According to Weeze

I️n this episode Weeze and Chris talk about what it means to defund, abolish, reconstruct, and reimagine the policing system. We all know the institution of police is not answering the needs of the people. It's a system that's heavily funded, backed by legislation, and damn near impossible to hold police accountable. What would it look like to reallocate funds so we're investing in social services like crisis response teams? What if marginalized communities had agency, power, and control over how this new institution was reimagined? What if we poured the obnoxious budget the police system gets into education, health care, affordable housing, workforce development, job opportunities with livable wages, etc.? What if we looked at how we police each other on a daily basis and restructured that too? Listen in!!!

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female-identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist, and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT CHRIS

Chris Mueller is a communicator by nature, strategist by training, and organizer at heart directing the firm's creative design and storytelling studio. Born and raised in the East Bay, he studied at UC Berkeley and has over a decade of storytelling experience for progressive organizations in human rights, and social and economic justice. He will happily discuss everything from Frederick Douglass and Joseph Campbell to DMX and the World Champion Golden State Warriors.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• The reality of police union lobbying power how much money they spend at the municipal level to pass police friendly legislation.
• How the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act is trying to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to police training and reform that we know doesn't work!
• We have to get more surgical about the way police union contracts are written because there are amendments and line items that make it difficult to hold police accountable.
• How affluent whyte communities experience police vs. marginalized communities.
• What it means to defund, abolish, and reconstruct the police system.
• Abolition as a way for us to rid ourselves of how we police each other.
• The connection between police reform and gun control, and what we need to address.
• ICE now offering classes to teach everyday citizens how to arrest immigrants!
• Orienting ourselves toward accomplishing equity and justice on a systemic level.

CALL TO ACTION

• Chris' firm is hiring for two new fellow positions. Candidates are encouraged to apply here: https://www.thinkrubix.com/careers
• Research The Breathe Act at https://breatheact.org
• Find an organization and make an assessment about what kind of contribution you can make.
• Sign up for the Never Again News Network (NANN) at https://nowyouknow.podia.com/nann

RESOURCES

• Why Police Reform Fails Podcast Episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-police-reform-fails/id886009669?i=1000520754910

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CAp3xvZCK8gQT4RqUVl63ikHTKD8C52G/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW CHRIS TO STAY ENGAGED

https://www.thinkrubix.com

https://www.instagram.com/wethinkrubix/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thinkrubix

https://medium.com/thinkrubix

In this episode Jamal and Weeze talk about what it takes to truly be an accomplice in the movement. Sharing their experiences of dealing with people who claim to be allies, Weeze and Jamal drop knowledge on how to protect our peace, express love as a form of accountability, and spot the folks who just want to capitalize off of the movement.

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female-identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist, and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT JAMAL

Jamal Taylor is an activist and advocate based in Louisiana. Jamal is also working to end racism as an educator in the space. He has worked tirelessly to ensure that police brutality ends across the State of Louisiana. He is an accomplished speaker that has been interviewed by the NY Times, People Magazine, People TV, Dr. Oz, and many other national outlets. Jamal believes in the power of collective organizing and has facilitated several protests across the state. Most notably he is the advocate for the family of Quawan Charles, a 15-year old boy found dead in a sugar cane ditch in Louisiana. He frequently says that when we stand we give subconscious permission for others to stand with us.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• Influencers who claim that they are allies of the movement, but utilize it to springboard themselves to make money.
• How to protect your peace around having to constantly deal with allies.
• Love and how it requires accountability. It's not just a fluffy feel good word.
• Folks being accomplices at home and calling out their communities for racist behavior.
• Why people need to stop trying to capitalize off the time, energy, effort and love of people when they wouldn't do it at their job for free.

CALL TO ACTION

• Check out the Giving Way on The Sidewalk a Book and Podcast when it's ready!!
• Elevate the issues that are important to people of color.
• Make sure your work towards becoming an accomplice is deliberate and intentional.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ak9t5PPHXcBnSVCffG1Lqsuf8FYhYlFu/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW JAMAL TO STAY ENGAGED

https://www.instagram.com/lemmeeducateyou

https://twitter.com/lemmeeducateyou

https://www.tiktok.com/@lemmeeducateyou

In this episode Tonika talks about the change she is making to desegregate Chicago through community education, policy reform, and engagement with her non-profit, the Folded Map Project. The Folded Map Project explores the present day impact of Chicago's historic segregation, showing how you can have two different kinds of lived experiences that are often on the same street, but just miles apart.

