Panel Discussion — Dreaming Transformative Justice
Movements for transformative justice and abolition have much to teach us about how to heal from harm and violence and rebuild communities grounded in liberation, justice, care and accountability. These movements have long-held visions of a world where each person and community have the basic rights of health, dignity, safety and belonging, without relying on oppressive state systems and punitive justice. They invite us to imagine what is possible when people can self-determine what justice feels like in their own communities, and practice how to build care, accountability, healing and repair on the individual, interpersonal and collective level. In our current moment, people of all ages are lifting up these movements as we all continue to reckon with some of the broken and violent systems of our society. The work to heal these wounds is not new. There is a rich and deep-rooted social ecosystem upon which new life is growing and iterating.
How can the emerging visions and lessons learned support intergenerational collaborations and young movement leaders in their work today? How can the dreams and lived practices of these movements orient all of us towards more agency and healing in our own lives and the work that we do? What insights can these movements offer us in meeting the current moment of reckoning and rebuilding as well as guide us through uncertain futures?
Hosted by Liz Kennedy, Communications Director and Research Fellow at Lead to Life. With: Cory Greene, Co-Founder and Healing Justice Coordinator for How Our Lives Link Altogether (H.O.L.L.A.); Jadyn Fauconier-Herry, a recent graduate of New York University, where she earned her BA in Social and Cultural Analysis; Olka Baldeh, Communications Manager for the Essie Justice Group.
Panelists
Jadyn Fauconier-Herry, a recent graduate of New York University, where she earned her BA in Social and Cultural Analysis with a concentration in theories of Race, Class, and Punishment, aims to honor in her writing and research the work of radical Black thinkers who have come before her and those participating in current struggles and organizing efforts.
Cory Greene, Ph.D., formerly incarcerated himself, is: an organizer with the Formerly Incarcerated Convicted People and Family Movement (a national movement to change the public policy landscape of criminal justice); co-founder and Healing Justice Organizer with How Our Lives link Altogether (H.O.L.L.A.); a national organizer with the Education Liberation Project; as well as a research associate on numerous participatory action research projects. A former National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Echoing Green and Camelback Fellow, Cory’s organizing work has been featured in several documentaries, including: Ava Duvernay’s 13th, From Prison to NYU, and most recently, We Came to Heal.
Olka Baldeh, a Fulani storyteller, poet and nomad, and an environmental justice advocate and anti-police brutality activist for nearly a decade, currently works as the Communications Manager for the Essie Justice Group, a California-based nonprofit that serves women with incarcerated loved ones, and is also the founder of the Black Moon Podcast.
Liz Kennedy, a Detroit-based storyteller and organizer, is Program Coordinator for the Allied Media Conference, where she works to create spaces for artists and organizers to strategize, celebrate, and cross-pollinate across movements and mediums. Liz also works with Lead to Life, a collective of queer artists dedicated to “bridging racial and environmental justice through ceremony and art practice…to decompose systems of oppression.”
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