Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Jeanne Kracher: A life dedicated to social justice
Extended for the Online Edition of Windy City Times
by Micki Leventhal
2010-10-27

This article shared 8269 times since Wed Oct 27, 2010
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


The donors, board and staff of the Crossroads Fund will celebrate a decade of leadership from Executive Director Jeanne Kracher Oct. 28.

Kracher, a native Chicagoan, lives on the North Side with her long-term partner, Laura McAlpine. Her political activism emerged through her work as a documentary film maker, creating films that addressed a wide range of social justice issues, from healthcare in prison to a history of the women's global peace and justice movement.

She took her activism to the streets as a founding member of ACT UP/Chicago. "It was originally CFAR—Chicago for AIDS Rights," Kracher explained. "We changed the name when it became clear that it was a movement that was emerging around the country and it was important to be identified with that sort of 'brand' so to speak, although nobody used those terms back then. A precursor to CFAR was DAGMAR, which was dykes and gay men against any 'R-word' you could think of at the time—Reagan, racism, the right wing—we would just sort of insert as many Rs as we needed to," she laughed.

"We were all folks who met each other because we had been involved in leftist organizations in Chicago and came together around AIDS. We had always been out as queers or gays and lesbians in the various activities we were involved with, but when people started becoming HIV-positive and dying, we decide we had to take a stronger stand politically as queers or gay people. I think people don't remember that there were discussions with [ then Illinois Governor ] Jim Thompson about quarantining gays: the most heinous and repressive ways of 'How do we deal with this emerging disease and these diseased people?' So we started DAGMAR, which morphed into ACT UP." ACT UP dissolved in 1995 and was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2000, the year Kracher became executive director of Crossroads Fund.

Kracher's connection to Crossroads began a number of years earlier, first as a grantee through her work as executive director of Women in the Director's Chair and later as a member of the board of directors.

"I was on the Crossroads board for a few years in the mid- to late- 1990s," she said. After about 15 years of strong leadership and continuity, the organization endured a period of "not finding a good fit" for their top staff position and a number of growing pains. "I was approached by a couple of people to apply for the executive director job. Crossroads meant a lot to me as an activist. ... I was really thrilled to have the opportunity to help turn things around and we were able to do it."

At the time, Kracher was working at the Women's Health Education Project, part of a women's health initiative funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The 10-year project included seed money for Alice Dan's Center for Research on Women and Gender at University of Illinois Chicago and funding for women's health projects through the Chicago Foundation for Women. "The health education project was [ MacArthur's ] idea of a grass-roots project based on the model of the Boston Women's Health Collective." Several entities were on the advisory board, including the Chicago Women's Health Center, the long-time lesbian and transgender friendly not-for-profit organization which was Crossroads first grantee.

"I came in close to the end of the project; I was sort of hired to put it to bed," Kracher explained. The drop-in resource center was located at the intersection of Milwaukee, Armitage and Western, not a trendy neighborhood back then. "It was us from the center and all the methadone addicts from down the street."

Taking the helm at Crossroads, Kracher has been able to guide and grow the organization into "a nice and stable position.

"It's not just about me," she said, adding, "It's about leadership development, staff development. Yes, it takes dedicated individuals but no dedicated individual can do it alone."

The organization will celebrate Kracher's leadership by announcing the Building Strong Leaders Campaign ( BSLC ) . For almost three decades the Crossroads Fund, a pioneer in funding LGBT organizations and activism, has raised grant monies through "a network of progressive individuals, businesses and foundations" dedicated to "help create social and economic justice." Their donor list reads like a Who's Who of Chicago area progressives.

"Crossroads Fund, in its mission, is developing leaders all over the city. We fund new and emerging groups, which in effect is seeding grassroots leadership around the city," Kracher said. "So whether that project exists 10 years from the time we fund it or not, the people in that project have grown. The idea of the initiative is that people are giving additional money beyond their regular gifts so that we can really do more to develop leaders with training and skills building." The goal for the BSLC campaign was $10,000; more that $15,000 in pledges and outright gifts has already been received.