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female-identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist, and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT TONIKA

Tonika Johnson is a photographer/social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago's South Side neighborhood of Englewood. She is also co-founder of two community-based organizations, Englewood Arts Collective and Resident Association of Greater Englewood, that mobilize people and resources for positive change. She turned the Folded Map project into a non-profit organization where she serves as Executive Director. She was named one of Field Foundation's Leaders for a New Chicago and most recently, she was appointed as a member of the Cultural Advisory Council of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events by the Chicago City Council.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• How Tonika's multimedia art project and non-profit, Folded Map, explores the present-day impact of Chicago's historic segregation by using her very unique grid map to compare different kinds of lived experiences that are often on the same street, but just miles apart.
• The insidious part of segregation and racism that minimizes the intellectual ability and genius of Black and Brown youth.
• Chicago as a legacy segregated city, meaning the segregation that people witness there is literally the same kind of segregation from 50-60 years ago.
• How segregation influences social networks, relationships, access to jobs, and quality schools.
• If the very thing that divides us is race and geography, what would it be like if we actually talked to our distant neighbors about the very things that are wrong with our cities?
• How the New York Times stole the concept of the Folded Map project.

CALL TO ACTION

• Make a donation to Folded Map project

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ak9t5PPHXcBnSVCffG1Lqsuf8FYhYlFu/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW TONIKA TO STAY ENGAGED

Creator of Folded Map Project - article by Chicago Tribune

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-folded-map-project-chicago-20180521-story.html

www.foldedmapproject.com

www.tonikaj.com

www.BelongingChicago.com

www.englewoodartscollective.com

In this episode Tonika talks about the change she is making to desegregate Chicago through community education, policy reform, and engagement with her non-profit, the Folded Map Project. The Folded Map Project explores the present day impact of Chicago's historic segregation, by using its grid map to compare addresses that are 15 miles apart. She highlights the Tale of Two Cities, showing how you can have two different kinds of lived experiences that are often on the same street, but just miles apart.

In this episode, Vava gives us the inside scoop on what it's like to be a Kenyan producer in the coffee industry. She shares how local producers, farmers, and prospective entrepreneurs are kept from accessing fair pay and opportunities to participate in the coffee trade, because all of the major farmlands are owned by whyte companies. Her mission is to change this through creating sustainable equity, education, opportunity, and personalizing the experience of coffee, as most consumers have no idea where their coffee comes from.

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT VAVA

In 2009, Vava Angwenyi started VAVA COFFEE – a Benefit Corporation (B-corp) with a Social enterprise model that exports, roasts and consults on coffee value chains, the organization aims to contribute to better future prospects for coffee communities and the industry as a whole. The company ensures sustainable livelihoods for the people and communities in which it works. Vava Angwenyi is also the co-founder and director business development & fundraising at GENTE DEL FUTURO (People of the Future). Gente Del Futuro formed in 2017 is an organization born out of a partnership between African Plantations Kilimanjaro, Vava Coffee Kenya and Oro Molido three private sector players within the coffee sector to tackle two of the main problems we face as an industry - Producer profitability and Next generation involvement. Gente Del Futuro's focus is to amplify the voices of youth by creating economic empowerment, choices and sustainability for the coffee industry. The organization offers young people a unique and one-of-a-kind learning opportunity by fusing coffee cultures and knowledge from three different growing origins : Tanzania, Kenya and Colombia. Ms. Angwenyi is also a founding member of Pamoja - Direct Trade Coffee Collective, this is a UK registered community interest company that has been established as the international marketing and distribution division for its members, coffee farmers. It is focused on building direct, cost-effective and fair relationships between its farmers and ethically aware international roasters.

