Stitch by Stitch, Word by Word: Grandmother Power in Action

Toya Algarin - an innovator, community organizer and educator, is the living embodiment of Grandmother Power, and the founder of Grandmothers4Literacy in Philadelphia. Toya says now that she’s a grandmother she’s walking in her purpose  - and fighting for change: “when I get a seat at the table, I’m going to have a voice and speak for those who are not at the table!” Don’t miss hearing what she has to say, it will lift your spirits and inspire you… her voice and action is what we need to hear in these times! 

Transcript

Meet Toya Algarin: Education Advocate

ilana landsberg-lewis 0:00

I'm Imada Mansberg-Lewis, your host of Wisdom at Work. Older women, elder women and grandmothers on the move, the podcast that kicks old stereotypes to the curb. Come meet these creative, outrageous, authentic, adventurous, irreverent and powerful disruptors and influencers. Older women and grandmothers, from the living room to the courtroom, making powerful contributions in every walk of life. The living room to the courtroom, making powerful contributions in every walk of life.

ilana landsberg-lewis 0:27

Everyone welcome back to Wisdom at Work. Older women, elder women and grandmothers on the move. I'm your host, ilana Landsberg-Lewis, and today I have a wonderful guest that I've been eager to welcome into conversation, toya Algarin. Toya is an education advocate, a community leader in her native Philadelphia, graduating from LaSalle University with a bachelor's degree in marketing and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. She's a longtime champion of the children and families of Philadelphia in the fight for quality educational opportunities and has devoted herself heart and soul, I'd say, to this cause as a 50 Can Fellow focused on the gap between teachers, parents and students at the KIPP Philadelphia Charter Schools community and then as a member of its board of trustees for nine years.

ilana landsberg-lewis 1:14

As I read Toya's far-reaching bio, which I can't do justice to today, it's undeniable that Toya is an innovator, a visionary, tenacious and deeply connected to community, working with educators, principals, ceos, students, advocating for quality education for underserved and underrepresented children and families. And she bridges the gap as a member of the board of her alma mater, la Salle University Community Board and the surrounding community, bringing her marketing expertise to it all At Jane, for instance, a nonprofit organization committed to helping Black and Brown students and early professionals navigate their way to successful and powerful engagement in the careers of their choice. You'll definitely hear more about how Toya's mother played a central role in her story and inspired her work with Arts Philadelphia, an organization dedicated to bringing joy to people living with Alzheimer's. And now let's turn to Toya herself, the founder of a new and critical initiative Grandmothers for Literacy, an organization focused on igniting grandmother's agency to teach children how to read. I love that, toya igniting grandmother's agency. That's what it's all about. Welcome. It's just a joy to welcome you to Wisdom at Work podcast today.

Toya Algarin 2:29

Thank you so much, Ilana, for having me, and yeah, I'm ready to get right to it. I love the way you read my bio, so, thank you, I'm like 'is that me?!'

Toya Algarin 2:37

Ilana: that sure is you, and I didn't even do you justice.

Toya Algarin 2:42

Toya: No, you did, you did, you did. Education has always been very important to me. So I have three children. They're in their mid thirties now I'm like, am I getting old? But a quality education that notion, that idea came to me from my mother. It was embedded inside of me. My mother was born in 1929. Her and my dad got married at like 15 and 16. And they had my brother and sister, and then, when she was 32, she had me. But she always instilled in me that education was the most important thing in the world, despite her not graduating from high school, and she sent me to some of the very best schools.

Toya Algarin 3:25

I can imagine my mother and father. My mother had tons of agency, like she just knew what to do, and my parents actually integrated our block. I still live in the same neighborhood. I live across the street from that house, but my mother and father integrated the block and at the time I don't know if you know Philadelphia really well, but the garment industry is where people worked. Everybody worked there. So my mom always worked in a factory. She would take the bus to work and I imagine her because I went to LaSalle University, which is right down the street from where I live. I can't imagine her walking down the street every day saying in her head my daughter's going to go there, my daughter's going to go there. You know, and imagine everything that she had to do to make that happen. So she sent me to the very best schools in Philadelphia.

