arts into this community, but it's creating jobs. And it's like the symbiotic nature of that unjust kicked out of so. Okay, just very quickly, I'm going to hit these high points to the show previously served as the executive director of the Arts Council of Princeton, and she was the first person of color in that role. So there's my Bravo and my hands clapping on the zoom for that. And then the most important thing is She is the mother of two incredible daughters Nyima, who is a budding cellist and aspiring ballerina, and also a Mani, who played violin in her youth orchestra at age 13. And Sicily. I mean, are the arts embedded in this family? Or what? Show Welcome to the show? I promise not to talk Chopin the entire time. Hi,

thank you so much for having me. I need to carry you around.

You're awesome. And I'm I mean, there's so much to dive into here with what you've done to kind of pair development and relationships and engagement with community. And but I'd really love to just start with, what is your story, give us kind of a background of where you grew up and how you came to be in this position right

here. Oh, gosh, great. Um, so I was raised by a single mother in suburban New York, White Plains, New York for listeners who know the area. And she really indulged my interest in the arts very early. You know, my mom, she came to New York with a one way ticket to be the help in Scarsdale, New Jersey, which Scarsdale, New York, which is a very wealthy area, but she, you know, took me to my first museum exhibit, she sent me on a bus trip that unfortunately, she's no longer with us. So I can't confirm this. But it only occurs to me that she probably couldn't afford two tickets. But she sent me on a bus trip to see my first Broadway show when I was about seven or eight. I know and then participated in pretty much every outreach our program you could possibly think of in terms of visual and performing arts. I by the high school, I was in something called the Westchester arts program, which was designed to identify promising young people in the performing arts. And when I worked at the Arts Council of Princeton, I actually found the woman who created that program and was able to kind of tell her, how grateful I was for her to create that. And a funny little anecdote on that is, you know, she was so surprised to hear from me, obviously, it had been many years, I'm not gonna say how many decades. But then she messaged me a few days later, and she said, You're doing great work down there in Princeton. And she said, you know, john Stewart's mom's that I'm like, john Stewart's mother knows who I am. Great work down there in Princeton. But I just goes to show you though, that something that happened to me and for me at seven and nine and 11, stays with me today, and really informs how I approach the work that I do today, as a child growing up in poverty, but having the arts to make me and instill in me the confidence that I think I have

today. Okay, that was a beautiful story. It has a lot of resonance with me, my mother is a music teacher and I grew up going to the theater did not really love it at first and really understand it, that it was long, and then just slowly come to be immersed in the culture of arts, whether it be the ballet or the opera, or the symphony, or whatever it is. And it's like you just get a different worldview. And the way that you look at people in the in the gifts that they can put into the world through their creativity is something that's just so incredible to me. So I love that. And I think this is probably an ode to tenacious mother with a little love letter, this conversation today.

You so much. And yeah, it's funny, because the Arts Council of Princeton jobs, so I haven't actually been an arts administrator, a dedicated arts administrator very long. I know it might, because my life had a lot of arts, to read through it in my career, but to to really be able to bring my own lived experience in terms of how I approach the work is, is important to me. So thank you for that. Well,

I just love that. I mean, it's fascinating how often this comes up to and as parents in the room here, I mean, we all just love seeing how the seeds we plant in our little wins goes on to just bloom into just such impactful stories like yours. So thank you for threading that together gives me a lot of excitement, just hearing it too. I would love for you to kind of talk a little bit about your work with Newark Symphony, Symphony Hall, specifically, and friends. This was covered just casually in Forbes. So this story is fascinating, though, I think how you came about it with this entrepreneurial mindset. And I would just love for you to talk a little bit about the Symphony Hall project and how it came to be.

