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Rubicon Programs: the movers, shakers, and changemakers

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We help them harness their strengths and dreams to begin the journey to change.
– from Rubicon Programs’ 2013 Annual Report

Rubicon offices in Richmond, CA.

Rubicon’s office in Richmond, CA.

The success of any program or organization relies heavily on the people who make things happen. And for Rubicon Programs, nonprofit provider of integrated housing, training, employment and mental health services (510.235.1516, 2500 Bissell, Richmond, CA 94804), there is no shortage of talented, motivated, and compassionate people. My good friend Jane Fischberg, president and executive director of Rubicon Programs, opened a window for me into her world and her big-hearted colleagues who provide so much support to the disadvantaged and disenfranchised people right here in our local communities.

Porschea gives two thumbs up for the services Rubicon provides for the local communities.

Porschea gives two thumbs up for the services Rubicon provides to the local communities.

Porschea Brown: a ‘bright, shining star’ with a ‘small bit of hope’
Porschea Brown, financial coach at Rubicon, went to college in Washington, DC, and was expecting to stay there, but the Richmond native found her way back home. As a girl, Porschea used to walk by the Rubicon office every day, although she didn’t know anything about the organization. As a young adult and concerned citizen, she began attending city council meetings, in particular the re-entry solutions group meetings, and met Rhody McCoy, director of Rubicon’s Economic Empowerment for Contra Costa County. She even attended these meetings when she came home on school breaks. Impressed by her dedication and commitment to the issues and the community, Rhody, who today calls her “a bright shining star,” invited her to volunteer at Rubicon. By then, she had already researched the nonprofit and likewise was impressed by its programs.

Porschea’s main concern was incarceration rates, particularly in her hometown. She was interested in Richmond’s realignment program for the re-entry population – the population she wanted to work with and for whom Rubicon was providing services. As a financial coach, Porschea provides income support, tax preparation, credit rebuilding, and financial counseling. Although she meets with clients to address their financial issues, oftentimes she is involved with discussions about their health concerns or what’s going on in their homes. “It’s holistic; we don’t just deal with people as it relates to their finances,” she explained. “As my supervisor has taught me – and I can see how there’s truth to it – everything affects your finances.”

Rubicon staff member offers help to a client (photo credit: Pat Garvey).

A Rubicon client comes in for his appointment (photo credit: Pat Garvey).

Porschea’s goal is to become the next Justine Petersen, the late former social worker and pioneer in community reinvestment in St. Louis who helped low- and moderate-income families purchase their homes through partnerships with local banks. “She took this for-profit attitude to work with banks, but the purpose and the goal was to work with a nonprofit and assist low-income people to become self-sufficient,” Porschea explained. Her interest lies in providing resource dissemination around credit issues for marginalized people – being the source for financial services, or, as she described it, “the walking 2-1-1 for nonprofits.”

Being from Richmond, Porschea noted that if she doesn’t personally know the people who come through the doors she knows someone who knows them. “There’s a small bit of hope in me that [tells me] something’s going to turn around for them,” she said. Although recently engaged to her boyfriend who lives in Washington, DC, and anticipating a move back there at some point, Porschea was quick to declare, “I’m not finished here yet.”

Porschea and Rhody are a dynamic duo for Rubicon (photo credit: Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover).

Porschea and Rhody are a dynamic duo for Rubicon.

Rhody McCoy: paying dues through community development
Before joining Rubicon in 2010, Rhody had held a number of positions working on behalf of underserved populations. In San Francisco, he was site manager for a vocational program for at-risk adults. He made a “slight career change,” moving to the City of San Francisco Private Industry Council, where he was a contract specialist, in charge of a health program for African-American men. “I really got excited again about working in the community and having a bigger role than just running a program,” he said. “It was really about community development.”