Education as a Family Legacy

Toya Algarin 4:16

I went to a Catholic, a parochial school, then I went to a private Catholic school and then I went to a Catholic college. So that was instilled me from ground one. Then I got married, I had children and then I went to a Catholic college. So that was instilled me from ground one. Then I got married, I had children, and when it was time for them to go to school, you know I went the same path. I chose the same school.

Toya Algarin 4:33

But 30 years later, things have changed right. You know, I don't know how much of a high quality school it was, but I did the best I could. You know I paid tuition, I sent my kids to school and then, when they got to high school and almost into college, I saw that they were getting pushed through and lacking the basics, some of the basics, and I'm like, ooh, I paid for this. You know what I mean. I paid for this. So my youngest son was actually going to those same schools and I'm like, oh my God, I think about it, I'm a mom, I'm making great money, you know, I'm a professional, I have this degree, and now my kids are, you know, are lacking the basics. So I found another school for my youngest at that time and I found KIPP.

Toya Algarin 5:19

And when my son went to KIPP in fifth grade, he was on a third grade reading level and I'm like, oh my God, it's happening again, but in just one year, with the help of Ms Moyer I'll never forget her she taught my son to read and people take that for granted In my neighborhood, where resources are limited sometimes we don't have the ability, the time, the wherewithal to sit down and read a book to a child we're worried about bills, we're worried about the daily living expenses. We're worried about those things. Like we talked about the starting line for African-American people or people of color, black people, the starting line is so far behind that we're always in a rush to catch up Not all of us, because I'm not going to say that's the majority of people, but I know what that feels like. My mother knew what that felt like and she wanted me to get beyond that and I wanted to create some type of you want to say generational wealth. Or I want my kids to read.

Toya Algarin 6:25

At least you know what I mean, because reading opens up so much beyond anything that I could give. So when you read, I mean you can experience, you could dream, you can imagine, you could set goals, you can. It's all the things right, all the things. Reading is a human right. Yeah, it's a human right. So my voice is loud, as you see, and that's when I started on Kip's board and, you know, sitting in those rooms at the table. Whenever I go to a table, I'm just not going to sit at the table. I have something to say, especially if I hear something that is not reality or my reality. It's not reality or my reality.

Toya Algarin 7:03

I love that because people always say you got to get a seat at the table. But you have to have a voice at the table and my experience talking to women like you, toya, and older women grandmothers all over the world, is that you have the mock seat as well and you're done trying to please people. If you ever were when you were younger just sort of how women were raised just be pleasers and not to use your voice. And I think we have a lot to learn from older women who come to that table and help amplify other people's voices. And that's what I want to ask you about.

Toya Algarin 7:32

Like a lot of people have that dream. They work really hard to make sure that their children have a good education and then they instill that in their children and children. Work hard to make sure that the next generation of their children have. Instill that in their children and children. Work hard to make sure that the next generation of their children have. Not everyone becomes a community activist. Not everyone decides that. It's not just my family and my children, but it is system change, it is access. It's not just for me and mine, but I'm going to get really engaged and devote my life to this. How did that come to pass?

Speaker 3 8:02

Well, I mean, I think that's a value that's in the Black community, because I mean I'm not saying it's not in other communities. What I'm saying is my community. Okay, I'm just talking about me. For instance, my mom was the Black captain. My mother did the community work. My mother, although she never graduated from high school, was judge of elections and she was gregarious and I just followed her footsteps and then I was raised back in the day when you know it took the village you know I hate to say it like that because that's you know a coin term but it took a village to raise the family and I just saw my mom using her agency to help others and that's the one thing she taught me was be kind to others, treat other people like you want to be treated. So that's where it came from.

Speaker 3 8:51

But then you talked about systemic change. So, being on the board, I really wanted to do systemic change. And the funniest thing when you're on boards fighting for their causes, and it was always education for me. So on that board, I can say I've made some changes after being on the board for a few years. I mean, the one thing I did like about KIPP is they trained me. They trained me how to be an activist. You know how to be out in the world and how to navigate a campaign and stuff like that. So that was good. And then systemic changes, like being at KIPP and then looking at their vision and mission statement and realizing that what it was is not what it should be now. And then they called me to be on their advisory team and I got on the team and I posed some really hard questions, some really difficult questions for them to think about, really hard questions, some really difficult questions for them to think about. So yeah, my voice is heard.