Thank you. Yeah, so I do I have been calling us the 96 year old startup. I yeah. When I joined, I really went after this role. First of all, I went after the role, I saw that it was on LinkedIn actually. And I'll never forget, I called a person who is a colleague, I always called her mentor, but she's like, no, we're colleagues now solidly. And I said, How come you didn't tell me that they were looking for someone to run Symphony Hall. And she said to me, she they've been looking for someone to run it. Since January. It was June, nobody really wants the job. And I was like, I want the job, you know? So I went after the role. And the first thing that the search firm said is, well, you know, we can't afford you, you know, I made I made more my prior role. And I said, No, I really want this. And there were several reasons, including the fact that it's in a community of color. It's in a community color that I thought was was changing. And I wanted to make sure that as the community changes that, you know, Newark has people, nearly a third of the people live below the poverty line. And if you heard me earlier, my mother was the literal working poor. I mean, she always worked my entire time, but she never made more than minimum wage. So I was that person. And so I said, You know, I have the skills to revitalize this institution, which was not just in decline, you know, for your listeners that know the organizational lifecycle, right. And you know that that downward, wasn't just in decline. It was in crisis, which is a step below. And now I'd like to say that we're in turn around. But I approached it saying you might know or be able to meet more people that know how to run a performing arts center. But what you need right now is some of that really understands community development. The institution was not meeting its its potential even the mission the mission had been shifted from performing arts per se to you Utilizing Newark Symphony Hall for the economic revitalization of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. And so that's that's how it came to be. I basically went in and said, I'm your person, and went through all my rounds of interviews, including with the staff. And I think it was when the staff interviewed me that I knew that it was a group that I wanted to work with. So I hope I'm answering your questions on

this. I mean, it's not even that you only answered the question, it's like that you had a vision that was so much bigger than what they were thinking this role needed to be. And I think that that is a really great takeaway from what I'm understanding about, what you're doing here is that, you know, we are sitting in amazing positions in our nonprofits as we're working to solve these problems of the world. And it doesn't have to be so siloed about our specific mission, we can bring our mission out and figure out ways that we can leverage it to engage people bring them in, I mean, this entire conversation are about going into a underprivileged community and revitalizing it, who it could not get excited about that. And I just think it's just a really interesting case study about how leaders can bring more than what's actually in the skill set, you know, or the job description. And I think just as nonprofit professionals, we're used to wearing a million hats. But I just think to get lots of people excited about a super big vision that it's not just about creating a beautiful space, where we can, in a vacuum, you know, appreciate these programs. It's like, how do we push out beyond these walls? How do we make it bigger than what's happening within the structure? And I have to say, your building is huge. It's not like, it's like a block wide or something. Right?

Yeah. So and I'll tell you something else. So according to the staff, I was the only person that came in and said, You know, when I went through my third round, I interviewed with a subgroup of the search committee, and they said, well, what's the first thing to do? And I said, Well, clearly a capital improvement plan, but apparently nobody had it was sort of like the elephant, right, you know, nobody was going to address the fact that this facility had decades of deferred maintenance. So that was the first thing that I said, Well, of course, I'm going to do that. And then the other thing is, I almost hesitate to say this, but in the ad for the role, there really wasn't a business model for the building, you know, they were thinking of maybe turning it into a museum, they weren't really clear on what they wanted it to be. And so when I came in, I also said, Well, I think we could be a performing arts center. Cuz, you know, that's what it was built to be. So there was a lot of, I think, I think there was love for the actual building. But there was a lot of concern around could the building because I'll also just give you broader context. Newark Symphony Hall was built, opened in 1925. About 25 years ago, a new facility called the New Jersey Performing Arts Center was built. And then subsequent to that an arena was built. So and these are all in a different section of what is all considered our central Ward, we're downtown, but we're still probably the last remaining sort of intact neighborhood of the community. And so I think that was another thing that that wasn't clear that we could actually be a performing arts center, because we have been viewed as in the Shatt become in further in the shadow of nj Pac and the Prudential Center. So there was a lot of complexity here. And a lot of, of me coming in and cheerleading for No, this is what we can do. Because great cities and I think Newark is a great city, it is the largest city in the state of New Jersey, great cities don't just have one place to go. Right. You know, a great cities have multiple entertainment venues. And so that is really how I approached this as well. So, you know, for your listeners not being in the city, you probably aren't aware of that sort of, can we really do this and I'm been saying that we're the little big organization and institution that can

