BOLD NEWSLETTER (New Year 2023)

BOLD NEWSLETTER

New Year 2023

Dear BOLDers,

We’ve reached the end of another year. We give thanks for all of the lessons, growth, and joy it has offered. What are you most thankful for?

BOLD is grateful to have completed another in person cohort of Amandala Fundamentals. The opportunity to return to in-person training has been truly transformative for our trainers, and hopefully, all participants, as we continually refine and define how we show up for Black liberation. Here, we share some moments of Black Mastery, Black Study and Black Joy.

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Big BOLD Changes

2022 was a tremendous year for BOLD as an organization. In the year of our 10th anniversary and after several years as a fiscally sponsored organization of the Highlander Center, we leapt into a new chapter as an independent 501(c)(3). While implementing the changes has not been fast or easy, we stepped up to the challenge. We are moving confidently into 2023 with new systems in place to continue to build BOLD as a fiscally sound, innovative, and resilient vehicle for achieving a coordinated Black Left.

We also acquired our maroon land this year, realizing a dream that has been with our founders for over a decade. We have have begun deliberately defining our relationship to the land as a BOLD Nation and setting the foundation for programming and stewardship.

Finally, in order to be able to fully convene in person for the BOLD National Gathering, we will be shifting the date to May 2023. You won’t want to miss our announcements of everything that’s coming early next year, so stay tuned!

Introducing our new Development Director

We are pleased to welcome Nikki M.G. Cole as BOLD’s new Development Director. Nikki is a nationally recognized campaign strategist, fundraiser, trainer, coach, and organizer for workers' rights, economic and environmental justice, and inclusive democracy. She has over 25 years of experience coaching individuals, creating winning teams and cultures, developing training and curriculum, and managing operational structures and budgets for a variety of organizations and grassroots candidates in the DC Metropolitan area and nationally. Nikki is a founding member and former director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC and of One Fair Wage; has served as Executive Director or Director of Organizing for multiple coalitions, c3s and c4s; has supported over 80 grassroots progressive candidates to run for office and managed teams to mobilize hundreds of thousands of voters in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections. Nikki is most proud of her leadership in coordinating historic coalition victories in the creation of Washington DC's Paid Sick Days, Minimum Wage Increase, and Wage Theft Prevention laws, as well as for founding the DC Just Pay Coalition dedicated to long term implementation of worker's rights legislation. Nikki has been featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC, etc. and is a proud and active alumna of Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity. Nikki is a mom, writer, and avid reader and consumer of philosophy, human history, fantasy and science-fiction.

BOLD National Cumbe 2023

We are pleased to announce the 2023 dates for the National Cumbe!

Telling the Stories of BOLDers

To help our network better understand the power and impact of BOLD, last week we shared the story of Saudia Durant. Saudia is a powerful, young Black organizer born and raised in West Philadelphia. Coming from a working class background in the food service industry, and having experienced sexual harrassment, racist management, and purely profits-driven work environments, Saudia was motivated to start organizing at Temple University with the Philly Student Union to make change, reclaim joy, and build power for a racial justice on campus.

Now, she is a campaign strategist and tactical organizer at the Advancement Project in intergenerational coalition space to advocate for “Counselors, Not Cops!” in schools all across Philadelphia. The Advancement Center’s Justice Project has also included support for grassroots groups in challenging Stop & Frisk tactics and cash bail; implementing bail outs; closing jails and fighting expansions; training lawyers to represent survivors of police violence; and seeking release of people detained pretrial in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This Giving Tuesday, consider sharing your own story with others who may wish to support BOLD. And, as we ask others to give generously, we can each commit to give what we can to achieve our collective vision. If each and every BOLDers donates – at any level – we will easily achieve our fundraising goal.

What’s On Our Nightstand

How We Breathe

Get Ready! The next episode of the How We Breathe podcast featuring Santra Denis, Executive Director of the Miami Workers’ Center, will be released during the first week of January.

Begin the World Over By King Li Sun

Did you catch the book talk with Bill Fletcher and Kung Li Sun? They chatted about Sun’s revolutionary text “Begin the World Over” which offers an alternate American history and myth, imagining what it would be like if, in the wake of the Haitan Revolution, Black and indigenous people joined forces to undo the newly formed United States. WATCH IT HERE.

Organizing Around Food Sovereignty, by Ashley Gurvitz

This editorial highlights the need for “hyperlocal solutions to food insecurity and lack of access” to food in the northeast corridor, reminding us of the need to cross-pollinate urban and rural solutions. Want to get up to date on your food justice history and terminology? Check out the Black Food Justice Glossary from our partner the National Black Food Justice Alliance. The organization is also partnering with scholars to build Blackademics – an agroecological hub to grow and expand practices, develop innovative solutions, and provide cross-institutional support for land grant institutions and land stewards working to ensure food security for our people.

Ancestors Know Who We Are

Ancestors Know Who We Are is a physical and interactive exhibition at the Museum of the American Indian. It is the institution’s first installation to feature Black-Indigenous women artists. The experiences of these six artists, explored through painting, photography, basketry, and digital art, speak to issues of race, gender, multiracial identity, and intergenerational knowledge, are featured here on its website.