Podcasts about highlander center

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson joins Tavis in studio to talk about the Highlander Center, where she was a longtime co-executive director, and the latest updates with the arson investigation.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

What role did education play in the US civil rights movement? What did it look like for anti-racist organizers to build radical schooling and organizing spaces that could evade the harsh surveillance lights of white supremacy and Jim Crow? What lessons can we learn from them today?Our March 2025 episode features journalist Elaine Weiss, who speaks about her new book, Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement, published by Simon and Schuster this month.Spell Freedom traces the educational program that was the underpinning of the civil rights movement and voter registration drives. The Citizenship Schools originated from workshops in the summer of 1954 at the Highlander Center, a labor and social justice training center, located on a mountain in Monteagle, TN, just after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The heart of the book is Elaine's vivid retelling the stories of the four main leaders of the citizenship school movement, Septima Clark, Bernice Robinson, Esau Jenkins, and one of the founders of the Highlander Center, Myles Horton. She traces the path from this mountain center to Charleston and the sea islands of South Carolina, all framed by the segregated and racist South and the leaders who rose up to organize and resist Jim Crow and create a new South. As is often said in southern movement building (from the World Social Forum in 2006), “another South is possible; another South is necessary,” and Spell Freedom connects the histories and voices of the movements that continue to be necessary today.Episode Credits:Co-hosts and co-producers: Lucia Hulsether and Tina PippinEditing and Production Manager: Aliyah HarrisIntro Music: Lance Haugen and the Flying PenguinsOutro Music: "Plato's Republic" by Akrasis

Steve Phillips, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Maurice Mitchell, moderated by Lateefah Simon In 2024, the threat of authoritarianism is greater than ever before. Yet our nation also has the potential to become a genuine multiracial democracy. How can we help tip the scale? Steve Phillips is a national political leader, bestselling author, and columnist. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller Brown Is the New White. His latest book, How We Win the Civil War, charts the way forward for those who wish to build a multiracial democracy and rid our nation of white supremacy once and for all. . He will be in conversation with two veteran political organizers, Ash-Lee Henderson, Co-Executive Director of The Highlander Center, which serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South, with a background in fighting for workers, reproductive justice, LGBTQUIA+ folks, environmental justice, and more, and Maurice Mitchell, a visionary leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and National Director of the Working Families Party. Moderated by Lateefah Simon, this urgent conversation is the reframe that many of us have been hungering for, to move us from anxiety to action. These big-picture thinkers can help us leverage our ostensibly limited voting options into a visionary electoral strategy that can change the game.

Co-Executive Director of The Highlander Center, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson joins Tavis to talk trending political topics and more.

In this episode we're exploring why the right is so scared of gender through an intergenerational conversation between elder and younger organizers across the South: Miss Major, Suzanne Pharr, Nathalie Nia Faulk, and Lorie Bryant.  We have seen a rampant increase in organized attacks on trans people across the U.S. over the past two years. At the time of this recording, in March 2024,  over 500 anti-trans bills had already been introduced in legislatures across the country.  We know that these attacks against our people, and narratives about our communities, are not new. They are cyclical. The right is using many of the same old stories and strategies to target us. This episode digs into historical and contemporary strategies of the Right, as well as our ongoing joyful strategies of resistance.  This episode is hosted by Frances Reid, (she/her) based in Oakland CA. Frances is member of the National Council of Elders and a veteran of 40 years of activist documentary film making.  Joining Frances in this conversation are: Miss Major, (she/her) is a Black, transgender activist based in Little Rock, AR who has fought for over 50 years for her trans/gender nonconforming community. Major is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a survivor of Dannemora Prison and Bellevue Hospital's "queen tank." She continues her work to uplift transgender women of color, particularly those who have survived incarceration and police brutality. Suzanne Pharr, (she/her), is a southern queer feminist and anti-racist organizer, also based in Little Rock, AR. She founded the  Women's Project in Arkansas in 1981, was a co-founder of Southerners on New Ground in 1993, and was director of the Highlander Center from 1999 to 2004. Pharr is an organizer and political strategist who has spent her adult life working to build a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-issued movement for social and economic justice in the U.S. Nathalie Nia Faulk, (she/they) born in Lafayette, LA and currently living in New Orleans is a self described Ebony Southern Belle! Her work blends Performance, History, Healing Justice, Cultural Organizing, and leadership development in service of all people, but particularly for Trans and Queer communities. Currently, they serve as a human rights commissioner for the City of New Orleans, co-director of Southern Organizer Academy, co-director of of Last Call Oral History Project, and as the Cultural Organizing Programs Manager for Alternate ROOTS.  Lorie Bryant, (she/her) hails from Charleston, SC and is now based in Memphis, TN. Lorie is a creative arts enthusiast, natural storyteller, conversationalist, avid outdoor explorer, and indoor gardener. Lorie has worked extensively with Southerners on New Ground on campaigns and strategic projects geared towards dismantling oppressive structures and rallying for Queer liberation across lines of race, class, culture, abilities, age, gender, and sexuality.  Lorie is especially committed to pouring back into Black communities—to ensure that they have adequate resources that will allow them to create and thrive within the communities of their dreams.      