I can't wait till this baby startup has their Centennial in four years. I'm on my way saying we would love to come it would be such a such an event. But I'm very curious about this campaign. And I love what you've just said there because I think that campaigns do more than just infused capital into missions. I mean, it can do exactly what you've said it, it elevates the brand. It allows you to talk about things that are new new and exciting new programs, new offerings, whatever it is, and the way that the campaign really affects the community in a positive way has is a wonderful thing. And I do think just marketing, the fact that you have a campaign gives an branding, it gives something for people to talk about. So, I mean, this is a massive renovation you're undergoing. And I want you to talk about the campaign and how you're using arts and culture as an economic development tool for the resurgence of Newark.

Yeah, so first of all, you opened, I have to correct the numbers everywhere. It's actually 50 million just to renovate the building now. And so 10 million just

got added a mere 10 million on the top, I was joking

with you that this is like an HGTV show. And it's like that it's like the budget is like, Oh, yeah, this building is so costly, I'm sure.

Yeah. And that became we thanks to again, a donor, we were able to hire some engineers and that engineer, engineering firm essentially said, okay, you have to upgrade upgrade your entire infrastructure here. So that's, that added $10 million to the budget.

It's like the least sexy part of the entire campaign the way forward if we don't do

it. Yeah. So you can't see the plumbing, you can't see the electrical, you can't see any of those things. But those are the things that really are not sexy, but the must dues. It's not the pretty stuff. So Oh, my goodness, so many layers. And it's one of the reasons that I kind of branded it Symfony works, right? Because, again, when I was talking to another consultant, get a lot of this was education for myself. One of the there's several things that I learned in this as a process. So one of the things that I noticed immediately is that the staff that I inherited, had not been invested in either. So there was some things that I was asking them to do that they couldn't do. And so I hired a consultancy, to do a, I called it a skills gap analysis, they call it an organizational assessment, you know, and in that process, they shared with me the things that needed, look, review, right. And so from that we created a professional development plan for every full time staff person, which as it doesn't, so it wasn't like an overwhelming number. So again, in terms of numbers, we had 12, full time staff people, but employ probably about 150 per diem people just for the events.

