2018/2019 Liberation School Cohort 

 

Aly Tharp (they/them or she/her) lives in Austin, Texas, and in their free time is an arts-activist and community organizer supporting a food forest on public parkland in Austin and climate justice movements (particularly in Texas and the Gulf South). Aly got into arts-activism in 2012 by joining community resistance to tar sands pipelines running through East Texas. She now works as the program director for an organization called the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth, seeking to galvanize and support powerful, liberatory, faith-based community action for climate & environmental justice around the continent.

Amy Turner is a Creole Woman of Color as well as a member of the Natchitoches Indian Tribe of Louisiana. Former Juvenile Probation Officer, who grew tired of having her passion for justice exploited. She returned to her hometown, Campti, Louisiana (pop. 1000) to continue the work that was started by her ancestors. Liberation School South is exactly what her soul needs as she gracefully (yeah right) follows the guidance of those who came before her. As an oracle in the Bible Belt, her beliefs are not always well received, but she answers to no one, but God and her eggun.

 Andrea Miller, founder and director of People Demanding Action/Center for Common Ground, and works with the Poor People’s Campaign lives in Virginia. She was a Congressional candidate for the VA 4th district in 2008. She Empowers community of color voters in voter suppression states (VA, GA, FL, TX, TN, AL, MS, WI, AZ, PA) with voter registration, voter information and rides to the polls. Her father was a union organizer and she attended a social justice church. When she was 12 she attended labor organizing training put on by Caesar Chavez and spent weekends for the next four years asking shoppers not to buy “scab” grapes at the local supermarkets. At Northwestern, she protested the Vietnam war as a racist war designed to force capitalism down the throats of small, local Vietnamese communities. In 2010 she worked to restore voting rights to people with past felony convictions. Her campaign efforts were able to create the most progressive format for restoration of rights until 2016 when Governor McAuliffe made the process semi-automatic. Here current work with the Poor People’s Campaign utilizes all her skills from childhood and past organizations.

Andrea is a bridge builder and encourages people to find the power within themselves. She loves animals (7 cats and 3 fish tanks). When I was younger I raised Angora rabbits and spun their wool while they slept on my lap. She is a spinner, weaver and seamstress.  

Angela Henderson is an abolitionist-minded, saxophone-playing socialist, and lifelong student of Black radical traditions hoping to live the life she plays about. Growing up in the suburbs of Nashville, TN, classism, miseducation, and isolation characterized her experience as a young Black person. Now, she finds power in knowledge by recognizing its capacity to restore us with intellectual and imaginative rigor. Rooted in a spiritual foundation of divine love, devotional music, and the creative works of Black women, Angela is compelled to listen deeply, seek truth through honest political education, and apply this knowledge towards the ongoing liberation and healing efforts of her communities.

Asha Kuziwa is an organizer, healer, and teacher. she practices folk plant medicine as an integral part of her self care and survival, and believes in the transformational magic of healing with food.

Austen Hyde works with Austin Environmental Justice (ATXEJ), Festival Beach Food Forest. Their roles with both organizations have included helping organize for and at rallies, hearings, and press conferences. For ATXEJ, they have helped plant and lead groups of planters on work days for the Food Forest. Austin believes in collaboration and cooperation as magic, and in the power of words, performance, and intentional collective actions. They have learned from horizontally-structured theater groups, are beginning to apply those principles to anti-racist, social and environmental justice work. Austin loves to play music and is part of a neopagan learning circle.

Christiane Riederer works with Poor People’s Campaign, Food & Water Watch, Virginians against Pipelines, Together Hanover - immigration committee, LULAC. She is a Graphic Designer and a painter. For the past six years, before leaving to become a full time “agitator”, she was a shop owner in my little town of Ashland, VA. The shop is called re•funk•it, they upcycled, recycled -  in order to reinvent and feature regional artisans and tinkerers. Christiane’s recent art exhibit was displayed at the local Sierra Club and investigated climate change through paintings of deceased animals.

Dakota Shyanne Adams is a multiracial (hispanic/white/black) 18 year old. Her life was dramatically influenced by the death of her young brother. She immediately began to organize around his memorial and accidently found herself creating healing space for herself and her community. She likes to dance, sing and learning with new people. She lives in Campti, Louisiana.

Jawharrah Bahar was born in a Portsmith, VA Military Hospital. Since her dad was in the Navy, Bahar’s family travelled often. Growing up with domestic violence, substance abuse, and mental health issues, Bahar experienced a chaotic family environment which led her to have severe behavioral problems. In 2010, she was arrested and served 3 years and 7 months. After battling issues of homelessness, unemployment, and child custody, she has now committed to healing and reconnecting with her children by prioritizing their mental health. In the fall of 2016, Jawharrah joined Free Hearts, an organization that educates, advocates, and supports families impacted by incarceration.  As a director, she has contributed to legislation, spoken at community events, participated in local advocacy campaigns, and raised community awareness through social media videos. In April 2018, Jawharrah established her own company--Artistry Skin & Beauty, Inc--where she provides aesthetic services such as skincare to promote women’s entrepreneurship. No matter what Jawharrah does, she will continue to fight for social justice and community-based alternatives to incarceration.