Welcome to our 6th iteration of the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause podcast: the Season of Orisii. Building on our international diasporic tour from last year, this season's theme is Orisii, or 'pairs' in the Afric language of Yoruba. We've invited different types of pairs to explore the through-line between menarche and menopause. You will hear parent/child, partner/lovers and siblings to offer their reflections and observations about this journey as individual and as orisii. We as people capable of menstruation understand that each experience is unique and impacts both our selves and connections we have to our loved ones. On this first episode, we have gina Breedlove and Ash-lee Woodard Henderson: partnered orisii gina Breedlove is a grief doula, sound healer, vocalist, mother, grandmother, author, and oracle of grace. (website | IG) Ash-lee Woodard Henderson is an organizer, strategist, soon-to-be author and the first Black woman co-Executive Director at the Highlander Center for Research and Education. (Ash-Lee's IG | Highland's IG) Produced by BGG2SM Creative Director, Mariah M. Hosted by BGG2SM Founder & Chief Curatorial Officer, Omisade Burney-Scott Edited by Kim Blocker of TDS Radio Theme music by Taj Cullen Scott Season 6 Artwork by Assata Goff, artist & in-house Iconographer of BGG2SM Season 6 of the podcast is sponsored by The Honey Pot Company Learn more about Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause at www.blackgirlsguidetosurvivingmenopause.com

Two staff members of the Highlander Center join us to talk about their work to derail fascism in the South. Emma Cager Robinson and Denzel Caldwell discuss the challenges in the South and the workshops, training classes, video screenings, and camps offered by the Highlander Center to combat the movement toward fascism in the South. This is critical as they believe that as the south goes so will the nation so we need to get this redirected now. They also highlight Tennessee as a quiet, covert domestic leader in this movement to the right.

This week's episode features a panel recorded live at the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Southern Exposure magazine, held in March at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's Wilson Library. The panel, which reflects on the founding of the Institute for Southern Studies and the creation of Southern Exposure, features Sue Thrasher, a co-founder of the Institute who later worked at the Highlander Center; Leah Wise, one of the Institute's early staff members and later the director of Southerners for Economic Justice; and Bob Hall, the founding editor of Southern Exposure, who spent many years at the Institute and was the longtime executive director of Democracy North Carolina. It is moderated by Chip Hughes, an early Institute staffer himself and occupational health and safety organizer before a career in public health. Produced in partnership with the Institute for Southern Studies. Show Notes: Episode transcription: https://www.facingsouth.org/2023/11/why-we-did-what-we-did-reflections-sue-thrasher-leah-wise-and-bob-hall Visit the Southern Exposure digital archive: https://www.facingsouth.org/southern-exposure A note from the archives editor: https://www.facingsouth.org/2023/03/archive-time-crisis More about the 50th anniversary event: https://www.facingsouth.org/2023/03/gathering-marks-half-century-southern-exposures-founding

Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye. BIOCarlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations. He currently serves on the board of First Peoples Fund, Imagining America, Project South and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education and is the former Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and is a founding partner of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.Carlton is a current Interdisciplinary Research Fellow with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and was named to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA100. He is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and former Cultural Policy Fellow at the Creative Placemaking Institute at Arizona State University's Herberger Institute for Design in the Arts.Carlton Turner is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. His current work is River Sols, a new play being developed in collaboration with Pangea World Theater that explores race, identity, class, faith, and difference across African American and South Asian communities through embodiment of a river.He is also a member of the Rural Wealth Lab at RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and an advisor to the Kresge Foundation's FreshLo Initiative. In 2018, Carlton was awarded the Sidney Yates Award for Advocacy in the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Carlton has also received the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater (2011) and the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre (2015).Notable MentionsSIPP Culture: The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of our own community of Utica, MS. Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by us and for us. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown.Octavia Butler: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the...

Or alt title: Stealing Negros Spiritual Experiences. And I don't know how many times we have to say this. Even the existence of such a thing as "American" music is dubious. Black people created all genres of music in the US and despite the global influence and unabashed imitation of our Black American cultural art forms, we've profited the least from their reach and much propaganda persists: Black music is NOT the "soundtrack to America" nor did it arise from a blend of styles from a "multi-ethnic" population and when you say every genre has "Black roots", that's just an unnecessarily genteel way of saying that we created all genres of music in this country. Join us and the inimitable @patiencesings as we talk negro spirituals, the afropessimisms of prayer warriors and the merits of Black music made for and by Black people. Patience Sings is a vocal prominent creative certified Reiki practitioner and writer native to Washington, D.C; Ever learning Afro-futurist, an advocate for fat Black folx, a champion for Black and Brown Youth and a proponent for Black mental health and healing through grief. Patience is most recently recognized as the "Scat" of the Peace & Bodyroll Duo BOOMscat, and CEO of Mojuba, a rental space and artist collective in Silver Spring MD. Patience is currently most proud of her collaborative work as an inaugural Cultural Work fellow at the Highlander Center for Education and Research, and for BOOMscat's contribution to The Black Sound Lab at Dartmouth College and their Black Covid Care project. Support their work: Venmo: @patiencesings Cashapp: $patiencestaysinging Paypal: PayPal.me/Patiencesings https://www.peerspace.com/pages/listings/6323998c616b05000fda8301?utm_medium=ios&_branch_match_id=647184576935628039&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXL0hNLSouSExO1UssKNDLyczL1ncvSHGNNAn2Ta5IAgA4Gn4%2FJgAAAA%3D%3D Intro Music: "Black People Tell Black History" by Patience! Outro Music: "Apathy Happy" by Benjamin Earl Turner References: Helen Baylor Kurt Carr Richard Smallwood Maurette Brown Clark I'll Fly Away by Hezekiah Walker Goin Up Yonder by Walter Hawkins

