Indigenous activists and allies have been on the frontlines to #FreeLeonardPeltier – for over 47 years. Leonard Peltier is a writer, activist, fine artist, humanitarian, and political prisoner, wrongfully convicted of a crime that he did not commit. We speak with the co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Carol Gokee – who movingly uplifts the truth behind Leonard Peltier’s case and encourages folks to actively engage in the fight for his freedom.
Indigenous activists and allies have been on the frontlines to #FreeLeonardPeltier – for over 47 years. Leonard Peltier is a writer, activist, fine artist, humanitarian, and political prisoner, wrongfully convicted of a crime that he did not commit. We speak with the co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Carol Gokee – who movingly uplifts the truth behind Leonard Peltier’s case and encourages folks to actively engage in the fight for his freedom.
When We Fight, We Win!: The Podcast reveals the stories behind the fight. And the wins! We’re here for everyone who’s ready to get a switch flipped in their brain. For everyone who’s ready to go from being an organizer in theory, to a transformative one in practice. Because every organizer started somewhere. Greg Jobin-Leeds and Dey Hernández of AgitArte co-authored When We Fight, We Win! in 2016. Now they are co-hosting and releasing a podcast series that brings the ideas, art, and words of the book to life. In every episode, we welcome Jorge Díaz to introduce our “Word of the Day” segment.
Podcast artwork by José Hernández Díaz.
The word of the day is Prison Abolition. Prison abolition refers to the complete elimination of the Prison Industrial Complex (or PIC), which includes prisons, jails, policing, surveillance and sentencing. The PIC is built and expands based on the interlocking interests of the white supremacist imperialist U.S. government and capitalism as a whole.
Indigenous activists and allies have been on the frontlines to #FreeLeonardPeltier – for over 47 years. Leonard Peltier is a writer, activist, fine artist, humanitarian, and political prisoner, wrongfully convicted of a crime that he did not commit. We speak with the co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Carol Gokee – who movingly uplifts the truth behind Leonard Peltier’s case and encourages folks to actively engage in the fight for his freedom.
“Inside these prison walls, love is really the closest thing that you have to freedom.” – Comrade Pitt Panther, Prison Radio Correspondent.
This episode focuses on the work of Prison Radio and the #LoveNotPhear campaign to free journalist, author and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal. We hear from organizers and family members of incarcerated people, and incarcerated folks themselves, mobilizing movements for freedom.
In this episode of Sounds of Resistance, we feature Lizbeth Román, an independent queer artist from Puerto Rico whose bohemian, spiritual, and poetic energy distinguishes her music. In this lively and honest conversation, we will hear more about her art, transfeminist politics, colonialism in Puerto Rico, and the role of music in the fight for social change.
What does the future of housing organizing look like? There’s an ongoing global housing crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, disproportionately affecting the working class and communities of color. This episode features City Life | Vida Urbana (CLVU), a 49 year old organization fighting for housing justice and building peoples’ power in Boston, statewide, and nationally.
Despite the current climate change scenario, gas pipeline projects continue to move forward in the United States. Enbridge’s Line 3 “replacement” pipeline in Anishinaabe territory is the latest development that has triggered a new struggle against fossil fuel dependency. The Indigenous-led camp resistance in Northern Minnesota is committed to protecting and honoring the land and water.
What would you do if you inherited 27 million dollars at age 21? This episode is about Sam Jacobs and a network of donors who use lessons and inspiration from social movements to reclaim a new narrative around philanthropy.
Traditionally funders hold onto power, hoard money in private foundations and donor-advised funds and control giving based on the funders own views and priorities. Because of Occupy Wall Street and the Movement for Black Lives, a new narrative about wealth and philanthropy is emerging. Radical philanthropists are changing the face of philanthropy and redistributing their wealth.
In this episode, we return to New Orleans to speak with #LakeeshaHarris of Women with a Vision, Inc. about sex worker organizing and the decriminalization of consensual sex work. We look at the history of prostitution and sex work in the US, recent victories in shifting culture and policies around sex work, the struggle against sex trafficking narratives, and decriminalization as a labor and abolitionist struggle.
