SPARC: The Power of Dialogue in Dismantling Racism with Karl Pierre-Louis

Have you ever pondered the path of a man who journeyed from the vibrant culture of Haiti to the serene Appalachian Mountains while championing the dialogue of anti-racism? Our guest Karl Pierre-Louis, a beacon of activism and People and Culture Coordinator for the SPARC Foundation, illuminates this path for us with his impactful narrative. In a candid conversation, Karl delves into the heart of community engagement and the critical work of the SPARC Foundation in supporting black and brown communities. We mark his on-screen accomplishments, including his Super Bowl commercial appearance, and unpack the richness of his experiences both personally and as a board member for Building Bridges of Asheville.

Echoing the significance of meaningful discourse, we spotlight Building Bridges' landmark 30th anniversary and the upcoming nine-week session that promises to shake the foundations of racism in Asheville through purposeful communication. This chapter of our dialogue not only honors the strides made in anti-racism but also extends an invitation to participate. By engaging in guided conversations, utilizing session workbooks, and absorbing wisdom from experienced panelists, listeners are encouraged to embrace diversity and join the continuous battle against racism—one conversation at a time. Karl's multifaceted involvement—as an advocate, coordinator, and actor—serves as a testament to the power of dedicated individuals in fostering change within their communities.

https://thesparcfoundation.org/
https://www.bbavl.org/
Facebook: Karl Lo
LinkedIn: Karl Pierre-Louis 

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Transcript

Veronica: 0:39

Welcome to the Veronica Edwards show where we have fun financial conversations that everyone listening can apply to their personal and professional life. I'm your host, veronica Edwards, and I'm so excited to be back here on biz radio dot US season three. Always want to thank the V team for representing and downloading the podcast at Veronica Edwards dot bus sprout, calm and always listening live at biz radio dot US. So again, I'm always going to plug that we're about 600 downloads away from 4000 downloads. So I would love if everybody goes While during black history month and also March for women's history month and download all of the prior episodes and recent episodes this season. But today I'm super excited, on black history month, to have the people in culture coordinator for the spark foundation, which you guys know.

Veronica: 1:41

I'm always talking about spark. I'm the treasure and I've been a board member for the last six years. This guest also is a board member for building bridges of Asheville, which fosters anti racism by educating people on how to intentionally engage in dialogues about racism. So I definitely want to learn more about this personally, especially during black history month. And I also have to add that this guest was featured in multiple Ingalls commercials and was featured during the Super Bowl. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce my very famous, rich friend, mr Carl Pierre Lewis. How are you, carl?

Karl : 2:23

Wow, I don't think I have the words.

Veronica: 2:27

Oh, I go in. I go in on the intro. So how are you, how are you feeling now that you have the celebrity?

Karl : 2:34

I feel like I did on Monday. I feel fine. I appreciate it. I am amazing.

Veronica: 2:42

I'm so happy here Black history month, so we always start the show. Carl, I'm asking the guests to tell us about yourself, where you're from and what led you to do the great community based work that you're doing here in western North Carolina.

Karl : 2:56

I'll be honest with you. Introductions are so difficult. I'm not as a proficient at it as you are. For myself, I born in Haiti, raised in the States, primarily in Florida, new York background. The family are beautiful. Haitian people have one brother. He's five years younger than myself, doing great things himself. I'm a husband, a father, wonderful young girl Tegan. My wife Elena and we moved out here about seven years ago, coming from South Florida, and it's been wonderful. It's been wonderful. The community here has been welcoming Warm. One of the biggest things for us was when we decided to move to Western North Carolina. It was the mountains that attracted us and, more so, just the history the amount of history that is out here made a difference for us.

Veronica: 4:03

Absolutely. We were the same way. We moved here, my husband and my soon to be nine year old son about eight years ago, and it's just crazy. When you go somewhere else and you come back, you're like, ah, the air just smells different, you know, like in the mountains, and it just seems Super tranquil. So Haiti, florida, new York and so you guys decided we want to come.