And as I was thinking about the renovation, another consultants that will the renovation is going to create 500 construction jobs. And I said, Well, I want to make sure that all the local people are able to do that. And so again, looking at what what are the skills gaps, a lot of local people are not trained in historic preservation. And so was all the other people might have looked at all of these things as barriers, I looked at them as opportunities for additional investment upskilling additional opportunities to close that wealth gap, to bring some of the people in the community from below the poverty line into a living wage. And so it's so complex that that's why so I had to carry you around Becky, that as I'm describing it to people, I had to come up with something that they could understand. And so my analogy was the WPA after we were coming out of an emerging from the Great Depression. And it just so happened at my last job. That building was built by the WPA. And for folks that don't remember the WPA, from their social studies, classes and high school, it was a essentially a public works initiative, all the major, you know, that dams and schools and roads, it literally put people to work. What many people don't realize, though, was that it had an arts component as well. So all of those posters that you saw were created by artists. They even hired composers, they hired actors, and they also had, so again, people might not know that, but they also had things that were called the Negro units. And now remember, this is before integration. And again, it was putting a lot of people of color to work as well. Newark is 40% African American, we are also 30 something percent Hispanic. But of course, that could be any race. The fact of the matter is, though, we're predominantly people of color. And what I saw was an opportunity to use the restoration of Symphony Hall, the revitalization of the building and our programming as an opportunity to really revitalize and bring up the whole community, not just that Lincoln Park neighborhood. And so that's what Symphony works is about. And so for the campaign, which technically, we're That's so called silent phase right? So we're we're just meeting with people one on one to talk about it. My very first ask was a year into the job. And I had given myself a psychological barrier that I wanted to goal rather that I wanted to raise a million dollars in the first year. Because before I got there, Symphony Hall was averaging about a quarter million dollars in annual operating deficits, and was only getting about a quarter million dollars in philanthropy. So in my mind, that was like a goal. And so I had raised $350,000, in my first two and a half months. So essentially blew out what would typically in the in the in an annual year, also, we closed our deficit in the first seven months of operations, because I joined five months into our fiscal year, and at the end of seven months, when we ended in a surplus and with the same staff, so that was almost like a immediate return on investment, right? investing in the people, right, investing in the human capital, gave us that. So anyway, my first ask, which was for seven figures, I opened up the presentation, and I showed a short video, which had some youth playing a youth orchestra playing the secret is it was my kids, Youth Orchestra, youth orchestra playing in the lobby of the building, and we interviewed some of the kids, what would it be like to perform in this? And you know, who doesn't love kids? Right? So that at the end of the two and a half minute video, which is available on on YouTube, I said, you know, I'm from New York. And the Prudential Center reminds me of Madison Square Garden in New York City. And J. Pak reminds me of Lincoln Center in New York City. And Newark, Symphony Hall is New York's Carnegie Hall. Right. And that was my pitch. And then I went into the things that we need, and then I asked them for $2 million. And what did they say?

And I'm so okay, well think about it. And on the drive home, I got a call from the still Ben potential donor, and they said, we're seeing how much we can get you next week. And this was in December. And on December 23, I sent an email to the board saying, Santa came early, we got a $675,000 check, donation, and that put me over my million dollar goal for that first year. So that's how we got started.

What a freakin rock star visionary leader,

I was gonna say, Okay, let's break down your visionary leadership here, because it's beyond building a building. And this is what we tried to talk about. It's not about the building, you saw past that you saw this as a chance to reinvigorate the community. And so the vision is getting people to be invested in it to be believers in what this building can do. Which is why the people that work on it, who live in the community have this pride that's just growing. And the way that you involve people and tell the story of it. It's all points to what you're trying to accomplish. And so I just love that, that you just dream big. And you ask for it, you know, and you got such an incredible gift right out the gate in cash. Let's talk about the cash aspect of

cash. It's like right before Christmas to like, what a little gift. But the other thing I want to say about what you did that I thought was just so incredible is did you see her starting point? It was with her 12 staff. It's like she individual plan, you looked inward. Step number one was looking at the family and looking inside and saying, how do we create something that gets everybody excited? How do we give them invest in their growth, invest in their talent, make them feel excited and passionate about what we're doing and why they want to be here. And from there. I mean, this is this is a really great lesson for anybody, if you can invest in your staff, if you can see them, if you can show them that you that you care about them as human beings and as professionals, they are going to hustle it out for you. And you're I mean, if you're down to 12 staff, and I gotta tell you, I got sweaty, when you told me you had a quarter million dollars that you were raising annually, and then you have a $50 million goal I would I would have been sweating as a fundraiser. But it's it's also just a beautiful story about care about people. And if you start small from within, culturally that's going to push out that's going to push out into your donor base that's going to push out into your community into your patrons. And so I just I just think all of it together. Somebody anybody else could have walked in and said this is just too much to take on and you were like, it's it's not a lot to take on. We just it's an opportunity and we're going to run at it for Every different angle, and now you're sitting in the success of it, and I just couldn't be happier for you.