That work led him to Urban Strategies in Oakland, led by Dr. Garry Mendez, Jr., executive director of the National Trust for the Development of African-American Men and well-renowned for his re-entry program development. Rhody went into San Quentin to work with “lifers,” putting together curricula on how to improve themselves, make use of the skills they learned inside, and develop relationships with community organizations. “It was just so innovative – incarcerated men were concerned about the community and developing systems,” he said. “It really motivated me to do this kind of work.” When Rubicon was looking for a re-entry program manager, Rhody interviewed with Rob Hope, chief program officer, who worked with Dr. Mendez. “We really resonated [with one another] and spoke the same language,” he recalled.

Rhody finds a lot to smile about in his work (photo credit: Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover).

Rhody finds a lot to smile about at Rubicon (photo credit: Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover).

Rhody doesn’t have far to look for what motivates him every day. “I have a lot of dues to pay; I feel I owe a lot of people some things, and it starts with my family, my children, my immediate family, and the community at large,” he said. “I’ve been blessed and privileged, and I had a lot of opportunities – some I’ve taken advantage of and some I didn’t. I have a lot to give back.” His motivation is nurtured by the relationships he has developed and continues to develop with the people who come to Rubicon, and by knowing that the organization and his colleagues are like-minded and have the same goal. “We focus on why we’re here,” he said.

Even when he endures difficult, “gut-wrenching” times in his line of work, Rhody is committed to having fun. “There’s a lot of resiliency in the people who we work with,” he explained. “Regardless of external things, their internal motivation just helps them hit the milestones when they get the support that they need.” Coming out of the recession, Rubicon has put up record numbers of getting people back to work. “The labor market changed significantly,” Rhody pointed out, “but people were still getting jobs due to the resilience of the staff and the people who come through those doors.”

Sarah Williams: celebrating small victories in a ‘very long journey’
Staff attorney Sarah Williams graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law with the desire to work in public interest or social justice after conducting expungement proceedings, getting first-time offenders’ record of criminal conviction dismissed from the state or Federal repository. She came to Rubicon when a former supervisor of hers from the East Bay Community Law Center told her about the nonprofit’s legal services. After working under a school-sponsored grant, Sarah was hired in July 2012 to lead the federally funded Promoting Advances in Paternal Accountability and Success in Work Program (PAPAS Work). What drew her to Rubicon was its model of tying in legal services with its other programs, whereas most legal services organizations are standalone. “I can provide services as part of a team,” she said. “There are a number of people working with one individual – they’re all here.” A client’s coaches for career, parenting, and financial issues are all under one roof, communicating with one another.

Rubicon's Sarah Williams and her dog, Oscar, who is a fixture in her office.

Rubicon’s Sarah Williams and her dog Oscar, who is a fixture in her office.

The re-entry population is difficult to serve, Sarah acknowledges. “It’s a very long journey,” she said. But there are victories to build on. Sarah worked with one determined client who was a driver for Domino’s Pizza but wanted a career. She helped the woman file paperwork to get her probation terminated, her felony reduced to a misdemeanor, and then the misdemeanor expunged. Her client had the support of her probation officer and career coach, and Sarah helped her write her letter to the judge. “She was young and made bad choices,” Sarah explained, “but she has done nothing but good since.” Motivated throughout the process and “setting the bar high” – getting probation terminated early is a difficult feat – Sarah’s client was “thrilled” with the outcome and now feels that she has “a much fairer chance to move on from her mistake.” She has since applied to the Stride Center (1212 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612, 510.234.1300), a nonprofit social venture working to empower economic self-sufficiency for individuals and communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the goal of becoming an IT specialist.

Sarah reviews clients’ California criminal records, or RAP sheets, to determine their eligibility for an expungement down the road. While some may have to endure a few years of probation, she noted that “the promise that there is a light at the end of the tunnel is an incentive [for them] to keep doing what they’re doing.” For clients who have recently been released, the victories are small but important – showing up for workshops, making an appointment with a coach, figuring out transportation to make the appointment, getting the first job. It takes working hard, doing the right things, staying in touch, and more. “I tell them, ‘there’s no magic wand that’s going to make your past go away,'” she said. “People have to live with mistakes they’ve made, but there’s a way to move beyond them. We try to give a message of hope.”

