Twelve Stories

05/22/2023

You don’t have to do this. You get to do this.
Tom Kubis, Jazz Musician

“This is one book. These are twelve stories. I think I could spend the rest of my life collecting these stories and maybe still not be done, so I hope that this just a jumping off point for other people to be able to think about how they share their stories,” says Alissa Mwenelupembe about her book, Stories of Resistance, in the first episode of CAN Amplify, the Council for Professional Recognition’s new podcast.

Mwenelupembe mentions three mentors, including Margie Carter, “who many people in the early childhood field know, and who really just put me in front of people and in places that I wouldn't have had access to otherwise… Those three women opened doors for me and pulled out chairs at the table for me—all white women… Many people in power in the early childhood profession are white women, and I really am I'm asking these white women who have these seats of power to look around and see who's standing on the outside, and how do you make it your goal to support the profession by stepping aside sometimes, pulling out the chair, opening the door because as black women in this space, we don't usually have the power to be able to make the space for ourselves and so we really need our ‘elders’ in the space to create that path for us…

“Because I've had those opportunities, now I can make opportunities and I'm constantly looking around to see who's standing right outside the door, who's standing behind me at the table, that I can bring forth. I hope to see a world where the table's just going to be more diverse all the time.”

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