Living less than ten years away from the severe effects of climate change, we look at the sea-level rise and what it means for coastal communities of color. From San Juan to Miami, we explore what is known as ‘climate gentrification,’ some of the events driving climate refugees from the Caribbean to the US, disaster policing, and mutual aid through an intersectional lens. This episode features Vanessa Uriarte, a Caribbean environmentalist + member of Amigxs del Mar, and Valencia Gunder, organizer of Smile Trust + the Red, Black, and Green New Deal.
Following the dream of breaking the cycle of generational wealth, this Black working-class community of first-time homebuyers discovered that the City of New Orleans built the houses over a toxic landfill and never remediated the soil. The residents have contended all kinds of health issues and have the second-highest sustained rates of cancer in the entire state of Louisiana.
The Debt Collective is organizing to demand the cancellation of all student debt. In this episode we interviewed two Black university graduates: Armen Henderson, a physician with over $600,000 in debt, and Lauren Horner, organizer of the Debt Collective. Armen and Lauren are debt strikers; they are not paying their debt and are demanding free college for all.
Elizam Escobar was an artist, painter, poet, and member of the FALN (Armed Forces for National Liberation). He was arrested with 10 other Puerto Rican freedom fighters in a van in Chicago, Illinois on April 4th, 1980. They were all charged with seditious conspiracy. In this episode, we interview his lawyer, longtime friend and one of the leaders in the campaign to Free All Puerto Rican Political Prisoners, Jan Susler.
How do we make this world safe for Black people? The US is inciting a war on poor and working-class communities — through law enforcement — that is deeply racialized and deeply gendered. Policing and mass control maintain the hegemony, while patriarchy plays out in how we respond to harm through violence and punishment. Abolition through a Black feminist lens offers a radical approach to address violence and harm in our communities.
Season 2, Episode 4: Abolishing the Police – Part 1: Cops Off Campus focuses on the importance of abolishing the police inside campus, at the universities. We go to Los Angeles to interview student activist, Oceana Gilliam and UCLA professor Ananya Roy.
Do YOU want social movements to win?
In this two-part episode we explore the problematic and controversial role of philanthropy inside social movements. Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson of the legendary Highlander Center guides us and philanthropy institutions to consider what will be required.
When We Fight, We Win!: The Podcast is available across all major podcast platforms.
In this two-part episode we explore the problematic and controversial role of philanthropy inside social movements. In this first part we feature Vini Bhansali, Executive Director of the Solidaire Network, a community of donor organizers mobilizing critical resources to the frontlines of intersectional movements for racial, gender and climate justice. This episode offers a critical view into how non-profits are funded, and explores ways to transcend from philanthropy to the redistribution of wealth.
In our second episode, we interview Black feminist lawyer and activist, Zoán Tanís Dávila Roldán of La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción about the #EstadoDeEmergencia campaign.
December 3, 2020 we launch the first episode of our second season. We delve deep into the most recent elections in Puerto Rico, in which progressive candidates gained historical support, and in which a referendum about the islands annexation to the US was held. Oscar López Rivera, shows us how the electoral system in Puerto Rico is built on a colonial system designed by and for the dominant elite and Washington.
Today, 98% of farmland in the entire United States is white-owned. That is the lowest it has been in history. What does this mean for communities of color now? We talk to Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm, which heals ancestral wounds and works to end racism and injustice in the food system.
The continued closures of our public schools and high-stakes testing illustrate the institutionalized racism that is embedded in our educational system.
We reflect on the role of art and cultural strategy in movement building, and how imagining creative processes outside the dominant narratives supports intersectional and vibrant social justice movements, which allow us to be free!
How can we stand together to ensure the educational future of the next generation? Listen to the voices of AgitArte, the Federation of Teachers of Puerto Rico, Journey for Justice Alliance, and the Alliance for Quality Education.
Are Jews white? Why would the Jewish community choose to stand up for immigrant communities? Stosh Cotler of Bend the Arc shares with us the lessons that she’s learned as a leader in the modern Jewish resistance movement.
In this second episode of our podcast, Hosts Dey Hernández and Greg Jobin-Leeds interview Cristina Jiménez. Cristina is an Ecuadoran immigration activist who co-founded United We Dream in 2008.
