Let This Radicalize You
A companion document
I’m sure if you’re reading this you’re not able to come to IRL meetings of subverting the suburb. I’ve decided to share the companion documents I create and distribute before meetings. Companion documents include: further reading, resources, actions and questions. Nothing about this document is mandatory for meetings. They’re created to help us deepen our understanding and connection to the work.
For the month of March & April we’re reading Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba. We’re finding ourselves needing pause and let the message digest, prompting the need to cover it over two months rather than the usual one.
Sources:
Steep Yourself In Let This Radicalize You: A Tea Practice Zine (Read)
Let This Radicalize You: A Workbook (Read)
Self-Reflection:
(Steep Yourself In Let This Radicalize You: A Tea Practice Zine)
Visualize the roots that connect you to the earth, to your community, and to people around the world. What do these roots look like? What strengthens and nourishes these roots?
What does it mean to “belong” to a community? What does belonging feel like? What helps you feel like you belong? How can you invite others into movements and communities that you are a part of?
How have you extended care to others? What does it feel like to care for others? How can you deepen your practice of care - for others and for yourself - to make it a daily ritual?
Who are some of the people in your life who refuse to abandon you - even when you make mistakes? How can you extend gratitude to them?
Reflect on the many people that have contributed to the global movement for collective liberation. What inspires you about their stories? How do you feel in your body when you think about what is possible today?
Take a few breaths and visualize freedom as a place. What does it feel like to be free? What exists all around you? Who is there along with you?
Self-Reflection for Organizers:
(Let This Radicalize You: A Workbook)
Who am I accountable to?
What community consents to my leadership when I assume it?
How do those interactions function?
Am I sure the people I’m accountable to have a traversable path to intervention/interruption/dialogue, when they feel differently than I do?
Who helps me reel myself in when I assume harmful attitudes, or replicate structural oppressions, internally or externally?
Who do I turn to for counsel/support in holding myself accountable when I have caused harm?
Do I acknowledge that we all both experience and cause harm?
Do I believe that mass movements are grounded in relationships and if so, am I working to build those relationships, or simply attempting to enforce ideas?
Organizer Wisdom
(Let This Radicalize You: A Workbook)
Meg Groves:
I wish I had known: Don’t allow yourself to be pushed around by
people who are equally as in/experienced as you but just louder/more
confident; and don’t conflate tactics with strategy.
Debbie Southorn:
I think something about how it’s okay to start small. I think new folks
sometimes have so much internalized pressure to be big immediately
and are upset if 30 people don’t come to their first meeting. And
remembering that starting with a crew that’s small but aligned is how
we can grow our impact, instead of starting big and being a giant
mess lol.
Stacy Suh:
Not falling into the trap of false urgency. How do you move at your own speed and practice your values in the organizing work, rather than meeting obligations/demands that others put on you? (Alternatively, how do we leverage rapid response moments/ galvanizing moments to get more people involved in our work in the long run?