The Next World

On this episode, part one of a two part interview, Mamyrah Prosper discusses her personal history as the daughter of a political prisoner in Haiti through her movement activism and work as a scholar, as well as recent Haitian political history, from the Duvaliers through Jovenel Moïse. Stay tuned for part two, as we discuss the assassination of Moïse and the aftermath, as well as grassroots responses.

Mamyrah Prosper is International Coordinator for Community Movement Builders, and Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at UC Irvine. She immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti at age 15, leaving her parents behind, and moved in with her sister’s family in New Jersey. 

Following a family tradition of activism for social justice – her father was a human and labor rights activist – she champions causes including women’s rights, affordable housing and land rights. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development, a central social movement for social justice in Haiti.

Outside of the classroom, Mamyrah has volunteered at Take Back the Land, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, and the Correctional Association of New York. During her time at FIU, she helped organize two conferences on Afro-Latino social movements and feminist reimaginings of the nation that involved academics, students, activists and performing artists. She also served as a teaching assistant and lecturer. Mamyrah has authored and co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, book reviews and encyclopedia entries.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

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Cole WIlliams of the Greater New Orleans Citizen's Relief Team talks with host Max Rameau about liberating homes owned by the city of New Orleans, renovating them, and moving in unhoused people.

Described as having ​“the heart of Bob Marley, soul of Sam Cooke and grit of Etta James”,​ New Orleans-based Cole Williams and The Cole Williams Band (CWB) has rooted their sound in the tradition of ​Gil Scott-Heron​, creating songs that reflect the everyday experiences and hopes of Black people all around the world. Their new album, ​“Give Power to the People''​ are anthems of the Movement for Black Lives and certainly for people struggling to make sense out of this dangerous and hopeful moment.

Over the course of her career, Cole has provided vocals and percussion for Joey Bada$$, Chiddy Bang, Beats By The Pound, Aloe Blacc, Little Jackie, Diane Birch, Somi, Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, Kaissa, Dana Fuchs, Pimps Of Joytime, Holy Warriors (Harold Brown, Bill Summers, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes), and commercial/tv recordings for CoverGirl, JCPenney, Suave, Smash, and Khloe and Kourtney Take Miami. CWBs’ live performance highlights include The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Joshua Tree Music Festival, French Quarter Festival, Blue Note NYC and opened for India Arie, Emily King, Ozomatli, The Wild Magnolias, Corey Henry and Treme Funktet, and Lauryn Hill.

Following frequent street demonstrations at New Orleans’ City Hall, Williams and T​he Greater New Orleans Citizens Relief Team​ organized and succeeded in getting the City to provide emergency housing in empty hotels in August 2020, and now they are renovating City-owned blighted houses with the presently unhoused people that will live in them. “We are calling all creatives to action. Now is the time for musicians, artists, dancers, rappers, poets, actors and actresses to unite and design a culture where we share our gifts, skills, talents and resources with the least of ours, specifically in the unhoused community, to create a world where wealth is shared equally, and white supremacy cannot survive”    

The bedrock of The Cole Williams Band’s new album and community organizing follows the course civil rights veteran, Ella Baker, taught that created a successful and historic freedom movement. ​“Give Power To The People”,​ articulates the core of their organizing: go to the poorest people, create a shared plan for advancement, raise the spirits and awareness of our people, gain broad support and make it happen. “We believe the practice of humanity is the blueprint for freedom and equality”.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

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M. Adams, Co-Executive Director of Freedom, Inc, talks with host Max Rameau about Black-Asian solidarity, lessons from multiracial organizing in a mostly white Midwest city, and their recent victory in removing police from schools in Madison, Wisconsin.

M. Adams is a community organizer and co-executive director of Freedom Inc. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Adams has been in Madison since 2003. Adams’s dad has been incarcerated most of her life and she comes from a community that has been the extreme targets of police violence.  In March 2016, Adams’s mother transitioned after fighting cancer and many forms of violence. Adams is also a parent and sees her family as a primary motivator for her work. 

As a queer Black person, Adams has developed and advocated for a strong intersectional approach in numerous important venues. Adams is a leading figure in the Take Back the Land Movement, she presented before the United Nations for the Convention on Eliminating Racial Discrimination, she is a co-author of Forward from Ferguson and a paper on Black community control over the police, and she contributed to intersectionality theory in Why Killing Unarmed Black folks is a Queer issue.

Freedom, Inc. (FI) is a Black and Southeast Asian non-profit organization that works with low- to no-income communities of color in Madison, Wisconsin. Their mission is to achieve social justice through coupling direct services with leadership development and community organizing that will bring about social, political, cultural, and economic change resulting in the end of violence against women, gender-non-conforming and transgender folks, and children within communities of color. FI works to challenge the root causes of violence, poverty, racism and discrimination. Their belief is that people who are most affected by these issues must have voice, power, resources and choice, in order for true social change to happen.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

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Philadelphia Housing Action used direct action to force the city of Philadelphia to relinquish over 60 vacant homes for a community land trust for housing for the homeless. Sterling Johnson and Jenn Bennetch, two organizers with Philadelphia Housing Action, join host Max Rameau to discuss their victories and setbacks in their work to take over vacant housing in Philadelphia, and explore lessons for the movement for housing.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

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This episode, adapted from a recent webinar hosted by Partners for Dignity & Rights, is an important conversation on community solutions to the interconnected crises we are facing in this political moment. Liz Sullivan-Yuknis of Partners for Dignity & Rights facilitated a conversation with frontline organizations, including: 

Scot Nakagawa, ChangeLab
Adriana Foster, United Workers
Letha Muhammad, Education Justice Alliance & Dignity In Schools Campaign
Crystal Hayling, The Libra Foundation
and poet Sunni Patterson.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org and Sha'Condria "iCon" Sibley at icontheartist.com. Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

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On this special bonus episode of The Next World, we feature highlights from a recent conversation with organizations of essential workers and impacted communities. Cathy Albisa of Partners for Dignity & Rights facilitated a conversation on how we can not just save lives, but also expand human rights and make us all safer in the future. 

