August 9th 2022 marks an important transition at RJC, as tre (genjo) williams transitions out of his role as Community Liaison. We are deeply sad to see him go, but just as excited for what lies ahead for him, as he moves into a more intensive phase in his pursuit of a master’s degree in Counseling. RJC has benefited in so many ways from tre’s many gifts, and we look forward to the many ways he’ll continue to share those gifts with others moving forward.
When we asked the RJC Family – staff and volunteers, as well as other community members and leaders – to reflect on this transition and put words to what it’s meant to them to work and play with tre as a collaborator, colleague, and beloved friend, these are a few of the testimonials folks shared.
Well Wishes and Appreciation from the RJC Family
Thank you so much for sharing your spirit, your knowledge, your time, and your love with us. You are a beautiful person! –Oggie
tre, I love your creative emoji game (esp the dinosaurs!) and the great energy you bring to meetings/collaboration! You have an amazing depth of knowledge of the issues and also an inclusive perspective that made it comfortable to someone “newer” to the work to jump in and try and make mistakes sometimes. I will really miss you and hope you stay in touch! –Megan B
It’s been a pleasure working with you tre! –Alyx P
I’m so fortunate to have met such an amazing colleague and great friend. Thank you for all the ways you show up in community. Your authenticity, grit and willingness to continue to fight for change in the face of adversity has been invaluable in this fight for social justice. You’re also thoughtful, patient and a great listener and I KNOW you’ll be a bomb therapist. To know you is to love you. Cheers to more love and more life. –Cousin Kristyn
tre has a really special presence that will be so deeply missed by RJC. It is hard to explain, but he communicates in a way that is firm while gentle, and clear but leaves room for emerging thought. He brings a strong sense of thoughtfulness and mindfulness into every space he enters. tre has been someone who has really encouraged me to step into my power and worthiness as a leader. He has been a huge advocate for us to take care of ourselves and it is something I will continue to carry with me and lift up. I feel really grateful I got the opportunity to work with him and hopefully will again in the future. –Erin B
tre – What a gentle leader and facilitator you have been for our RJC meetings! I always felt welcome and always learned a lot from you. Thanks for your service to our RJC member group and good luck with your graduate studies. –Phoebe K
In my sporadic role as last-minute proofreader for outgoing RJC communications, I hadn’t had much interaction with tré yet, but I got a big clue into his gentle, caring nature when he prefaced a request for proofreading by asking how I was doing and what I did over the weekend. I mentioned we were acclimating a new rescue dog in our family and trying to decide what to name him. He wrote back immediately and enthusiastically with a long list of fantastic dog names and followed up the next week to see what we had chosen. Sounds like a small thing, but in this era of texting instead of calling, zooming instead of meeting in person, it was so refreshing to chat with someone so genuine, thoughtful, and helpful. I will certainly miss pursuing all our critically important goals with such a kind, wise soul. Wishing you all the best, tre! I’m excited to see where you land after grad school! –Linda W
tre – thank you so much for sharing your talents with the RJC! It’s been an honor and pleasure to work with you on the RJC website “CTAs,” and I’ve been especially inspired by the way you facilitate our monthly coalition meetings with empathy and humor, keeping us focused on the big picture while making space to hear from everyone in the room. You’re an exceptional leader, a fierce advocate for justice, an incredible teammate, and I wish you the best of luck in your next endeavor! –Patrick C
tre makes me feel that if I decide to go and really retire, there is hope and faith that he as part of the next generation will build and create a better future for our community. Words that come to mind are inspirational, princely, humble, intelligent, kind, polite. –Kathey A
Hey tre – I am so excited for you as you jump off into this next piece of your journey. Of course, I will miss you tremendously. You have always been a touchstone for me as I navigated the meetings and the processes, and for that, my deepest appreciation and gratitude. Go in love and with boldness, and know we are with you. Much love. –Hilary C
tre, you are one of the most genuine and loving people I have ever met! What I most appreciated from you, right from the beginning of my participation in comms, was your gentleness and sincerity. I was new and nervous and insecure. You helped me to trust the group and the process and to let go of some of my fear and perfectionism. You are funny and patient and your deep commitment to racial justice, Joy, and collective liberation is a beautiful thing! With enduring gratitude and love. –Kari K
tre: I have always appreciated: how you move from a place of curiosity and discovery, of asking and holding questions while still holding your core truths and convictions true, your warmth and laughter, your spiritual presence and deep intelligence, your willingness to lead through vulnerability. I am so grateful for the support that you provided to the Transforming Public Safety committee and especially, to me. Our conversations and texts were always helpful, meaningful and affirming. I am so glad that you are on this path, knowing it will be transformative for you and for so many. I know we will connect again, as kindred do. Big, big love to you. –Janet H
In the short time I’ve been blessed to work alongside you, you have modeled so much wisdom. Your comfort with emergence, with both/and, and with silence have been helpful lessons for me. You are kind, and honest, and real. You make the ancestors proud. –Kit