Liz Trantanella Louisville has become my home over the past 7 years and now more than ever I am, excited to take part in organizing in the South. The majority of my twenties have included being a full time parent, working towards an undergraduate degree, various jobs and passions. Over the past several years I have dived head first into what I would like to call radical doula work. I am a professional full spectrum doula on my own and a reproductive justice activist.  I also am the founder of the Louisville Doula Project, which is a volunteer doula collective that supports people through birth, abortion, miscarriage, adoption etc. Through this work, engaging, and educating those interested I hope to improve healthcare support models and ideas in the Louisville community. In my free time I can be found in the garden, cooking food for my friends, hiking or riding my bike. I have an 8 year old named Ingram and a partner named Zach who can be found doing research at UofL School of Medicine. 

Marcella D Camara is a Liberian-American creative, curator, rj advocate, health educator, birth worker, cultural alchemist and story teller, among other things. With a background in cultural organizing and public health, her work centers using art and culture as a praxis for social justice and community wellness. As a Durham native and first generation American southern girl, Marcella attributes her creative ingenuity and passion for community to the city’s dynamic art and social justice landscapes. She is a tribe member of Spirithouse, where she uses cultural arts and public health to center reproductive justice, anti-racism and healing work. Her passion is using all avenues of her creativity to create space for black folks and make the world a more equitable place. Currently, she works as a creative director and curator, as well as coordinates youth programming and various community initiatives throughout North Carolina.

Maria Carr For the last 8 years, I have made my home in Louisville, Kentucky. I am a new (Nov 2018) Certified Nurse Midwife and looking for my first job in this role. This is a time of transition for me as I consider starting a family and my next career steps and I’m taking time to reflect on myself and step forward with this community in solidarity. I hold a BA in Biology and Spanish from Luther College, a BSN from the University of Louisville, and an MSN from Frontier Nursing University. I am the co-founder of the Louisville Doula Project, a volunteer doula collective for the full spectrum of pregnancy experiences. I worked in labor & delivery and postpartum as an RN in a high risk setting at the University of Louisville Hospital for 2.5 years. I have supported pregnant people as a nurse in Boise, Idaho, at Kentucky’s last abortion clinic, and at Women’s Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill, NC. I hope to complete my Doctorate of Nursing Practice by 2022. My long-term goal is to open Kentucky’s first birth center so that Kentucky has more options, and a sacred space for improving all pregnancy experiences. I am grateful and honored to support options in pregnancy and to promote health in the Louisville community. I am dedicated to reproductive health and justice as they are integral to improving life and reducing health disparities. In my free time, I love to fix bikes, remodel my house, dance, hike, and garden. I practice meditation with the Louisville Community of Mindful Living and recharge with hikes in our precious remaining wild spaces. I have a pup named Beulah and a partner named Chris who is a fantastic contra dancer.

Raven Dickerson is a full spectrum volunteer doula with D.C. Doula’s for Choice (D.C.D.C), community healer, and committed anti-violence movement advocate, organizer, storyholder/teller, and social worker/direct service provider. As a native Texan and savvy southern dissenter she finds joy in the erupting southern energy to lead the decolonization of our healing. She works to increase survivors access to healing and housing opportunities as the Chief Program Officer for Domestic Violence Services and is a Governing Body member for the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance. She is queer and loves lifting heavy and is training for a strong[wo]man competition in the very distant future.  Raven works to shift tension and spirit in the body to receive wisdom from divine presences, the earth, and those in solidarity with us; and liberative dance!

Rose Espinola (they/them) has worked on more than a dozen successful campaigns around labor, reproductive justice, prison abolition, and environmental justice. Rose currently works in the progressive tech space, as Director of Partner Development at Action Network. Rose is also a founder of La Luchita Project, which facilitates sliding-scale trips to Cuba for U.S.-based educators and community organizers. Magic exists everywhere for Rose: in their dreams, in organizing, and in their relationship to this earth.

Sunny Osment has been organizing since grade school. She has worked with the NC NAACP and is part of a part of a group called a New and Unsettling Force, which grew out of a group of millennials working with the Poor People’s Campaign. The spiritual dimension of the Moral Movement has been so meaningful in her journey developing her own liberatory spirituality. Additionally, she has learned from the Zapatista Movement in Mexico.

She loves seeing the world through astrology and uses it as a way to support herself and others as a novice astrologer. Sunny feels like she shines in movement work when she helps create atmospheres that center people’s healing and facilitate hard conversations when people are harmed. She is finishing her thesis at University of North Carolina, exploring the spirituality of white antiracism as a practice.

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