From Ukraine to Uvalde we see the crises of which Rev. Dr. King warned, militarism, materialism, racism and the prospect of spiritual death. This special episode addresses how we may better work for peace. Presenters will be Medea Benjamin (CODEPINK), Ash-Lee Henderson (Highlander Center), Tiffany Loftin (The Debt Collective), Rev. Liz Theoharis (Poor People's Campaign), and Luis Rodriguez (Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural and Bookstore). Initiating sponsors: CODEPINK, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Highlander Center, The National Council of Elders and the King and Breaking Silence Coalition, in cooperation with other partner organizations.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of our longtime ally and current partner, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the storied school that's helped nurture the Black freedom struggle and other social movements across the south. For this month's episode of the Activist Files, co-executive directors Ash-Lee Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele chat with Emily Early and Jess Vossburgh from our Southern Regional Office about Highlander's singular role as a training ground and meeting spot – the place where Rosa Parks took a workshop, Martin Luther King spoke, and John Lewis had his first integrated meal. Ash-Lee and Allyn discuss the centrality of the Black Freedom movement to other liberation movements, stress the importance of joy, storytelling, and cross-racial solidarity in movement-building, and celebrate the resilience and love that have enabled them to withstand repeated attacks from white supremacists. But Highlander's 90th year, they say, is an occasion for looking ahead, for envisioning and planning to build a new world, one grounded in sharing and interdependence. The dire state of the country – “for some of us, fascism is already here” – makes this task all the more urgent, they say. Resources:Red-baiting poster of Martin Luther King at HighlanderHighlander and Citizenship SchoolsSNCC Legacy ProjectHighlander petition opposing nomination to National Registry of Historic PlacesQ & A with Norma Wong

Through the Portal is a podcast from the Social Justice Portal Project, a national collaborative think tank hosted by the Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago. Each month, grassroots activists and radical scholars will give voice to community struggles, national strategies and sustainable alternatives for the future. The guest speakers, who are also Portal Project participants, explore what it means to walk through the portal of the current moment by centering racial and social justice issues. On the final episode of the series, Dame and Teresa are joined by the brilliant Leah Penniman. A leading voice in the fight for food and land sovereignty for Black farmers and community, Leah is the Co-Director and Farm Manager of Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm in upstate New York. She talks about the deeply rooted connections between our food systems and incarceration, how Afro-Indigenous planting practices protect and rejuvenate the land, and how the organization has grown from dropping off carrots to hungry neighbors to leading the fight to reimagine our food systems (while still dropping off carrots to neighbors). SHOW NOTES Tiffany LaShae - https://www.soulfirefarm.org/food-sovereignty-education/3d/tiffany-lashae/ Soul Fire farm - https://www.soulfirefarm.org Farming While Black - https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/farming-while-black/ Baba Curtis Muhammad - https://snccdigital.org/people/curtis-hayes/ Freedom Food Alliance - https://freedomfoodalliance.wordpress.com/ Rev Garrison Frazier - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrison_Frazier Greenwood food blockade - https://www.southernfoodways.org/the-greenwood-food-blockade/ Dr Gail Myers - https://www.drgailmyers.com/ Rhythms of the Land - https://www.rhythmsoftheland.com/ Booker T Whatley - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/you-can-thank-black-horticulturist-booker-t-whatley-your-csa-180977771/ Kombit (Haitian Work Parties) - http://www.haitiobserver.com/blog/the-agricultural-system-of-kombit-in-haiti.html Phytoremediation - https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-04/documents/a_citizens_guide_to_phytoremediation.pdf Hazel Johnson - https://www.peopleforcommunityrecovery.org/ Karen Washington - https://www.karenthefarmer.com/about All We Can Save - https://www.allwecansave.earth/ Working the Roots - https://bookshop.org/books/working-the-roots-over-400-years-of-traditional-african-american-healing/9780692857878 Freedom Farmers - https://uncpress.org/book/9781469643700/freedom-farmers/ Black Nature - https://ugapress.org/book/9780820334318/black-nature/ Highlander Center - https://highlandercenter.org/ Reparations map - https://www.soulfirefarm.org/get-involved/reparations/ Learn more about the Portal Project - sjiportalproject.com/ Subscribe to AirGo - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

Carlton Turner understands that when you can't feed yourself the imagination is the first thing to go And if you can't "see" a different future you can't make change. Sipp Culture is about feeding both the body and the mind's eye. BIOCarlton Turner is an artist, agriculturalist, researcher, and co-founder of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture). Sipp Culture uses food and story to support rural community development in his hometown of Utica, Mississippi where his family has been for eight generations. He currently serves on the board of First Peoples Fund, Imagining America, Project South and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Carlton is a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund Advisory Committee at the Highlander Center for Research and Education and is the former Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and is a founding partner of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Carlton is a current Interdisciplinary Research Fellow with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and was named to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA100. He is also a former Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and former Cultural Policy Fellow at the Creative Placemaking Institute at Arizona State University's Herberger Institute for Design in the Arts. Carlton Turner is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a Mississippi-based performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. His current work is River Sols, a new play being developed in collaboration with Pangea World Theater that explores race, identity, class, faith, and difference across African American and South Asian communities through embodiment of a river. He is also a member of the Rural Wealth Lab at RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute) and an advisor to the Kresge Foundation's FreshLo Initiative. In 2018, Carlton was awarded the Sidney Yates Award for Advocacy in the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Carlton has also received the M. Edgar Rosenblum award for outstanding contribution to Ensemble Theater (2011) and the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre (2015). Notable Mentionshttps://sippculture.org/ (SIPP Culture): The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production is an approach and resource for cultivating thriving communities. Based in the rural South, “Sipp Culture” is honoring the history and building the future of our own community of Utica, MS.  Sipp Culture supports community development from the ground up through cultural production focused on self-determination and agency designed by us and for us. We believe that history, culture, and food affirm our individual and collective humanity. So, we are strengthening our local food system, advancing health equity, and supporting rural artistic voices – while activating the power of story – all to promote the legacy and vision of our hometown. https://www.octaviabutler.com/theauthor (Octavia Butler): OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future. https://www.newworldstation.com/artistlisting/maurice-s-turner-ii (Maurice Turner): Maurice S. Turner, II is co-founder of Turner World Around Productions, Inc.

 Suzanne Pharr is a queer feminist and anti-racist organizer who founded the Women's Project in Arkansas, co-founded Southerners on New Ground and was a director of the Highlander Center. Rae Garringer, host of the podcast Country Queers, asks Suzanne about the history of mutual aid in the South and the tension between rural organizers and the Left. Pharr shares stories of political organizing experience offering practical tips for young organizers.

