The Ujamaa Hour: Mid-Year Recap on Developing Solidarity Economy Initiatives in Black Communities

Thus far in 2019, we have hosted conversations with Danielle Mkali of Nexus Community Partners, Me’lea Connelly of Village Financial Cooperative, LaTierra Piphus of Womanist Working Collective, Dara Cooper of National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Jamila Medley of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance, and Deon Lucas of E.G. Woode.

This follows on the heels of launching near the close of 2018 with Renee Hatcher of John Marshall Solidarity Economy and Community Enterprise Clinic (formerly Business Enterprise Law Clinic), Dr. Stacey Sutton of UIC Center for Urban Planning and Public Affairs, Dr. Kamau Rashid of Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and Kemetic Institute of Chicago, and Kristina Brown of Counter Balance: ATX and 400+1.

What is the reason for opening a conversational intersection with each of these critical thinkers, organizers, and strategists? Our original concept was simple. We wanted deeply to understand the core of cooperative economics as a strategy beyond a ritual practice of Black consumption during Kwanzaa from businesses which may not engage the principle of Ujamaa year-round.

What does social enterprise, social ownership, and social entrepreneurship look like when we are joint stakeholders in a democratically controlled institution? How might centering our focus of cooperative economics on building businesses which are fully accountable to a community at the outset transform how the wealth generated is shared within these communities?

This is the basis for the Ujamaa Hour and we shall not stop pressing the message home. Next month we sit down with Kirtina Baxter and other members of Soil Generation, a coalition of Black & Brown gardeners, farmers and community organizations working towards community control of land, food, and other natural resources. Join us on Monday, August 12th when Soil Generation shares their insights on land as a source of self-determination, healthy neighborhoods, and economic justice for the next Ujamaa Hour.

The Ujamaa Hour is a public facing complement to the Cooperation for Liberation Study & Working Group which is limited to the audience we are able to gather from communities in Chicago. We hope that this contribution to the conversation about cooperative initiatives in Black communities aids those cooperators in connecting with one another and strengthening our collective work.

New episodes of the Ujamaa Hour can be located on Facebook Watch.

MOVEMENT MONDAY: Tune in on Monday (2/11) at 7:30 pm CST as we relaunch a whole new season of episodes of the Ujamaa Hour featuring special guest Richard Wallace of Equity And Transformation. Equity And Transformation strives to uplift the faces, voices, and power of the vast disenfranchised and excluded Back workforce in Chicago by organizing with individuals that operate outside of the formal economy. They employ research, policy development, community organizing, advocacy, and media narrative in their work to ensure that the interests of this diverse workforce is represented.

Leading out from January’s segment, we will be polling our audience members of about their favorite autonomous zones and practices. If you did not catch it, be sure to check the announcements in BEBA for that segment and all of the others from the pilot season.

A 2011 study by the Urban Institute estimated that the informal economy in the US covered between 3% and 40% of the workforce. These calculations can include those paid off book, gig workers, the self employed, and independent contractors.

NPR All Things Considered noted in an October 2017 article that African-Americans who encountered racial discrimination or other barriers to entering the formal workforce had a high likelihood of turning towards the informal economy.

This informal economy was defined as “a vast array of activity that simply isn’t governed by traditional labor laws.”

On this episode, we will discuss the role of cooperative economic development, labor organizing strategy, and media visibility in making these informal economies a viable space for transforming the material conditions in Black communities. Tune in.

#CoopOfCoops #ResiliencyGuild2019 #mycelium #GiftEconomiesOfScale #TradingSpaces #SocialInfrastructure #CreatingMorePossibilities #EmergentStrategies #CollaborativeEconomy #SolidarityEcosystem #BRIJChicago #LoveBlack #GiveBlack #BuildBlack #TheUjamaaHour #Coop4Lib

MOVEMENT MONDAY: Tune in on Monday (3/11) at 7:30 pm CST for our next episode of the Ujamaa Hour featuring special guests Danielle Mkali of Nexus Community Partners and Me’Lea Connelly of Village Financial Cooperative.

