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Mic check!
Mic check!Mic check!
While you are here--
--celebrating over brunch--
--CPD gunned down--
--two of our beloved community members.
Mayor Emanuel--
--thinks more tasers--
--and more money--
--should go to the police.
While you are here--
--celebrating over brunch--
--Black families--
--are struggling to keep themselves--
--safe from CPD.
These are some of the men, women, and children
killed by the police.
Tiara Thomas, 30.
Say her name!
Sandra Reever, 48.
Say her name!
India Kager, 48.
Say her name!
Sandra Bland, 28.
Say her name!
Chant down, Babylon, Black people are the bomb.
We ready.
We coming.
We ready.
We coming.
Director of Operations.
This guy right here was real sarcastic with me,
this lady as well, as I was trying to get them out of here.
So they just disrupted the lunch of about 200 people.
OK, well, they're leaving, so.
Excuse me.
--Babylon, Black people are the bomb.
We ready.
We coming.
We ready.
We coming.
What is this helping though?
That's my question.
We think it's very important--
Really?
To disrupt everyone's brunch.
No.
We all have TV.
We all watch the news.
Now, we return to Chicago--
--as violence continues to be topic A in Chicago--
--shot and killed 22-year-old--
--showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot 16--
Breaking news, another Black death.
We often peep the slightest of hand,
the Black death used as cape, the draping of our people
to your cause.
This is a story about that magic, about the historical,
the unlikely, rarely-reported facts about leaders
and communities like ours, about how much
they fail and succeed, about how Black they
are, how queer they are.
When you take enough Ls, you refuse to surf.
But eventually, if you stay here long enough,
you'll plant your feet and stay upright.
This is our city.
But when you expect folks who you've held back
for centuries to say, "sorry," I'm afraid you'll find
us rather--
Hold up.
I need this--
--unapologetic.
Hold up.
Vibe shit.
Hey, Westside get the money,
roll through Austin in a Porsche.
My niggas got Instagrams, you can't take a picture.
Why you saving all your money?
You know you can't take it with you.
Every time I get it, I flip it, to make me richer.
And look out for the shorties, they
got me when they get bigger.
I don't really fuck with rappers.
You ain't deep, so I don't dig ya.
You cannot sit with us.
I cannot hit your swisher.
Loud, Mary keep on burning, roll, rolling on the river.
I'm feeling like I'm Tina, no tolerance for misogynist,
in a limo with the Nina.
When you married to the game, ain't no such thing
as a prenup.
When all you niggas loyal, you don't give no fuck bout
no subpoena, dream of selling out arenas.
And the ball is in my court now, so my rap game is Serena.
Got to make my parents proud, feel like Sasha and Malia.
Young Black woman in Chicago, boy, I do this for Rekia.
And all my songs are bangers, bang like onomatopoeia.
Hold up.
Hello.
How's it going?
Pretty well.
How are you?
I fell in love with this city when I moved here.
But during the months of December through March,
that love affair is very, very fickle.
It's like a really good significant other
that just forgets every important date.
Your birthday, anniversary.
But Chicago as a whole, it's a dope city.
Set my people free.
I'm letting my people know--
--I love you like you were me.
--I love you like were me.
Look at somebody.
I love you like you were me.
We about to open this up.
Black Youth Project 100 is a group
that I'm so proud to be a part of.
Please make some noise for Janaé Bonsu.
Peace, everybody.
How y'all doing?
I want to push us today to think about our futures.
The reality is, especially Black women,
been working hard since the beginning of time
and been supporting everybody.
If you've ever been supported by a Black woman,
just snap your fingers.
Let me hear you.
Right?
And I'm sure all y'all know the statistic that 40% of our city
budget goes to policing, right?
So much money is being harbored in these institutions.
Get your blocks together and say, "Yo,
how can we pool our resources?
You know, if we don't got a Whole Foods
in our neighborhood, how can we start growing our own food?"
We've really got to think about how we build what
we want from the ground up.
And it's gone be hard, but we can do it.
So I believe that we will win.
That's it.
My name is Janaé Ebone Bonsu.
I work within an organization that radically challenges
that notion that women have limited
capacity for leadership.
And woman leadership has just been a lot more visible now
than I think it's ever been.
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Whose streets?
Our streets!
Mic check!
You think that you've won.
But we are here to remind you that you haven't.
Nope.
We are here to protect and to serve our people.
Yeah!
I'm going to say, protect and serve.
y'all going to say, we are the police.
Then I'm going to say, we're taking back,
and y'all gone say, our communities, OK?
Yes.
Protect and serve?
We are the police.
Protect and serve?
We are the police.
Protect and serve!
We are the police.
We're taking back--
--our communities.
We're taking back--
--our communities.
We're taking back--
--our communities.
I went to they college, got magnum cum laude.
Learned things that they taught me do not really matter.
Won't help my brother who locked in they cellars.
So I yell, free my niggas, then aim at they sheriffs.
You'd better stay inside if you are scared.
City so cold that we got to wear layers.
But rocking the hoodie mean that they will prey us.