Sarah credits her mother, who was the first in her family to go to college and became a lawyer who represents unions, with instilling in her the belief that “you can do good as a lawyer.” “Growing up seeing her help people so much really made me feel like I can go to law school and it doesn’t have to be all about making money,” Sarah said. “It can be about making a difference in people’s lives – using my education and my privilege in a positive way to make a difference in somebody else’s life.”

Another Rubicon client whom the nonprofit organization was able to help (photo credit: Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover).

Another Rubicon client whom the nonprofit organization was able to help (photo credit: Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover).

Editor’s notes: My profile on my good friend Jane, president and executive director of Rubicon Programs, will be posted Friday, April 4.

If you would like to make a donation to Rubicon Programs, click here.

Rubicon Honors 2014, Rubicon Programs’ annual gala, is set for this Saturday, April 5th, 6pm to 10pm at the Oakland Rotunda, 300 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. Last year, more than 2,000 children in the East Bay were positively impacted by the work Rubicon Programs did with their moms and dads. This year, Rubicon Programs has set a goal of raising $200,000 to change the lives of 2,100 children who are most in need in our shared community. At the gala, come enjoy live music, wine reception, butlered seasonal hors d’oeuvres, sit-down gourmet dinner and dessert, and the live and silent auction. Individual tickets are $225 and a table of 10 is $2,000. You can purchase your tickets here.

Celebrate: a pictorial of joy

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To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.
– Mark Twain, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American author and humorist

It’s spring. It’s the start of baseball season – MLB and my son’s travel ball team. The watsonias, calla lilies, and tulips are blooming. The dahlias are sprouting. The pink blossoms of the twin magnolia trees in our backyard have all dropped, replaced by shiny leaves slowly unfurling. Isabella has already had two flamenco performances in the past two months. It’s time to celebrate – with a pictorial of joy:

In their only win over the weekend in Fremont, CA, out of four games, the Hornets get shutout pitching the last two innings and in the bottom of their last inning, they score six runs to come from behind, 8-7. The joy, in an otherwise lackluster weekend, is palpable.

In their only win over the weekend in Fremont, CA, out of four games, the Hornets get shutout pitching the last two innings and in the bottom of their last inning, they score six runs to come from behind, 8-7. The joy, in an otherwise lackluster weekend, is palpable (photo credit: Robert Milton).

Spring colors of pink and green in our garden of tulips.

Harmonious spring colors of pink and green in our garden of tulips. Duplicate Nature with these colors in your outfits.

Isabella, aka Mini Me to flamenco mentor Tana Hakanson, at their March performance at the YWCA in Berkeley, CA.

Isabella, aka Mini Me to flamenco mentor and friend Tana Hakanson, at their March performance at the YWCA in Berkeley, CA.

Creamy tulip in a bed of green.

Creamy tulip in a bed of green.

Joy is a comfortable spring uniform: blazer abloom with flowers, jeans, and kitten-heel pointy pumps.

Joy is a comfortable spring uniform: blazer abloom with flowers, jeans, and kitten-heel pointy pumps.

Perfect J. Crew Art Deco-style necklace for this floral jacket, accompanied by Carmela Rose drop earrings (Jenny K, El Cerrito, CA), Kate Peterson Design stack of rings (El Cerrito), and Sundance cuff.

Perfect J. Crew Art Deco-style necklace for this floral jacket, accompanied by Carmela Rose drop earrings (Jenny K, El Cerrito, CA), Kate Peterson Design stack of rings (El Cerrito), and Sundance cuff.

Ensemble: Shiny nude patent pumps, dark-rinse jeans, floral jacket, and light lilac camisole.

Ensemble: Shiny nude patent pumps, dark-rinse jeans, floral jacket, and light lilac camisole.