Thank you. I'm going to tell you, I think they were, they probably thought it was a little weird because they had never done some of the things that we ended up doing as a group. So we went and did those things, retreats. So I got the Princeton blairstown Center has a 216 acre campus. That's not too far from Newark Symphony Hall. The new Princeton blast Town Center was founded in the 1800s, unsurprisingly by some Princeton University, staff and professors, but they they was originally founded as sort of this fresh air fund type place for kids, but they do corporate retreats. So they donated a typical corporate team building retreat for us. So yes, we were out there on a campus and you know, we were doing like tug of war things. And we were doing communication things. And, and I thought, I thought it was really important that we really did gel as a family and that particular way, especially since I was the new thing, right, they have been there for a while some of them have been up there for decades. Some of them have been there for generations. Billy, his father had worked there. He recently retired. So some of them have been, you know, through probably our entire length of our organization. So yeah, it was, it was a great thing to do. And it was fun, because we had a lot of work to do. And I wanted to make it fun.

That's awesome.

I mean, it's incredible. I just, I just think that you have a different mindset. Clearly, and it's not just about I think one of the pitfalls we fall into in nonprofit is that we're in the grind of it. So often there, there's a million things to do. And there's just not a lot of space, or we don't create space, to dream and to have big vision and to think about strategy and how we can do things differently. And I just think you have this entrepreneurial mindset for social change. And so I'm just really curious, you've utilized this entrepreneurial mindset for social change throughout your career, what sort of encouragement would you give to our listeners in their corner of the world about how they can employ this to sort of have this big thinking, whether they're a leader, or whether they're just a little worker bee on the frontlines of their mission?

I think you said it, you know, start with the mission. I want to tell you one other thing, though, before we move on about the team, right before the pandemic, when I realized that we were going to be doing a lot of fundraising events and fancy events, you know, private cultivation events, I also realized that they probably never experienced that. So I got a chef to do a leadership luncheon, where they essentially were experiencing themselves how I said we were going to be sort of cultivating donors. So that was also really important for them to sort of understand how this was going to work and to be an active participant and understand why we needed to sort of, you know, wine and dine people, I wanted them to be wined and dined. But starting with the mission, though, is the key of any approach. So again, I want to I know we're talking about Symphony Hall, but I want to talk about my prior job, because I think that was a really great example. I was only actually there for 20 months. But a great example of how it was great to implement change social change in a place. So the Arts Council of Princeton is an amazing place that I got to actually see grow, because it grew during the time I've lived in this community. And it grew to the point that Michael graves, who was a star architect did this incredible, incredible renovation of the building, which back in the early 20s, was the segregated why was the colored why, right. And so when I came into the institution, though, I was not only the only person, the first person of color, but there wasn't a lot of people of color that was actually coming into the community Art Center. And so I really wanted to figure out how we could make it more diverse and more inclusive. And the first thing I did was start with our mission. Our mission is building community through the arts. And we had an underutilized black box theater. And I saw an opportunity for us to create new programming that would bring the community into the theater, and it was called Community stage. And so community stage we partnered with other organizations in the area who did not have their own venue. And I remember rolling out we did a whole press conference on this new programming. But again, this is I hadn't even been there a year I probably was there about seven, eight months. And I remember talking to a funder at the time said, it's so great how you rapidly injected diversity and inclusion there and I wasn't approaching it that way I was approaching it from I want us to live our mission building community through the arts and, you know, also our community values as a Princeton as a sanctuary city. And so it's like how to make sure that people were being included. So for social change, I think It's really just sort of three steps. It is start with that mission, how can you really embody your mission? And then what are your values? How can you really kind of live those values, and then just model humanity. One of the other groups that we partnered with a created new programming for was an organization that worked with profoundly disabled adults. And we were the only organization at the Arts Council of Princeton that decided to work with them to create a program for these adults. And for what I said is, in my mind, it's like, I see you, right, you matter. And so I think, every role, that's kind of how I'm approaching the work, so if they, if your listeners get nothing from me, just really, how can you really live your mission? And are you really living that mission?