Dear tre, Thank you for being a good steward of my efforts to volunteer with the Racial Justice Coalition. Thank you for being fun to work with. I wish you well as your career develops and as more and more great stuff comes your way. I enjoyed your leadership in the meetings and projects in which I participated. I felt welcomed and encouraged, and I felt that the working environment that you led was accepting, compassionate, and creative. Thank you for your role in creating that environment. I am writing on a very quiet morning, a Sunday, the seventh of August. Quiet in the house since our cats stopped asking for things. For awhile I heard no traffic noise, and I began to wonder if trees had fallen on the road and blocked traffic. The crows had stopped cawing, and the cardinals were silent. What about the hot-bugs? Well, a bit early for them, I supposed. So quiet. That kind of quiet is good for meditation, and it’s like a balm for our listening organ. It’s so important to be able to listen and yet to listen can be tiring, can arouse conflict, can open doors that shake our certainties. The profound quiet eases and comforts the listening organ. I am grateful for it. Because I know you are a meditator and a listener, tre, I offer you this balm. I offer you this quiet. Now the hot-bugs are beginning their chant. Just getting started—and the quiet is more profound than ever. May you have serenity in the great cause. Yours. –Bryan A
I had the good fortune to work briefly with tre at the YWCA and then with the RJC communications team. I can sincerely say that tre is one of the most inspiring humans I’ve known. His authenticity and spirituality are so real, I felt uplifted and inspired to be my best self whenever I hung out with, worked with, or talked to him. I trust tre completely and am so grateful for his presence, his light, and his gifts. He is going to be a great benefit to the field of healing services as he develops his career in therapy. Keep shining your light, tre! You are so loved!! –Bellamy C
thank you tre for your honest attention, for being delighted to share your personal inspirations regularly, for balancing needs with gratitude and for prioritizing your talents and vision as you weave through the spaces of activism. you are so refreshing! hope to see you around just as much as on zoom <3 –em/emily p
tre, to me, represents the beautiful, beating heart of RJC. He brings thoughtfulness, empathy, care, commitment, and kindness to every project and interaction. From him, I’ve learned to take care (of myself and others), take my time, and ‘be easy’ – because nothing and no one else in this world encourages those, except the very wisest of people like tre. 💕 –Rachel Z
tre models a world I want to live in… and brings a spirit of love, curiosity, possibility, gentle yet fierce presence with reality, and quiet yet strong courage to take necessary steps forward… again and again and again. tre lives with and as an offering of clarity, compassion, and consistency. –Ashley C
It is very easy to lift up praise and appreciation for tre aka genjo but more difficult to put it in words. It has been a pleasurable, albeit too short, journey with genjo at RJC. Will miss the calm you bring to every room and moment. True to your name, you actualized many of the attributes that we aspire to at RJC, it seems so natural. Glad to have shared this space and time with you and know that we expect you to continue great things. I will hold on to this peace of you, pun intended. Be Blessed!! –Derrick L
genjo, it has been an honor sharing space with you. I appreciate the way you both ground and uplift any room you’re in. You are so intentional about your relationships while offering laughter and joy. I cannot thank you enough for the lessons I have learned from and with you! I am sending you so much love and positive energy as you engage in some of the last pieces of your program. Grateful to have the opportunity to watch you show up in community. <3 –Lauren
tre – I have been fortunate to see your contributions to our world in several environments and the main thing that’s obvious is how intentional and valuable your thoughtfulness arrives in “the room.” You role model deep thinking and feeling in a way that supports others in accessing their own intuition and it’s a palpable experience whether in person or online. You embody friendliness in a way that supports people in hearing hard truths from you and, as I strive for that balance in my own humanity, I appreciate the example you set, and how graceful you make it all seem. Thanks for your presence, friendship and courage. I am grateful you are on our planet and I have all the faith that you’re moving into the next right thing. So much love and gratitude for you! –Robin F
I have loved getting to know and working alongside tre! I am so impressed by his ability to speak to everyone in the room even when the room is very large. There is something so welcoming and inclusive in his nature, and it enables folks to share deeply and feel deeply heard. –Cathy C
One thing I enjoy about tre is his unflappable ability to handle any question that is thrown at him, with an admirable calmness as well as his knowledge about how to respond. He makes everyone feel valued, and I love his warm, engaging personality. –Frank G
tre, I’m grateful to have had this time to work with you, collaborate with you, and learn from you. I will miss your calm, wise presence, but knowing that you are following your calling, and knowing that you will bring so much value to the world as a counselor, makes my heart warm. With love and appreciation. –david g
dear tre, and sweet Genjō – you have taught me so much about what it looks like, to be steady in spirit and honest in expression. To call you comrade is a delicate and profound honor. I love you. –sparrow
In my experiences with him, tre always shows up with authenticity, sincerity, and a commitment to caring for himself and others. He is a great listener who also demonstrates such skill in speaking truth with compassion and directness. tre easily shows gratitude and support for those that he is in community and collaboration with. I always feel seen and appreciated by tre. It has been a pleasure to be in the work with tre. –Letitia
I can’t say enough about how much I value everything tre embodies in the way of empathy, compassion, openness, inclusion, collaboration, and a fierce passion for collective liberation – springing from the example he sets in every interaction with his fellow human beings. He practices balance, grounding, humility, and relationship in everything he does, with intention. It is awe-inspiring. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work alongside him and learn from and with him, and even more lucky to get to call him “friend.” –Jody E
tre is one of the warmest, funniest, most compassionate individuals I have had the pleasure of working and being in community with and I am so excited to see what he accomplishes next!! -Amanda D
Thank you for your time at RJC, Tre! Your intentional approach makes space for hope in even the heaviest parts of the movement, and I look forward to sharing work with our community in the future. Sending blessings for your life and work ahead. With gratitude, Kim R