Broken Office Chair

In this episode, Bessie sits down with Jamyle Cannon, Executive Director and Founder of The Bloc, to discuss walking in your values with conviction, the philanthropic landscape from a POC perspective, and what nonprofit heartbreak looks like for them.

Jamyle is the 2009 National Collegiate Boxing Champion and a Teach for America Alumni member. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work from the University of Kentucky and a Masters in Education from Arizona State University. In 2016, after building a popular boxing program in his classroom, Cannon combined his love for youth development, boxing, and education to form The Bloc. He has been recognized as a CNN Hero, a 4-Star Chicagoan by Windy City Live, an Economic Game Changer by the New Covenant Community Development Corporation, profiled as one of the Hardest Working Voices in Sports by Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the Rich O’Leary Community Sports Award at Notre Dame University, and is generally considered by the fighters in The Bloc to be the baddest man alive. He has sincere plans to change the after-school landscape of Chicago’s West Side and provide community-building resources to his neighbors.

Please note guest opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bessie or Alternatives.

In this episode, our guest Ozzie Godinez and host, Bessie Alcantara, discuss performative activism in marketing, what genuine DEI looks like, how social change shifts marketing strategies, and much more.

In this episode of Broken Office Chair, Bessie Alcantara and Diana Castaneda share their experiences with anti-Blackness in the Latinx community. They cover everything from why they choose to say Latinx instead of Hispanic to their understanding and solutions to anti-Blackness in the latinx community.

In this episode of Broken Office Chair, Bessie Alcantara and Lesle Honore chat about the cost of being poor, how their lived experiences influence their careers, and how society dehumanizes people facing poverty.

*Disclaimer: In this episode, Bessie and Leslé chat about their experiences facing poverty and how those experiences shaped their perceptions of what it’s like to fall below the poverty line. Since the recording of the podcast, we have learned that the use of the word “poor” further marginalizes and places blame on individuals. At Alternatives, we recognize poverty as a systemic issue and not the fault of any individual and want this opportunity to reflect our learning and how we are consistently working to be better.

In this episode, Hilesh Patel sits down with host Bessie Alcantara to discuss the Philanthropy sector, the nonprofit industrial complex, organizational DEI work, and creating a more equitable work culture.

In Episode 2 of Broken Office Chair, our host, Bessie Alcantara, sits down with Ayoka Knoell Mota Samuels to continue their conversation about being women of color in nonprofit leadership. They discuss what it looks like to do work through an equitable lens and what it’s like to be role models for other women of color working in the nonprofit sector.

*Listener Note: This episode contains explicit language that may not be appropriate for all listeners. Viewer discretion is advised.

Resources:

https://www.thecrownact.com/

https://www.belgraviacentre.com/blog/hair-and-the-culture-of-the-ancient-maya

https://tulanehullabaloo.com/51652/intersections/business-professionalism-is-racist/

In this episode, our host Bessie Alcantara sits down with Ayoka Knoell Mota Samuels to discuss their journeys of rising the ranks in nonprofits and the challenges that they faced as women of color in nonprofit leadership.

*Listener Note: This episode contains explicit language that may not be appropriate for all listeners. Viewer discretion is advised.

Resources:

https://www.thecrownact.com/

https://www.belgraviacentre.com/blog/hair-and-the-culture-of-the-ancient-maya

https://tulanehullabaloo.com/51652/intersections/business-professionalism-is-racist/

Introducing Broken Office Chair, a new podcast produced by Alternatives, a Chicago-based nonprofit. Broken Office Chair is hosted by Alternatives’ Executive Director, Bessie Alcantara, a Chicago native and a first-generation Salvadoran-Mexican American who’s passionate about dismantling systemic racism.In each episode, Bessie will be joined by friends and colleagues who are ready to talk frankly about the most important issues within the nonprofit sector. Topics range from challenges for women of color in nonprofit leadership to the cost of being poor.To learn more, visit our website: www.alternativesyouth.org/brokenofficechair