Okay, that that is your taxation. I mean, how can we all infuse those three, you know, into whatever space we're in, of aligning or starting with your mission, living your values and modeling humanity? That is beautiful, my friend, and I love the tangible expression of that through the community box theater. I mean, that's just, it's amazing. And I'm just thinking of all the ways that could carry out.

Yeah, I mean, that program ended up being people, seniors, it ended up people in the black box. In terms of our programming, we partnered with a theatre company for seniors, we partnered with American Repertory ballet, their their secondary troupe, which is sort of like their development company. And we partnered with a professor at Princeton, who had created an instrument he called the Big Love years so that someone who didn't have all their digits could really play with a full sound. It was amazing. It was amazing. And that's the same approach that I have at Newark Symphony Hall. I think everything that I've done before this job was actually preparing me for this job.

And I mean, it almost I mean, there's, there's a weird alignment of our values of our own company threaded, and what you're saying of this entrepreneurial social change, mind shift, and I love this story, in the comment just about, Oh, good. You're having a commitment to dei and you're like, no, that's our values. That's baked in dude. Newark Symphony Hall is going to be a place where everyone can come whether you're a patron, whether you're an artist, you know, whether you're a community member to Nisha is going to break through so many arts barriers, and I want you to be the poster child of it. Can we can we wrap a marketing campaign around that john, and I would like to build that with you.

So I'll give a Newark example. So we there is a an enclave in New York of Portuguese Americans. They started emigrating into Newark, probably in the 50s. And I recently found out through an interaction with a local person that there is a amazing singer by the name of Emilio Rodriguez, who was a fondue I hadn't even heard of I do music, but it's sort of a Portuguese folk music. And she performed us. She's no longer here. But she performed at Symphony Hall. And I was like, That's amazing. And then we did a tribute to Sarah bomb, because our concert hall is named after Sarah Vaughan and she is from Newark. And I said, I want to do a tribute to Amalia Rodriguez. And I remember talking to someone who worked for another arts institution in this city, and he said, Oh, yeah, when we first opened, we started doing all these things for the Portuguese community. But you know, they weren't really like donors or anything. And so I let them finish. And I said, Okay, so what you're telling me is do the tribute, but don't expect to get a lot of donations from them. And she said, Yeah, I

said, Okay, that's fine. I thought about doing this, because I want to get donations from that neighborhood. I'm doing this because I want them to see that I see them, and that they're here that they matter. And I know that this woman is important to them. And so that I think oftentimes is something that we don't do enough of we nonprofits have to figure out a way to not be thinking solely around donation. And I thought that sounds crazy. But I think that the money will still come. I mean, I just think that this is a conversation that's an another level into me, if you break it down to even its most bearish form, most bearish form, there you go, that wasn't even grammatically correct. If you break it down to its simplest form, you're caring about people and you're seeing people. And I honestly think that if, if that's a value that's baked into the culture, I think the money's gonna follow because it creates a culture that people want to come into. It's vibrant, it's inclusive, and it just feels good. So I just commend you.

So to Nisha, in the article that we had read about you, I think part of your story has just been you kind of made this mid career pivot of just focus on legacy. And a lot of that was a tribute to your late husband, Roland, I wonder if you'd feel comfortable sharing a little bit of that story and kind of what that motivation kind of shifted or maybe be lit a fire within you.

