Meeting Young Progressives in Savannah
On Tuesday, January 19th, The Skidaway Hamiltons hosted a Zoom meeting that featured three young progressives in Savannah. It is our hope that such intergenerational connections will help increase understanding and involvement and help all of us advance progressive objectives further and faster. We would like to express our thanks to long-time Savannah activist, Tom Kohler, who introduced us to our speakers as part of a life-long commitment to bring people together. We would also like to thank Clinton Edminster, owner of Starlandia Art Supply on Bull Street, who managed the breakout sessions
Coco Papy is a native Savannahian and highly experienced organizer. She works full-time as Director of Development and Communication for the non-profit Deep Center. She is active with Political Rascals which was formed as a Political Action Committee (PAC) in 2018 to support Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign. Since that time, Political Rascals has supported various progressive political candidates with a focus on media strategy and voter turnout. It tries to bring people into the political process and help them understand that the investment in voting is worthwhile. Political Rascals is now supporting the effort to educate the Savannah community on the importance of taking the COVID vaccine. Staff at Political Rascals take no salary. It only does fund raising during election seasons. The group publishes a newsletter informing members of local political events and activities. Interested parties can sign up for membership at www.politicalrascals.com.
Molly Lieberman is from Northampton, Massachusetts and came to Savannah as a SCAD student. She started working full time with young children in the creative arts at the West Broad Street YMCA in 2008. She founded and incorporated Loop It Up Savannah in 2015. She is Executive Director. Before COVID 19, Loop It Up Savannah was working with 10,000 children each year, mostly in Title 1 schools in Savannah and Chatham County. Because of COVID, all activities are now virtual. In the current environment, its biggest programs are Kids Yoga and Mindfullness and Reading Literacy. She employs a teaching staff of 10-15 people, all on a contract basis. She needs reading volunteers and people to pack activity bags for children, work that can be done at home. Any arts-related skills can be used. Donations are welcome. More information is available at www.loopitupsavannah.com. Molly can be reached at looplinktangle@gmail.com.
Moncello Stewart is a Savannah native, a graduate of Beach High School, and Georgia Southern. He became a grass roots organizer at a very young age. He has had leadership positions in a good number of organizations in Savannah and owns his own business. He started One Seed in June of 2020. One Seed is a 501(c)(3) that serves individuals or groups that are too small to be supported by the United Way. He plans to support such entities three ways: 1) Provide mini-grants of $500 to help them get going; 2) Help them build governing boards using his wide range of contacts; 3) Bring groups together that have the same objectives to eliminate duplication and improve the likelihood of funding success. He projects an annual budget of $25,000 that will be used to fund mini-grants and special purpose projects. One Seed can use financial donations and can be reached at www.oneseedinc.com. Moncello’s personal email is moncello@yahoo.com.
Cori Graves was unable to participate due to Zoom connectivity issues. California-born and a 5-year Savannahian, Cori is a Political Science major at Georgia Southern. Cori was going to talk about using social media to educate young people about local politics and government. Cori can be reached at corigraves97@gmail.com
