Episode 21: Justin Laing - Taking Back the Land

<h2><strong>Episode 21: Justin Laing: - Taking Back The Land</strong></h2><h2>Justin Laing</h2><p>Before starting Hillombo in 2017, Justin worked as a Senior Program Officer of Arts &amp; Culture at The Heinz Endowments for more than a decade.&nbsp;His work focused on small and midsized arts organizations, out-of-school time arts education, and Black arts organizations, with a particular interest in participatory grantmaking. He came to philanthropy having worked for ten years as the Assistant Director of Nego Gato, Inc, an Afro Brazilian Music, Dance, and Martial Arts company where he taught, performed, and ran the day-to-day operations. Justin has a BA in Black Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters Degree in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University.</p><p>Justin serves as the co-chair of ArtsinHD, an arts planning and creation process in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to support the neighborhood’s master plan and mark the neighborhood as a place for liberatory Black culture. Justin is the son of Susan and Clarence Laing, the father of Kufere, Etana, and Adeyemi Laing, and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.</p><h2>Threshold Questions And Delicious Quotes</h2><p><strong>What does "taking back the land mean?</strong></p><blockquote><em>the idea ... was ...from a person named </em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%ADlcar_Cabral" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Amilcar Cabral.</em></a><em>&nbsp;This idea that you work in small territories. [...] you try to take back the land, like square mile by square mile. So, I was working in one major place called the Hill District... And culture was a critical piece to liberate our minds and the way that European culture oppressed black people was through this indoctrination of its art, its culture is everything is being superior. And so, culture had to be part of the strategy.</em></blockquote><p><strong>You talk about working constructively with the tensions that are present in many organizations. What does this entail?</st