questions for you!
seriously, I wanna hear from you.
Sorry for my silence here, but I’ve been job searching! Turns out, it’s a bit harder to find a job than I anticipated — even more so if you expect a living wage and some health insurance. To make up for my extended break, here’s a Mary Oliver poem:
Right now I’m making ends meet through a few odd jobs (working at a natty wine shop, random consulting projects). But, as any job seeker knows, job hunting itself is a full-time gig. I’ve made less time for reading, writing, exploring. Regardless, I’ve got a few things that have been kicking around in my brain that I wanted to share with y’all.
1. We recently went to a meeting with the DSA. I was encouraged by their organization — it felt pretty incredible to enter a local DSA office, something that feels forever away from where we came from. The energy was high, they seem to have a vibrant and mobilized membership. However, we stepped away from the meeting deciding not to be involved for the time being because their immediate projects were primarily focused on electoral work. I’ve been mulling over electoral work for a while — work I’ve always found to be a critical strategy… until this year. Anyone else feeling this despondency? I’ve got a post in my drafts here that I’ll likely publish next week. Until then, I’d like to hear from you: Are you voting? If so, why?
2. Two weeks ago we attended the Atlanta Radical Book Fair. This was such a treat. Some of my favorites like Firestorm and AK Press were there, but I was floored by all the wonderful radical media present — from dozens of different zines faithfully passed along for decades, to histories of the Atlanta City Prison Farm. We attended two talks — both blew my mind — “Analyzing Riots, Looting, and the Movement for Black Lives” and “Land Back and Abolition: the Stop Cop City Movement.” These were recorded, and if they ever get posted, you know I’m gonna link them to you! The talk re: BLM discussed a study called “Big Brick Energy: A Multi-City Study of the 2020 George Floyd Uprising,” which someone lovingly referred to as a “think-tank study for people who like thinking about burning cop cars.” Since 2020, I’ve thought a lot about the lessons we can learn from the summer uprisings, and how I can better prepare myself and my community for the next uprising. In particular, I’m still unpacking the ways my own work with nonprofits and electoral politics compromised radical efforts. One section of this study claims, “nonprofits often had to undermine the militancy which might otherwise have helped force meaningful concessions. They usually did so by framing themselves as community representatives and casting militants as outsiders endangering locals.” So here’s my question to you — and I know it’s a touchy one since many of you wonderful humans work for nonprofits! — but: have you seen a nonprofit undermine/tame the more “radical” demands of your community? if so, what was the outcome?
3. A few facts I’ve learned about my new homebase: 1) ATL is the FinTech capital of the world: more than 70% of GLOBAL financial transactions pass through the metro Atlanta area. 2) Atlanta is the No. 1 city for income inequality in America; the median household income for Black families is one-third of whites. 3) If you're born poor in Atlanta, you have a four percent chance of escaping poverty. This level of inequity is devastating, but it is also fertile ground for revolutionary work. One organizing project here that has expanded my own thinking has been the efforts Stop Cop City and Defend Weelaunee. Law enforcement in ATL wants to uproot 381 acres of the Weelaunee Forest to build a makeshift city to train for urban warfare. Organizers on the ground here are pushing back against this abomination using a variety of tactics: speaking out at city council meetings, building meaning relationships with the original stewards of this land — the Muskogee people, placing pressure on contractors to pull out of their project, leading folks on tours through the forest to build intimacy and care for the land, and even taking to the trees to physically prevent their destruction. Learning about this project has reminded me how central creativity and relationships (with the land, with each other, with our selves) are to movement building. So, my question to you: what creative acts of resistance are currently captivating your imagination? Let’s hear them!
Love y’all, mean it.
Ever forward,
Farris