12
Street roots
July 22, 2011
A chosen family deepens connections to their communities
Am y L am is the
Development &
Communications
Associate a t the
Western States
Center, which aim s to
build a progressive
movement by
supporting grassroots
organizations. The
Center’s Uniting
Communities project
works with
organizations based
in communities o f
color to advance
LG BTQ equality.
To fin d out more about
Uniting Communities and
Western States Center, go to
www. WestemStatesCenter.
org
“For folks whose entire identity and
personhood is under attack every day, it is
important and very political to stake claim
to who they are. It’s often the most
courageous act anyone can do,” said Walidah
Imarisha.
Walidah was
speaking
specifically about
her adopted
brother, Kakamia,
but she also meant
people in our
communities who
feel like they
cannot be their
whole selves.
Kakamia has the ability to be all parts of
himself: black, Puerto Rican, Irish, bisexual,
a visual artist, an organizer, a California
state prisoner and a poet His capacity to
embrace the complex identities of others he
meets without judgment, has inspired
Walidah politically and personally.
As a young woman of color, Walidah’s
experiences with high school shaped her
understanding of racial justice. It was a
hostile environment, where students of
color were pushed down the stairs and told
to “go back to where they came from.” At
the time, Walidah didn’t understand why it
was happening; her political awakening
began when she searched for answers.
Walidah’s first political march was in
supportofMumia Abu-Jamal, an award
winning journalist, lifetime community
organizer, and prisoner in Pennsylvania’s
death row. His supporters, including
Walidah, believe he should be set free. She
found that Mumia’j case touched op many
social justice issues and it ignited her
interest ip examining the prison system.
At the same time, Walidah stumbled upon
an ad in the San Francisco Bay View, a
political Slack newspaper. It advertised
Afrocentric and radical artwork done by a
young California prisoner. Walidah wrote a
letter to this individual, Kakamia, inquiring
about his work, and it changed her life. “I
always like to say I mail-ordered myself a
brother.” she laughed.
“The connections Kakamia and I don’t
have in blood, we make up for in ink,” said
Walidah. As artists and poets, Walidah and
Kakamia used their words to commune with
one another. Their bond grew so deep, the
two adopted each other as sister and
brother five years after their first letter.
In 2000, Walidah moved to Philadelphia
and started organizing there. Her work
began to explore the multiple layers of
identity, and the way that oppressions
intersect for people of color. She helped
found the Human Rights Coalition, with a
group of prisoners’ families and
ex-prisoners aimed at supporting prison
organizing, empowering prisoners’ family
members, and ultimately abolishing the
prison system.
Dining her time with the HRC, one of the
members, an older black woman whose son
was incarcerated, learned of abuse
happening to a transgendered prisoner of
color, and wanted the group to organize
around it. Walidah was apprehensive about
the response from the other members, as
they neyer had a discussion on sexual or
gender identity as a group. Yet the group
was overwhelmingly supportive, and
Walidah learned a very important organizing
lesson: never underestimate our
communities.
She also had insight on the multiple
disparities and oppressions that lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ)
people of color often face, and recognized
that there were few organizations for them
to turn to. These experiences helped
Walidah to shape the intersectional lens that
impacts her work to this day, especially in
the Uniting Communities project
Walidah feels that Kakamia’s strength and
his ability to build community and organize
under the worst of situations — from a
prison cell — have helped inspire her
organizing work in the almost two decades
they have known one another. “His energy
is really like the energy that Uniting
Communities is working to embody, seeing
people as whole human beings, not making
someone choose one part of themselves and
check the rest at the door,” Walidah
explained.
Since 2010, Walidah Imarisha has been a
trainer and organizer at the Western States
Center and works on the Uniting
Communities project. The goal of Uniting
Communities is to raise up the experiences,
needs and leadership of LGBTQ people of
color in organizations and communities of
color. Walidah pointed out the importance
of a project like Uniting Communities
because “this is our community, this is our
issue; we are not just being allies. This is
the work of organizing and empowering our
communities.”
“There is also the idea that communities
of color are more aggressively homophobic,
and sometimes our communities internalize
this idea as well. It’s really important to
have organizations and leaders stand up to
break this myth,” said Walidah. “We recently
conducted an eye-opening set of interviews
with more than 40 leaders of color in
Portland, and overwhelmingly, the leaders
said they would support LBGTQ equality—
but no one has ever asked for their support.
This is inspiring and important to
remember for the UC project and for all of _
our work.”
Uniting Communities has already
supported 10 organizations in Oregon to
raise up the needs, experiences and
"The connections Kakam ia and I don't have
in blood, we make up lor in ink/' said
Walidah. As artists and poets, Walidah and
Kakamia used their words to commune with
one another. Their bond grew so deep, the
two adopted each other as sister and brother
live years alter their lirst letter..."
leadership of LGBTQ people of color in
their existing program work. Earlier this
year, the Center expanded the project
beyond Oregon; the Center now work with
the National Netwprk for Immigrant and
Refugee Rights, National Latina Institute for
Reproductive Health, Mobilize the
Immigrant Vote in California and Greater
Birmingham Ministries in Alabama.
Uniting Communities strives to build a
culture of inclusiveness so that no one is ,
left out. In providing support for Uniting
Communities, Walidah feels Kakamia
constantly teaches her the most important
lesson of all for an organizer. “His outlook
always has been ‘Just come as you’are.
Whatever your issues, your problems, we’ll
work it out when you get here.’ That’s what
making a community is about”
Compassion
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