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Showing Our Work

Our Anti-Racism Action Plan

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