Based in St. Paul, Nexus Community Partners works to create strong, equitable, and just communities by developing programs which address authorship, leadership, and ownership. In the area of ownership, Danielle Mkali is the Director of Community Wealth Building and stewards their North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship. This six-month fellowship focused on Black cooperative economic thought and practice is helping to cultivate new network of Black cooperative leadership and enterprises within the Twin Cities.

Village Financial Cooperative is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based in North Minneapolis which has a clear racial and economic justice agenda to be an institutional partner in the financial revitalization of Black communities. Me’Lea Connelly is the Director of Development and an alumni of North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship.
On this episode, we will discuss the importance of education and training in spurring cooperative economic development, how Nexus approaches their work in community wealth building, and why Black communities would benefit from a wealth narrative centered in the solidarity economy.

On the recap, we will walk through the our previous episodes and revisit the four critical areas (Cooperation, Capital, Economy, Autonomy) which have been covered throughout our previous Ujamaa Hour segments. Which area you focused on developing over the course of 2019? Join us in the live chat section to share your thoughts.

#CoopOfCoops #ResiliencyGuild2019 #mycelium #GiftEconomiesOfScale #TradingSpaces #SocialInfrastructure #CreatingMorePossibilities #EmergentStrategies #CollaborativeEconomy #SolidarityEcosystem #BRIJChicago #BRIJTwinCities #LoveBlack #GiveBlack #BuildBlack #TheUjamaaHour #Coop4Lib

MOVEMENT MONDAY REMIXED: *Due to technical issues with the original second Monday broadcast, this segment and guest are being revisited on the third Monday.*

Tune in on Monday (4/15) at 7:30 pm CST for our next episode of the Ujamaa Hour featuring special guest LaTierra Shauntel Piphus​ of The Womanist Working Collective.

Based in Philadelphia, Womanist Working Collective (WWC) is a social action and support network centered on addressing the needs of Black women (cis and trans), femmes, and gender non-conforming folks through self-care, cooperative social provisioning, philanthropy, and community organizing.

Employing Alice Walker’s notion of “womanism”, Womanist Working Collective seeks to dismantle interlocking system of racial, gender, and economic oppression while foregrounding resistance, cooperative economics, liberation, and self determination.

On this episode, we will discuss Womanist Working Collective’s use of cooperative economics as a strategy for in-group philanthropy, how LaTierra and her co-organizers arrived at their radical vision for the Collective, what led them to launch Reciprocity: A Time Banking Project of The Womanist Working Collective​ as an offering within their organizational toolkit, and how joy and healing intersect within Replenish: A Black Joy Healing Space.

On the recap, we revisit the four core elements (Cooperation, Capital, Economy, Autonomy) which have been highlighted throughout our Ujamaa Hour segments, discuss what a extended stay motel in Minnesota can tell us about affordable housing, speak about the latest developments in Coop 4 Lib, and answer your burning questions about the most effective ways to wage an economic resistance. Join us in the live chat section to share your thoughts.

#CoopOfCoops #ResiliencyGuild2019 #mycelium #GiftEconomiesOfScale #TradingSpaces #SocialInfrastructure #CreatingMorePossibilities #EmergentStrategies #CollaborativeEconomy #SolidarityEcosystem #BRIJChicago #BRIJPhiladelphia #LoveBlack #GiveBlack #BuildBlack #TheUjamaaHour #Coop4Lib

MOVEMENT MONDAY: Tune in on Monday (5/13) at 7:30 pm CST for our next episode of the Ujamaa Hour featuring special guest Dara Cooper of National Black Food & Justice Alliance​.

Having contributed to national and international initiatives which are transforming the terrain of Black food sovereignty and land justice, Dara is restless in her liberatory practice. Her toolkit includes narrative and storytelling; policy advocacy; strategic program development; and a whole lotta straight talk to funders who refuse to “free the land”.

On this episode, we will discuss how cooperatives factor into the Alliance’s vision of land justice and food sovereignty; what economic systems align with this vision; and how Dara arrived at the radical analyses which inform her work.

On the recap, we continue to tease out the four core elements: Cooperation, Capital, Economy, Autonomy; unpack the recent how the Kola Nut Collaborative has evolved into Kola Community Solutions; shout out Coop 4 Lib’s upcoming Worker Cooperative Curriculum; and share some reflections on a community viewing of “Boss: The Black Experience In Business”. Join us in the live chat section to share your thoughts.