In both direct grant work and technical assistance to advocacy organizations, Crossroads works across a wide range of social justice issues including disability rights, LGBT rights, arts and culture, criminal justice, environment and community development, government accountability, health access, human and worker rights, immigrant issues, women and girls, youth and international policy and advocacy. Crossroads prides itself on its difference from "mainstream philanthropy."

"We've been funding Affinity for over ten years; who else is going to fund an African American Lesbian organization?" Kracher said. "What we're trying to do is look at the funding as a way to deepen the groups of people that are the most marginalized to be a part of generalized movement building."

Kracher sees the professionalization of the foundation and not-for-profit world as a huge change over the years. "It used to be the province of the rich family member who didn't need a job so they ran the foundation," she said. "Now you've got this industry. There are good things and bad things with that."

When she first got to Crossroads there were still many groups operating on a strictly volunteer basis with no desire to institutionalize. "It was really about activism and street activism," she said, recalling the ACT UP days. "Now you have groups that haven't even been around a year and want an office and a staff person. It's not good or bad, it's just different, different expectations. This work is no longer just about community ferment, but also about jobs. That didn't used to exist, but the foundation world helped to create some of that because it got so big and there was so much money available, which is no longer true. Just like the housing market bubble—it was a false sense of what was possible."

Working with many small and start up organizations, Crossroads staff is careful to guide the often young or emerging community activists in what they can and cannot do with grant money, "You can advocate around issues, but you can't advocate for a candidate," explained Kracher. "We've been helpful as a resource to allow people to see what the parameters are. At the same time, there's a lot not-for-profits can do."

Within the work and concerns of each advocacy area supported by Crossroads there is an emphasis on cross-issue organizing and understanding. What Kracher calls "intersectionality."

For example, how can LGBT issues be incorporated into immigrant issues. "How is an undocumented immigrant who is gay doubly exploited? How do we really train our staff and our board and our community to think about these issues?"

"When we go to a group we say, 'Oh, you're working with people with disabilities, how do you also incorporate LGBT issues, or race? How do we really ensure that you are really looking at all the people who are part of your community?"

During the grant review process all applicants must be able to specifically and adequately respond to the question: "How does your group manage the challenges of including diverse groups within your constituency such as people of color, low-income, LGBT, people with disabilities, youth, seniors, and/or women?"

"Mainstream philanthropy is about putting a bandaid on a problem, although there are exceptions to that. Philanthropy was created to maintain a status quo, so that workers wouldn't be sick and would be better workers. So that we wouldn't have plagues and pestilence and people would show up to the coal mine," Kracher asserted. "Crossroads is about changing the fundamental conditions and systems in the community."

People who are interested in attending or supporting the Building Strong Leaders Campaign can contact Sheila O'Donnell, Crossroads Fund development director, at 773-227-7676 or sheila@crossroadsfund.org .


This article shared 8269 times since Wed Oct 27, 2010
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

After 30 Under 30: MAP Executive Director Naomi Goldberg 2024-03-25
- NOTE: In this series, Windy City Times will profile some of its past 30 Under 30 honorees. Windy City Times started its 30 Under 30 Awards in 2001, presenting them each year through 2019. This year, ...


Gay News

THEATER When growth is paramount: Jim Corti helps fuel Aurora theater expansion 2024-03-01
- Out actor/director/choreographer Jim Corti made his Broadway debut in 1974, in the ensemble of Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide. Director Harold Prince's acclaimed Tony Award-winning revival is often cited as a ...