Thank you. So my husband passed away eight years ago, it was sudden it wasn't expected. My youngest was a few weeks away from age three. And then there was a funeral, we held a funeral for him. In the ballroom of the war memorial in Trenton, New Jersey, the war memorial has a theater in there, that's about 1600 seats, but it's also a historic building. He loved the war memorial, love the war memorial, it taught told me about how he watched the renovation of it. So there was about 600 people at his funeral. And a lot of those people talked about how he had personally impacted them. And then Brown University, he was a brown alum. And when we moved to Trenton, New Jersey, again, another community of color, we moved there because I was the director of economic development for the municipality. He started a nonprofit with the fellow African American alumni from Brown University. And he started sending kids from the city of Trenton to summer programs at Brown, initially just eighth graders to STEM programs. He was a techie. Now his undergraduate degree at Brown was in math and his master's degrees in computer science, and ultimately ended up sending ironically enough kids from Trenton and Newark, to to brown and Brown had me come up and speak. And they probably probably the poorest people to ever have something named after us. But brown actually named an ongoing scholarship after him that will continue to send young people to their summer programs. And I found out that there were like 30 kids who had benefited in that very short period of time. And so for me, it was like, he managed to do this and do this in a way that I didn't even realize that he was doing this, I knew he was always I call it dialing for dollars, he was a fundraiser for his nonprofit that he created. And he would call his his fellow alums and say, okay, and does your job has a matching program, and he was constantly, you know, doing all of these things. And I said, Well, what I want people to say about me, you know, when I go, what do I want my legacy to be? And so that's really what drives me. And so thank you for asking, because what I hope is that every place that I've been that, that I've left lasting change the program, the community stage program at the Arts Council of Princeton, not only still exists, I guess, three years after I've now left, but they're still working with some of the same people that were part of that same, that first cohort, if I left Newark Symphony Hall today, which I do not plan to do, but if I left it today, I'd left it in a really great place. And so that's really, how my late husband, who was just a working guy, you know, before he died, we did get an opportunity to build our own dream business. We were the minority owners, and a business in New York City called missed my image studios. I was the chief marketing officer. But he passed away the week of our official opening. And so I haven't been involved since. But But yeah, thank you for that. Because rolling and my mother, and my mother and Roland loved each other so much. That Rowland died on the anniversary of her death. And so I feel like they are together, I feel like they are cheerleading up there. And yeah, thank you.

I love that we created space to talk about that, because I just think that you are just such an incredible pioneer and an overcomer and a warrior mom. And I think this legacy that you enrollment have created even just with your children, I mean, that's not to say what you've done with your community, but your girls, and just the vibrant little souls. They are I mean, we just saw Nyima, she comes on to the screen before we started. And it's like, they're pouring into the arts. They're they're watching this, this rock star mom model this big life in this big dream, and she's locking arms with everybody in our community, and you're bringing them along with you. And I just think that yes, there there are going to be physical changes in Newark. And clearly this, this space is going to be a physical marking of that. But the things that we can't see, and the way that people feel valued and invested in and the way that we're expanding what they're exposed to, and we're tapping into the creativity and the potential within everybody. Those are the intangibles that people will never see. But that is a that is a legacy that starts with your mom, you know, planted a seed by rolling and it's like you just keep planting these seeds. And it all comes from a place of love. At least that's how I feel as you're talking. And I just think you're an extraordinary human. I'm so glad to hear just every part of your story. And thank you for sharing So, so openly and honestly with us. You know, we we love to ask all of our guests, especially those a nonprofit who are so close to mission about a story or a moment in philanthropy that deeply moved them. I wonder if there's a story that you've witnessed in your career in your personal life that you'd like to share the story with us?

a great question. I actually have to say it was roelens creation of the Ethel Tremaine Robinson Foundation, which I saw him create in our kitchen. He designed it. Yeah, you know, and he and he sat down and filled out that tension himself and, and to find out after his passing that and I would also usually host the children before they would go up to brown and rolling would drive them up. And, and the transformation of the of the kids that it touched, you know, after he passed away, a couple of them proactively reached out to me and I had missed their messages because it went to that other box on Facebook. And they talked about how Mr. Rowland as they call them, really changed their lives and impacted their lives. And for me, it just shows the power of this little organization, this foundation never had to fill out the big 990 it was a small foundation. But the fact that through these individual donations that came from his fellow alarms, how they were absolutely able to impact these 30. And now more than 30, because they've continued continued it since he passed away, how that how philanthropy and how that could really sort of change. People, you know, and I hope that those children are, who are now adults, some of them are passing it for and paying it forward.