Speaker 3 9:47

There is an activist, his name is Dr Howard Fuller, and he's always like when you get a seat at the table, you bring the concerns you speak for the people who are not at the table right and often on boards. They're not normally in the general population. They might have a relation to it, but if they're not living it every day, they don't know. It's so funny. I was talking to another doctor last night, dr Greg Carr, and I said I want to work for the least of these and he corrected me.

Finding Voice at the Table

Speaker 3 10:17

I probably put it a little wrong. I said it so quickly, not because they don't have spirit, not because they don't have culture, not because they don't have the wherewithal to get it done. It's because of the resources right, it's because of starting behind the start line. They're rich in culture, they're rich in everything. I just want to bring the resources. So, for instance, when I told you my mother said you're going to go to that school, unfortunately she didn't say this is how you do it, just go do it. So now what I want to do is show the grandma's how to do it. You know, give them the tools they need to help their grandchildren, children, their neighborhood, their community.

Toya Algarin 10:57

Yeah, that's brilliant. You've just had so many years of experience. You have marketing experience, so in terms of talking to people to get them on board, like you've got all of those skills and then some. But you're also so connected to what's really going on in the schools and in the community and in the families. And how do you tell the story? How do you make it clear to people what's really going on and what's really needed?

Speaker 3 11:21

Well, the funniest thing is, you said marketing, and I was always in sales and the first thing you do is identify the needs and the wants of an individual that you're selling to I hate to say selling, but you identify those wants and those needs. What I've been able to do is connect the dots and the resources. So if I'm seeing my mom, this is an example, so I'm looking at her having dementia and then how that conversation is not had. It's definitely not had with people in my community. First we have to find a doctor. I was working with end of life decisions, all of it, and I'm like, wow, I need to get this out there. I found an old classmate who's this phenomenal nurse. She's an end of care nurse. She was an advisor to the Obama administration.

Speaker 3 12:13

Me and her started a podcast. We were out there like what does dementia mean? What does it look like? How do we identify it? What do we do next? And then my mother as she was failing, it was end of life and hospice she's like, no, hospice care is the best thing for you, this is what you want to look for. We did this podcast and helped others. We need these resources in my community.

Speaker 3 12:37

So it's almost like connecting the dots and remembering your resources. You already have it. You need to dig down deep and find it. It's connecting the resources. It's like, yep, I met that lady at the library. The library has open space. Take this notion of living with dementia and bringing joy to people and have a meeting place where we can gather the local church, we can gather the local senior center, we can gather teens who are taking care of their mother or their grandparents. Let's put them all in a room and let's have some fun. You know, let's bring us all joy, because it's not a caretaker, it's a care partner. So once you put them, you know the care partners together and I remember I had my mom there and we did it over food and it's like bringing all those communities together. That makes a difference.

Toya Algarin 13:29

I love how you talk about it also and how arts talks about it bringing joy, because there's so much hardship in being a care partner. I mean, it is hard work and there's hardship in Alzheimer's.

Speaker 3 13:41

It is a rough disease and at the same time, there's a way of not losing your humanity and not losing connection right, yes, and realizing, just because you have Alzheimer's or dementia, because it is dementia, alzheimer's is a form of dementia, so when you have dementia you are still there. At first it was hard and then I just created new memories with my mother. You know just all new memories, all new things. It was good, it was all good. And if I transition to what I'm doing now, education is still a part. She instilled that in me. Right, I already made systemic change. I want to do it for my community. I don't want to follow anybody else's vision or anybody else's concern Like cause I was out there doing for quality schools I always fight for that or the people who want to reform education. Meanwhile I'm fighting and we still got kids that can't read. So I'm trying to come into who I am. I'm a grandmother of eight and Elena, let me tell you. So here we are. I told you my story about my kids. My daughter graduated from college. She's got her master's. Now she's a teacher from college. She's got her master's, now she's a teacher. My oldest son, he has four kids. He's working, he's doing his thing, you know, he's happy. And then I have this other child who just had a child. So, with a grandmother of eight.