#CoopOfCoops #ResiliencyGuild2019 #mycelium #GiftEconomiesOfScale #TradingSpaces #SocialInfrastructure #CreatingMorePossibilities #EmergentStrategies #CollaborativeEconomy #SolidarityEcosystem #BRIJChicago #BRIJAtlanta #LoveBlack #GiveBlack #BuildBlack #TheUjamaaHour #Coop4Lib

MOVEMENT MONDAY: Tune in on Monday (6/10) at 7:30 pm CST for our next episode of the Ujamaa Hour featuring special guest Jamila Medley of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance.

Jamila Medley is an advocate and educator working to cultivate the cooperative economy in Philadelphia and across the nation as Executive Director of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance and a consultant with CDS Consulting Co-op. Her introduction to cooperatives came as a staff collective member at Mariposa Food Co-op. Through her work at PACA, she has helped to develop programs such as their Cooperative Leadership Institute and 20 Book Clubs –> 20 Cooperative Businesses.

On this episode, we will discuss the importance of creating an infrastructure to foster successful cooperative endeavors; building relationships within the cooperative movement which model the 7 cooperative principles; and how Jamila sees the Shared Equity in Economic Development (SEED) Fellowship via Democracy At Work Institute advancing a vision of a more democratic economy.

On the recap, we revisit the Kola Nut Collaborative’s adventures in the Twin Cities and Madison, Wisconsin building our cooperative acumen; discuss what it means to be a graduate of Sunshine Community Business Academy’s latest cohort; and tell the people why they need to join Coop 4 Lib on June 30th for a Worker Cooperative Intro.

Join us in the live chat section to share your thoughts.

#CoopOfCoops #ResiliencyGuild2019 #mycelium #GiftEconomiesOfScale #TradingSpaces #SocialInfrastructure #CreatingMorePossibilities #EmergentStrategies #CollaborativeEconomy #SolidarityEcosystem #BRIJChicago #BRIJPhiladelphia #LoveBlack #GiveBlack #BuildBlack #TheUjamaaHour #Coop4Lib

MOVEMENT MONDAY: Tune in on Monday (7/8) at 7:30 pm CST for our next episode of the Ujamaa Hour featuring special guest Deon P. Lucas of E. G. Woode.

Deon Lucas is a member and President of the Development Team at E.G. Woode, a low-profit limited liability company (L3C) and social enterprise whose mission is to stabilize underdeveloped communities and stimulate economic growth by enabling local entrepreneurs and business owners to collectively redevelop and better utilize the commercial and retail corridors in their communities. Lucas comes to the work of developing E.G. Woode having worked at some of the several distinguished design and architectural firms including Hanns & Erving, Mofuji, Beehyyve, Smith & Smith Associates, Inc., and Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP. E.G. Woode’s development team consists of more than 50 years of combined experience in design, engineering, and construction of residential, retail and commercial development which seek to upend the established practice of commercial corridor development which eschews deep engagement with the local community.

On this episode, we will discuss the importance of community engagement in the commercial corridor development strategy of E.G. Woode; trace the historical arc of how Lucas’ background drew him to engage the cooperative model within the firm; examine new developments which may see the strategy spread from Englewood to South Shore; and consider ways that developments at E.G. Woode can strengthen the broader cooperative movement in Black communities.

On the recap, the Kola Nut Collaborative reflects on the Worker Cooperative Curriculum Intro at Coop 4 Lib and invites you to join the conversation; explores why a conversation with Daryl Newell of Seaway (Self-Help Federal Credit Union) might make you consider moving your money; and shares what strategies are on our mind ahead of an upcoming trip to Boston with the Nexus Community Partners & Democracy At Work Institute Cooperative Development Fellowship.

Join us in the live chat section to share your thoughts.

#CoopOfCoops #ResiliencyGuild2019 #mycelium #GiftEconomiesOfScale #TradingSpaces #SocialInfrastructure #CreatingMorePossibilities #EmergentStrategies #CollaborativeEconomy #SolidarityEcosystem #TheUjamaaHour #Coop4Lib