Vava holds a Masters degree-Msc in International Finance and Management from University of Groningen as well as Certificate in Global Asset Management from Warrington College of Business, University of Florida and a Bachelor's degree in Statistics & Actuarial Science from University of Western Ontario- CANADA. Vava's vision is to challenge the status quo and promote positive social disruption within the Coffee industry. This vision comes from an inborn Kenyan passion for coffee and a drive to promote the sustainable production of coffee within Kenya's and the wider East African region by tracing the production of high quality coffee beans to the independent smallholder coffee farmer, who works day in and day out, against major obstacles and with meager resources to produce some of the world's best tasting coffees, often without an understanding or appreciation of the final fruits of their labor.

Vava is a CQI trained and certified Q grader ​Ms. Vava Angwenyi ​was part of the ​2015 International Visitors Leadership Program a prestigious State Department sponsored program coordinated in conjunction with ​African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA)​and African women enterprise program ​International Visitors Leadership Program​.

Vava a Cordes fellow 2017 and Global Social Benefit Institute alumni 2016, also serves as an Advisory Committee member for the Specialty Coffee Association's (SCA) sustainability council and is also part of the SCA's Event's site criteria Ad-hoc committee. ​In 2019 she was elected to serve on the SCA Board of Directors ​serving on the Finance and Sustainability Committees. In 2019 Vava Coffee was recognized as a ​Best for the world community Honoree ​- B Corp.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• While coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil, the industry was set up to keep the producers enslaved.
• The Kenyan coffee trade still operates from the rules set in 1958 by colonial masters.
• The people that own the largest plantations where coffee is produced, are whyte companies.
• The problems Kenyan coffee producers face due to whytness running the markets, dictating the pricing, and dictating the terms and conditions.
• They purposely create barriers and make it hard for local entrepreneurs to get into the coffee business.
• Why Kenyans only consume 6% (used to be 3%) of coffee produced in Kenya and have to rely on the western world to drink the beans.
• How Vava got into the coffee industry after having been exposed to $20 bags of Kenyan coffee at places like Starbucks and Tim Hortons, while witnessing her grandma complain about how she's getting nothing for her coffee.
• How producer images are used purely for exploitation purposes.
• Consumers doing their due diligence in researching what really happens in producing countries in terms of labor, the processes, the farm inputs, that producers have to put, what picking season looks like.
• How we can begin to be agents of change and pay more attention to what's happening in the world.
• Connecting to our purpose and being willing to work and grow within it!

CALL TO ACTION

• Be more attentive about what's happening in the world
• Purchase Vava's book & coffee

RESOURCES

• Coffee Milk Blood is a project and book inspired by Vava's own experience as an African woman in the industry. The theme of the book touches on appropriate storytelling/depiction of producers - how they want to be seen beyond the coffee and as Women, the African woman, the culture of the place as well as underpinnings of Colonialism that are the structures we still operate within in our industry. The main and limited edition versions of the book will be a tool the industry needs, especially challenging the visual context often seen of coffee origins, producing countries, and the faces behind the coffee.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW VAVA TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: swww.vavacoffeeinc.com

Website: www.coffeemilkblood.com

Website: https://www.gente-delfuturo.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vavacoffeekenya

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gentefuturo

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coffeemilkblood

In this episode Weeze and Nazshonnii talk about how we can take accountability and give land back to Indigenous folks. It's more than just googling a tribe and sharing the Federally recognized name of a trie. This process involves us doing our own research on our lineage to understand how communities were colonized and tribes were lost, looking deeper into the land we occupy to see who those tribes are and what they need present day, it calls for us to speak up against problematic behavior, and more.

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT NAZSHONNII

Nazshonnii is a STEM educator and mechanical engineer working on both land and office projects. She leads food distribution, engineering design, and community outreach. She is passionate about STEAM education and advocates for exposure and opportunities for underrepresented groups, especially Black and Native young women.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• Stepping in and interrupting problematic behavior, including the way Indigenous land has been taken and colonized.
• Researching our own privilege, our lineage, and how we got where we are.
• Ways we can participate in giving land back to Indigenous folks.
• The relationship Indigenous people have with the land, and how it creates homes, security, jobs, community, food, medicine, and more.

CALL TO ACTION

• Perform research on the land you occupy. Look into the tribes and get to know who the people are and what they need, beyond federal recognition.