Listen/download the full uncut conversation featuring Imani Perry, Author and Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Jazz Studies. Her most recent book is "South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation" published by Ecco Press, a division of Harper Collins.Watch / Listen, Download and Subscribe to the PodcastDescription:  As goes the South, so goes the nation. It may be a cliché but according to this week's guest it's true. In South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, author and scholar Imani Perry makes the compelling argument that Americans need to stop dismissing the South if they're ever going to build an equitable future for the entire United States. She takes us on a trip through the region, delving into the complex realities that exist beneath the stereotypes. Intertwining conversations and stories from her journey in the present with powerful—but underrepresented—moments from history, Perry illustrates how the real, rebellious, intensely creative people of the South have led movements for civil rights in every generation. In this episode, Laura and Imani Perry look to the South for answers that will enlighten every American.Guest:Imani Perry, Author and Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Jazz Studies. Her latest book is ‘South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” Ecco Press, a division of Harper Collins.*Books by featured guest:• South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Check out the book• Looking for Lorraine: the Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry Check out the book• More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States Check out the book(*Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. The LF Show is an affiliate of bookshop.org and will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.)Full research and reading list to further delve into the conversation are available here on Patreon in our posts.

What does it look like for pedagogy to begin with the stories, hopes, and critiques that are already present in the classroom? How has this approach to education been practiced in movements for social transformation? What are its demands on teachers and learners? In our January 2022 episode, teacher and author Stephen Preskill joins us to talk these questions and much more. Topics include balancing discrete political paradigms with democratic methods, the difference between integrative democratic practices and one-off pedagogical "tricks," and Preskill's new book Teaching in Black and White: Myles Horton and the Highlander Center's Vision for Social Justice. Support this podcast

Sam Gleaves is a white gay man who was born and raised in Virginia and now lives in Kentucky. Sam is an old-time musician, educator, singer/songwriter, and a banjo, guitar, and fiddle player. This episode features Rae's 2013 interview with Sam where he talks about musical traditions, family, and finding a sense of belonging within the word "Fabulachian." Then you'll hear a phone call between Sam and Rae from January 2022 reflecting on what it's like to listen back to this interview after nearly a decade. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * There's a lot of wind in this episode so take care of your ears while listening! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For this episode we're asking folks who are able to support Black Appalachian Young and Rising - which is the Black Youth caucus of the STAY Project. BAYR is for Black Appalachian Youth and by Black Appalachian Youth. Check out their work and donate here: https://www.thestayproject.net/black-appalachian-young-and-rising Also BIG love to the STAY Project and the Highlander Center in this episode!  Please go check out all of their important and powerful work in Appalachia and the South! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To learn more about this collaboratively produced 2nd season check out our websites at www.countryqueers.com and www.weareoutintheopen.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Created and produced by Rae Garringer with support from HB Lozito from Out in the Open.  Editorial advisory dream team: Hermelinda Cortés, Lewis Raven Wallace, and Sharon P. Holland Music by Sam Gleaves!  Check out more of his music here: http://www.samgleaves.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * If you'd like to support this rural queer and trans led project head on over to our Patreon page.

On this special episode of Smoky Mountain Air, guest hosts Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson kick off an exciting new mini-series called Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music. Guests Loyal Jones, Sparky Rucker, and James Leva contribute to this lively conversation about the roots of Appalachian music and their own roles in preserving these musical influences.Loyal Jones served as director of the Appalachian Center now named in his honor at Berea College. He established the annual festival of traditional music at Berea and the Appalachian Sound Archive. Jones is the author of numerous books of regional interest.Sparky Rucker grew up in Knoxville, TN, and has become an internationally recognized folk singer, musician, and storyteller. He has been an educator, performer, and social activist and has been involved in the Civil Rights movement since the 1950s.James Leva is a multi-instrumentalist playing the fiddle, guitar, and banjo, and he’s a singer and songwriter. His work with The Lost Tribe of Country Music transcends racial and generational boundaries as well as musical genres.Dr. William Turner is a long-time African American studies scholar who first rose to prominence as co-editor of the groundbreaking Blacks in Appalachia (1985). He was also a research assistant to Roots author Alex Haley. Turner retired as distinguished professor of Appalachian Studies and regional ambassador at Berea College. His memoir called The Harlan Renaissance is forthcoming from West Virginia University Press in 2021.Dr. Ted Olson is a professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University and the author of many books, articles, reviews, encyclopedia entries, and oral histories. Olson has produced and compiled a number of documentary albums of traditional Appalachian music including GSMA’s On Top of Old Smoky and Big Bend Killing. He’s received a number of awards in his work as a music historian, including seven Grammy nominations.Music selections in this episode:“John Henry” performed by Amythyst Kiah and Roy Andrade from GSMA's Big Bend Killing (https://www.smokiesinformation.org/big-bend-killing-the-appalachian-ballad-tradition-2-disk-cd)“Careless Love” performed on guitar by Etta Baker, used courtesy of Berea Sound Archive (https://soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/2455)“Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss” performed by Ali Farka Touré with Lee Sexton and others from an informal gathering at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, used courtesy of Bryan Wright of Rivermont Records“We Shall (We Will) Overcome” from the Highlander Collection of the Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC Chapel Hill; used courtesy of the  Septima Clark Learning Center at Highlander Center (https://youtu.be/5YkTUeFViUY)“Come Sit By My Side Little Darlin’” performed by Bill Livers, Berea Sound Archive (https://soundarchives.berea.edu/items/show/6937)“Jola Gambia” performed by Daniel Jatta and the Lost Tribe of Country Music, used courtesy of James Leva (https://soundcloud.com/raisin-music/akonting)“My Home’s Across the Smoky Mountains,” performed by Sparky Rucker at the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, 1981, used courtesy of Digital Library of Appalachia’s Berea College collection (https://dla.acaweb.org/digital/collection/berea/id/2625/rec/11)