In the first episode of our podcast, Greg and Dey talk to musician and activist Rev. Osagyefo Sekou about his upbringing in Arkansas, his passion for music, and the role that we can all play in the movement. Jorge does a deep dive into our Word of the Day, Solidarity.
dey is an Afro-Caribbean Latinx bicultural worker (AgitArte collective), curator, interdisciplinary artist, permaculturist, puppeteer (Papel Machete), movement artist (Danza Orgánica), designer and educator centering on collaborative projects + practices. As a border artist between Puerto Rico and Boston, through modeling, manifesting and building opportunities for liberation in the everyday, her work untangles how the complicated diasporic and colonial histories of this so-called nation persist and continue to operate throughout the world and within its own perimeters. dey holds a Master of Architecture (March) from the University of Puerto Rico.
Greg is co-author of the book When We Fight, We Win! and has launched and nurtured transformative, sustainable, social justice organizations that have won milestone victories for historically underserved children and communities. A son of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis, he has been engaged in struggles in Boston, New York City, Spain, Puerto Rico and Central America. Greg frequently shares his expertise as a trainer and inspirational speaker on webinars and at social justice organizations, foundations, universities, high-school, and religious groups. Greg is co-founder and first president of the award-winning Schott Foundation for Public Education. He has a Masters from the Teachers College at Columbia University.
Jorge co-founded AgitArte in 1997 and is an editor of the book When We Fight, We Win! He is a puppeteer, popular educator and bicultural organizer with over 20 years of experience. He is deeply committed to working class struggles against oppressive systems, namely colonialism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism. Jorge is also a founding member of Papel Machete, a collective of radical artists and street theater/puppetry workers dedicated to education, agitation and solidarity work in 21st century Puerto Rico and its Diaspora. He received his BA in Mass Communication from Emerson College in Boston, MA. Jorge strives to be a rigorous, organic intellectual and is currently based in his hometown of Santurce, PR.
Osvaldo graduated in 2008 from the ‘Maryland Institute College of Art’ with a Master of Fine Arts (painting). Over the past 10 years he has lived and worked in Berlin, Germany, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Brooklyn, NYC. He is now based in Australia. In 2012 he was an artist fellow of the ‘Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg for Advanced study’ (HWK), Delmenhorst Germany and in 2012 was the first artist of the residency project ‘Expedition Kunst und Wissenschaft’ with the German Polar institute where he lived and worked in the high Arctic at an international scientific base. He has collaborated with BMW, Germany and ‘Kirow’, Germany. His work has been shown in international exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Israel, Ireland, Italy, and Puerto Rico. Read more about his work at osvaldobudet.com.
Thalia focuses on Indigenous and Latinx human rights. Thalia previously served as the Membership and Learning Services Coordinator at Philanthropy New York, where she worked with 280+ foundations. She graduated with a BA in Human Services from Northeastern University in 2018. Thalia was awarded the La Comunidad Latina En Acción full-tuition scholarship and was a Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholar. She interned at the United Nations in the Human Rights Department and for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Thalia is an Indigenous history curriculum contributor for Teaching Tolerance.
Mariel is a podcast producer and documentary filmmaker. Her passion for telling intimate human stories has taken her into the heart of gang wars in California, the oil fields of North Dakota, and the opioid epidemic in Philadelphia. She directed and produced the award-winning films A Confused War, and Death and Taxidermy. Mariel is the senior producer for Distillations, a podcast that explores the hilarious, strange, and gravely serious intersections of science, culture, and history. The show was named one of the 20 best history podcasts by Oprah Magazine, and one of the best six podcasts for science lovers by Physics Today. Mariel lives in her beloved hometown of Philadelphia.
José is a graphic designer and illustrator. In addition to creating much of AgitArte’s visual artwork in the last decade, José created the branding and design with Dey Hernández for the When We Fight, We Win! book, and for the annual Titeretada Festival in Puerto Rico with Javier Maldonado. José is also a puppeteer and has appeared in several of Papel Machete’s performances. José’s illustration work is highlighted in AgitArte’s most recent social media campaign, #DefiendeLaEducaciónPública to support the struggle for public education as well as a campaign which marks the 2nd Anniversary of Hurricane María. He received his BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design. José currently lives in Santurce, PR.