Showing Our Work
Our Anti-Racism Action Plan
Things we have done/are doing to dismantle white supremacy:
- Diversifying our Executive Board from 100% white in 2012 to over half POC currently
- Prioritizing access of South and West Side youth of color to rarefied art media in schools and in our studio
- Employing Black and Brown youth
- Forging supported pathways for youth with Chicago City Colleges and artists' residencies throughout the country
- Amplifying voices of youth of color on social media, at conferences, in art studio
- Avoid calling police. Resolving conflict using restorative justice principles and circles
- Radical feminist collaborative leadership structure
- Monthly staff-directed lunch conversation series around social/political issues
- Trauma training for full staff
- De-escalation training for full staff
- Giving walls to social justice murals
- Providing mental health supports to youth and staff who have experienced complex, generational, or vicarious trauma
- Engaging deeply with the land we are on--studying our city's racist history and developing land acknowledgements that honor indigenous peoples past, present, and future.
Things we are committed to doing to dismantle white supremacy:
- Representation Growing POC and particularly Black representation on Executive Board and staff to match Chicago demographics.
- Opportunity Moving POC into leadership positions on our board, in our Administration, and as Teaching Artists.
- Employment Maintaining and increasing youth pay year over year. In 2019 we paid over $56,000 to South and West Side youth.
- Mutual Aid Growing and deepening our relationship with our East Garfield Park neighborhood through West Side Mutual Aid work. Providing food and other necessities to participants when possible and needed.
- Educate Working through the resources below together as a whole staff. This will be the start of a living library of resources, including books, movies, podcasts, music, and articles.
Read:
Website: 8 to Abolition
Web Resource: A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
Short Read: The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture by Jones and Okun
One Pager: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
Listen:
Podcast: Thinking about How to Abolish Prisons with Mariame Kaba
Podcast: On Being: "Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence" with Resmaa Menakem
Podcast: The Intercept: Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes the Case for Abolition
Watch:
Panel on YouTube: Repurposing Our Pedagogies Education for Liberation Network
Film: When They See Us on Netflix
Film: 13th on Netflix
Courses/Extended Practice:
Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History by James D. Anderson
21-Day Racial Equity [Habit] Building Challenge by Dr. Eddie Moore
Me and White Supremacy Workbook by Layla Saad