RESOURCES

• Shuumi Land Tax and How to Come Correct document. Sunday Farm Stand at Gill Tract Community Farm, 2-5pm

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mBtApOEVq4IcnTZZK1J1NCzVUXDRKLmZqsI2MyDs-wc/edit?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW NAZSHONNII TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: sogoreate-landtrust.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sogoreatelandtrust

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/villages_of_lisjan

In this second part of the episode, Weeze has a conversation with Sidewalk School's Academic Director and Teacher, Rainier Rodriguez. Sidewalk School is an organization that educates and supports those facing displacement in the Matamoros Tent City, a refugee camp. Having been granted asylum in January 2020, Ray takes us through the experience of what it was like to go through the process, detailing what people are forced to endure.

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT RAY

Rainer "Ray" Rodriguez is a Cuban English professor/ Interpreter who worked as a professor at the technical university in Havana. After suffering from political persecution and discrimination with no other option, he left to Panama and crossed 2500 miles through Central America to reach the Southern border of the USA. In Matamoros, he worked with many organizations helping asylum seekers and worked at the Sidewalk School since the beginning teaching and being the Academic Director of the school. He was granted asylum in January of 2020 when he moved to Washington DC and continues working with the school.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• Ray's journey as an asylum seeker from Cuba and what the process looked like.
• Living in Mexico, taking daily trips to the border to eat and wait to be called, court dates, being in unsafe environments, the lack of infrastructure around being able to work and earn money, and more.
• How going to the border as an asylum seeker to get food led him to meeting Felicia.
• How Ray was able to be a translator between the American organizations and Central American asylum seekers, so folks could get what they needed.
• Dismantling the narrative of asylum seekers being uneducated, criminals, and liars who only want to come to America to steal jobs.
• How the process is designed to create hurdles for people to actually win any asylum case.
• The tone of aggression, disbelief, trauma, and lack of resources people have when going to court.

CALL TO ACTION

• Educate yourself about what is happening with asylum seekers before you just donate. Investigate, see who's behind the organizations, and then support.
• If you have the education that can help others, maybe you can speak another language, volunteer your time.
• Donate to Sidewalk School: https://www.sidewalkschool.org
• Purchase Mel's artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-fFpzorlE3lCC4DwKN7Gz8XRy4l6inl3/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW RAY TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.sidewalkschool.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidewalkschool

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r4ystackhouse

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesidewalkschool/

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sidewalkschool

This episode is part one of two amazing episodes we've got with The Sidewalk School. In this episode, Weeze has a conversation with Director Felicia, about how The Sidewalk School was founded in response to the need for education and support for those facing displacement in the Matamoros Tent City, a refugee camp. They discuss the realities of asylum seekers and how they've been mistreated due to Trump's immigration policy changes, Biden's backwards approach to "fixing" them, and what we can do to support these folks who legally did exactly what they were supposed to, but have been displaced for years...years!

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT FELICIA

Felicia Rangel-Samponaro holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Houston. Prior to moving to Brownsville, TX, she was a certified teacher in the Houston area. Felicia is married and is a proud mother to her 9-year-old son. Despite being a non-Spanish speaker amongst a fully Spanish-speaking staff, she has been a volunteer in the Matamoros Tent City with the Asylum Seekers since late 2018. Through her work with the Sidewalk School, she believes that anything is possible, especially creating and running schools in Mexico.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• The education and resources Sidewalk School provides to asylum seekers in the Matamoras encampment.
• How the Matamoras encampment grew to a population of 5000 displaced people!
• How Trump silently legalized the separation and kidnapping of children in internment camps.
• How children were sent to kid jails from a matter of weeks to years, deported back to their native countries, and placed in foster care.
• The backwards way Pres. Robinette has decided to "fix" the Migrant Protection Program.

CALL TO ACTION

• Donate to Sidewalk School: https://www.sidewalkschool.org

• Purchase Mel's artwork: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/10p5HbMf0Uq92Vh-e6WRpp-6c7w_GbY7Z/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW FELICIA TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.sidewalkschool.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesidewalkschool

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesidewalkschool/

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SidewalkSchool

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sidewalkschool

In this episode Bex talks about leaving Hay House, the largest mind body, spirit publisher in the world, due their choice to engage in racist and dangerous practices. She shares about the support (and lack thereof) she received after leaving, gives us a breakdown of how the publishing industry works and what authors experience, and she talks about her new equitable and transparent publishing company, Wheat Penny Press. 