Walk out the door, my grandma say her prayers.
As-salamu alaykum, don't mess with the pigs.
I don't mess with the bacon.
Think that I'm wrong, then you're sadly mistaken.
This is Black history that we are making.
Right.Yes.
Go ahead.
This is Black history that we are making.
Yeah!
Even if we don't, our stories gone make it!
Yeah!
Thank, y'all.
My name is Ambrell Gambrell, but most people
know me as Bella BAHHS.
Immediately after I graduated, Mike Brown was murdered.
Then I really started getting into using rap as activism.
Like, my first time performing was on a gospel stage.
It was like Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC's.
They were my grandmother's favorite.
So I used to always just perform they
songs like in a bed with a remote
and make my grandma happy.
Because I would learn all the songs
and perform them for her.
And then we went to one of their concerts.
And he called me up on stage.
I was excited.
I was up there, like--
yes, that's my grandma, all her jewelry, iced up.
This is my great-grandmother, my grandma's mom.
And then that's her mom.
I've always seen women who have raised children
and raised communities on their own.
That's my mama up there, stylin' on them.
Yeah, my mom was in a federal penitentiary
when she took that picture.
It was crazy.
Like, they had picture days and shit.
I don't know.
Yes indeed.
This is me.
Going to see my momma.
For a very long time, my grandmother
told me that my parents were at college.
I remember very vividly being about five-years-old
and bawling, like, just crying my eyes out
to my, to my grandma.
And she didn't understand why I was crying.
But she had just said something about me going to college one
day.
And I was devastated.
Both of my parents were incarcerated by the time
I was three-months-old.
When people are serving time, their families
are serving that time with them.
That's where my fight against abolition
comes from, because you are destroying families.
Like, how I relate to people is completely fucked up.
You only have a few minutes to talk about it.
It's not because they're not--
I am currently a doctoral student at Jane Addams College
of Social Work.
Really, just take a minute and think
about the most important thing you want
to tell us about your paper.
Of course, it should be what it's about.
So let's start with Janaé.
OK, my paper is essentially talking
about community accountability as an antidote
to legal cynicism.
And so I was drawn to write this paper because it's
kind of grounded in my experience
being an activist and organizer here in Chicago,
being in a city where, you know, a mayor has committed
to hiring 1,000 more cops and me being
in, I guess, kind of a bubble where, you know,
people don't want more police, right?
I actually want to read a quote by Dr. Richie,
actually, because abolition means
that we have to talk about accountability,
transformative justice, mobilizing
people who are serving time.
It means asking what are we not doing
yet at home so that we are positioned to build
another set of alternatives.
A first draft of the lit review of my dissertation research.
Great, good job.
Over the years, Mayor Rahm Emanuel
closed the public schools, closed the mental health
centers.
He is committed to sustaining and strengthening
law enforcement.
And now that it is actually the term where I am putting
my dissertation together.
I really want my research grounded
in how we can envision what safety looks
like outside of that system.
So it looks like this is 100 pages.
I'm hoping that this 50-page page
limit is only text, because if not,
then I'm kind of in trouble.
I think one of the biggest missing pieces of system
intersectionality, is basically how
the welfare system, the criminal legal system, the immigration
system, child protective services, the health care
system, how they're all very interrelated.
Like, when a Black woman has contact with the police.
It's a photo of my nana and grandpa
visiting my uncle in prison.
Most of my life he was in prison,
I knew that him spending so much time in prison
wasn't just because he was a bad person.
I knew that there had to be more to that cycle.
A lot of my formative experiences and analysis
of the criminal legal system, came from him.
Such a cool dude, I put him on my wall
as just a consistent constant reminder of why I do this,
yeah.
Set it up, set it up, send it up, set it off.
Fuck with my sisters and you're set up for failure.
You're better off cooling off.
Yeah, you're better off cooling off.
So it's going to go something like that.
Do you want to do any overdubs on that part?
Yes.
OK.
Laquan could have been the son of TT.
They shot Pierre while he was running.
That sound a lot to me like Frankie.
Frankly, going out like Cleo is more likely.
Take some CPD officers with me.
If niggas want war, then just call me Achilles.
Feds on my heels like I just stepped in feces.
Oh, shit.
This for niggas at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Oshun, full of fresh water.
This for Flint, Michigan.
They're poisoning our children.
Fuck a politician.
Criminals in the Senate--
I'm angry when I'm performing at street protests,
but at the studio, this is healing.
Can you punch me in at oh, shit?
Mhm, you want before the shit or after the shit?
Blau, blau, blau, blau.
Punch me in before the shit.
Oshun, full of fresh water, this for Flint,
Michigan.
They're poisoning our children.
Fuck a politician.
Criminals in the Senate.
And my niggas in the field, fuck the house.
If I tell them send it up, that's where they send it.
Set it up, set it up, send it up, set it off.
Fuck with my sisters--
Want to play that back?
My lyrics were very intentional about promoting
Black liberation, and uplifting other Black women.
Yeah, when we talk about Rekia Boyd,
it doesn't get as much publicity as when
we talk about Laquan McDonald.