Grandmothers for Literacy Takes Shape

Speaker 3 15:02

During COVID, my son-in-law got laid off and my daughter came here. The family came here, and I couldn't find a school. I'm like, oh my God, it is 32 years later and I couldn't find a school. I found an address, though, and I found a school. That's how I did it. That's when I found the school that I started working at Lingle Pocket. I walked in and I was like do you guys have a parent association? And next thing I know, here I am 59, turning 60. And next thing I know, here I am 59, turn to 60. I'm the parent association president, the homeless school president. Like, really, how does that happen, you know? And then just start that whole thing of creating community, finding out the needs, finding out the ones, yeah and that's interesting when I hear you talking about it and you say now you're doing it your way.

Toya Algarin 15:53

I don't know, it takes gumption to start your own thing, but you're bringing grandmothers into that literacy journey, into that literacy story. I always see it as sort of almost like a lost resource if we don't bring the grandmothers in our communities into this work. So I want to hear about that from you because you're doing it.

Speaker 3 16:12

Well, I mean. So it took me a minute to get to here, right, so it wasn't like an easy journey. And then I've sat on many boards, I've sat in rooms with the younger generation and, first of all, the younger generation, a lot of things that they're trying. Okay, I've done that. I've been there. I need to be around people who have the respect for their elders and my voice. I'm going to tell you what I did and then you create whatever you want to do with this new technology and run with it. I'm not here to tell you how it should be done, because clearly you're faster than me, but I want to tell you how to create community, because a like button is not the way you create community. I'm sorry. I'll tell you a story. Yeah, tell me.

Speaker 3 17:00

During COVID, when schools closed, my community didn't have everybody didn't have internet access to go online and do their work. Meanwhile, I'm online. I create on Facebook page. I was following a podcast and everybody who was following that podcast on Facebook I friended and created a whole group. Not only did I friend them, I invited them to the group, but I also made a personal phone call with them Almost 500 people, just how you doing. My name is Toya. I invited you to the group.

Speaker 3 17:32

In this group there's organizers. There's one man unfortunately he passed away since and he was in Oakland he put everybody together and we had a simultaneous protest in front of the Comcast buildings in Atlanta, in Philly, in New York, in Chicago, and we were outside in the middle of a pandemic protesting. That's how you do it. You know what I mean. You make the phone calls, you find your resources, you talk to people. That's a for instance of how I do it differently.

Speaker 3 18:07

I don't just like I make a phone call and I physically touch a human being, so they know that I'm a real person and then you can understand that person better. And that's a technique that people don't need to lose. We don't need to lose that, you know. And then, seeing other people's humanity we're not bots, we're humans. I'm pulling out that Rolodex. I don't even think people know what Rolodex is. My crew has grandchildren. You know my friends. I'm a part of the craft community knitters and crocheters and quilters, and everybody has a child and visiting schools and creating community outside of schools and hanging out at the library.

Toya Algarin 18:53

And what are you trying to do with Grandmothers for Literacy? How does it work?

Speaker 3 18:56

All right, so we're building it out. After I worked at was the home and school president, the principal. He hired me part-time. They had me reading and doing phonics work with struggling readers and I found that they were struggling. They weren't proficient in the grade level. They were maybe two years behind or whatever it was.

Speaker 3 19:14

So I start reading with my children and I call them my children because they're from my community and I saw the motherly love connect to this child and give them the possibility of knowing that they could read and when they saw it, the light in their face, oh my God. It was amazing. I'm loving this. I want to be a teacher. Well, I'm not going to do that because that requires me to go back to school for two or three more years. I ain't doing that. Then I looked at it and I'm like this grandmotherly love really works. So imagine having grandmothers in schools and dealing with the children who are struggling, giving them the love that they need or that grandmotherly. Yeah, you can do this, little boy, don't? I don't want to hear nothing about it, get on up and do it. We just have a different way of saying it and a different way of doing it. I just fell in love with that.

