I had originally written it as a PM to Ebony after I found out she passed but I thought it might have some value if shared with the community…I am still thinking about Ebony and the example she lead in life and also left in her wake. May we all carry a bit of the torch that was her essence in our hearts. ?

8/05/17 From Hanul to Ebony

Hey Ebony. It was too brief and too soon. My heart goes out to your family, your friends, an entire community around the world that your life and work, touched.
I know most everyone will remember the arts leader that passed through our skies like an epic meteor shower. I was just a blip in your life, in terms of organizing, but I also felt like we were on a parallel journey with different approaches. We’re about the same age. We started out in the same sector. You manifested so much of your potential in your brief life. I feel like I’m just getting to, and no longer needing to fight for the right to.
Beyond the arts leader that repeatedly demonstrated that disempowerment was not an option… I’d like to remember you as a young woman with all that grace and gravitas, who made the Bay Area her home, chose to see more of the world, was still figuring out your best gifts beyond service to the community, whose best years of just living as a soul and a woman in the world were still ahead of you to ponder and enjoy. I always sensed there was a filmmaker in you, Ebony. So I’ll look out for a reincarnation of you, 30 years later when I’m 70, of a brilliant fireball lady filmmaker taking cinema by storm, and I’ll know it’s you. I’m sorry I got to know you so briefly… I know almost every context we met was business, for the “cause” and not quite friendship. I will remember our meetings at Cafe Trieste on Van Ness and Gough, the giant bag of bagels you brought for BAEP’s first World Cafe, most importantly your spirit and tirelessness and inquisitive, open self. I will wish for your soul, as a parting reminder, a birth family and earthly community that is always reminding you and each other of the self-care, the freedom to just be… that is all of our birthrights. That being is enough and its own grace. I will miss you, Ebony. Thank you for being a shining example, to all of us, what a person can accomplish, hope and dream of in a lifetime. Love and blessings.
p.s. Thank you for creating and tilling so much of the ground that lets the Bay Area arts community have such a thick, vibrant sense of togetherness, closeness and welcoming. This is a rarity among creative, generative cities. I hope many more hands will keep continuing what you and your peers set in motion.