Happy Sunday! Excited to share this long, sometimes heavy, mostly rambunctious conversation recorded last week (April 4). Gelek speaks with cyclist, entrepreneur and activist Arya Namdol about her early life in India and America (07:00); anti Asian racism (22:25); being an anarchist (36:06); what cycling means to her (47:00); creating BIPOC spaces and voices in cycling (56:16); plus tips on biking, memorable rides, etc. (89:25).BioArya Namdol is a first generation Tibetan settler on Turtle Island currently tending space in Machimoodus historically tended by the Wangunk people. The colonizers call this land East Haddam, Connecticut. She is a proprietor of RonsBikes.com and is a founder of WTF BX, now called RAR. Arya recognizes the bicycle as a vehicle for inner and outer peace, and works toward expanding what it means to be a cyclist in today's world. She loves decolonial frameworks, buddhism (with a lower case b), and wants to give deep thanks to the friends, family and peers who give her the courage to be courageous.InstagramEpisode notesArya intro, Machik talk, checking in with friends and relations lately. [01:10]Early life in India and America: environmental justice work, activism, burnout. [07:00]First bike, political formation, pushing leftist Tibetan discourse, Dalai Lama identifying as a Marxist, etc. [13:30]Anti-Asian racism, reconciling identities (Tibetan and Asian) and values that aren't always in sync with Stop Asian Hate. [22:25]Responding vs reacting to traumas and oppressions (Highlander Center). [30:20]An anarchist response to COVID, collectivism and community. [36:06]Cycling as a lifestyle, a solace and a part of Asian identity. [47:00]Creating bike packs and starting ronsbikes.com. [52:20]Creating BIPOC spaces and confronting racism, anti-oppression in the cycling world, forming Radical Adventure Riders. [56:16]Riding solo in America and around the world, full moon rides, avoiding wildlife and training courtesy of special Tibetan genes. [66:47]Putting together a BIPOC team for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route,  [81:40]Craziest bike, tips for new cyclists, nastiest fall, most memorable ride, bike recommendations, Lance Armstrong being an ass. [89:25]Recommended readingBraiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall KimmererA People's History of the United States - Howard ZinnThe Conquest of Bread - Peter KropotkinHumankind: A Hopeful History - Rutger BregmanAsia's Unknown Uprisings Volume 1 & Volume 2The Black Foxes (all Black cycling team)Cycling Industry Pledge This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agoodrefugee.substack.com

Do you want social movements to win? Ash-lee Woodard Henderson of the legendary Highlander Center guides us and philanthropy institutions to consider what will be required. We delve into funders and foundations' role and address the tangible steps it will take for our social movements to win. Ash-lee speaks to the recently developed Southern Power Fund, the part of funders within the context of movement organizations, and how we can work together to build our beloved community.

Click Here for the Full Episode NotesIn the aftermath of the January 6th siege of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, Laura convenes a panel of pro-democracy activists to discuss the fate of the nation. What really led to the events of January 6th and how should we move forward? How do we go from insurrection to cooperation in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy? Is building a healthy political ecosystem and humane economy even possible in the America we have today? And can the Biden/Harris administration solve what ails us? Panelists Scot Nakagawa, Senior Partner at Change Lab, Ash-Lee Henderson, Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Center, and Eric Ward, Executive Director at the Western States Center, discuss all this and more.  Music in the Middle:  “Dancefloor Democracy” by FSQ featuring George Clinton, Trey Lewd and Billy ‘Bass' Nelson courtesy of Soul Clap Records. If everyone of our dedicated, forward thinking listeners like you committed just $3 a month, we'd have a solid financial foundation to meet the urgency of these times head on in doing the crucial reporting on solutions, change makers and forward thinkers! Goto Patreon.com/theLFShow. 

Socialism became a wedge issue on the campaign trail and may have helped President Donald Trump win Florida. But those who call themselves socialists will keep fighting, including Jacobin Magazine editor Bhaskar Sunkara and Highlander Center co-executive director Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson. They joined Cornel West and Tricia Rose during their live #Election2020 Watch Party in cooperation with The Real News Network.Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod Creator/EP: Jeremy BerryEP/Host: Cornel WestEP/Host: Tricia RoseProducers: Allie Hembrough, Ceyanna Dent, Evan Seymour, Lindsey Schultz, and James ArtisBeats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #Trump #blacklivesmatter #biden #love #election2020 #socialism #communism #Appalachia

Episode Four: Dancing on the Ruins with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson We sit down with the awesome Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Co-Executive Director of the legendary Highlander Center, for an inspiring and motivating talk about movement building, solidarity economics, liberation practices and real deal education. This interview had us practicing our dance moves to shimmy on the ruins of the old world, so you don’t want to miss it if you’re needing some fuel for your fire. Then Emily gives a post-PDX protest report, and she and Sarah discuss ways to “get in where you fit in” to support M4BL. P.S. We’d suggest a What the Folk drinking game where you take a shot every time Sarah says the word “consciousness” -- but that would likely render you unconscious. THE HIGHLANDER CENTER https://www.highlandercenter.org/ MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES https://m4bl.org/ GUEST BIO Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson is a 33 year old, Affrilachian (Black Appalachian), working class woman, born and raised in Southeast Tennessee. She is the Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Research & Education Center in New Market, TN. She has served as president of the Black Affairs Association at East Tennessee State University and the Rho Upsilon Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a long-time activist working around issues of mountaintop removal mining, and environmental racism in central and southern Appalachia, and has served on the National Council of the Student Environmental Action Coalition. She is an active participant in the Movement for Black Lives and is on the governance council of the Southern Movement Assembly. You can follow Ash on Twitter @hendersonaw0604 MUSIC Featured music: 2019 performances of “If You Want a Revolution" and “Don't Know Much About Star Wars” by our own Emily Yates. You can check out the videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkHVqdjgqN4&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ny6AWs7_kU&feature=youtu.be DONATE TO GROUPS IN PORTLAND PDX Protest Bail Fund https://www.gofundme.com/f/pdx-protest-bail-fund Black Portland Youth Movement https://www.gofundme.com/f/21o0at70w0?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link-tip Rosehip Medics http://www.rosehipmedics.org/donate/