Veronica: 4:26

And I hate this. I teach people to snow white Asheville child, you know. So you know that's the only area that I wish there was a little bit more diversity. But the more that I've gotten involved in the community, I'm realizing there's programs like building bridges and being a part of spark. That's all about keeping people out of institutional care and all those things, and it's usually black and brown people. So did you struggle with that, as at all? Carl, being Black man in Western North Carolina and feeling like I'm not seeing a lot of people like me, because I love hearing you say that everyone welcomed you and it's been so nice and you've had a great experience, which is amazing? I have to, but I, unfortunately, I've heard a lot of people saying they haven't had that experience. I'm just curious to know like your take on that honestly, the experience was warm and welcoming.

Karl : 5:18

But you're right, it is in a lot of areas of Asheville devoid of color. But I will tell you this when I did find color, when I did find that community, the waters ran deep, the history, the kindness, Just that community itself. There are so many families who are generations deep here that you, you could speak for them, with with them for hours and you will never get as much history as could really be written in Western North Carolina, especially at Asheville.

Veronica: 5:56

Yeah, you know, I think it was about two years ago. They had like a black business expo here and the person that ran it said there was over 200 black and brown businesses in this area and a lot of people just don't know because they might not be on social media. They might have a website. But you're absolutely right, I have a client where her grandfather was one of the first African-American people to have a home care service, you know. So that, like you said, is just Doing the show and being involved in the community. You really Start to see like wow, I'm really proud to be living in this area.

Veronica: 6:33

So I have to ask how did you find out about spark? Because we were so lucky To get Carl to be basically it's Kind of HR, but we love to turn people and culture coordinator and I teased Carl, who I still have not met in In person, carl, so I'm guessing it'll be at spark after dark. But I was like Carl, you speak so well, you know Us black people. We get that all time you speak well, we like what I mean.

Veronica: 6:56

But no, carl, you have a great voice and very educated, very pleasant to be around, so we're so thankful to have you. But I'm curious to know how did you find yourself working at spark and if you can share with those listening what is the work that spark does and what do you do as the people on culture coordinator.

Karl : 7:13

So it's a. The privilege is actually Mine. Joining spark was through networking, where their previous people on culture coordinator and she was phenomenal with the introduction If I could plug her name, lisa she's she's awesome and with that introduction really gave me Like a hidden view or something I didn't know before when it came to spark and what spark does. I'm from 2015 with Jackie latex. I mean just the history behind it. I didn't understand how can an organization like this that focuses on mental health, peer support, social work, community health work, to be so like hidden and kept quiet but while doing such great work in the community? Their comprehensive Departments, their staff, the history, the local connections have definitely opened my eyes to Seeing what we could really do on the ground, like ground level boots on the ground type of work. And I think what Jackie have shared with me by her example, by the example of the leadership at Spark, is that that positive work environment that nurture staff also will nurture the community that they serve.

Karl : 8:44

That's so true that made a difference for me.

Veronica: 8:48

Absolutely. I love the executive director of Spark, jackie latex. Shout out to her. Also, lisa ogle ogle girls I follow her on Instagram who used to be the people are first people in culture coordinator and we're so thankful for her and you know, even more excited that we now have you, carl. So tell us a little bit about what's happening at Spark. How can we support spark? What you mentioned, some of the programs that's going on.

Karl : 9:14

So spark has several programs and they're all family based are all about re re emerging the citizen of our community learning to identify self care tools so that they could be stronger individuals, stronger family members, and the programs that we have DVIP, domestic violence intervention program what this does is this is an amazing program. I've never seen it from this perspective, but it actually works with the offenders and helps them develop the coping skills and the evidence based partnership through, through the facilitators with DVIP, learn how to communicate, learn how to resolve unresolved feelings, and it's been wonderful, it's been wonderful to see them at work. It's a great team Family center treatment, recovery that team itself fct and fct are, I think, is the true bread, bread and butter of the community that we serve in a lot of ways, because they work with every member of the family, from children to adult, really focusing on all the values and all the things that is necessary as far as resource In order to make a healthy family actually prosper and grow. I consider it with family center treatment, dvip Jackie always says it's second chance. That's all it is is giving your family, giving yourself a second chance to really be a good member of society and be that citizen that you want to be, that can be.

