85: Tisidra Jones: Strong and Starlike

Tisidra Jones: is a poster child for cross-sector, hybrid creative community leadership. Trained in theater, and music, and as a lawyer, Tisidra has built a company that uses all of these assets in service to people and organizations working for change. BIOTisidra is a sought-after speaker, award-winning artist and lawyer who works at the intersection of inclusion, engagement and equal opportunity policies. Her methodology blends legal and policy research, sociological studies, and arts-based approaches to community and civic engagement. Tisidra's life, education, and professional experiences encompass rural communities, law, the arts, sociology, community engagement and multidisciplinary education. She has a B.A. in Music with a minor in the Sociology of Difference from George Mason University. She acquired her J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law and is licensed to practice law in New York and Minnesota.Tisidra has worked with nonprofits in the arts or those serving communities of color primarily when new programs were being launched or designed. On the public-sector side, she has worked with local, state, federal and international government entities. She acquired expertise as it relates to small, minority-owned, and women-owned business inclusion policies and programs. Whether working for the government or a nonprofit, every position Tisidra has held required project management, program design, infrastructure creation and community engagement.Finding connections across sectors has been integral to the work that Tisidra has done. As a result, she has served on over 30 boards, advisory councils and community engagement committees across sectors. She has also curated cross-sector advisory committees for major initiatives. Notable MentionsStrong and Starlight Consulting:INNOVATION | We are a company of creative individuals. Innovative ideas are at the core of who we are. So, we love having the opportunity to work with you as thought partners and a sounding board as you generate ideas.INFRASTRUCTURE | To get from idea to implementation, you cannot get there without crossing the sturdy bridge of infrastructure. We help you design the infrastructure needed to ensure that your ideas, once implemented, have the support, tools, policies, procedures, and capacity to be sustained. IMPLEMENTATION | Once the infrastructure is completed, we leave you with the tools and recommendations to take you through a pilot period and beyond. We can also continue working with you through the pilot period and equipping the next team that will carry you beyond your launch.Creative Community Leadership Institute (CCLI) Established in 2002 CCLI was a community arts leadership development training program developed by Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, MN. Over its 22 year history the program supported a network of creative change agents who continue to use arts and culture to help build caring, capable, and sustainable communities. When Intermedia closed its doors in 2017 the program was suspended. The program re-emerged in 2021 under the auspices of Springboard for the Arts in St. Paul Minnesota, and Racing Magpie in Rapid City, South Dakota. The program supports the development of strong leaders capable of challenging and disrupting oppressive systems in their communities by approaching their work with a critical lens and commitment to recognizing systems of oppression and normalizing conversations about race and colonialism. CCLI serves Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota artists.Dred Scott Decision: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.Dred Scott: Born in Southampton, Virginia, in his youth, Dred Scott was known as “Sam.” He later changed his name to Dred Scott. He moved with his master to Huntsville, Alabama and later to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1831 his owner, Peter Blow, died and John Emerson, a surgeon in the U.S. Army, bought him. He accompanied his new master to Illinois (a free state) and Wisconsin (a territory). While in what is now Minnesota, around 1836 he met and married Harriett Robinson. In 1843 Emerson died and left his estate to his widow Irene Emerson, who refused Scott’s demand for his freedom. He then obtained the assistance of two attorneys who helped him to sue for his freedom in court.Harriet Scott: Harriet Robinson Scott was an enslaved person who is best remembered for being the second wife of Dred Scott. Harriet was born a slave on a Virginia plantation around 1820. From a young age she was a servant to Lawrence Taliaferro, a US Indian Agent. In 1834 Taliaferro left his home in Pennsylvania for a post as agent to the Sioux Nation at St. Peter’s Agency in the Wisconsin Territory. He took Harriet with him to his new post. In theory, slavery was prohibited in Wisconsin Territory under the terms of the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Yet many US Army officers stationed in the territory continued to buy, sell, and own slaves. While at St. Peter’s Agency, Harriet met her future husband, Dred Scott, who had come to nearby Fort Snelling in 1836 as a valet to the fort’s new doctor, John Emerson. The couple was married in either 1836 or 1837 in a ceremony performed by Taliaferro.Dred and Harriet Scott Days at Historic Fort Snelling: Historic Fort Snelling will honored Dred and Harriet Scott with a free program on Sunday, December 4, 2016.  Dred Scott, a slave who was brought to Fort Snelling in 1830 by Army surgeon John Emerson, met and married Harriet there. The couple lived in Minnesota for only a few years, but their time in a free territory at Fort Snelling was key to the lawsuit they later filed for their freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected their claim in 1857, stating that as slaves they were not citizens and had no standing to sue — a ruling that helped precipitate the Civil War.The International Leadership Institute, The International Leadership Institute directs the efforts of professionals and others who share a commitment to social justice, representative democracy, and nurturing community leadership. The professionals who work through the Institute to improve their communities are widely experienced in international travel, providing technical assistance in diverse forms, from teaching to business consulting. The Institute relies upon the expertise of skilled professionals and upon cooperation with other organizations to identify and fill gaps in existing community service.Judge Lejeune Lange: he Honorable Judge LaJune Thomas Lange is a senior fellow with the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice. A retired State of Minnesota trial court judge, Lange is an expert on legal and constitutional standards for discrimination in state and federal courts. She began her career with the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office as a trial lawyer until appointed to the Hennepin County Municipal Court in 1985. She became a district judge when the Municipal Court was merged with the District Court in 1986 and served on the District Court Bench until her recent retirement.Prison Abolition Movement: The prison-abolition movement is a collection of people and groups who are calling for deep, structural reforms to how we handle and even think about crime in our country. Leaders include Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and organizations (such as Critical Resistance, INCITE!, the Movement for Black Lives, the National Lawyers Guild, and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee—all of which, if not explicitly abolitionist, at least engage in abolitionist ethics), and there are converging or at least overlapping...