When we talk about Sandra Bland, it
doesn't get as much publicity as when we talk about Mike Brown,
as when we talk about Eric Garner.
22-year-old Rekia Boyd was walking
to a store with three friends near Douglas Park.
Servin, who was off duty, was upset over noise.
Sitting in his car, fired five shots over his shoulder.
Boyd was hit and killed.
March 21st 2012, Rekia Boyd was shot in the back of her head
by Dante Servin.
State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez, a year and a half
later charged Servin with involuntary manslaughter.
She undercharged Dante Servin.
Judge Dennis Porter vacated the charge,
saying that he should have been charged with first degree
murder.
Because it was a bench trial, it wasn't a jury trial,
Dante Servin was able to walk away
with no accountability via the judicial system.
The Chicago Police Board is responsible
for the ultimate firing of Dante Servin.
This could be anybody.
This could be anybody I know and love.
This is my side of town.
This is my-- like--
to neglect this side of Chicago, is to neglect my whole family.
There'd be a lot going on over here.
No, it wasn't like that when we was little.
We could walk down the street.
We could walk to the store, and not
get worried about people getting shot or killed.
Can't do that now.
And it's messed up.
We used to be all up and down here.
I see the world through the lens of the West Side of Chicago.
I love Black people.
They're so beautiful.
And we see
a very different and necessary direction.
I want you to know on behalf of the police board,
we have heard you.
We have heard you at our meetings.
We have heard and seen you in the streets.
We have heard and listened to you,
as you have corresponded with us individually and collectively.
And we will continue to listen.
I think that's important for you all to know.
LaCreshia Birts.
So McCarthy, where are you in the process of firing Dante
Servin?
Ma'am, do have a clear statement to make?
So I can't ask questions?
Answer the question!
What?
It's still being worked on.
It's still being worked on?
As protesters, this case and all of the corruption around police
is taking up a lot of our time.
We're out here protesting, trying
to make sure that we're safe, because you're not
doing your job.
Sister, your time is up.
McCarthy, either stand up or step down.
Hey!
Next speaker, Martinez Sutton.
My sister was killed.
Excuse my language, but it's fucked up.
Every month I'm here, have your sister been killed?
Have you anybody in your family been killed by the police?
I got a feeling, he's going to resign
when you make your decision.
And a motherfucker gone get off scot-free.
Yep.
Yeah.
It was my sister's birthday this month.
She would have been 26, 26.
You feel my pain, I'm just asking that you fire him.
I'll just ask everybody to stand up
with the remainder of my time, and salute my sister.
Yup.
I am Rekia Boyd.
27,000 complaints filed and only 80 of them
result in any type of, like, discipline, out of 27,000.
How I see it, is that when we do act civil and expect
the response and don't get it, so next time--
Right.
--we won't be as nice.
If we don't get it.
Shut it down!
Only 3% of officers that have complaints against them
end up getting disciplined,
In more than 99% of the thousands
of misconduct complaints, no disciplinary action
was ever taken.
Young people have attempted to impose upon me
as president of a police board, a power that I don't possess.
They want any police officer who kills an African-American
to be fired, stripped of their pension
without any due process, any investigation.
There's clearly a role to play for protests.
Some of the issues that we're talking about today,
related to the Chicago Police Department,
wouldn't be happening without people being out in the street,
but there is a time and a place for everything.
It's easy to yell, and scream and protest.
What's more complicated, is to work
towards actual solutions that improve
the quality of people's lives.
I believe the men and women of the police department
are both professionally dedicated to meeting
the public safety of the residents.
But we've got to be also conscious of the fact
that the world around them very quickly got changed.
They don't think they get a fair shake.
But we want our officers to know that their leadership has
their back, to do the job that we hired them to do.
Rahm must go!Rahm must go!
Rahm must go!
Oh, it goes down in the DM--
You so fine.
It goes down.
Those DMs.
Woo, that's crazy, cause she's so fine.
People don't really ask me on dates and shit.
But, you know, I'm open.
Maybe when people see this, they'll be like, "Oh."
Are you going to speak on it?
I'm going to speak on it.
Oh.
I'm going to speak on it.
So I have dated men and women.
This community of women are warriors in a way that like,
I just don't see in our men right now,
like that you have a desire to protect me, to possess me,
to control me--
Yes, but protect?
--to have me.
Like by dating men while our men are at this state,
of complete and devastating psychological indoctrination
into misogyny and misogynoir and a deep hatred for Black women.
And if I know this, right, then am I going against my politics
by still allowing them that access to me?
They be so fine though.
Yeah, they do.
They be fine though.
Check it out.
Ah, bitch.
Shout out to HomeGoods.
She wins again.
I did that.
She did that.
I did that.
Mm.
OK.
So you know how I'm not really--
girly is not the right word.
But you know I don't do makeup and stuff.
But I went to Sally's today, got some foundation.
Oh, shit.
I am a member of BYP for life, forever ever, forever ever.
Squad!
And that's how I met Janaé.
We were just like, she's so cute and her booty is so big.
And I was just like, oh my God.
