About Us
THE VISION
An international experience should reflect the entire system of enslaving and trading in African peoples, as well as the cultural legacy of this.
An international experience should reflect the entire system of enslaving and trading in African peoples, as well as the cultural legacy of this.
FullCircle Experience, Inc. is a public charity as outlined in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal ID: #87-2518697.
Contributions to FullCircle are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
©2024 FullCircle Experience, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
I say “pale-skinned” rather than “white” because race doesn’t exist, while shades of skin on a spectrum do. My connection to FullCircle comes from my experience of personal expansion and spirituality. I am now about to turn 70 years old and these decades, mostly lived in Brazil (though I am from the Boston suburbs), led me to understand myself in a continuously expanding context. In my thirties, I wanted to enjoy my marriage, make friends in São Paulo, report on the Brazilian economy, and bring up my three children. In my forties, I wanted to write great fiction. In my fifties, I wanted to find a new partner (my marriage had ended) and publish bestsellers at the publishing house where I worked, in Rio.
In my sixties, I began to see that I needed to understand where I lived, the dynamics of the metropolis: its politics, institutions, difficulties and possible solutions (I wrote a book in Portuguese about this). I met people unlike myself as I moved around the city and its bedroom suburbs to do my research. I learned about Rio’s African past and its role as the world’s key arrival port for enslaved Africans. I became convinced that Rio’s vocation is to share and honor this history and its cultural impacts.
I began to change from a person stymied by a foreign culture, history, and practices, to a woman open to exchanging ideas and effecting change. Mysteries about how the city functioned began to dissolve and I began to see what a pale-skinned privileged foreign woman might be able to learn from and contribute to the public conversation. During the pandemic, I started a series of hour-long Instagram interviews with people who worked on and cared about Rio de Janeiro. I also founded, with Mike, FullCircle. My world has expanded beyond Rio to the geography of the Diaspora and its role in world development, past, present and future.
From a person focused on marriage, children and career, I became a doer, a stakeholder and a resource.
FullCircle represents a chance for me to share my own expansion process, to ensure that others can also learn about themselves in the context of history and geography – and most important, find ways to belong, feel purpose and make change happen.
I have received a lot of questions about why I joined, what’s important to me, my vision for FullCircle’s future, and why, as a white man, I got involved and have remained committed for so long.
When FullCircle began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our national dialogue was deteriorating dramatically. The tail end of the Trump presidency left people battered, afraid, polarized, and emotionally exhausted. Hope was scarce, and many felt there was nothing to hold onto. I was deeply concerned about our nation and, by extension, the world. The loss of civil dialogue, the emergence of “alternative facts,” and the erosion of principles upon which modern society was built saddened me.
During this time, I found some meaning in working with Georgians United, a Georgia state organization aiming to adjust voting methods to better reflect the national will. Simultaneously, the Black Lives Matter movement received added national attention as a result of George Floyd’s tragic death. I leaned into remembering the names of all of the other assassinations that exposed violent systemic injustices. The more I learned and the more I stepped into others’ shoes (as best as I could) the more I realized that what happens to some of us happens to all of us.
When Julia Michaels shared her discovery about Rio’s need to confront its past to move forward, and we learned of an African proverb about acknowledging the past to progress together, I realized that Full Circle represented a “tikkun olam” (heal the world) opportunity. It offered a new way for people to connect across cultural lines through various means: music, dance, food, family, heritage, DNA research, and more.
As a strategist, I’ve often been frustrated by leaders’ limited views and their tendency toward making small changes instead of big ones. FullCircle presented an opportunity to create a transformative tool for communication and understanding. Over time, I recognized that the Diaspora story wasn’t just about pain and suffering, but also about celebration, progress, and building a better world.
Working with FullCircle has broadened my perspective. I’ve learned to see myself as part of a larger human tapestry, no less or more important, but certainly sharing more in common with others. Anyone on the planet should be able to connect, sharing information about their history, culture, and interests as an integral part of their conversations.
Why would two older white adults embark on a journey focused on a diaspora different from their roots? Julia and I recognized that this idea’s time had come, and somebody needed to kick it off. While others might focus on today’s problems, we saw that the world couldn’t advance as well without this tool. We believe that our shared humanity comes first, before any other descriptors.
Choosing the African diaspora as a starting point isn’t about personal connection—it’s about addressing the far-reaching impacts of forced migration that affect us all. By exploring the effects of slavery and its resulting creative forces, we’re building tools that can benefit everyone.
FullCircle aims to introduce a technological leap forward in fostering understanding. Unlike individual efforts, our carefully architected platform will reach many, giving us all new capabilities to communicate, appreciate, understand, and enjoy our shared past and shared humanity. This isn’t just idealism—it’s a practical step towards a more connected and empathetic world.