***I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ANY MUSIC PLAYED IN THIS EPISODE***Monica Raye Simpson, a queer, black, NC native, has organized extensively against human rights abuse, the prison industry, racism, and systemic violence against Southern black women and LBGTQ people. A proud graduate of the historically black Johnson C. Smith University, she earned a bachelor’s in Communications and organized for LGBTQ rights on and off campus. She then became the Operations Director and the first person of color at the Charlotte Lesbian & Gay Community Center. Next, she trained black youth in activism, philanthropy, and fundraising as the Ujamaa Coordinator for Grassroots Leadership. In 2010, she moved to GA to be our Development Coordinator; she was promoted to Deputy Coordinator in 2011, Interim Executive Director in 2012, and Executive Director in 2013.Monica is a nationally sought-after facilitator, speaker, and organizer, constantly called upon to travel the country for appearances. She is the only woman among the 4 founders of Charlotte, NC's Black Gay Pride Celebration, the first in the Bible Belt, which received awards from the National Black Justice Coalition and the Human Rights Coalition for its incredible launch with 7,000 participants. She has been featured in many publications for her activism, and has written many articles on LGBTQ issues, RJ, over-policing of black/brown communities, philanthropy, and Southern activism. In 2014 she was named a New Civil Rights Leader by Essence Magazine, and in 2015 was chosen as a panelist for the Women of the World Summit. Also a full circle doula certified through the International Center for Traditional Childbirth, she serves on the boards of the Fund for Southern Communities and the legendary Highlander Center.A singer and spoken word artist who infuses art into her activism, Monica has appeared in theatrical productions such as For the Love of Harlem, Words the Isms, Walk Like a Man, The Vagina Monologues, and For Colored Girls. She released her first solo album, Revolutionary Love, in 2015, and she has performed at events across the country, including singing the National Anthem and the National Black Anthem for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. march and rally in Atlanta, GA. Monica created Artists United for Reproductive Justice as a project of SisterSong in order to create a platform for artists to collaborate on replicable artwork that furthers the Reproductive Justice movement.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/iamlovereigns/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/iamlovereigns/support

In today's episode, Marc and Jamie reflect on the experience of Holy Week in the midst of a global pandemic as well the racial disparities when it comes to medical outcomes for those suffering from COVID-19. In the third segment, Marc interviews the Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, the co-director of the Highlander Center in New Market, TN about the progressive work that the Center has undertaken throughout its illustrious history. We finish the show off with musings about the writings of Rutger Bregman and the immeasurable value of sourdough bread starter. We also have another new song by artist, Leigh Ann Chambliss Armstrong. This is another packed show!

During February, Everything Co-op celebrates Black History Month by focusing on ASALH’s (Association for the Study of African American Life and History) theme. The 2020 theme is African Americans and the Vote. Therefore, it was quite fitting to bring David Thompson, President of Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation back to Everything Co-op to discusses the efforts of cooperatives to prepare and register African Americans to vote. David Thompson has conducted extensive research for his upcoming book, Cooperatives and the Civil Rights Movement. Through his research for the book, he has learned a great deal of valuable information regarding the involvement of cooperatives in efforts to get African Americans registered. David traces early efforts of cooperative involvement in voter registration to the "Progressive Club," a cooperative that promoted voter registration, and trained local Black residents to pass the voter registration test. The co-op would ultimately share the proponents of its program with the Highlander Center, in Tennessee, where Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Amb. Andrew Young, and many other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement would be trained. When reflecting upon the influence of the Progressive Club, David remarked; "I think it's rather lovely that this tiny little co-op, on this small Island off the coast of South Carolina, was where voter registration classes took their first form," and ended up registering about 1 million voters in the South using the same kind of program. David Thompson, has worked for national cooperative organizations of the United States, Britain and Japan as well as the United Nations. He served as Vice President of the National Cooperative Business Association and Regional Director of the National Cooperative Bank's Western Office. He specializes in funding the capital needs of the cooperative development sector; and nonprofit and cooperative housing. He was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. in May 2010, and continues to work with cooperatives.

At a recent rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump followers chanted in unision, "send her back," as the President escalated attacks against four freshman Democratic Congresswomen or color - including Massachusetts representative Ayanna Pressley. This followed a series of tweets by President Trump, in which he told the four elected officials that they should go back to the countries “from which they came.” The racist tweets and charged atmosphere is part of a nationwide volatile environment which has contributed to the sharp increase in hate crimes worldwide in the last three years. One such incident is the March arson attack on the historic social justice leadership school, Tennessee's Highlander Education and Research Center. During its nearly 90-year history, The Highlander has helped train a cadre of well known community organizers and activists including Martin Luther King Jr, Pete Seeger and Rosa Parks. Recently, the center's co-directors traveled to Boston, raising awareness and funds for the rebuilding of their physical space. Guests: Ash-Lee Woodard-Henderson - Co-Director of the Highlander Research and Education Center Reverend Allyn Maxfield-Steel - Co-Director of the Highlander Research and Education Center Peter Dreier - Professor of Political Science and Urban and Environmental Policy at Occidental College Later in the show… The Gleason Street School is in trouble. Its teachers are underpaid. Its headmaster is clueless. And the members of its parent council are at each others' throats. We should mention the school is fictional. But the story, a new drama from Company One Theatre, comes alive in the very real halls and classrooms of Back Bay's Commonwealth School. Greater Good is an interactive theater experience which starts in the now and then takes the audience back in time to a pivotal moment that sealed Gleason Street's fate in a narrative that explores the intersection of privilege, education, governance and democracy in our society. Greater Good will be 'onstage' at the Commonwealth School until August 17, 2019. Guests: Kirsten Greenidge - Playwright and creator of Greater Good. Kirsten is currently a Mellon Fellow and Howlround Artist in Residence at Company One. Ilana Brownstein - Dramaturg and Director of New Work at Company One Theatre. ———————-—————————————————————————-———————- More UTR: https://www.wgbh.org/news/under-the-radar-with-callie-crossley Follow Callie on Twitter: @CallieCrossley Like UTR on Facebook: facebook.com/UndertheRadarWGBH UTR is produced by Franziska Monahan. Doug Shugarts is our engineer. Under the Radar is a production of WGBH.