And so she was like, come over, I'm cooking.
And I ain't never going to turn down a meal.
And I came over.
And she had fried tilapia.
And I think I stayed over for two days.
These women, all of them are just the bomb.com.
And I just be--I just be my sister's keepers.
You fine, girl.
How do I do this?
No, don't-- nah, just--
You said blot, what do--
Blot like with your--
Just so petty.
This is the BYP100's space, office space.
We got many pieces of butcher paper plastered on the wall.
So I guess we'd be talking about something
and documenting something, yeah.
No, we actually talk about a lot and document a lot of things.
It's really not a strategy session,
unless you have butcher paper.
Different people really help me think
about how to be an organizer.
BYP100 being an organization that explicitly
says that, we organize through this Black, queer, feminist
lens.
If Rekia Boyd were alive today, we would be the same age,
but Dante Servin took her life away.
And as a young Black woman in this city, I do not feel safe.
We are a national organization of young Black activists
between the ages of 18 and 35.
How we situate our work is, as a part of a broader project
for Black liberation.
I've seen her blossom from a member coming
in wanting to do something, to being a Chicago chapter
co-chair and now being our national public policy chair.
Say stop the cops and fund Black futures!
Me being with comrades who also have that fire
is kind of contagious in a way.
For a lot of us, we are coming into these organizations,
because we feel as if we are not being heard
and we are not being represented.
Trayvon Martin is a marker in time.
Black and brown folks being killed by the police.
It began to become more and more on all the news outlets.
There was three Black women who sort of
ignited with this Movement for Black Lives.
From that, started a massive campaign
in different cities and different states.
In terms of locally, people form relationships.
They were just like, all right, we're
going to fuck up the ops together.
Without Black trans women, gender nonconforming folks,
femme folks, cis-identified young girls and women,
this would not look the way that it does.
Hell no, we won't go.
We need some of our people on the sidewalks,
you will not make an illegal arrest today today.
To go to a rally that's for Black Lives
and to only see Black men being given any kind of authority
on the subject, is absurd to me.
The sexism and the homophobia that shows up in our movements
weakens us, it destroys our power.
Even though you are also being oppressed,
you also have privilege and you are also
capable of doing the oppressing.
If Black, queer, feminist people are not free,
nobody else is going to be free.
--looks like.
Tell me what democracy looks like.
This is what democracy looks like.
Michigan Avenue, y'all.
Michigan Avenue, come on, let's go!
No justice, no profits.
No justice, no profits!
No justice, no profits.
Cause they're not necessarily fighting for liberation,
they're just fighting for their own relationship to power.
There are some of us that are absolutely
governed by ancestors.
And we're not playing by your rules,
and we're not interested in playing by your rules.
OK.
I'm reading a letter from my brother who is in prison.
And I miss him.
He said, "I appreciate you reaching out and dropping
a few jewels.
I needed that food for thought.
It really touched my heart, and I love it.
So again, thanks baby sister.
I let a few lady correctional officers,
and a few of my homies read the postcard
you sent about your Chicago Arts Activism Campaign."
Our entire existence is resistance.
No matter where we're at doing it,
so I just be needing them to find
ways to celebrate themselves.
Like every single day you survive
in there is a day you done survive the war.
Like you survived being kidnapped.
You survive torture, right?
Like prison are torture.
I've always been like this very silenced Black girl,
who had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
The responsibility to free her mother, free her father,
free her brothers, free her grandmother
from the trauma of losing a daughter to prison system.
I carry all of that all the time.
How you choose what you choose to do
and what your criteria for a successful demonstration are.
A protest doesn't always have to have a target.
It doesn't always have to have a goal, so to speak.
Sometimes people take the streets,
because they are-- they feel.
Because in they textbooks, we're on one page.
And the only thing it say is we was once slaves.
So, of course, they think that I'm
crazed when I tell them we had pyramids when they had caves.
Y'all, this my mama.
Yeah, like talking about criminalization and violence.
And what it means to just inhabit these vessels.
Create opportunities for other women
to be involved and bringing these stories,
these conversations to life.
When you actually look and break down the numbers,
and figure out how these people walked in,
it helps you figure out where you can organize.
I feel like I'm in a constant like, all right,
I need to learn this.
And I need to move on this-- and help my people move on this.
But like, for real, I don't even believe in this system.
You're building an energy and a momentum.
When your vision is bigger, you know where you're going.
Don't stop that now.
Don't stop that.
Don't stop it.
Thank you.
Push 'em, make them uncomfortable.
OK, we'll go ahead and get started
with the intergenerational conversation.
We controlled our communities.
And we had the faith that a change was going to come.
Our generation isn't taught Black culture, what it means
to be Black from you anymore.
So we hold our elders accountable for a lot
of the state that we're in right now.
We know that this board.
Does not care about Black women.
We are committed to confronting this board, city council,
and the mayor until y'all fire Dante Servin with no pension--
If you want to be heard--
--no pension.
--if you want to be heard, you sign up beforehand.
We will be back! We hear her!
I feel like a broken record when I talk about why I'm tired,
or why I'm stressed.
