Urban Triage’s founder and CEO Brandi Grayson will host intimate one-on-one conversations with community members at a popular southside coffeeshop June 4.
“Coffee, Conversations and Community” looks to meet with community members to answer questions they have about Urban Triage and its direction. Grayson notes that over the past year, a lot of myths have cropped up about Urban Triage. She hopes to quell some of that and reaffirm its dedication to the community. The event marks the first of a planned series where Urban Triage wants to speak with the community in more intimate settings.
“It’s an opportunity for people who have questions or just want to meet me or just want to get to know what we’re doing,” Grayson said. “It’s just an intimate setting, an authentic setting. No presentation, nothing formal. Just me and some staff having coffee.”
The event will be hosted at Rasta Barista, 2352 S. Park St. Grayson hopes to use the event to connect Urban Triage’s work to local Black-owned businesses and support them.
One of the cornerstones of this and future events will be to spread the word about some Black-owned businesses across Madison. The plan is to be in more intimate spaces where the community can kick back and relax while talking.
“I want to be more intentional and deliberate about holding space that’s not stuffy or planned or with a protocol. A real human-centered experience,” Grayson said.
Another part of the event hopes to alleviate some confusion surrounding Urban Triage and Grayson from the previous year. The organization has been placed in a misfounded controversy caused by inaccurate reporting by Channel 3000.
The story alleged that there was a $200,000 disparity in the financial statements from Urban Triage. Channel 3000’s story incorrectly reported a budgeted amount with an expenditure. Madison365 debunked this, leading Channel 3000 to take down its story.
Grayson, along with other Black women in Madison, also said they were the targets of a campaign of harassment from former Common Council candidate Nino Amato, former Dane County Supervisor Jeff Weigand and resident Sean Burke.
Grayson was also arrested alongside Police Civilian Oversight Board chair Maia Pearson. The incident involved eight patrol officers and two sergeants called out for service — not a traffic stop — that ended in the arrest of the two over a parking spot at the Majestic Theater.
“The media is a strong tool. I know that when you have allegations and headlines that read, ‘$200,000 mishandled by Urban Triage,’ that title alone is like, ‘Oh my God. They’re mismanaging money,'” Grayson said. “You may have not caught the only article from Madison365 that corrected that.”
Grayson wants people who attend to walk away with clarity that Urban Triage is still dedicated to the community despite the misinformation that has been spread since last year.
“We’re still building, and we are strategically repositioning our organization,” Grayson said. “We’re in this for the long haul, no matter what comes against us or the world or our community. We are standing 10 toes down with our community.”
Part of its restructuring is to help reduce stress caused by funding cuts through bringing attention to some of its ventures and fundraising.
Earlier this year, Urban Triage launched a hemp brand, Less Noise Wellness, that capitalizes on its hemp entrepreneurship program to better fund it independently. Funds for its agricultural programming were cut. Urban Triage operated on unrestricted reserve funding to pick up some of the slack, but wanted to find a means to be more self-reliant in the future, to not be rocked by future cuts.
“Coffee, Conversations and Community” will be held Thursday, June 4, 9-11 a.m. at Rasta Barista. It is free to attend, but only a limited number of slots are available. Registration is required.