Karl : 11:10

The other department that we have is community health workers doing incredible work in Asheville, muckin County and Henderson County. I think what we do with community health workers is that we really get into that community, that marching other voices to be heard. You know we had an incredible gun buyback. That happened a few a few months ago last year and it was an incredible event. The partnerships that community health workers have with the peace team have been awesome to see and, last but not least, our family visitation that partnership with the county it's a Buckum County allowing families to have a the visitation experience that is needed for them to establish and overcome certain challenges when it comes to getting their families back together again and going through the hump of certain experiences. And I think our visitation team does an incredible job at that and being supportive and providing not only just language supervision but also giving them transportation so they can make these meetings and get into the right environment so they can be with their families.

Veronica: 12:38

Man. You said that so well, carl, and I know a lot of times people come on the Spark website. They're like you guys do so much like, in a nutshell, what do you do? And I'm like, well, to your point. We're trying to keep families together, but there's so many different layers of that.

Veronica: 12:52

But the key thing that I kept hearing when you were speaking is we're teaching communication. You know, and I'm so proud to be part of an organization where they're not just treating people that might have been abused or are on the other end of that, they're also treating the person that was doing the abuse, because most likely they were abused also, so that generational curse, as we like to say at times, can be broken if we provide the education and we provide the support and we communicate in a safe space. So again, just want to thank you, carl and Jackie and the whole team, all the work that they're doing over at Spark. And, on a lighter note, we have Spark After Dark coming up. Carl, this is our annual. Well, this is the first time we've had it back since 2019 with COVID, but it's going to become our annual big fundraising event and, as the treasure, of course, I'm like Carl, please give a little spill about Spark After Dark, when it's going to take place, how people can grab tickets and what it's all about.

Karl : 13:55

Spark at the Dark. This is an exciting time for us March 21st, Devil's Foot Breverage Company on Sweeten Creek. It's from six to nine and it is an amazing opportunity for the community to come together and really show support and partnership to this organization. In this spirit, we know that Spark serves individuals and families as they work together towards a brighter opportunities. So this is really like the time for us to come together, enjoy drinks, meet up with longtime friends, make new friends and really focus on what that community can do with a shared vision of healthier, safer and stronger families and connections.

Karl : 14:40

That whole night itself is going to be filled with treats, prizes, entertainment, raffle baskets. We have a lot of sponsors and we still need more sponsors. So if you're hearing this, it's not too late to join in the sponsorship. You can go straight to our website and click the sponsor or, even better, click for your own ticket and participate in our largest fundraiser. What makes this an incredible opportunity for the community is, historically, spark have worked really hard in partnerships and addressing the needs and finding solutions for the families of Asheville, Hendersonville and the surrounding counties. But what this night does? It not only celebrates, but it really brings the light to what that partnership could be in the next three to five years, in the next 10 years, Because what we established that night itself, on the 21st, we establish deeper roots in our community and we allow these deeper roots to be not just a way to build but a way to celebrate the work that we've done and the work that we will continue to do.

Veronica: 15:58

Absolutely, and Biz Radio is a media sponsor here and have always been friends of Spark. I am going to be the emcee of the evening. Carl's going to be wild and also have my amazing husband, carlos Edwards. He's going to be performing. He just released his Christmas EP. I'm always shamelessly plugging him, so it's going to be a time it's going to be fun. You know, come as you are, just like Carl said, thursday March 21st, 6 to 9pm, 131, sweden Creek, devil's Foot Breverage, and please grab tickets at thesparkfoundationorg. So before we go, carl, I definitely want to talk about building bridges because I personally don't know much about it, but I'm starting to meet more and more people like yourself. That's involved, and I know that you have asked me out before and I definitely am going to take you up the next time you ask me to speak or to be involved. But please tell folks that are listening what is building bridges of Asheville and how do people get involved or financially support.