March is Women’s History Month

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Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.
– Maya Angelou, American poet, memoirist, actress, and American Civil Rights Movement activist

Worn-out leather and jeans who well with vegan cut-out blouse.

Worn-out leather and jeans mix well with vegan cut-out blouse.

The National Women’s History Project‘s theme this year for Women’s History Month is Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment. The Project honors 12 women whose lives and work serve as a source of inspiration for both girls and boys and women and men to make our world a more compassionate and more equitable place for everyone. In honoring these women and bringing their accomplishments to the forefront, the Project is making good on its goal of “writing women back into history.”

With that in mind, I thought a worthy exercise in honor of Women’s History Month would be to write a short essay on a woman in your life who exhibited character, courage, and commitment, and inspired you to do the same. For me, that’s easy – it would be my mother. Born in 1926 in the Philippines, she endured the occupation of her homeland by the Japanese in World War II, forced to witness such atrocities as the bayoneting of babies thrown into the air in the town square. “We looked away,” my mother had murmured when I asked her if the story my sister had told me was true. She worked to help put her brothers and sisters through school. She forsake true love and ended up marrying my father and coming to the States after the war. Instead of working to get her teaching credential here – she was a school teacher back home – she picked grapes in the summertime and packed oranges in the wintertime for decades, until she retired. She saved money like crazy, though she and my father didn’t make very much money, and we grew up never feeling poor, though we lived in a rural farming community. My mother instilled in my two sisters and me the importance of education, especially higher education, and being a good citizen. Those were the facts of her life, but there is so much more.

Boxy blouse, jeans, kitten-heel pumps, and clutch are an easy uniform to throw on.

Boxy blouse, jeans, kitten-heel pumps, and clutch are an easy uniform to throw on when mornings are hectic.

The day after my mother passed away on January 3, 2012, my old high school friend, Kimi, wrote about my mother in an e-mail to me in the early hours of the morning: “She was steel. Thin, lithe, wiry, graceful, resilient, unbreakable; tempered. She was beautiful, proud, determined, resolved, smart. If she had lived in a different time or place, if she’d had our opportunities, we can only imagine what she would have accomplished. But, she took the yoke and humble, coarse work that was available – and she lived her dreams through you. As an observer, and not the one grinding away to meet your mom’s expectations, it was always clear to me that she was very, very proud of you, Joyce and Heidi. She built the runway, you flew. She was happy. She felt accomplished. In the end, she achieved her dreams and she had a good life.”

I wrote Kimi back, accusing her of making me cry. What haunted me, what moved me the most of her words – If she had lived in a different time or place, if she’d had our opportunities, we can only imagine what she would have accomplished – still resonates with me as I think about Women’s History Month. My mother was at once meek and determined, dutiful and unrelenting, bearing burdens and yet strategizing for a better life for her family. Had she lived in a different time or place, had she been led to more windows and doors, she would have opened them and gone through. She would have built the runway and taken off herself.

Against a creamy cut-out blouse: Anthropologie statement earrings, stack of rings by Kate Peterson Designs (El Cerrito, CA), Alkemie scarab cuff made of recycled metal, and Laura Lombardi necklace (Eskell, Chicago).

Against a creamy cut-out blouse: Anthropologie statement earrings, stack of rings by Kate Peterson Designs (El Cerrito, CA), Alkemie scarab cuff made of recycled metal, and industrial Laura Lombardi necklace (Eskell, Chicago).

How many girls and women in the world today don’t even know that windows and doors exist? How many never realize they could entertain the crazy notion that they can build their own runway and take off or actually have a voice and the audacity to dream big and make good on them – as a result of the tyranny of governments and politics, religion, misogyny, and on and on? How do we as women, who are privileged and who have had our basic needs and more met, reach them?

When I think of all those questions and wonder where in those pockets and dark corners of the world those girls and women may be, I understand the desire to write women back into history, to use our voices, and shine the light on women’s accomplishments. These subversive acts  – which one day won’t be subversive, though we must always strive to be subversive when it comes to advancing girls and women – plant the seeds. And when we scatter them all around us, beautiful things will grow.

