STooPS is born in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY-a historically black neighborhood- and conceived by our Founder, Kendra J. Ross -a black woman. While we are committed to unifying everyone in our neighborhood, we are also intentional about uplifting the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. This means featuring BIPOC artists, supporting small, local black owned businesses, and creating alliances with organizations that similarly are led by and service BIPOC folks. We do this as a means to do our part in undoing the systemic racism that has been perpetuated in all the threads of our society. We encourage our white neighbors, businesses, attendees, and leaders to be intentional in doing work within their own communities to raise up and honestly support BIPOC people. We should all make shifts in how we work to recognize and take steps to undo the racism that has affected all our humanity.

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Pictured above is STooPS alumni artist Taja Lindley performing excerpts of her work  “This Ain’t A Eulogy.” where she created a tapestry of 86 trash bags that names each of the 86 unarmed Black people killed by the police since Amadou Diallo in 1999. She performed this in 2015; we are saddened that this year her tapestry would need to lengthen.  However, we are honored to feature artists whose work speak to the activism we support and practices we embody inside our organization.