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.  

ABOUT BEX

Rebekah “Bex” Borucki, founder of BexLife® and the Blissed In® wellness movement, is a mother of five, a mentor for creative healers, and an author and publisher of books for big and little readers. As a mentor to creative healers, Rebekah guides her clients to create books and brand presences from the ground up and the heart outward. Her clients have gone on to receive publishing contracts with major houses like Simon & Schuster and Hay House. Rebekah is published by Hay House, the Quarto Publishing Group, and her own imprint, Wheat Penny Press. And most recently, Rebekah founded the WPP Little Readers Big Change Initiative, a 501(c)(3) registered public charity that provides free books, mental wellness tools, author visits, and writing workshops for students in grades PreK-8, public libraries, and community organizations.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• Bex’s journey in leaving Hay House Publishing due to their racist and dangerous practices and their support of white supremacists & conspiracy theorists.
• How the publishing industry preys on authors and keeps them from accessing what they deserve for their work.
• How Bex’s belief in what publishing can and should look like birthed her publishing company, Wheat Penny Press.
• Leaning in to what doesn’t exist yet and creating it. 
• Honoring your journey and being honest about the fact that we all participate in the system in various ways, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. But we’re always learning and changing.
• What’s possible when we practice expanding our horizons and how we can facilitate change.

CALL TO ACTION

 

• Rebekah is seeking support for her organization, the Little Readers Big Change Initiative, and her campaigns that support Black and brown authors and bookshops here: https://www.wheatpennypress.com/shop/support

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

•  

RESOURCES MENTIONED

 

• Own Voices Movement

 

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED 

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW BEX TO STAY ENGAGED

Website:BexLife.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bexlife

Website: WheatPennyPress.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheatpennypress

In this episode, Weeze and Tyrel & Shane of X Books have a very real conversation about how the prison industrial complex blocks access to books for incarcerated folks and how X Books is a part of that solution. Through book donations, drives, and funding, X Books is stepping in to fill the much needed gap of giving reading materials to folks who are in prison, so they have an opportunity to receive enrichment, education, and support.

ABOUT WEEZE

Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She's known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.

ABOUT SHANE FOSTER AND TYREL DALE

Shane Foster (he/him) is part of the group that organized and founded X Books, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Atlanta, GA, in the fall of 2020. He has his bachelor's degree in social work from Florida State University and a master's degree in communications from Georgia State University. He currently works in HR for a software company, has lived in Atlanta for 8 years now, and is proud to call this community home. Shane is beyond excited for what X Books can become and is thankful for the groups across the country doing similar work and honored to work alongside them in our mission to provide books to people that are currently incarcerated.

Tyrel Dale (he/him) is a founding board member of X Books, Inc. He attended the University of Georgia and majored in Political Science and African American Studies. During his time at UGA. He is currently a Policy Analyst at the Georgia General Assembly. His focus is on education, criminal justice, and workforce-related issues. After the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and Ahmaud Arbary, he was inspired to find ways to help the incarcerated community outside of the slow moving electoral system. He sees X Books becoming a non-profit that will be able to educate and inspire all Georgians of their power to disassemble the prison industrial system.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• Breaking barriers to book distribution, especially within the criminal justice system.
• The prison system and how it intentionally withholds and blocks incarcerated people from accessing books.
• The system cannot afford to give those that it has intentionally disenfranchised and oppressed, the guidebook to their own liberation.
• How prisons are switching to E-Books and upcharging incarcerated folks for internet access to be able to use E-Readers, and they're also heavily locked in with Amazon.
• Dismantling the systems that are blocking book access, teaming up with local bookstores & organizations, and providing funding to create opportunities.

CALL TO ACTION

Find an organization closest to you in your state that is doing similar work, and then follow, engage ,and donate to X Books.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OR-PfhqsJ4BM1Z2Tl9NX8JKskrt3EALX/view?usp=sharing

FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze

The Academy (it's like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy

FOLLOW SHANE FOSTER AND TYREL DALE TO STAY ENGAGED

Website: https://xbooks.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/x__books/