A HUMAN RESOURCE CENTER AND INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE ADVOCACY RESEARCH
Instilling within everyone courage to run toward freedom
WHAT'S NEW
Make a tax-deductible donation and support our LANTERN FUND
The Lantern Fund is an initiative that allows community members to reallocate their resources to support the diversity, equity and inclusion needs of the theater industry. It provides mental health resources for BIPOC theater workers, emergency workplace trauma support, and serves as a resource to fund LanternTix: our industry wide affordable ticketing initiative.
HTE introduces LANTERN TIX: a call-to-action for accessible Broadway ticket prices and intentional partnership with community-based organizations across the city
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Sponsor a Broadway experience
Contribute $22.50 or an amount of your choice to support accessible tickets
Interested in HTE's initiative
Community Orgs Include:
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Life's WORC
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Queens Community House
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Epic Players
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PPAS
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Waterwell
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Apex for Youth
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Covenant House
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Leadership Prep
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Democracy Prep
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SNAP
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Queens Metropolitan
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Creo College Prep
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WEPA
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Department of Education
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Queens Library
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Community Advocate
HTE introduces THE LANTERN FUND
WHAT IS THE LANTERN FUND?
The Lantern Fund is an initiative that allows community members to reallocate their resources to support the diversity, equity and inclusion needs of the theater industry. It will provide mental health resources for BIPOC theater workers, emergency workplace trauma support, and help fund affordable ticketing initiatives industry wide.
At HTE, we believe that recognizing white supremacy is embedded in our institutions is the first step in helping to improve these spaces for everyone. Our solution is to redesign and transform in order to re-allocate wealth to historically oppressed communities. We recognize wealth not only as monetary, but designate it into four pillars: time wealth, health wealth, social wealth and financial wealth. The Lantern Fund’s mission is to support the BIPOC theater community in improving wealth in each of these pillars.
Current LANTERN FUND initiatives:
In partnership with BIPOC-led mental health distributors, the Lantern Fund raises financial support to sustain immediate and long term mental health needs for BIPOC theater workers. The fund distributes seasonal grants to organizations that are providing therapy, peer counseling, hotline care and mental health education to the theater community. The fund also provides BIPOC theater workers and white allies with a monthly LANTERN NIGHT space to navigate their storytelling necessary to heal.
The Lantern Fund distributes emergency workplace trauma support stipends for BIPOC theater workers. This fund supports the health of theater makers as they navigate cases of workplace bigotry, discrimination, gaslighting, unfair treatment and termination, fatal or trauma inducing workplace conditions, etc. The Fund offers stipends for groceries, travel and temporary housing.
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A call-to-action for accessible Broadway ticket prices and intentional partnership with community-based organizations across the city. Broadway theatre tickets are available for free or for $22.50 to our partner community organizations. These organizations include: Lifesworc, Queens Community House, Epic Players, PPAS, Waterwell, Apex for Youth, Covenant House, Leadership Prep, Democracy Prep, SNAP, Queens Metropolitan, Creo College Prep, WEPA, Department of Education, Queens Library, Community Advocate and many more..
Interested in partnering with us?
We'd love to chat!
Want to learn more about engaging with HTE?
OUR VALUES
RESIST WHITE SUPREMACY
Always Challenge Tradition
RESEARCH AS LEARNING
Including Community
EFFICACY
Completing
Relevant Work
CULTURE CHANGE
An Era of Empathy
REALLOCATION OF WEALTH
The Four Pillars of Wealth
OUR HISTORY
Nearly 160 years ago, on June 1, 1863 Tubman coordinated the Combahee River Raid. Her covert interactions had given rise to vital information: torpedoes had been placed at specific locations along the riverbanks. The knowledge enabled three Union gunboats to safely navigate the waters, and in the process, transport soldiers who successfully destroyed several estates owned by prominent secessionists. As those soldiers were offloaded from the boats, enslaved people boarded. That night, more than 700 enslaved people were rescued and freed.
Our work is rooted in this spirit of historical justice advocacy; Tubman and countless others have instilled within us the courage to not only run toward our due freedom, but to also liberate our brothers and sisters along the way. We take our own first steps now - as researchers, practitioners, and leaders who collectively commit to resisting white supremacy, developing relevant work for our communities, and galvanizing empathy across cultures.
We are thrilled that you have decided to join us on this journey.
Thank you for joining us, honoring Harriet Tubman, her legacy and it's continued impact on our efforts to dismantle systemic oppression.
WHAT WE DO
Current Industries & Institutions
The institute’s collective work is a mechanism for behavioral change in American workplaces. Our Evergreen and Efficacy Fellows are at the center of this effort: their research and revision generates a Harriet Tubman Effect (HTE), or a transformation defined by dismantling systemically oppressive structures - and supplanting them with tangible pathways for empathy, empowerment, and justice.
The HTEI is thus housed within organizations that seek to undergo such a transformation. The business partnership is unique: each organization serves as fiscal support for HTEI personnel and programming, which is curated to dismantle the systemic oppression that that organization exhibits.
The HTEI is embedded in the following industries and institutions:
Theatre Industry
K-12 Education
Higher Education
Corporate America
Houses of Worship
OUR TEAM
Get to know our Team
Vanessa Pereda (she/her)
Educator/Amplifier/Community Builder
A lifetime educator who fiercely advocates for equitable systems of schools, charitable giving, and democracy.
Emma Barishman (she/her)
Amplifier and Researcher
Researching white supremacy in the musical theater industry and its effect on professional wellness.
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Sarah Powell (she/her)
Information Seeker/Communicator/Healer
Education Operations Director of the Harriet Tubman Effect with a focus on Music Theatre and Corporate America.
Cate Benioff (she/her)
Illuminator and Content Creator
Musical theatre researcher of historical and present white supremacy. Cate is passionate about creating safe spaces of belonging for all theatre workers.
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Daryl A Ritchie (they/them)
Navigator and Mediator
Performing arts administrator and strategist. Providing support and crafting policies that affect sustainable institutional change.
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As CFO and Deputy to Founder, Justin manages all financial actions of HTE and supports Nicole in making and carrying out company wide decisions.
Ponderer, Puzzler and Problem Solver
Justin Davis (he/him)
Joe Hetterly (he/him)
Builder, Experimenter, Disrupter
Lantern Ticketing Services and Reallocation of Wealth Manager. Joe is passionate about creating theatrical change by using budget as moral documents.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mon, Apr 10Online SeriesJoin us for quarter three of our 52-week program consisting of an ongoing research study, weekly meetings and accountability practice for professionals looking to dismantle systemic oppression and white supremacy culture in workplaces.
