People of Color and Women of Color: here are two new opportunities to discuss your experiences in the Occupy Movement.
Amber Kelsie is in Oakland until July 31st to make an oral history of our voices in this social movement. If you are not able to contact her before she leaves, or if you live outside of Oakland and you’d like to contribute to the project, be sure to contact her in order to make Skype or phone interview arrangements: [email protected]
Heather Hurwitz will be in Oakland until August 5th. She is currently studying the Occupy Movement and would like to know the perspectives of those who have been involved in “occupy” or “decolonized” spaces (and anything else in between). She can be reached via email: [email protected]
If you would like to be part of a group dialogue along with other Decolonize Oakland brothers and sisters, please contact us: [email protected].
Full descriptions below:
My name is Amber Kelsie, I am a queer WOC active in Occupy Pittsburgh, and I attend grad school (doctoral student of Communication) at Pitt. I am working on a project about poc/gendered/queer/classed/differently-abled experiences of people involved in Occupy. My project is still in the beginning stages – I’m focusing on developing an oral history of people who are often not represented as part of Occupy. I’m also thinking through the limitations of representational politics. In short, I’ve been thinking through and looking for others to talk with about these kinds of concerns:
- How we have negotiated solidarity across difference, and how to deal with co-optation. What about horizontal racism/sexism/-isms?
- The credibility in speaking/taking up space and the authority to do so (or not)
- Risk, safety, contingency. What does it actually mean to develop a diversity of tactics? Who do (have) our tactics serve(d)?
- A politics of emergence versus critique. How do we build with each other?
- How does white-supremacy or capitalism or the state structure our relations, how do we alter the nature of those relations?
- How does affinity change how we conceive of “identity”? What are the limits of identity? What is its usefulness?
- What role does communication play in all this? Communication technologies? Simply talking to people? The terms we use (for example, “occupy”). Code-switching versus real talk?
If anyone would like to share their experiences, I am in Oakland/San Francisco till Tuesday July 31 looking to do audio/video recordings (or just conversations if people don’t want to be recorded). I can be reached via email: [email protected]
My name is Heather and I’m from Occupy Santa Barbara, California and I’m a student at Univ. of California Santa Barbara in Sociology and Feminist Studies. I’m doing a research study on gender, sexuality, inequalities and feminism in Occupy. I’m going to be in the Bay area from July 25 until Aug. 5th. I am very interested in the excellent work that your group does and I’m also interested in the whole concept of decolonizing and unoccupying.
I think that your work is very important to my study overall of Occupy. I really value the insights of your group, I’ve been keeping up with various Decolonize movements and activity online for awhile now.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I am available to dialogue over email or phone.
