This video series features a conversation between four women activists in Detroit, Michigan. As organizers rooted in work in Detroit, they also see the connections between the local and the global. Though they represent different backgrounds, generations, and organizing experiences, each is committed to building collaborative movements and alternative systems.
Detroit’s situation has required activists to work with almost nothing. There is very little in the form of economic and financial resources. But there is incredible work going on throughout the city, and much of the activism is intergenerational. Detroit has a long, rich history of radical labor and civil rights activism, and many activists from the 1960s and ’70s are still involved, rejuvenated by youth activists and working with them as peers and equals, sharing wisdom but encouraging youth to lead.
Given that so many political strategies of the past failed to produce either the kind of change needed, or even healthy long-term organizations, activists in Detroit are exploring new ways of approaching activism, creating “a new kind of politics” based on do-it-yourself (DIY) community-based organizing. Grace, Jenny, Adrienne, and Shea are women who are putting these principles into action.
Grace Lee Boggs has been working on a wide range of issues for decades, including Black power, labor, inner-city violence, and education. She is the author of Living For Change, and Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century with her husband, the late James Boggs. She is founder of the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership in Detroit, and is active with Detroiters for Dignity and Democracy.
Adrienne Maree Brown is an organizational healer, facilitator, singer, artist and doula-in-training living in Detroit. She is the former director and current board member of the Ruckus Society, and a National Co-Coordinator for the 2010 US Social Forum. Adrienne also sits on the boards of Allied Media Projects, Third Wave Foundation, Common Fire, and the advisory board of East Michigan Environmental Action Council.
Shea Howell is professor and chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism at Oakland University in Rochester, MI, where she teaches communication theory and multicultural and political communication. Shea is a co-author of Making Sense of Political Ideology, and a regular columnist for the Michigan Citizen newspaper. She is co-founder of Detroit Summer, and active with the Boggs Center and Detroiters for Dignity and Democracy.
Jenny Lee is Program Director for Allied Media Projects, which supports the growth of media-based organizing, and a founder of the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition. She was an early member of Detroit Summer, and eventually one of its leaders. Jenny was awarded the JoAnn Watson Award by Kwanzaa 2009.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
