Resolution: Legislating Harm and the Co-Optation of Community Language at the Ballot Box
October 14th
In this workshop, Sherae and friends will discuss the ways in which those who are in power appropriate the language of collective liberation and grass-roots people’s movements to maintain power and the status quo, allowing the most privileged to maintain excessive wealth, while working and lower-class families are increasingly falling through the cracks of our communities.
Learn how community language has historically been appropriated in our district and state to legislate harm, and join a discussion on how communities can actively engage to fight this trend in electoral politics.
Featuring:
Nikkita Oliver, Sherae Lascelles, and Friends TBA
About Nikkita
Nikkita Oliver (they/them) is a Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, educator, and attorney. Working at the intersections of arts, law, education, and community organizing Nikkita strives to create experiences which draw us closer to our humanity and invites us to imagine what we hope to see in the future. Nikkita has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy, featured on the Breakfast Club, KUOW’s The Week in Review, Cut Stories, and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. Nikkita’s writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger. Nikkita organizes with No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, King County Equity Now, and the Seattle Peoples Party. Nikkita is the co-executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration and a healing engaged youth-led community-based program. Nikkita was the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017 narrowly missing the general election by approximately 1,100 votes; coming in third of 21 candidates. Nikkita speaks and performs for events, at universities and conferences, and facilitates trainings on equity, law and justice, education, and arts activism all over the United States.
Sherae Lascelles is a coalition builder, community legislator, consultant, and founding member of Decriminalize Seattle — the group of orgs working with Seattle City Council to defund SPD and Reinvest in Black Communities. Sherae is also a founder of two direct outreach community orgs, and is running a campaign of community empowerment and legislation by those who have been systematically disenfranchised in electoral politics.
Format:
This workshop will begin with a discussion with Sherae and Friends, followed by an opportunity for question and answer.
Accessibility:
We aim to make this a more accessible space; please contact the organizers to share how we can make this workshop more welcoming and accessible to you!
To Register:
https://forms.gle/pGpDkxZpghrqmexm9
And donate to: sheraeforstate.com and thanks.