By MIMI LILIEFELDT In a perfect world there is no racism; no inequalities, no injustices, nobody has to stand up for anyone else because there’s nothing to stand up for. In this utopian world we are all equals and treated as such. As it happens, we live here, in the real world. Our world is […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT July marks the one-year anniversary of Black Lives Here. Writing this column has been a journey of taking small steps toward ending racism, opening the conversation within our Beach community, and self-discovery for many, including myself. During this year of meeting all these fascinating people and hearing their stories, I realized there […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Many people of various cultures and religions may not recognize it, but they live with generational trauma. Generational trauma starts with an event, and then over decades, the pain, coping mechanisms, and ways of seeing the world, get passed down to the next generation. As kids, most of us didn’t think of […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT May 25th marks the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. Last month, Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three counts, which elicited cries of relief throughout the Black community and its supporters. At last, if only for an all too brief moment, Black people felt seen as worthy of some kind of […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT In this new era of enlightenment, it seems like every company, charity and government organization is looking for a way to “diversify”. Overall, the goal sounds like a good one and of course BIPOC are cautiously optimistic that our white counterparts are finally forging an attempt to make room at the table […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Do you believe the statement, “You can’t miss what you never had”? I’m not talking about material things, I’m asking if you think it’s possible to miss a feeling, a connection, or a bond that you never had? I spoke with Janelle Francisco, a mortgage agent with a Toronto mortgage group, and […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT We all know that February is Black History Month, so it feels right to tell a story about an individual whose history has changed how a young Black person might see their own potential, despite the odds. Steve Anderson is many things, a Black man who was born and raised in Kentucky, […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT If you like hot sauce, you know a good one will have a slow burn. It won’t melt your face off at the first taste. As you add a little more for each bite, the intensity increases, layer after layer until you can’t take it anymore and have to douse the fire […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Community is made up of people, you can’t be a community on your own. We all need each other. Even in our ‘independence’ it’s not possible to do everything alone. This is especially true when it comes to raising children. Thankfully there are people like Eloise Morrison. Eloise is a genuine person […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT It’s hard to shake a core belief. The world has worked hard to shape you and cement those unshakable “truths”. These nuggets of information don’t even have to be legitimate, what matters is that we don’t know how to let them go. When I spoke with Peter Gowdie, owner of Cut N […]