Speakers on this episode include:

Poet and organizer Cynthia Dewi Oka.
Tim Bell, Executive Director, Chicago Workers' Collaborative.
Magaly Licolli, Cofounder of Venceremos.
Merle Payne, Co-Director of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL).
Scott Nova, Executive Director, Worker Rights Consortium.
Marita Canedo, Program Coordinator, Migrant Justice - Justicia Migrante
Todd Cherkis, Co-Founder, United Workers
Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko, co-founder and co-coordinator Put People First! PA, co-chair PA Poor People’s Campaign and national steering committee member.
Letha Muhammad, Director, Education Justice Alliance and Coordinating Committee Member, Dignity In Schools Campaign.
Regan Pritzker, Board President, The Libra Foundation.
And (in the Q&A) Marley Monacello, Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

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On this episode of The Next World, we focus on the organization Moms 4 Housing. Our guests are two members of the organization, Carroll Fife, Director of the Oakland chapter of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and current candidate for Oakland's District 3 City Council seat, and housing activist Dominique Walker, who participated in the first Moms 4 Housing housing takeover. Carroll and Dominique joined host Max Rameau to discuss what brought them to the act of civil disobedience of moving families into empty housing in Oakland, how they are handling the current pandemic, and what is next in the movement for housing. The episode also features an introduction and closing poem from Sha'Condria 'iCon' Sibley.

Dominique Walker is a member of Moms 4 Housing who participated in the Oakland takeover and lived at the house with her family.

Carroll Fife is an on-the-ground organizer, educator, mother and 20-year resident of Oakland. She has served as co-founder and co-chair of the Oakland Alliance, Oakland Justice Coalition, and the Community Ready Corps where she works to create racial justice and increase access to quality jobs, housing, and education for those who need them most. Carroll is the founder of Black Women in Elected Leadership PAC and an elected member of the Oakland NAACP’s Executive Committee. In 2014, she served as the Campaign Coordinator for a mayoral race that became the City's political compass and in 2016 she ran Oakland’s first African American, all-female slate. She currently serves as Director of the Oakland/San Francisco Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and is a candidate for Oakland's District 3 City Council seat.

Sha’Condria "iCon" Sibley stands for those whose names are often overlooked and whose voices are even more so silenced in today’s society. A New Orleans based award-winning poet, writer, author, visual artist, multidisciplinary performing artist, teaching artist, event curator & coordinator, little girl (turned grown woman) with a big name, iCon has had much of her work featured on outlets such as Upworthy, Huffington Post, For Harriet, Fusion, Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, BET, and BBC World Radio. She uses her work/ words largely to speak on issues affecting Blk women as they relate to self-acceptance/ Love, (re)defining beauty, race relations, experiences growing up in the deep South, identity, and healing. See more at https://icontheartist.com, and look out for her new book, My Name is Pronounced Holy, this summer!

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

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This month: We are excited to welcome Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan and Mateo Nube of Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. Movement Generation inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture. Michelle and Mateo joined host Max Rameau to discuss viral superhighways, land & capitalism, and environmental justice.

Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan has worked for the last 25 years building movement vehicles for frontline communities to move a shared vision and strategy. Prior to Movement Generation, Michelle co-led the Center for Food and Justice, National Farm to School Initiative, Rooted in Community, and School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL). Michelle is also currently on the board of the New Economy Coalition.

Mateo Nube is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements, and is also a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies. 

Check out Movement Generation's new course: Course Correction: Just Transition in the Age of COVID-19.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.

Support the show

In this special bonus episode, Laketa Smith of Voice Of The Experienced (VOTE) in Louisiana joins host Max Rameau to discuss environmental justice, prisons, and prison reform versus prison abolition. Laketa Smith is a proud dual member of Voice Of The Experienced in their New Orleans & Baton Rouge Chapters, Executive Director of A Bella LaFemme Society, and a mentor and advocate for social justice.

This episode was recorded before COVID-19 had been declared a pandemic across the U.S. Of course, communities in jails and prisons are more at risk now than ever before, and the need to free them all has become more urgent than ever. For that reason, we wanted you to hear from a grassroots organization that is led by the formerly incarcerated, even though this episode does not directly address COVID-19 organizing. You can find out about and support VOTE's organizing to free Louisiana's prisoners in response to COVID-19 at vote-nola.org/covid-response.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights. See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation. 

Support the show.

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This month: Cathy Albisa, co-founder and executive director of Partners for Dignity & Rights, and Ben Palmquist, Program Director for Health Care and Economic Democracy at Partners for Dignity & Rights. Cathy and Ben join host Max Rameau to discuss a human rights response to COVID-19, focusing on housing, healthcare, dignity in schools, and workers' rights.

See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org.

This our first episode of season two of The Next World! Stay subscribed for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.

Support the show.

Support the show