So my final was due at 7:00 PM.
And it was a 20 page paper.
And at 6:50, I had 10 pages written.
And I just-- I just broke down crying.
I cried my eyes out.
Like, I've never submitted something
knowing that like, yeah, I failed that.
It's never happened to me, so that moment, it hurt
and I broke down.
And I had just--
I was just so discouraged, and
Got ya back now.
Got 4, 5 cats off in the 'Lac now.
When it comes to these holidays, as much as I'm like, man,
there's some stuff that we're having next week,
that I'm going to have to miss, that I really want to be at.
Especially in light of me traveling so much
over the past few weeks.
But I've got to go home.
Please remain seated with your seat belt fastened, seat back
and tray tables in the full upright position.
Growing up in South Carolina, politically
for me was pretty uneventful.
The experience of going to a predominantly white school,
made me yearn for Black spaces and made
me want to do something more for my people.
Moments like that led me to Chicago.
How did you pick the name Janaé?
There was a group called Zhane.
They're the group that's like--
Zhane.
Everybody, move your body.
Now do it, this is something
that's going to make you move and groove.
Hey DJ, keep playing that song all night.
Yep, that's Zhane.
I like that song.
Yes, yes.
That's why I like that song.
The only, only, only white boy I've ever had a crush on.
His name was Zach.
Because remember, that was during the time when you said,
you was not Black?
Tuh, OK.
Yeah, you was not Black, you was brown.
You was brown, and you just created a whole other race.
It wasn't just the Black and white race.
Because I don't know what race was.
Yes
I looked at my skin tone and I said, oh, I'm brown.
And it was very different, right.
I'm not Black.
You were very confused.
OK, so that's when you and your dad went to Paris.
Yeah.
All I know is that dad wanted me to be
as well-rounded of a person as he could,
which included taking me to other countries
and exposing me to different cultures.
This is one of the few pictures that I have with you and dad
together.
It's in pictures like this, where
I can look to my left and right, and be like, yeah,
I definitely do look like both of them.
So this is the first squad picture
I think that we've taken.
So this was our one year anniversary.
I admire the young generation.
You teach me a lot.
What?
Mm, who is that?
I certainly don't think that you are in the same place
now, that you were a few years ago.
Yeah, just in terms of who you are, your identity.
How you present and all of that.
And what does queerness mean to you?
Would you say it means the same thing it does to Janaé or--?
For me, I identify as queer because I
feel like I don't fit neatly into any other category.
And for me, queer means different.
It captures more of who I am, than to just identify as simply
heterosexual or simply lesbian.
That had everything to do with you, yeah.
I'm glad.
Dang, I'm so hungry.
You got fish over there, too?
My friend down the street--
Oh, she's coming over?
Every time I fry fish, I always invite her.
She's of the other color now.
Nana, why are you talking to me like I don't like white people?
Shut up, Janaé!
Dear Lord, we truly thank you for this food
that we're about to receive.
When I closed my eyes and think about home,
it's here at my Nana and Grandpa's house.
That was the first place that I lived
when we moved to Columbia.
This is where she was raised when she was four.
This is called the pink room.
That's Janaé when she graduated from the Montessori school.
Mhm.
But it does make it rough for kids.
Ashley you're awfully quiet, are you OK?
We're not ignoring you--
She's filming
Huh?
She's just filming us.
We're not supposed to talk to Ashley.
We're supposed to talk to each other.
I'm just in the background.
I talk to everybody, Ashley.
I appreciate that.
Oh, we know.
Now, we return to Chicago.
Good afternoon, we're coming to you
with breaking news happening right now.
After months fighting the release of a dramatic dash cam
video which allegedly shows a 17-year-old shot and killed,
a judge orders it to be made public.
Tonight City Hall says it will comply with the judge's order
and release the dash cam video.
What had people even more outraged
was the conspiracy within city leadership
and the police department to whitewash what happened.
Who held the video and did Rahm know about it?
He knew about the video, because I told him.
I told him two days later after I had seen it.
Did he ask to see it?
Not to me.
He didn't seem to care.
You told him how volatile it was,
Absolutely.
And what did you tell him?
I told him it was going to be a problem.
Yeah, and what did he say?
Can I see it?
He didn't care.
He didn't care?
He didn't appear to care.
What do you mean?
So, so--
He didn't say, come show me the video.
He didn't say that.
I remember being pissed.
at how the city had hyped up the release of this murder video.
Like what?
It's not bad enough that we know that you shot this baby 16
times in the street?
We got to see it?
Like we still need lynchings?
Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald, who was 17 years old,
16 times.
It took over 400 days for the State's Attorney, Anita
Alvarez, to charge Jason Van Dyke.
She was known for protecting police officers who
did some of the most heinous things,
and punishing victims of police crimes and police violence.
I sent an email out to a lot of folks
who I knew were central decision makers
to different organizations.
They had took the lead on organizing, like,
a Black space, for young Black abolitionists to come together.
The room was very somber, very somber and very sober.
So they released it.
Some of us watched it.
Some of us didn't.
You know, I think all of us cried.
