Help Dawn Build Black Agency
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What is Black Agency?
It’s all in the name. Black Agency is about understanding and utilizing our power and influence (our agency), investing in our collective selves, and building Black. It is also a space where people come for support when experiencing anti-Blackness within any of our local systems and institutions. We’re not only supporting people manifesting their own power to make systemic change, but also helping enhance people’s skills sets in learning how to organize around their experience in other key life areas.
Long Beach has gone too long without collective Black organizing space. As a result, a lot of Black people have felt forced out of the city without other alternatives for improving living conditions often steeped in racism. There have been huge gaps in collaborative power and resource allocation amongst the remaining percent of us left in the city. Black Agency is filling the void in order for us to community-build around all of our life area needs, including: Youth & Education; Science & Technology; Black Health and Spirituality; Economic and Entrepreneurship Development; Black Business and Jobs support; Land Access and Use; Housing Access, Affordability and Ownership; Decriminalization; Black Culture, Arts and Music.
Your contributions to this fundraiser enables Long Beach Organizer Dawn Modkins to expand her long time local activism and coordination work to establish this Black organizing space that is Black Agency.
Throughout Long Beach, there is a vibrant historical legacy of white supremacy and racism. This racism created entrenched negative social, educational, legal, economic and political effects that have inflicted generational trauma at the hands of the state, by both local systems and by civilians acting out of prejudice or anti-Blackness.
Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement and the formation of our local chapter of BLM Long Beach in 2014, we have been on the front lines, disrupting systemic racism, anti-Blackness and state violence. We have been organizing against police violence and centering those most impacted, specifically the families of those murdered by police. We have remained in partnership with broad community groups, Black and non-Black residents, businesses owners, youth, nonprofits educators, and other organized and unorganized groups who also seek justice, systemic change, and seek to hold decision makers accountable.
We are a brilliant people, professionals, leaders, mothers, fathers, village aunties and uncles, entrepreneurs, hard workers, community activists, healers, thinkers, teachers, artists, creatives -- gifted teams who have been working closest in working class grassroots communities. They have embraced their duty to fight through generational trauma and its hold on our current generation, in order to improve the conditions we’ve been impacted by. Our teams are made up of those who are the experts in the above mentioned life areas and who are the ones leading the re-imagined advancement in each of those areas. Our intentions are to make space for, and center, those who are already doing the work on the ground amongst those most impacted. With the support of Black Agency, they will continue to empower and encourage those most impacted to participate in and lead the strengthening and development of these life areas.
The recent tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor were very different situations but all reflect the same powerlessness that Black people have historically felt-- and very much so for our Black Long Beach community. While these killings have awakened yet another level of fresh global consciousness with ground swells of anger and cries for justice for Black people, we remain mindful of our own local state and police violence and not allow decision makers in Long Beach to forget about accountability for those killings by our own police department; Cezannie Mount, Tyler Woods, Hector Morejon, Danté Jordan, Feras Morad, Noel Aguilar, Carey Smith-Viramontez, Martin Hurtado, Barry Prak, Jason Conocenti, Doug Zerby, Lionel Gibson, Kerry Michael Bounsom, Luis Ramirez, Jordan Michael Griffin, Catherine Gomez, Marcella Byrd, Ron Settles and so many others. Let us not forget Frederick Taft, killed in Pan American Park by a suspected white supremist vigilante July 21, 2018. The $30,000 reward still exists for the capture of Fred's killer. As we continue to fight for true justice, we also recognize our duty to lift up the on-the-ground Black building work in our city and can make this a reality with your support!
It’s all in the name. Black Agency is about understanding and utilizing our power and influence (our agency), investing in our collective selves, and building Black. It is also a space where people come for support when experiencing anti-Blackness within any of our local systems and institutions. We’re not only supporting people manifesting their own power to make systemic change, but also helping enhance people’s skills sets in learning how to organize around their experience in other key life areas.
Long Beach has gone too long without collective Black organizing space. As a result, a lot of Black people have felt forced out of the city without other alternatives for improving living conditions often steeped in racism. There have been huge gaps in collaborative power and resource allocation amongst the remaining percent of us left in the city. Black Agency is filling the void in order for us to community-build around all of our life area needs, including: Youth & Education; Science & Technology; Black Health and Spirituality; Economic and Entrepreneurship Development; Black Business and Jobs support; Land Access and Use; Housing Access, Affordability and Ownership; Decriminalization; Black Culture, Arts and Music.
Your contributions to this fundraiser enables Long Beach Organizer Dawn Modkins to expand her long time local activism and coordination work to establish this Black organizing space that is Black Agency.
Throughout Long Beach, there is a vibrant historical legacy of white supremacy and racism. This racism created entrenched negative social, educational, legal, economic and political effects that have inflicted generational trauma at the hands of the state, by both local systems and by civilians acting out of prejudice or anti-Blackness.
Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement and the formation of our local chapter of BLM Long Beach in 2014, we have been on the front lines, disrupting systemic racism, anti-Blackness and state violence. We have been organizing against police violence and centering those most impacted, specifically the families of those murdered by police. We have remained in partnership with broad community groups, Black and non-Black residents, businesses owners, youth, nonprofits educators, and other organized and unorganized groups who also seek justice, systemic change, and seek to hold decision makers accountable.
We are a brilliant people, professionals, leaders, mothers, fathers, village aunties and uncles, entrepreneurs, hard workers, community activists, healers, thinkers, teachers, artists, creatives -- gifted teams who have been working closest in working class grassroots communities. They have embraced their duty to fight through generational trauma and its hold on our current generation, in order to improve the conditions we’ve been impacted by. Our teams are made up of those who are the experts in the above mentioned life areas and who are the ones leading the re-imagined advancement in each of those areas. Our intentions are to make space for, and center, those who are already doing the work on the ground amongst those most impacted. With the support of Black Agency, they will continue to empower and encourage those most impacted to participate in and lead the strengthening and development of these life areas.
The recent tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor were very different situations but all reflect the same powerlessness that Black people have historically felt-- and very much so for our Black Long Beach community. While these killings have awakened yet another level of fresh global consciousness with ground swells of anger and cries for justice for Black people, we remain mindful of our own local state and police violence and not allow decision makers in Long Beach to forget about accountability for those killings by our own police department; Cezannie Mount, Tyler Woods, Hector Morejon, Danté Jordan, Feras Morad, Noel Aguilar, Carey Smith-Viramontez, Martin Hurtado, Barry Prak, Jason Conocenti, Doug Zerby, Lionel Gibson, Kerry Michael Bounsom, Luis Ramirez, Jordan Michael Griffin, Catherine Gomez, Marcella Byrd, Ron Settles and so many others. Let us not forget Frederick Taft, killed in Pan American Park by a suspected white supremist vigilante July 21, 2018. The $30,000 reward still exists for the capture of Fred's killer. As we continue to fight for true justice, we also recognize our duty to lift up the on-the-ground Black building work in our city and can make this a reality with your support!
Fundraising team: Gabby, James (3)
Dawn Modkins
Organizer
Long Beach, CA
Gaby Hernandez
Team member
James Suazo
Team member