BOLD Newsletter Fall 2023 – Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity

BOLD NEWSLETTER

Fall 2023

October 2023

Black Love Comrades!

Our team is pleased to share the BOLD Evaluation Report: A Decade of Commitment to Black Leadership. Huge shout out to all of the BOLD alumni and trainers who participated in the evaluation process! And BIG UPS to Zuri Tau – founder of Social Insights and lead evaluator for both our 5 and 10-year reports.

Stepping back with the support of Social Insights enables us to reflect on our history and strategically plan for our future in a way that is rooted in the needs, requests, and dreams of BOLDers across the nation.

We are deeply proud of our growth as a collective over the past decade. In just 10 years, we’ve quadrupled the number of staff and trainers on our team, developed the leadership of 600 beautiful Black freedom fighters, and purchased 105 acres of land and retreat space in a maroon pocket of Georgia. We are, as some would say, “our ancestors’ wildest dreams!”

And we still have a long way to go together. More is required of us as a movement organization.

We are a commitment to a powerful and coordinated Black Left, and according to you – our alumni and trainers – that means BOLD must:

Create more safe space for conversations on a wide range of topics – from burnout to gender identity to the use of technology and social media
Offer more trainings for Black organizers beyond Amandla!, Quilombo School, and EML
Foster deeper connections between BOLD Nation via consistent traditional and digital communications, as well as organizational check-ins, and regional gatherings
Create support structures for alumni struggling with creating transformation outside of BOLD culture

We hear you. We see you. We love you BOLD Nation.

Thank you for sharpening our collective commitment.

On behalf of everyone at BOLD,

Nikki M.G. Cole – Director of Resource Mobilization

P.S. The BOLD staff highly recommend Social Insights to work with your organization on your research and evaluation needs. They are such an amazing resource within your network 🙂

BOLD 10-Year Eval Report

bold course announcement!

APPLICATION CLOSES FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27TH
EXEMPLARY MOVEMENT INTENSIVE MBONGI SANKOFA! DEC 14th-16th 2023

Exemplary Movement Leadership Intensives are for BOLD Alumni seeking to develop their embodied competency to lead and using power that creates more certainty and trust within their organizations and movements.

Mbongi means “learning place” from the Bantu people in modern day Congo. Sankofa means “to look back as we go forward” from the Akan people of Ghana. Mbongi Sankofa! From the learning place we look back as we go forward.

During this 3 ½ day in-person intensive, we come together to assess and learn from each other, our organizing victories and the challenges we have faced over the last year. We will freedom dream the path going forward and generate possible solutions and collective strategies. The intensive includes individual reflection and political discussions blended with embodiment practices.

Who Should Apply: BOLD alumni who are Directors and/or Lead Directors seeking to sharpen their skill in reflection and assessment of their organization and its organizing while learning with and from peers. Applicants should connect with BOLD’s commitment to a powerful and coordinated Black Left.

Travel Dates: The intensive starts on Thursday morning, December 14th and ends at noon on Sunday, December 16th 2023. Travel day is Wednesday (12.13) and departure time for flights is Saturday after 4:00 PM EST.

Location: BOLD Retreat Center in South Georgia.

Tuition: $1,000 plus organizations are responsible for covering applicant transportation costs. *Sliding scale and Scholarships are available.

Application Period: Now til Friday, October 27th

Introducing our new finance and operations Director

BOLD Maroon Space "is an opportunity to work in a space with diverse, intelligent, and worldly black folks who have a common goal of providing resources to our community. Those resources can come in the form of life experiences, professional expertise, and simply creating a space for us to focus on self and group elevation as a culture to develop the leaders that will continue the fight" Meet BOLD’s newest Financial Director, Lawrence Whiting as he shares his knowledge about how we can resource our movements!

Lawrence Interview by Jalera Remy

become a sustainer today!

If you have not joined the BOLD family, NO WORRIES BECAUSE IT’S NOT TO LATE!!!! You can still sign up today. While our goal is to have 100 BOLD Alumni become sustainers or increase their monthly giving, We want BOLD Nation to keep growing. Your contributions are a pillar for building a collective black left that is necessary to connect our community.

resources and tools

Now Hiring:

Hope Action Change: Managing Director of Developmental Role at City Year San Jose Silicon Valley

Meyer Foundation: Director of Maryland Partnerships and Strategy

Meyer Foundation: Director of DC Partnerships and Strategy

Philadelphia Student Union: Executive Director

Events:

Join the Highlander Center, Media Justice, Vision Change Win, and Right to the City for their 8-session series of monthly conversations about the current political environment. Every 4th Thursday at 4 pm Pacific/5 pm Mountain/6 pm Central/7 pm Eastern. Click photo below to register.

What’s On Our Nightstand

For our cultural offering this month, we leave you with a reflection on Black August by Nathaniel Chioke Williams and a special Black August House Mix by DJ Blaqueness.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for attending the Black August Teach-in featuring a conversation between Black Freedom Fighters Baba Herman Bell and Monifa Bandele, and co-sponsored by the Freedom Funders, M4BL and BOLD. The Teach-In offered unique insight into the meaning and continuing significance of Black August and the fight to free all Black political prisoners and liberate the Black community from state sponsored and inspired persecution and violence. It also discussed the vital, but often unrecognized role of Black women in the Black Liberation Movement. It also discussed the role of Black Arts as an essential tool to advance Black liberation from a surprise guest, Emory Douglas, the former Minister of Culture and Revolutionary Artist of the Black Panther Party. Click here for a recording of the Black August Teach-In, with additional content added after the webinar.

The Black August Teach-In takes on added significance in the aftermath of the slaughter of Angela Carr, Anolt Laguerre,Jr., and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion by a white male racial terrorist, in Jacksonville, Florida. It is no coincidence that this racist massacre occurred in a state that is quickly becoming this country’s current epicenter of state sponsored anti-Black structural racism.

As we mourn the tragic loss of Black life […], let us not be dismayed from our struggle to be free from racial terror and to thrive to be our full and free selves. The fight for Black freedom and liberation is long, perpetual and painful. Black August is a call to commit to that fight and as Monifa Bandele noted during the Black August Teach-In, it is a love offering for Black resistance and solidarity in our fight for freedom. And as Baba Herman Bell said in his final comments from the Teach-In, “We are not gonna lose! However long it takes, we are not gonna lose!” Let the power of these words for our Black Freedom Fighter, strengthen your resolve and fuel your faith in victory.

To Freedom!

PS: In the vein of art as resistance, here is a special Black August house music mix