And the collective response was, we want to resist.
Racism means--
--we've got to fight back.
Eric Garner means--
--we've got to fight back.
Racism means--
16 shots!
He shot him twice.
Then he went over Laquan's body 14 more times?
We're tired of this shit.
We're tired of this corrupt system.
That's the only thing they do is shoot us down.
What is that if it ain't racist?
Who the fuck are they serving and protecting?
It's foul.
They killed that boy for no reason.
We're going to stay out here on the streets
until we see some type of justice.
We love you.
We, we love you.
We love you.
We, we love you.
As-salamu alaykum, don't fuck with the pigs,
I don't fuck with the bacon.
Think that I'll go, then you're sadly mistaken.
This is much Black history that we are making.
We are Black History, it's in the making.
Even if we don't, our stories gon' make it!
All right.
Say that.
We have the right to protest.
Touch my bike again, I'll punch you.
Touch my bike again, bitch.
Let her go!
Hold on!
Let them go!
Hoo, this motherfucker must have like,
pushed his bike towards me, Officer Trendle,
And I pushed the bike back.
And he was like, you touch my bike again,
I'll punch you bitch.
I'm t'd at this point.
I'm t'd, like I lost it.
You're going to call me a bitch and threaten me?
Today while I'm feeling like this?
While I'm feeling like this, because mind you,
it's more-- it's more than just Laquan that's impacting me,
right?
First of all, it's been a whole year of dealing with CPD,
and police murders around the nation.
And just all this trauma.
And it's so crazy now, this moment we're in
is just so different.
You can't go to no protest with no gun.
You can't go to no protest with no type of weapon,
with no type of nothing to fight.
But you know that you're going and you're putting your body
on the line, though.
And that's all you got, is your body.
After the release of the McDonald video
last week, Superintendent McCarthy and I
began a discussion on Sunday about the direction
of the department, and the undeniable fact
that the public trust in the leadership of the department
has been shaken and eroded.
This morning, I formally asked for his resignation.
Everyone in the political sphere that knew about that tape-
Was complicit in covering it up.
OK, one down, two more to go, Anita
Alvarez and Mayor Emanuel.
--freedom, freedom.
All these racist ass cops, we don't need 'em, need 'em.
What?
Back up, back up.
We want freedom, freedom.
All these racist-ass cops, we don't need 'em, need 'em.
Say what?
Back up, back up.
We want freedom, freedom.
All these racist-ass cops, we don't need 'em, need 'em.
Make no mistake.
It is because of the demands of the young Black organizations
that are represented behind me, that McCarthy got fired.
That's right.
Come on.
If folks really believe that we are the future.
Yes, you are.
Let us lead us there.
Aye!
Mic check!
Go crazy!
We're going to fight until we free us.
Change been a nuance.
They still trying to noose us.
Trying to keep us muted.
I was told to speak up, 'bout to bug up, be a nuisance.
Millennials, this our movement.
Yes!
Girl!
Millennials, this our movement.
I'm Malcolm X in the booth and I'm Assata to the bullshit.
That mean I'm gone y'all.
So is it actually your birthday today?
It is my birthday today.
And how old are you today?
I'm 23 today.
Oh my God.
Like this, it's the fun part of the movement.
Because like, protesting and the toll this takes on you.
Being in this, it's not-- it's not -- it's not fun, right?
We need to celebrate life, to keep doing this shit, right?
I don't know.
I have no idea who's coming or how many people is coming.
Mix that negro with that Creole,
make a Texas Bama.
I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros.
When he fuck me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster.
Because you're 25 and fine, girl!
Because I'm 25!
25!
Look at how they love your daughter, girl
And I'm a bum.
Look at how they love your daughter, girl --
They love you like they love me.
That's my baby.
I'm slightly intoxicated, but I'm feeling more overwhelmed
with all of this lovely energy that is in my home right now.
I would much rather be twerking in the middle
of my kitchen with people that I fucks with than writing
a scholarly paper.
If I'm an asshole, then who knows who Donald Trump is?
Stick a trumpet up his ass with a mouth full of explosives.
I don't understand what no is.
Menace to society, because of dykery,
but I've been chasing women since my diapers leaked
in hide and seek.
All that gentle crap didn't get me then,
so I wiggle middle fingers.
Ain't I fucking feminine, yo!
Hand up on my bosom trigger,
I'm about to put it like crunk.
Think this as far as they go.
You aren't as real as they come.
If this as hard as you go, you niggas never gon' come.
Hey, Black men.
We love you, we understand your struggle,
do you understand your privilege and oppression of Black women?
Niggas sell they souls to make their mamas rich.
Get on the radio and call Black women bitch,
like it's synonymous.
Hip hop's Huey P. Newton's third law, I put a hit on the beat.
They say you sow what you reap.
They ran Assata away.
They bet not run up on me!
Strong advocate for the FOID.
Free all of my niggas and fuck the police.
It's 2016.
Fuck Trump, Bernie, and Hillary.
Vote for Black liberty, peace!
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you, it's your birthday!
Make a wish!