So what can we as individuals do? Nora Ephron entreats us to be the heroine of our lives. Do the small things in our homes, our neighborhoods, and our communities. Nurture and use your gifts for good deeds. Create windows and doors. Go through them, but make sure someone is behind you doing the same. Be compassionate. Be courageous. Be present. Be.

Mixing textures: weathered chambray, metal, nude patent, vegan cut-out, and faux snakeskin.

Mixing textures: weathered chambray, reclaimed metal, nude patent leather, vegan cut-out, and faux snake skin.

Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela: ‘Let your greatness blossom’

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For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
– Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

When I was attending the University of California at Davis in the early to mid-1980s, anti-apartheid sentiment and calls for the UC system to divest financial support to businesses in South Africa were fervent and widespread among college students and across the UC campuses. These were the political and social realities that were very much a part of my undergraduate years. They helped shape my global views as a young adult. These concerns were a world away but I understood that human rights were fundamental to all. And so leaders like Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela were heroes to e and many of my fellow students.

I didn’t hear about Nelson Mandela’s death until I got home from a short business trip in Chicago last night. I had read about his declining health a few months back and upon reading it I understood, as many did, that his time on earth was coming to an end. The realization was stunning even at that time, even though we know that the inevitable – mortality – is a fact of life. It is truly a time of mourning, but it is also a time of remembering Mandela’s remarkable gifts – courage, forgiveness, and a mighty pen and voice, among many other gifts. It is a time to honor him by embracing those gifts as our own and ensuring that we use those gifts to further his vision of a just world.

What better way to remind ourselves than to remember some of the wise and generous words he gave us:

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death. I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his kin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than the opposite.

Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. YOU can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.

As these next days test the depth of our sadness, remember his words: “Let your greatness blossom.” I am sure that Mandela would not have wanted it any other way: “It always seems impossible, until it’s done.”

Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela (photo by infonubia.com)

Rest in peace, Nelson Mandela (photo by infonubia.com)

 

On Black Friday, think green

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The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
– Thích Nhất Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet, and peace activist, from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

When I was young, the day after Thanksgiving wasn’t coined Black Friday, but my mother and my two sisters and I would get up early and drive to either Visalia or Bakersfield, the former about 40 minutes away and the latter about an hour away from home, to do our Christmas shopping at the malls. And the day after Christmas, we would go to either town and my sisters and I would spend the Christmas money that our mother gave us on holiday sales. This was a family ritual that I still look back on with fondness. It was a day that we four spent together.

An outfit from three years ago that I still wear: J. Crew velveteen jacket, tank top, Anthropologie skirt, and Ash platform boots. Accessories provide the update, but this outfit is still classic.

An outfit from three years ago that I still wear: J. Crew velveteen jacket, tank top, Anthropologie skirt, and Ash platform boots. Accessories provide the update, including the Stuart Weitzman clutch from Secondo (Washington, DC), but this outfit is still a classic years later and for years to come.

To this day, if I hear the word “sale,” I go into “hunt” mode. And I enjoy shopping. But I no longer associate shopping with the day after Thanksgiving or the day after Christmas. The few times I’ve ventured out both days – most notably after the kids have been born – have left me harried and anxious. They weren’t pleasant experiences like the ones I had with my sisters and my mother. Part of it is having grown older and being more easily overwhelmed with crowds and so many stores.

The update: Carmela Rose earrings, Ayala Bar multi-strand necklace (Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco), and Lava 9 chunky ring (Berkeley, CA).

The update: Carmela Rose earrings, Ayala Bar multi-strand necklace (Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco), and Lava 9 chunky ring (Berkeley, CA).

