Remix celebrated Black History Month this past February with art, literature, food, and community events that focused on the theme of Black Resilience. Our choice of theme for this year speaks to the courage and tenacity of Black Americans who reignited the civil rights movement in 2020, protesting against police violence and calling for an end to anti-black racism.
At Remix, Black History Month is a time for us to recognize and honor the amazing contributions of Black Americans throughout history. It’s also a time for us to amplify Black voices within our own team, support black-owned businesses and leaders in our community, and deepen our perspective on Black experiences in America.
Here’s how we did those things this year.
We started Black History Month by designing a series of Zoom backgrounds celebrating Black American artists, athletes, and activists who embody Black Resilience.
Our backgrounds featured National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, renowned novelist and activist James Baldwin, Shirley Chisholm—the first Black Congresswoman ever in America, as well as Maya Angelou, Colin Kaepernick, Thurgood Marshall, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Stacey Abrams.
Next, we scheduled a team lunch over Zoom and encouraged Remixers to buy lunch from their favorite Black-owned business.
With Remixers working remotely this year, it didn’t make sense to bring back our BHM book-lending library. Instead, we set up a shared Google Doc where team members could recommend their favorite books by Black authors or share links to Black novels, plays, and poetry in the public domain. We also started a BHM Book Club, creating a platform for Remixers to share stories, experiences, and insights connected to Black History Month.
Remixers organized an internal donation drive for St. Anthony’s Foundation, a non-profit that provides meals, clothing, and addiction recovery support for the unhoused in San-Fran, a population that’s disproportionately Black at about 37%.
Community building is a big part of our mission at Remix, and we believe that diversity makes our community stronger. During BHM, we wanted to ask ourselves: “How can we strengthen our community by advocating for people of color?”
To help us learn more, we invited Kristin Roth to host a lunch-n-learn workshop on “Creating Community through the power of Advocacy”.
Kristin is a successful engineer and president of the African-American Professional Network at Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee. She’s also known for organizing and participating in mentorship activities that encourage young women of color to pursue engineering and other STEM professions.
Kristin provided valuable feedback and insights that aligned perfectly with our goals around equality and advocacy - thanks Kristin!
Remix continued our BHM celebration of Black cuisine by scheduling San-Francisco’s own Chef Tony Godbolt of Rebel Kitchen (@RebelKitchen) for a virtual cooking class.
Broadcasting from his kitchen to ours, Chef Tony led the way as Remixers made their own delicious dinners with his expert guidance and enthusiasm.
To cap off a successful month of BHM celebrations, Remix invited San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed to connect with us on Zoom for an hour of conversation and community. Elected in 2018, Mayor Breed is the first Black woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco.
Having grown up in public housing in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood before launching her political career, Mayor Breed’s story and success embodies our BHM theme of Black Resilience.
We hope you enjoyed discovering how our company celebrated BHM this year! Each February, we challenge ourselves to learn more about Black history, recognize the contributions of Black Americans in our community today, and imagine new ways to advocate for Black People as we plan for a more equitable future.
Hear from our very own Cara Hunt, our North America Transit Manager for Remix, on what Black History Month at Remix means to her.
Working at Remix is a constant reminder that no matter who you are or what your story is, space can always be made and differences can bring people together.
Get a glimpse into how Remix celebrated National Native American Heritage Month.
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