CHECKING IN: ALUM UPDATES

BOLD alumni are on the frontlines of change, innovating, strategizing and leading for the sake of transformation and liberation. We want to share your stories!  Every quarter, BOLD will highlight the work of our alumni here.

• Just before the recent midterm elections, organizers from Black Youth 100 (BY100), the organization co-founded by BOLD alum Charlene Carruthers, recorded and released their first album called The Black Joy Experience. This musical compilation is dedicated to bringing the holistic energy that keeps joy flowing through BY100’s organizing work. The album can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, Yandex, and Deezer.
• Southerners on New Ground (SONG) led by BOLD alum Mary Hooks, is currently mobilizing against President Trump’s recent memo to legally define sex as biological under Title IX, defining gender “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable,” which is a clear threat to trans rights. SONG is one of the few organizations advocating for and led by trans and nonbinary people. Consider supporting them by donating today at www.southernersonnewground.org.
• Marilyn Winn at Women on the Rise, an organization of formerly incarcerated women of color based in Atlanta, worked as a key organizer of the 2018 National Prison Strike, a series of work stoppages and hunger strikes throughout the United States from August 21 to September 9 in both for-profit prison facilities and state institutions. Issues included improvement in the quality of food and medical care as well as an end to violence caused by prison guards. Read more about their work and the strike overall here.
• Mark Anthony, a member of the BOLD Training Team, kicked off the year with a victory at his organization Dignity and Power Now. Sharing with the training team, he said: “ After 7 years of organizing we were able to get LA County to put a halt to a $3B plan to build two jails. Folks said we couldn’t do it and that the train had left the station and at the 11th hour on the day they were supposed to approve the contracts for construction, all five county supervisors said it was time to stop the plan and gave the organizers the credit for changing hearts and minds.”  
• Nicole Newman participated in our Directors raining. She came to BOLD because she felt isolated and didn’t have a community of organizers to support her. After completing the program, Nicole was offered a new position as an educational organizer. Despite being excited about her new role, she initially felt overwhelmed. It was a member of her BOLD cohort who helped her gain confidence in her new role. When speaking about how BOLD has impacted her personal and professional growth, Nicole says, “The practices I learned gave me access to knowledge of self. I’m able to set boundaries and say what my needs are…. And when it comes to working with my business partner, the quality of our work is so much better, the level of maturity and honesty is something I’ve never experienced. BOLD taught us how to interact in a radically transformative ways that make our work what it is today.”

Let’s take a moment to celebrate these achievements. If you would like your story or your organization to be featured in the next newsletter, feel free to reach out to us at  info@boldorganizing.org and write: NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION in the subject line.