Gay News

MOVIES Director Daniel Peddle on the sequel to the classic doc 'The Aggressives' 2023-12-05
- In 2005, Daniel Peddle released The Aggressives—a groundbreaking documentary filmed during the late '90s and early '00s in New York City that profiled several masculine-presenting/transmasculine people of color. Fast-forward to ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ 'Black Adam,' Cyndi Lauper, Sondheim, Oscars, OutFest 2023-03-18
- Cultured Magazine recently profiled Quintessa Swindell—who became the first out, non-binary actor to play a lead superhero in the DC universe when they portrayed Cyclone in the 2022 movie Black Adam. Swindell grew up in Virginia ...


Gay News

Show about trans+ women models to debut Aug. 5 on Here TV 2022-07-29
- The Here TV docuseries Road to the Runway—which focuses on trans+ women models—will debut Friday, Aug. 5. The series profiles the 20 hopefuls competing in this year's annual Slay Model search. Cameras follow the women to ...


Gay News

Local writer from Hillman Grad Productions Mentorship Lab to tell stories about immigrant experiences 2022-06-04
- Growing up on the South Side of Chicago without any sort of U.S. citizenship, Ruben Mendive said he started developing his identity as a writer while he was sitting in front of the TV, devouring "every show that came out ...


Gay News

PASSAGES Writer, attorney, activist Takeia R. Johnson 2021-07-25
- The local organization Affinity Community Services announced the recent passing of Takeia R. Johnson. According to Johnson's LinkedIn profile, she was editor-in-chief and lead writer at Inclusion at Work as well as a Ph.D. student focusing ...


Gay News

SAVOR Talking with new Travelle Chef de Cuisine Qi Ai; Profile of Travelle's breakfast 2021-06-09
- Travelle Chef de Cuisine Qi Ai Travelle at the Langham (330 N Wabash Ave.; https://www.travellechicago.com/) has undergone a major change during the COVID pandemic: New Chef de Cuisine Qi (pronounced "tee") Ai was promoted from sous ...


Gay News

MOVIES Dutch journalist talks about making 'My Friend, the Mayor' 2021-02-17
- In the Amazon Prime Video documentary My Friend, the Mayor: Small-town Democracy in the Age of Trump, Dutch journalist Max Westerman profiles friend Sean Strub, an openly gay activist, activist, long-term AIDS survivor and POZ magazine ...


Gay News

Booksellers launch "Boxed Out" campaign, a look at consumer choices 2020-10-22
--From a press release - (New York, New York) 20% of independent bookstores across the country are in danger of closing. Today, theAmerican Booksellers Association launched the "Boxed Out" campaign to draw attention to the high stakes indie bookstores face this ...


Gay News

Author/academic John D'Emilio on new book, future endeavors 2020-10-01
- Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago's LGBTQ Archives is a new book by Gerber/Hart Library and Archives President and University of Illinois at Chicago History and Women's and Gender Studies Professor Emeritus John ...


Gay News

Out Illinois State coach dives into new position 2020-09-16
- Logan Pearsall, an accomplished college diver who has since transitioned into master's level diving, was competing at the 2017 FINA World Masters Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He was doing a challenging inward dive from a one-meter ...


Gay News

Joseph Baar Topinka preserves legacy of mother: Pro-gay Republican Judy 2020-09-02
- Riverside resident Joseph Baar Topinka is still impressed with the resolve and stamina with which his late mother, longtime GOP politician Judy Baar Topinka, was able to "slug it out" in the political arena. "She got ...


Gay News

'Making Sweet Tea': Out NU dean talks about new documentary 2020-08-18
- Performer and Northwestern University Dean E. Patrick Johnson discussed his new film and the importance of reclaiming storytelling agency in a virtual Q&A Lambda Legal hosted Aug. 9. Johnson, dean of Northwestern University's School of Communication, ...


Gay News

Asha Ransby-Sporn talks building on the anti-racism movement's legacy 2020-08-05
- With anti-racism protests happening around the United States, in what some media outlets are saying is the largest movement in this country's history, demands to abolish the police have increasingly been a part of the rallying ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.