Thanks to the work of Black and Brown organizers and their communities, President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris will be inaugurated in just a few weeks. We had their back, but how is the Biden Administration planning to ensure that the federal government has ours? Despite the Trump Administration’s departure from the White House, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color communities still experience persistent disparities in the form of the racial wealth gap, police brutality, immigration detention, voter suppression and disenfranchisement, student debt burden and COVID-19 rates. What will it take to build on the power of the uprisings of 2020 and historic voter turnout and advance a movement for racial justice?

Join us for the second in a series of town hall conversations that centers community power, starting with the vote, then developing movement strategy, and finally organizing for policy change.

In this town hall, we will gather with movement leaders from different sectors to examine:

How do we grow power, building on record voter turnout and knowing that organizing beyond elections is what will move us toward meaningful change?

How do we transform policy with communities at the center of those solutions?

How do we transform institutions and sectors -- first by undoing the Executive Order banning anti-racism trainings so that we can at least have these conversations -- and then building more equitable and accountable institutions?

And how do we transform culture so that we collectively live and breathe a vision for racial justice?

For questions , please email us at bre@raceforward.org

Speakers:

Paris Hatcher is a Black, queer visionary feminist who has has been organizing individuals and organizations toward liberation at the local, national, and international level for twenty years. Currently, Paris is the founder and Director of Black Feminist Future, a national Black feminist organization that amplifies and builds the power of Black feminist leaders, organizations and movements. In this capacity, she also serves on the leadership team of the Movement for Blak LIves. Prior to her work with Black Feminist Future, Paris managed network strategies at Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation, and worked as Principal at Rhombus Consulting Group, working to advance intersectional strategy toward queer liberation and racial, gender, and reproductive justice. She provided technical assistance, group facilitation, and designed innovative cultural and policy campaigns thatvcentered the power and expertise of Black women. In 20055, Paris co-founded and was the Executive Director of SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, a leading reproductive health, queer and trans* justice organization in the Southeast where she was born and has built her life. Her expertise and commitment to southern leadership is undeniable. Paris earned a Bachelor of Arts in women’s studies from East Carolina University and Masters of Arts in Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University with a research focus on Caribbean women’s activism and social movements. She lives in Atlanta with her beloved and her pup.

Candace Moore Upon taking office, Chicago’s new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, appointed Candace Moore to serve as the City’s first Chief Equity Officer. Charged with leading the new Office of Equity and Racial Justice, Candace has been tasked with advancing policies and practices that promote equitable outcomes across city services and resources.

Prior to serving as the City’s Chief Equity Officer, Candace advocated for educational equity through a lens of racial and social justice at the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. She was instrumental in the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee’s re-launch of the Educational Equity Project. Candace’s work with the Chicago Lawyer’s Committee focused on organizing legal advocacy resources to address disparate school discipline and barriers to enrollment for students throughout Chicago and its surrounding communities. As a next generation civil rights advocate, she believes that it is imperative to work in partnership with community-based advocates and institutional policy makers to achieve sustainable and meaningful solutions.

Candace‘s dedication to public service and advocacy is fueled by her own trials and triumphs and the countless stories of people who continue to be unfairly met with systemic barriers. Whether serving as a case manager for adults with disabilities at the Association for Individual Development or a Community Education Manager at the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Candace’s past professional experiences have ignited a passion to be intentional in her work and created an unrelenting desire to be an agent of change. She is a proud graduate of both Loyola University Chicago’s undergraduate program and the School of Law (J.D.’13). Beyond her formal education, Candace engages in thought leadership and advocacy surrounding her deep commitment to empowering people to develop their own voice and be their own agents of change and is an alumna of the inaugural Surge Fellowship cohort and the Shriver Center’s inaugural class of the Racial Justice Initiative.

Rinku Sen is the Executive Director of Narrative Initiative. She is a writer and social justice strategist. She is formerly the Executive Director of Race Forward and was Publisher of their award-winning news site Colorlines. Under Sen’s leadership, Race Forward generated some of the most impactful racial justice successes of recent years, including Drop the I-Word, a campaign for media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as “illegal,” resulting in the Associated Press, USA Today, LA Times, and many more outlets changing their practice. She was also the architect of the Shattered Families report, which identified the number of kids in foster care whose parents had been deported.

Her books Stir it Up and The Accidental American theorize a model of community organizing that integrates a political analysis of race, gender, class, poverty, sexuality, and other systems. As a consultant, Rinku has worked on narrative and political strategy with numerous organizations and foundations, including PolicyLink, the ACLU and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She serves on numerous boards, including the Women’s March, where she is Co-President and the Foundation for National Progress, publisher of Mother Jones magazine.