Part of it is how we now spend our holidays and want to spend our holidays. The day after Thanksgiving, if we are celebrating in San Diego, we are making the eight-hour drive after a family brunch and our visit. If we are hosting, we are cleaning up after everyone leaves and then pulling down the Christmas decorations from the attic. There is no time for Black Friday shopping, and I’d rather spend that day decorating and listening to all of our Christmas CDs in a 48-hour decorating extravaganza. The kids look forward to it – my daughter is a big advocate of not decorating or even thinking about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving – and decking the halls has become a cherished family tradition. It warmed my heart to hear both kids say, on our ride home today, how they couldn’t wait to put up the decorations, with my daughter even asking if we could start tonight. That would be a no, if we want to truly enjoy the time decking the halls!

Deep purple, mauves, orange, velveteen, organza, mosaics and glass.

Deep purple, mauves, orange, velveteen, organza, mosaics and glass.

I’m not going to judge the people who are checking off their Christmas lists as they go from sale to sale. I chuckled as I read a text message from my brother-in-law who, along with my sister and the other “crazies,” as he called them, was hitting the 50 percent off sales at the outlets late last night. My sisters and my mother and I never felt harried when we were shopping for presents. We enjoyed our time together, both in the car and in the malls. It’s just that these days I’m enjoying my time with my family doing what we want to be doing. While others are winding down from their Black Friday shopping, we are getting ready for a lot of greenery – as in Noble Fir, holly, and garlands.

Be with your family and enjoy your time together, however you choose to spend it. That’s what the day after Thanksgiving should be all about. After all.

An outfit that will eventually be handed down to my daughter, who will be retro chic. Zero cost, sustainable, and sentimental.

An outfit that will eventually be handed down to my daughter, who will be retro chic. Zero cost, sustainable, and sentimental.

Christmas in the City, coming soon to our house, as we deck the halls this weekend.

Christmas in the City, coming soon to our house, as we deck the halls this weekend.

Blog change: from thrice to twice weekly posts

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We should strive to welcome change and challenges, because they are what help us grow. Without them we grow weak like the Eloi in comfort and security. We need to constantly be challenging ourselves in order to strengthen our character and increase our intelligence.
– H.G. Well, writer and journalist, from The Time Machine

It was bound to happen, though I fought it internally with great might. I am a schedule person, a list person, a person who doesn’t like to deviate from any plan because such a trait is in my DNA. But as work piled up and I wrapped myself with my novel, the juggling act, the balancing act, had to shift. And what got the short shrift was my blog, as much as I hate to admit it.

Right before the weather changed to true fall, we had a glorious warm October.

Right before the weather changed to true fall, we had a glorious warm October.

So in a nod to energy conservation and sanity checks – plus, I’ve been wearing sweats for the last several weeks because I don’t have the time, energy, or imagination to put anything else on – I’m scaling back from three blog posts a week to two, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Once my workload returns to normal, my novel is completed, and rest and relaxation restore my vitality, I’ll reassess whether to keep to the new schedule or go back to the old.

Against a backdrop of a sheer, crinkly jacket and Pendleton-like graphic print dress, I accessorized with an Anthropologie clear cuff, Lava 9 earrings (Berkeley, CA), BCBG MaxAzria faceted ring, and Sundance stack of rings.

Against a backdrop of a sheer, crinkly jacket and Pendleton-like graphic print dress, I accessorized with an Anthropologie clear cuff, End of Century reclaimed vintage chandelier necklace (NYC),  Lava 9 earrings (Berkeley, CA), BCBG MaxAzria faceted ring, and Sundance stack of rings.

I’m hoping that in January I will return to conducting more interviews of amazing and inspiring women. I’m also hoping to find engaging topics that inspire me to blog freely, easily, and joyfully. In the meantime, a new schedule is on the books starting next week. Enjoy Hump Day today!

The last wearing of this dress until late spring.

The last wearing of this dress until late spring.

Deep yellow clutch adds pop to the graphic black-and-white ensemble.

Deep yellow clutch adds a pop of color to the graphic black-and-white ensemble.