As an educator with over 32 years of experience, Dr. Goggins strives to help individuals and organizations achieve their full potential. Dr. Goggins has developed practical solutions rooted in lived experiences and evidenced-based techniques. Dr. Goggins is certified in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Social Emotional Learning, Culturally Responsive Teaching strategies, Trauma-informed approaches, Restorative Practices, De-escalation, and Conflict Resolution. Dr. Goggins provides professional services, including in-services/workshops, coaching, and program/service evaluation. Dr. Goggins is specialized in Authentic Identity Development and Achievement, Transformative Social Emotional Learning, Restorative Practice and School Culture, Effective Positive Behavioral Intervention Strategies, and Moving from Inclusion to Belonging. Dr. Lathardus Goggins Il is a practitioner and scholar of and advocate for African-centered family-based community-linked rites of passage.

Bringing the Light into a New Day: African-centered Rites of Passage provides a thorough discussion on the principles and components of African centered rites of passage (rites). It should be noted that this is not a "how to" book, but a book meant to help the reader to know "how to - how to." It is a guide to understanding "family-based community-linked" African-centered rites of passage. The title, "Bringing the light into a new day," is a metaphor that refers to all the familiar quotes and statements about light and the coming of the dawn, where light is a metaphor for opportunity, hope and wisdom.

NEO’s own Tara Pringle Jefferson joins us at ThirdSpace to talk to Black women about living that good life, seeking happiness, and keeping your peace.

You can purchase her book Bloom How You Must: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self-Care and Generational Healing here before the talk. Select the option to pick up instore and your copy will be there on the day of your event.

NO RSVP NEEDED.

You don’t want to see EB and MC on the Spades table. Or Uno, or Bid Whist. Come thru for a community game night to see if you have the chops. Oh, and we’re talking big ish all night.

Come shop locally owned vendors making holiday shopping easy for you!

If you’re interested in being a vendor, please purchase a vendor registration and we’ll reach out.

This is certainly one of our favorite events of the year. It's our chance to see who is really like that in the kitchen. Bring something for the community table THIS Friday. If you are bringing a dish, please try to come a bit early so that we can start serving right at 11:30am.

In addition to the food, ThirdSpace will also be updating the community on what we've got going on, because it affects YOU, and we need your input. See you this Friday for a special IG Lunch.

We grieve different. On Thursday, November 20th at 6p join us at the ThirdSpace Reading Room to Fellowship with our community as we mourn, grieve, and celebrate all of our Black Trans and Gender Non-Conforming siblings we have lost over the last year.

We honor their lives through song, dance, poetry, ritual, drag performances, and a good ole fashion repass dinner.

Wear what makes you feel good, fine and whole. The color inspiration: Blue, Pink. & White.

RSVP on Eventbrite! Search “Transcestor” and it should pop up.

This event is proudly powered @mxjuneteenth & True Haven Ministries.

RSVP Here

As part of our ongoing Freedom Lectures, Sow Liberation delves into the legacy, resilience, and radical possibilities of Black agriculture. This gathering brings together farmers, organizers, and land stewards who are reimagining the relationship between Black communities, the land, and environmental health. Through storytelling, conversation, and connection, we’ll explore how food, farming, and freedom are inseparable and why tending the soil is a pathway to liberation. Come ready to listen, learn, and dream of a freer, greener future together.

Bios
Timothy Lewis, is a community farmer, equity advocate, and relationship curator whose work bridges people, purpose, and place.

Timothy serves as the Outreach Director at Rid-All Green Partnership, a 22-acre urban farm located in Cleveland’s Central/Kinsman community. For over a decade, he has dedicated his career to connecting corporations, communities, and classrooms through sustainability, workforce development, and agricultural education.

Guided by his late mentors, Damien Forshe and David “Dr. Greenhand” Hester, co-founders of Rid-All, Timothy continues their legacy of transforming land and lives through agriculture. He is a proud graduate of the Neighborhood Leadership Development Program (NLDP) Cohort 17 and Case Western Reserve University’s R.E.A.C.H. Program, which focuses on racial equity and community health.

Timothy is also the visionary behind the All Farmers Matter campaign — a movement that connects and consults farmers from both rural and urban communities under the powerful message: “From City Blocks to Mountaintops, All Farmers Matter.”

Samira Malone
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Samira Malone is an urban planner and national leader in equitable green infrastructure and community resilience. She serves as Director of Programming and National Portfolio Lead at the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), where she manages special projects, including a $28 million Urban and Community Forestry grant funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. Through this initiative, Samira supports 25 low-canopy, historically underrepresented communities to advance equitable urban forestry, workforce development, and climate resilience. She also oversees grant-funded projects nationwide that strengthen sustainable infrastructure and expand access to green resources in communities that need them most.

Previously, Samira was Executive Director of the Cleveland Tree Coalition, guiding a 52-member alliance through its first strategic plan, new grant programs, and major milestones toward Cleveland’s canopy restoration and environmental justice goals. Her earlier work with MidTown Cleveland, Inc. and Burten, Bell, Carr Development, Inc. focused on inclusive planning, neighborhood revitalization, and community engagement.

Samira holds a Master of Urban Planning and Development and a Bachelor’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Cleveland State University, along with a Graduate Certificate in GIS and executive education from Harvard Business School’s Women of Color Leadership Program.

A committed civic leader, she was the inaugural Chair of the Cleveland Urban Forestry Commission and serves on the boards of the Trust for Public Land Ohio Advisory Board, Rid-All Green Partnership, and the Cleveland Print Room. She also co-leads the Black Environmental Prosperity Group (BEPG), a national collective advancing Black leadership, equity, and career pathways in the environmental sector.

Grounded in her Cleveland roots and guided by a commitment to restorative environmental justice, Samira works to bridge people, policy, and place to build a more sustainable and just future. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, visiting museums, cooking for loved ones, and leading community hikes that promote Black joy and connection with nature.

Join Next City and The People’s Practice for a conversation between Nathaniel Smith of Partnership for Southern Equity and Primus Wheeler of Jackson Medical Mall Foundation with respect to creating equitable communities rooted in strategies birthed from the American South.

RSVP HERE

New club, new book. 🌈 For our first LGBTQ+ Book Club pick, we’re diving into Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde, a wild, reflective read that blurs the line between art and memory, queerness and becoming.

It’s giving imagination, honesty, and healing.

Meet us October 28 to talk through it all. And, as always, book club picks are 10% off online and in-store.

Public commentary often deflects and points blame at individuals, rather than naming the real villains - systemic injustice and racism. We’ve been working to achieve and realize this thing we call ‘democracy’ for centuries. However, vicious acts, policies, and practices have resulted in an environment where the historically disenfranchised continue to be left behind. And this could not be truer than when we look at our education system.

RSVP HERE