Karl : 16:58

So building bridges of Asheville is, I would say, asheville historical landmark for this area. The mission for building bridges is about fostering anti-racism by educating people on how to have intentionally good dialogues, engage in dialogues about racism. It is a difficult task when it comes to developing the muscle to have these kind of dialogues, but what building bridges does overall is that we deliberately go at this topic, go at this environment really and disrupt the racism, one conversation at a time, and by doing that we're fulfilling our mission by laying down the groundwork with the nine nine week sessions. Keep in mind that this is our 30th anniversary of building bridges.

Veronica: 17:55

Right.

Karl : 17:56

Sessions 30th. So our session is just opening up. This is going to be our spring session, starting March 11th. The registration is open. Tonight itself, we have a great event at the Highwire Rad location and it's all about, you know, community communication and how we could really continue to build on this great organization. Now the sessions are divided throughout the nine weeks, with individuals who come in and represent us as panelists, like I invited yourself and a lot of others that we've invited over the years.

Karl : 18:41

And what makes this particular session incredible for our 30th anniversary is that we're calling out all our alumni anyone who has participated in building bridges as panelists, as board members, as people in the community come in, come and show support, and we're going to have some special events scheduled for this year so we can really celebrate what 30 years mean in Asheville and building bridges is that example that I was speaking of when I speak of the waters running deep when resources, the way that they have impacted this community and have attacked, really, the difficult conversation of how racism still impacts us here in Asheville.

Karl : 19:30

It is not a topic that we could shy away from. It is not a topic that we have overcome. It is not a topic that we have become too awake to have. It is something that stares at us every day. I'm missing my words Strictly because, as you mentioned when we started this conversation, Asheville is. It doesn't have the color that it used to have and as much as we're making progress, as much as we're building these ties in the community, our numbers are still dwindling as far as people of color in Asheville, and that is a serious conversation to have, especially while we're doing this work of reparations in Asheville. I don't see any point of having reparation conversations if your community is slowly moving out because the community is not healthy enough to maintain it.

Veronica: 20:34

Yeah, and just like we've been saying this whole time, it's all about communication. So many times people want to ask but they don't want to offend people or they're nervous or they're just saying, well, maybe it's not my place. And when I looked up building bridges of Asheville, your board is so diverse. You know of ages, races, backgrounds, and so sometimes you do hear about organizations and it's all black people, all white people, are all this and it's like, well, that's not representative of what we're trying to do. And that really caught my attention and definitely for this 30th year, I'll be honored to assist in any way that I can. And then, Carl, is this free, like you mentioned, this nine week class, if they want to apply, is this something free to folks?

Karl : 21:16

No, it's not free. What we? You could buy your ticket for the sessions. It's pretty easy, the registration being that it's open. Right now. We have both the. Let me see if I could really break it down, so I give it the word that it deserves. So it starts Monday, march 11th, and from March 11th through May 6th it's from 6.30 to nine. It is a great opportunity for anyone to reserve their seats, is this?

Veronica: 21:52

in person. Is that on Google? It is in person. It's not on the show. This is in person and this is done at Evergreen Community Charter School.

Karl : 22:01

They've hosted that location for us for some time now and we love Evergreen and what they provide for us. Registration prices start at 135. Now this is for the nine week session 22 and a half hours. Is that $135? It comes with not only facilitators to help that conversation through, but the session workbook, as well as the experience of seeing the panelists come in and speak about the experiences of Asheville and how professionally and personally they have been impacted when it comes to breaking down and dismantling racism or anti-racism.

Veronica: 22:42

Wonderful. Well, Carl, thank you so much. We're already to the end of the show so you know I'm going to have to have you back just to specifically talk more about building bridges. But thank you so much for taking time out of your busy acting and work schedule to be a part of the show. And I want to thank the listeners for tuning into BizRadious for the Veronica Edwards show on Wednesdays across all platforms and if you missed the live airing, you can listen to all prior shows at VeronicaEdwardsBuzzBroutcom.