What is up fellow workers! On this episode, Chris and Dave have a couple drinks and sit down with Tanya (Trillbilly Worker's Party). This is a show we're beyond stoked to bring you, as we dish on the carceral system and then turn to a much "lighter" topic... Sexy Sex Ed. Crack a cold one or pour some coffee and hang out with us! Dave almost hit a kid because the Reds suck // “Remember, ya gadda pay taxes on that” // ALL of Kentucky will be locked up before 2090 // Chris says “vagina juice” on the pod // Empowerment works, guilt and shame does not // Sexy Sex Ed = Communications 101 // + more. Check out the Highlander Center and WMMT Community Radio below: https://www.highlandercenter.org/ https://www.wmmt.org/ And you somehow haven't, check out the gosh darn Trillbillies! Twitter: @thetrillbillies https://soundcloud.com/user-972848621-463073718 Take your lunch, head on home, or kick your feet up with us :) We got your back

This episode begins with a celebration the craftsmanship of southwest Virginian musician and instrument builder Wayne Henderson, whose birthday is May 3rd. Then, we hear excerpts from an interview with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson just days after a fire destroyed the main office building at the historic Highlander Center in New Market, TN on March 29, 2019. Henderson talks about the legacy of southern movements' resistance and resilience that Highlander has witnessed over its 87 year history. And finally, we visit the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative's Fire Summit in Pikeville this April, where high school students from across Eastern KY shared their inventions and ideas for economic and environmental changes in the region.

Recently, a fire at Highlander Center gained national attention for the historic movement institution. Donations, messages of love, and some knee-jerk panic poured in for the co-directors, well known to the Laura Flanders Show. Co-directors Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele join us from Chattanooga to discuss the fire at their home, as well as arsons across the country and world, at Black churches, at Notre Dame, and in Sri Lanka. Has capitalism limited our empathy? More in this episode: Pakistani activist, lawyer, and feminist on why digital rights are fundamentally civil and human rights that women deserve. Advances to allow for women's access to technology have been made in Pakistan, says Dad. But true freedom of access is still a long ways away As an organizer of Pakistan's aurat march (Women's March), Dad has experienced both the danger and the satisfaction that can come from challenging cultural restrictions. She is the founder and Executive Director of Pakistan's Digital Rights Foundation. Music Featured:  "Power Justice and Love" by Morley from her album 1000 Miles released on Six Degrees Records. For suggested reading, research and links to our guests and issues featured in this episode, go to: Patreon.com/theLFShow

This week we got bags on bags on bags, ya welcome! We start off with Currento Eventos where we discuss a recent fire at the historic Highlander Center that trained historic civil rights and movement leaders, Dump’s 40th environmental law loss this time in Alaska, and we uplift the efforts of Philly youth and Philly Student Union who this past week organized to protest the installation of metal detectors at their high schools. For “What’s Your Baggage” we discuss cancel culture and the recent Cardi B allegations. We discuss drawing lines but really struggle with coming up with “answers.” What do you all think about our conversation use #UnpackBG to share your thoughts! In “Put it in your bag” Estephanie talks about her current game obsession Division 2 and Lina brings in Alexia Arthurs’ book How to Love a Jamaican. Finally for our rotating theme we talk about music groups we would love to have been in and Lina sends us off with a weekly affirmation! As always thank you for listening and leave us an Itunes review, click the donate button, or tell a friend about us! Check out our Patreon and help us reach our goal of 100 Patrons!! DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/BagLadiez https://www.patreon.com/bgladiez Check out our teespring store! https://teespring.com/stores/bag-ladiez If you’d like to support Lina with funds while she studies for her bar exam feel free to donate via cashapp: $RafaelaU Highlander Center Fire: http://bit.ly/2uEFF99 Dump loses again in court: https://nyti.ms/2FReGxH Philly Youth organize for their schools: http://bit.ly/2HPRbaB Division 2: http://bit.ly/2CNMqtZ How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs: https://www.alexiaarthurs.com/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bgladies Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bgladiez/id1073190648?mt=2 Google Play:http://bit.ly/2D7bSJ5 You can Follow us @: Website: www.bgladiez.com Twitter: Bag_Ladiez Tumblr: bgladiez.tumblr.com Instagram: BgLadiez Gmail: bgladiez@gmail.com

When you live in the rural South, your story rarely makes the news, but Southern activists are shaking things up, with their votes, and their broadband transmitter too. This week, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele, the co-directors of the revered civil rights school, the Highlander Center, talk about blue waves, black women and broadband. And we revisit Detroit, where residents denied affordable internet meshed servers to serve their neighbors, one rooftop at a time.  “As the World Ends” by TQX featuring  Gian Slater and Pete Miser from the album Global Intimacy released on Extra Celestial Arts.  Support theLFShow!