Speaker 3 20:02

So after that I got a small scholarship to investigate and understand what the science of reading is. And here I am, think about it. You got my mom who didn't graduate from school. You have my children that you know were lacking some of the basics at that time, and then I'm teaching children how to read it. It's almost like a red thread all the way through.

Speaker 3 20:24

And then, also, being a grandmother, I might be in the fourth quarter and the funniest thing, when I became that 50K fellow, at the end they said to write a vision statement. And in my vision statement it said take care of your legacy, you know. So now I have eight grandchildren so happy to say they can read, so happy to say they love books. I'm working with them and I just need to protect my legacy and help other families who went through my struggles, or so they don't go through my struggles.

Speaker 3 20:58

So again, what I envision is grandmothers teaching their children how to read, because in the black community it was against the law at one point to learn how to read. Community, it was against the law at one point to learn how to read. Not that we didn't read in Africa, because when we were in Africa, we could read there, but coming here to read this English, it was against the law. So I want grandparents to be able to do that with ease. So I'm envisioning grandparents maybe at libraries. I don't know about these institutions right now, I don't know, but the library, the community center, the porch out front, I want to give the resources to the grandmothers so they can learn.

Crocheting Community and Wellness

ilana landsberg-lewis 21:37

That's one thing.

Speaker 3 21:38

The other thing is I have an after-school program and I teach children how to crochet. First part of the after-school program we do mindfulness and then we get right into the crochet lesson and then after that we stop and we read. We read aloud. This is where the kids are getting their background knowledge. They're learning new vocabulary, they're doing wide reading and we read Black history books because we know how many books they banned. They're taking away Black history, so I'm infusing it all and the girls love it, even the struggling readers. And then the third part of my Grandmothers for Literacy is wellness for the grandmas.

Speaker 3 22:15

I actually serve the crochet ministry at my church. My church is like the biggest church in Philadelphia Enoch Abernethy Baptist Church and I have 30 women that meet every two weeks and we crochet. We talk about what brings us joy and we talk about how do we make it through. How did we make it through? Because a lot of them are grandmoms and they're older, and then we have that intergenerational conversation and we're able to tell our stories. That's the other thing with the grandmas and the little kids. We could keep us alive by telling our stories, and that's what I want the grandmothers to do is to talk about their life, how they overcame whatever, or their pleasures, so that we keep going and we keep our legacy alive, that we keep our love for people alive.

Toya Algarin 23:02

This isn't love like oh, it's so nice how grandmothers love their children and carry photos of them in their pocketbook. This is the kind of love that is transformative. That's what I'm thinking when you're talking about crocheting. It's about weaving it and stitching it all together.

Speaker 3 23:15

Yep, stitch by stitch, word by word. I love that, toya. Yeah, it's bringing resources to the community. Yeah, and it's also looking back at some of the things maybe I didn't do and I get to redo, because I truly believe if we bring these resources to black people, everybody else is going benefit. You know what I mean? So I mean it is, it is what it is. So absolutely keep pushing. But self-care is very, I mean like I don't know if my mom had, she did self-care, but I want to do it in a healthier way.

Toya Algarin 23:46

I wanted to ask you about that. Hey, you have eight grandchildren, you have adult children. You have probably thousands of other children in your life that you're a grandma to, and you have all these grandmothers. You have a lot going on. I know all of this work in the community. I know that feeds you. I can see it just looking at your face while you're talking but what are you going to do differently?

Self-Care as Radical Activism

Speaker 3 24:07

So I mean now I'm journaling, writing down my feelings at the time. I'm trying to be brave and push forward and discern the naysayers, move them to the side, because you can also believe that and unfortunately some of the naysayers can be some of your good friends, you could be your family. You just pushing forward is what I do, but I crochet too, so I craft. You just pushing forward is what I do, but I crochet too, so I craft. I mean I'm whipping up a nice sweater right now. Also, you know what I'm doing. It brings me joy too is crafting with the autistic community at the school. You know, when you see them, kids, be able to hold the yarn and start making something, it's amazing. It's amazing and self-care. I mean I enjoy my, my grandkids, I enjoy the beach. It's coming that season. I can't wait and, like I said, journaling is important for me and I'm making myself get into the habit of doing it.