I've been working on a draft of my proposal
for, it seems like forever, but I finally got it to a place
where I felt OK with sending it to my dissertation committee
chair.
And she has since sent it back to me with some revisions,
and edits that we're about to talk about.
Hi.
Thank you for your edits, are there just
other general things?
Remember you don't have to tell everybody everything that you
know.
So you want to give the reader more
of an overview of what you know, as opposed
to everything you know.
For social work people who are out there lobbying,
what do they need to know?
Social work's collusion-- and maybe that might not be
a strong word, but that's what's coming to mind right now--
with law enforcement as it relates
to intimate partner violence.
But you just have to be sure how you talk about it,
because one is saying that social workers are actively
going out, including with the police,
to ensure that women are systematically victimized.
The other is saying, that social workers are doing their jobs
based on what these larger structures provide for them
to do, but the result is that women,
they are impacted negatively.
What do we now know should be the implications for what
they should be doing, based on your findings?
OK, I think that those are the big things.
Everything else is just up to me to actually, like, address.
And if there's things that you got to do and don't make sense,
just write down, then we'll just talk about it.
So when I address all these comments,
I won't be almost done?
We've got to go through another round?
Yes, you do.
Dr. McCoy!
A dissertation is your job.
But what do you mean?
It doesn't work that way.
You don't get the write two drafts of a proposal,
and think that's it.
It doesn't work that way.
But these are two drafts that you've seen.
I got 20 drafts on my computer.
Good.
Oh God, I'm never going to finish.
And I've sat in committees.
"She's got to change this section."
"This theory doesn't work."
I know.
And that is why you're my chair.
But I'm going to knock your socks off
with how well I address everything.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I'm writing my brother.
He just called me.
He needed to vent about some shit.
The least I could do is answer the fucking phone
and let him say this shit because he can't
say this shit to nobody else.
I want to use my personal story, and start to let that healing
impact the world.
Ah, da, da, da, da, OK.
I'm starting working on this proposal for the Soros Youth
Activist Fellowship, it's a paid full-time fellowship.
I get to do social justice work that I design for a whole year,
and that's my full-time job.
I knew that this was a whole different type
of writing process.
I've never written for grants.
Man, man, it is our duty to fight--
I want to develop a network that actively supports
my community on my own terms.
You know, it's good, like, to come together right now
and we're going to celebrate all the fallen soldiers.
It seems like every three weeks, we're going to a funeral, man.
Rest in peace, Henry C. Rest in peace, Henry C, man.
We a family, man.
440 for life.
Meet your family, man, know your family.
We at the Black Soul Nation picnic.
What's up, what's up?
Shooting a video, OK.
How y'all doing?
Somebody's gon' tell you the gangs in Chicago
are causing all the problems, and is responsible for all
the killings going on.
I learned how to be a leader from gangs.
I learned how to organize from gang members.
They went into our community, and they took away
all our heroes and people that we've looked up to.
They kidnapped them.
And so that's why you see the violence in the neighborhood,
because you don't have those figures who
could come in and with one word, they can stop this.
We're talking about people who fed the block every single day.
Like--
Back to school--
Back to school drives.
--back to school program and everything.
Not nobody to say, hey, go over there and shoot this person.
Or go over there--
you know, we cleaned the block up.
Old ladies and kids was able to play,
when we was growing up in the 80s and 90s.
Now you can't even get the kids to come outside,
because there's no leadership and guidance.
I'm rooted in this.
You see that, how I've got to take that fist.
It takes root from the soil--
Not even from the soil, from the concrete.
From the concrete.
But still we rise.
So I'm here because this means a lot to me.
It's for my soul.
All my life, all my love forever.
Wassup, wassup, wassup.
Never realize how, like, complicated academia
can be, until someone asks you to explain
some shit to a five-year-old and you're like, oh.
So tell me about it.
My dissertation is exploring the experiences
between interpersonal violence and state violence.
Black women experience violence in our households,
in our communities, at the hands of police.
Many of us can't actually imagine what community
based interventions look like.
I mean, I think that the re-imagining of everything,
it's really hard just to like re-imagine what this life could
look like without these punitive systems, and just thinking
like, what is the, what is the what's next?
What is the what's next, but also what ensures our safety?
You know, having some interviews to really dig deeper
into like, under what circumstances can
you imagine not calling the police--
Right.
-- how that shapes the way that we think about safety?
I'm excited.
You and me both.
Cheers.
This the famous coat.
This the coat I had on the night of the Laquan McDonald
protest on that video that went everywhere.
My mama said when I wear this coat,
it reminds her of Hakeem Lyon from "Empire."
I'm sure they probably stole that nigga's
swag from me though, actually.
The last time I want to go see my brother, me and my mom went.
I got in, but my mom didn't get in.
The time before that, my mama got in
and my auntie, but I didn't get in.
But there was an issue because there is a typo on one
of these, the year of birth.
And it's off by one year.
So even though they're looking at me,
they know I'm this person, I'm authorized to come visit him
and everything, they still don't let me in because of that.
Drove all the way down there, couldn't get in, crazy.
