Allen Kwabena Frimpong:

For nearly a decade, I’ve organized within institutions and in communities internationally. Eventually, I would become a part of Black Lives Matter NYC through my involvement in planning the Black Lives Matter ride to Ferguson in August 2014. I met Arielle Newton at a small gathering of Black organizers hosted by Thenjiwe McHarris, a key organizer with of Ferguson Action and the Cleveland-based Movement for Black Lives National Meeting. Arielle would eventually become my movement sister and friend.

During that intimate gathering, we met to figure out how we could develop a city-wide black-led organizing council similar to what folks had done in Ferguson.

I moved forward along with Arielle and several organizers to map out our principles and values for this action council. We were then connected to a larger convening hosted by Millions March called The Gathering through Nicole Carty who was an active leader in Occupy Wall Street; the aims were closely aligned with what we were trying to achieve with the action council. The Gathering happened in January 2015 was being supported by Tammy Shapiro who is connected to Nicole Carty through Occupy work. Arielle and I ended up being the facilitators of the networking portion of the convening, which was then supposed to lead into the launch of the action council. While the action council did not pan out due to everyone’s capacity, Arielle and I kept in close connection and she became involved in Black Lives Matter NYC as an organizer shortly thereafter.

After The Gathering, I had written my reflections on movement building and networks with #BlackLivesMatter in a blog I started with two other friends in the social justice world called Power & Privilege 2.0, which Tammy happened to come across and read. She reached out to me to see if we can meet up for breakfast to tell me more about the work Movement Net Lab was developing to better understand and support movements. After that meet up for breakfast, I knew through the learning, theories and practices Tammy and I shared resonated strongly with my experience organizing in this emerging movement. At that moment I knew that I wanted to be connected to Movement Net Lab, and the rest is (Her)story – Arielle Newton.

 

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Arielle Newton at the year anniversary of the murder of Eric Garner. Photo by Stacy Lanyon.

Arielle Newton:

I’m from Far Rockaway — an isolated region within the New York City landscape that is home to racial and economic segregation. I began organizing in my neighborhood. Far Rockaway received national coverage following the Hurricane Sandy. The disaster attracted interest from various entities — including Occupy Sandy, a decentralized offshoot from the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is how I met Tammy Shapiro. Although we did not have a close working relationship, we became Facebook friends.

In time, I got involved with the Black Lives Matter movement. In January 2014, I started a blog called Black Millennials. My blog served as a vehicle with which I could express my racial, gender, and sexual identity in a manner I deemed appropriate. Upon the executions of Eric Garner and Mike Brown, I began to expand my radical pro-Black politics, and eventually felt the need to engage in grassroots racial justice organizing that was divorced from and critical of the capitalistic nonprofit industry.

This in mind, I traveled to Ferguson, Missouri in what has now been christened the “Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson.” The cohort with which I traveled would eventually become Black Lives Matter NYC.

Ferguson changed my life. Never before was I encompassed in Blackness in a such a way. To date, I cannot adequately describe how transformational that experience was for me as an activist, organizer, and cultural reporter. I was exposed to critical themes, language, and history that characterizes almost every article I’ve published since then.

Upon my return, I knew that racial justice organizing was my passion. I attended a small bread breaking session at Thenjiwe McHarris’ home. That’s where I met Allen Kwabena Frimpong, an organizing guru who would eventually become my friend, family, and mentor. I became involved with The Gathering, an event stemming from the Millions March in December 2014. One coordinator of The Gathering was Tammy Shapiro. I could hardly believe that I’d run into her again! I also ran into Allen, and we wound up organizing a networking session. Although the aftermath of The Gathering was not ideal, me, Allen, and Tammy became extremely close as we started developing trainings on decentralized movement networks. We’ve presented together in Detroit at the Allied Media Conference, and were pleased to realize that our synergy is super dope.