And legacy is just such a word that just thread is a heartbeat from you all that I just feel on this conversation. Okay, to Nisha, we ask all of our guests kind of our last question here. What is your one good thing, it's something that you could give us as advice, maybe that it's been a hack for your success, or just something that really resonates is true for you.

Wow, my one good thing is what I always say when I give these sort of motivational speeches to especially to millennials, I am listening. It's really interesting that I have a whole bunch of millennials that I've been working with. So if you're the demo, your current situation is not your final destination. That's it. Right? You know, oftentimes, we think the the place that we are right now, especially if it's something that's really challenging, you're always going to be mired in there and just know that what you are working in at the moment. It is just a moment to

tears in my eyes.

I mean, if you have growth mindset, you always want to be learning, you always want to be listening, you always want to be pouring into the things around you. So where we're sitting right now, even this conversation with us is just a starting point for something bigger. And that's just a really nice rallying cry. Okay, I have a softball question that's self serving. If you had a dream for anyone to come and play opening night at the Newark Symphony Hall, whether it be Symphony, whether it be opera, whether it be musical theater, or any manner, what would it be?

So we have had a lot we didn't talk about this in this conversation, but we had a lot of living legends that have performed and at Newark Symphony Hall. You know, legends that are no longer with us. Of course, like Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix performed at Symphony Hall The day after Martin Luther King's assassination. And there's all kinds of of people who have written about that particular concert in particular, but November 7 1965, before all of us, I'm assuming we're born. It was the Rolling Stones of the British invasion. And Patti LaBelle and the bluebells are the opening act. So Patti LaBelle and the Rolling Stones, duplicating their concert from November 7 1965. know people probably expected me to talk about all the living legends in the opera world because there are several, but that's the one I want.

You imagine Patti LaBelle and Mick Jagger getting up at the Newark Symphony and singing satisfaction together. I

would doubt at that I was thinking like that I want Beethoven up there. But on November 7 1965, and get off my cloud was I looked it up I looked up the setlist from the concert.

Okay. tonisha people are gonna need to know how to connect with you how to connect with the Newark Symphony Hall I think it would be very interesting even if you'd love this conversation, to follow the Newark Symphony halls. Social so you can see how this progresses. Come follow them. watch the news if you feel compelled to join This movement, I don't think that the community is necessarily limited to new work, you could be a part of this movement wherever you are in the world. So hook us up how to people connect with you. Absolutely. And I will say I do get contacted by people from around the world, particularly people of color in classical music, but not limited to that if you want to contact me. So Newark Symphony Hall is on every platform except tik tok. So

we're going to change that. And it's exactly what you think Newark Symphony Hall, so on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. And then my, it's my name, my first name is Tia NSH II. That's how you can contact me on Twitter. I'm on Instagram. And it's my whole name to Nisha Nash layered. And then just go to Newark Symphony hall.org. That's our website, and everything is connected there as well.

We are so bought in we've loved this conversation in URL light and

bright, vibrant presence. I just I just feel I mean, in our little tiny space here in Oklahoma, it's like we are rooting for you. I just think that this could be such an interesting case study of how nonprofits can merge with community development and economic prosperity and coming into extremely marginalized populations and infusing life into them with our mission. And so we're going to be watching you from a distance and just cheering for you. And yeah, I would love to come back and like two years and see a sec successful campaign completion, maybe five years, five year pledges. Yeah, and just see all the vibrant growth. That's gonna be really exciting.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks so much for listening to today's conversation with Nisha, I hope you feel inspired to lean into your mission and values and just simply model humanity. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. That's why I'd love for you to join our good community. It's our own social network like an after party for every episode, a place to meet new friends find inspiration and help when you feel stuck. Sign up today at weird for good calm slash Hello. One more thing. If you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and Your support helps more people find this community. Thanks so much friends. Our production hero has a favorite playlist called Spotify is calming classical Julie Confer Hey, and our theme song is sunray by Remy boys beam