Marcus went to The Highlander Center's 86th Homecoming in New Market, Tennessee. He met up with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson Co-Director of the Highlander. Jordan phones in (eventually) and they all talk about fave southern foods from shrimp creole to black beans and rice, the importance of vulnerability, and how seeing a concert with Jordan is the best way to get all your life.  

We spoke with Vahisha Hasan of Movement in Faith about one of her fave foods, Fried Corn. We also discussed Arteha Franklin's funeral and how faith leaders are working to build inclusive communities and addressing the problem of far too many worship spaces being unsafe for women, gender minorities, and LGBTQ+ folks. Before the interview, Jordan and Marcus also talk about Black women leading the charge in electoral politics on the left and the reactions people are having to Kaepernick's Nike deal. You can follow and support Vahisha Hasan's work at: https://www.facebook.com/movementinfaith/ and purchase a copy of her book "Rescipscence" at https://www.facebook.com/movementinfaith/ Be sure to check out our website www.chocolatetherapypodcast.com for recipes and more about our guests You can contact us with your recipes, guest suggestions, or just say hi at yall@chocolatetherapypodcast.com Thank you to the Highlander Center for making this show possible!

Jordan and Marcus get in the kitchen with Chattanooga based radio host and community organizer Marie Mott to make her grandma's Pineapple Upside Down Cake! Then the crew sits down with Marie to talk about the case of #FreeUnjolee and many of the problems with Chattanooga's police department and mistreatment of poor and homeless people. Check out Marie Mott's livestream show at:  https://www.hotnewstalkradio.com   https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCRCa2iz0i6kthOKsAIxwGWQ   https://m.facebook.com/noogaradio/   Learn more about Unjolee Moore's case from Concerned Citizens for Justice at:  https://www.facebook.com/concernedcitizensforjustice   https://concernedcitizensforjustice.org   Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @CTPYALL Like us on Facebook Check out recipes and more at www.chocolatetherapypodcast.com   Thanks to the Highlander Center for making CTP possible.      

In this episode we bring you stories, history, and dreams for the future of the STAY Together Appalachian Youth Project. STAY is a regional youth network that has been working to create mountain communities where young Appalachians can and want to stay for the past 10 years. In July of 2018, STAY celebrated it’s 10th birthday at the Highlander Center in New Market, TN. We spoke with STAY members, and alums about what STAY means to them and to the region. Join us for the next hour as we celebrate the power and vision of mountain youth.

In this episode we bring you an hour of history and poetry from the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative (SAWC). Formed in 1974 out of a gathering at the Highlander Center, SAWC aims to support Appalachian writers in their efforts to take control of a regional identity, and to take action on issues impacting mountain land and people. Each year members of SAWC travel to Whitesburg from near and far, to read poems as a part of Appalshop’s annual Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival. We sat down with a handful of SAWC members at this year’s festival to learn more about their personal and collective writing histories, and to hear some great poems!

Rev. Sekou is an activist, writer, theologian and community organizer with a dense resume stretching back to before the 2000s. He says he found his calling at age 19 when he visited the Highlander Center, the research and education retreat in East TN where legions of civil rights activists have been trained and where the song 'We Shall Overcome' was adapted to the central struggle of the American 20th century. Sekou has been a pastor in New York and Boston. He's worked on the ground in Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Ferguson, MO in 2014. But only in the last few years, in his mid 40s by the way, did Rev. Sekou step forward as a songwriter and singer, as a soul and blues man. He did grow up around music and attended college on a voice scholarship. He's been in some bands. But it's clear that in going on tour and recording his two albums The Revolution Has Come and In Times Like These, music has become a new way for Rev. Sekou to speak his truth and inspire his cause. This all made for a fascinating conversation. Also, an in-depth talk with John McEuen about why, after its 50th year, he parted ways with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the process of writing his new autobiography, The Life I've Picked. 

In this week's episode of Fortification: Spiritual Sustenance for Movement Leadership, Caitlin Breedlove, Vice President of Movement Leadership at Auburn Seminary is joined by Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele. Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele Rev. Maxfield-Steele is the co-director of the Highlander Center in Tennessee. Raised in Texas, Germany and North Carolina, Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele’s movement work has included solidarity struggles with Thai people’s movements, work as an educator and organizer in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and a range of support for front-line struggles in Nashville, Tennessee, and throughout the South and Appalachia. As a member of the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange (ENGAGE), Allyn was a member of Highlander’s 2010 Threads cohort and served as an adult ally for the 2010 Seeds of Fire youth program. He joined Highlander’s Board of Directors in 2011, where most recently he has served as chair of the board. An ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Allyn has served congregations in Juneau, Alaska, Nashville, and Springfield, TN. Allyn’s focus and interests lie at the intersection of radical pastoral care, institutional transformation, dismantling toxic white masculinities, and liberation-driven ministry and movement building, especially in rural and small town communities. Allyn holds a B.A. in History from Wofford College (SC) and a Masters of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School. He comes to Highlander from the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville, where he has served as a member of the education team.

Rev. Allyn Maxfield-Steele was recently in Atlanta and I met with him to learn about the plans for the new Septima Clark Learning Center that will be built at the Highlander Research Center in New Market, TN, where he works as co-director with Ash-Lee Woodward Henderson. Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) was an educator and civil … Continue reading "Catching the Spirit of Septima: Highlander Center update podcast (2-18-18) with Allyn Maxfield-Steele on the New Septima Clark Learning Center" The post Catching the Spirit of Septima: Highlander Center update podcast (2-18-18) with Allyn Maxfield-Steele on the New Septima Clark Learning Center appeared first on Nothing Never Happens.

  The Highlander Research and Education Center         May 16, 2017 The post Seeds of Fire-Highlander Center Part 2 appeared first on Nothing Never Happens.