Toya Algarin 25:02

So yeah, Can I just ask you a little bit about that? I'm really interested in journaling.

Speaker 3 25:14

What does it do for you? It wipes away my fears. So it's like my therapist and then being in and out of therapy all my life. The more you talk about it, the more you accept it. You know what I mean. Like my son would sit by a car and he suffered traumatic brain injury and that affected my son deeply, but it affected me deeply as well. So when you work your way through trauma, your brain has to accept it or accept the way that you feel. So writing it down that's working for me. Is there a book one day? No, I'm too busy trying to buy books for the kids that don't have books. I read books now. I do read During 2020,. This group that I told you I assembled we started a book club Been reading books for five years Must have read like 30, 40 books, easy. We read the Three Mothers Malcolm X's mother, james Baldwin's mom and Martin Luther King's mom. That was a great book and it was just inspiring. So the books that I read are inspiring. That's some hard truths, but important for these times.

Speaker 3 26:07

Well yes, the blueprint is already there Got to dig deep Even before, from our ancestors, even before my mom, before her mom. You just got to dig deep. I mean, think about my mom. My mom went through two pandemics. So I'm just saying I mean, that's where resilience comes from, digging deep into your family, your ancestry and knowing that you made it, they made it. It's all those gifts, like when they say a baby in the womb, where the mother has been in the womb and that mother's been in the womb, and that connection again the red thread.

Toya Algarin 26:40

And I can picture it because I've seen grandmothers infusing that sense of resilience, continuity, pushing through in youngsters.

Speaker 3 26:49

And you know what else, though? It's not necessarily easy to do, and the reason why I'm saying this is my mother passed away two years ago and then my brother and sister like 80, and then they got sick right after my mom got sick. So I'm sitting here like, oh my God, I'm going to die next. I felt so hopeless, you know, and then I'm like like you still got time, absolutely really do some things. I was like I sure can and I do know a lot fantastic.

Speaker 3 27:15

I know right, it's fantastic yeah, I feel good, I feel seen again. I mean, I've been seen before getting jobs, you know. I've been seen having beautiful kids. I've've been seen as a mom, but now I'm a grandma. So I'm walking in my purpose, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do as a grandmother and fight for change. It's something my mom did and it's something I'm going to do. So she marched on Washington, the original march. All right, she was there, I was like one or two. She left me and she went to Washington March. All right, she was there, I was like one or two, she left me and she went to Washington.

Toya Algarin 27:56

DC and she was there. So, yeah, that's carrying on the legacy.

Speaker 3 27:58

Yeah, that's the definition of grandmother power. How about that Grandma power?

Toya Algarin 28:00

Yeah, that's right, I love it. Thank you so much, toya. This is, this was fantastic. This is what we need to hear right now. We know we need to hear from you. We need to hear from you. We need to hear from grandmothers like you. Encouragement.

Speaker 3 28:12

Yes, like my three words for this week bravery, persistence and self-care. That's why I got to work on these things.

Toya Algarin 28:21

There's a wonderful activist. I worked with, hope Chigudu and she says self-care is a radical act of activism.

Speaker 3 28:28

Oh my goodness, hold on, don't hang up. I got to show you something because it's sitting right here. Yeah, show me Knitting for Radical Self-Care. There it is.

Toya Algarin 28:38

I love that. I've got to get that book.

Speaker 3 28:41

I know right, she talks about Angela Davis and Audre Lorde and it's amazing, talking about creativity. Yeah, so this is for radical self-care.

Toya Algarin 28:54

That is going to be our watchword for the end of this podcast. We're going to put that out there. Yeah, we need to, because you said it and here it is. Thank you so much for this. I can't thank you enough for this. You made my week, my month, my year.

Speaker 3 29:08

Oh wow, Thank you for listening to me.

ilana landsberg-lewis 29:11

Thanks for listening. I'm Ilana Lansford-Lewis, your host of Wisdom at Work. Older women, elder women and grandmothers on the move To find out more about me or the podcast. You can go to wisdomatworkpodcastcom, formerly grandmothers on the move, and you can find the podcast at all your favorite places to listen to them. Tune in next week. Thanks and bye-bye for now.