Regional Organizers

Since becoming fiscally independent in 2022, BOLD has been quite active and growing. Our expansion and extension have included maintaining successful program cohorts, adding over 100 newly embodied and equipped Black organizers, holding our first in-person National Gathering since the pandemic, focusing heavily on stewarding 105 acres in South Georgia, strengthening our external communications by expanding our social media presence, most importantly, extending our staff and capacity to meet the needs of our vision to activate and develop the mass base needed to win on our issues, lead multiracial alliance for social and environmental justice, build power, and govern.

While land stewarding is a major milestone, BOLD is also in the midst of a fundamental transformation of the culture, work and structure of the organization and we are most excited about the ability to deepen our work in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southern Regions of the US and sustain presence and action in support of BOLD’s commitment to a powerful and coordinated Black Left. 

“At BOLD, we take an approach based less on the questions of exact geography [hard to define] and less on cultural dimensions and more on the question of power and practicality. We use this because it allows us, for political reasons, to make the case as to where the engine of white supremacist capitalist oppression emanates from today and, historically and for practical reasons, gives organizers a concrete and specific area to focus our efforts in.” - Aaron Bryant, Southern Regional Organizer

BOLD regional organizers focus on organizing at the regional level so that coordinating at the national and international levels becomes more possible. With hundreds of BOLD alumni spread across the US, with different social and political contexts, it is through deeper, more intentional, and centered engagement that we can find alignment and coordination with transformed leaders and continue our communities of practice that directly impact the work in their respective organizations. The primary focus areas include digital and database organizing, relationship building within the regions, landscape analysis, and activating communities of practice through Cumbes and coaching.

*BOLD practice groups are called “cumbes” to honor the maroon societies formed by runaway African slaves. These maroon spaces were the social base for Black liberation movements throughout the diaspora. Maroon space is the time, place and conditions we create for Black liberation to be practiced and embodied. 

Meet Aaron, Darian, and PG:

AARON 

SOUTHERN REGIONAL ORGANIZER

Aaron Jamal is a southern organizer, internationalist, educator, and author with 10 years of experience in base-building, political education, and movement strategy. He has learned and led in struggles ranging from student debt, voting rights, environmental justice, movements to end gender-based oppression, multiracial political power, and decriminalization, all of which have been rooted in the Black freedom struggle. Aaron has a passion for writing eclectic essays, making melodies, and silent stargazing.

DARIAN X

NORTH EAST REGIONAL ORGANIZER

Since 2014, Darian X has fully dedicated his life to community organizing and forwarding public policy in New York City. Darian's organizing work has utilized popular political education methodologies alongside multimedia approaches and direct action strategies to create collective dialogues in communities at the intersections of issues around class, race, and gender for the sake of sharing our experiences, relearning lessons left behind by our ancestors, and strategizing to build power that challenges the prevailing hegemony.

PG

MIDWEST REGIONAL ORGANIZER

PG is a facilitator, coach, trainer, and organizer from Detroit who now lives in Norfolk, VA. They work with/in movements, organizations, and groups towards change, ease, and freedom, asking big questions, holding contradictions, and nurturing the learning and unlearning needed for individual and collective transformation. 

Since their entering, Aaron, Darian, PG have made an undeniable impact analyzing the state of BOLD Alumni in their regions, determining the needs of organizers on the ground and creating space for practice communities. Their regions collectively host around 550 BOLD alumni within 22 states and xx organizations. Each organizer hosts 1:1 meetings with every organizer in their region and the Northeast and Southern regions are already hosting successful cumbes. 

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The need for these practice communities is evident by the increased participation in BOLD created spaces such as 30 Days of Practice, attendance at the BOLD national gathering, and other alumni courses hosted by BOLD. But these opportunities are not without challenges as BOLD alumni have broad ideological ranges, diminished practices of both somatics and political education, and differing strategic orientations. Learning about the struggles actively taking place and studying the methods of organizing through deepened relationships and shared practice has informed our offerings to alumni and sparked innovative organizing programming that can actually lead to a change/transformation in the balance of forces in society. The collective feedback BOLD receives is of gratitude for opportunities to reinvigorate their shared practices and is a reawakening of their personal commitments towards Black Liberation.