So now I have to make sure I take two IDs
with the same birth year on it.
Is Charlie the name of the brother we're going to see?
Yes.
My first love.
And how far is where he is now from from where y'all live?
Four hours.
Yep, like four.
He was like five when she was taken,
so they had a relationship.
It was like, my brother loved my mama, like loved my mama.
And I was just born.
I was--
Were you born when she was in prison or was it--
I was pregnant going to prison.
So they let me go home and have her,
and then I went back to prison.
Got it.
It was very hard.
That's what I'm saying.
You like to visit, but then they walking away from you.
They leaving you.
You can't go with them.
And all other kids would be hugging to be around me.
She would be standing off and look.
I remember looking to Charlie to try to learn from him I guess,
what I was--
what the interaction was supposed to be like.
Everybody had these relationships,
and I don't have that relationship, you feel me?
So I'm just kind of watching everybody else
and feeling like left out.
I will always remember, we're going
to see my mama and my brother telling her
these pickup lines he learned.
We're little kids and this boy was up there
telling his mama about the pickup lines he used on girls.
Never will my son lose the spirit.
So that's why I do what I do.
Because if I can keep his spirit up, nothing will stop him.
Come out a better person.
He'll come out more stronger, and then
in his life, his testimony, how much more he'll be able to do.
So it's like my life ain't the same, Life ain't
the same till my son come home.
I can't help you unless you want to.
I can 't help you, unless you help, too
Hey, how you doing?
If you want to back out and we'll get these guys out.
We have to shake down vehicles today.
OK.
All we're looking for is weapons or drugs, that's it.
When you go in there, they'll need your driver's license,
the name of the visitor, name and number of the visitor
you're going to visit.
Uh huh.
And then everybody keep your IDs,
just take it in and write it on a piece of paper.
And then when I'm done, you guys will park and just go in
like normal.
Alright.
Go see my brother.
Oh.
Working on this proposal, I opened up
telling my story in a poem.
When they took him, I kicked.
Led my first protest in my mother's womb,
filling her core with howls, hoping they'd
hear me and give my father back.
Gave my mother back pains carrying me to courtrooms.
Knew when a bailiff had her hand on his gun, by the way
my mother coddled me in her stomach.
I could feel the fear of a federal judge,
forcefully forfeiting her freedom,
fill my mother's fingertips.
When they took her, I didn't even bother to scream.
I didn't protest when they plucked me from her plump
breast at the podium, because I learned
to be afraid of my mother's milk well before I was born.
Well, before I was full matter, I didn't matter.
I was never meant to survive.
I'm the daughter of the discriminatory destruction
disguised as America's war on drugs
and having suckled the stigmas of Blackness, womanhood
and imprisonment.
My shame kept me silent, and pacified long enough.
There's been a major development in the police shooting
of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd.
Servin resigned from the Chicago Police Department
just days before hearings were scheduled
to begin into whether he should be fired.
He resigned so that he could keep his pension,
and ultimately skate accountability.
Seeing all this on the board, signifies all that we invest
and what the outcome has been.
Like, this is the return on investment
in police in Chicago, and that's really sad to me.
Woo!
Hold on.
What?
Ah.
What the fuck?
She just went stupid.
I'll never forget, the lady said, yeah,
so we're going to have to give you the Radio Media Fellowship.
I said, lady, you can call it what you want.
Just call me funded, OK?
What is you talking about?
I don't give a fuck what you call it, like.
Yep, yep, yep yep, yep, all right, so this part right here,
Sister Survivor, Chicago-based arts activism campaign,
by and for Black women and femmes.
As a Soros Justice Youth Activist fellow,
I will create a survival network conducted
by and for Black women and femmes,
who have been directly and disproportionately
affected by prison policies.
It's very new, this idea of this being work, feel me,
of protest being work, advocating for people in prison
being work, you feel me?
This has always been life, so.
If you really want to do the work,
you've gotta work on yourself.
I think that's my biggest takeaway from Sister Survivor.
Like, that's how I'm able to do--
I feel like I'm able to do work.
How healed we are now really got me
thinking of just about how much of a different space
I was in 2016, I mean--
That shit is important, like to--
for young people to be in spaces where
they see women, where they see Black women who are healing.
Who are talking to them from a place of healing.
It has become so clear that we cannot accomplish that goal
until we heal ourselves.
This is the Sister Survivor Network.
Hey, Black people!
Alright, I'm ready to have some real conversations.
So I would like to talk to the Founder of the Decarceration
Collective.
Come on, gas her up, gas her up, MiAngel Cody, y'all.
I'm also going to invite my mother to come --
come talk to me.
We're here to talk about Black women.
I think it's important that we do
that, because the intersections of violence
for Black women on an individual, community,
and institutional level, it's a very unique experience.
I'm so proud now that we setting space up,
so that we can have the conversation.
It's so many people like me, they told me life.
I laugh, because what the hell I done
did that you talking about taking my life for?
I had an addiction and money and living good,
but I ain't killed nobody.
So the conversation has to start now,
so that we don't have a future Bella BAHHS going
to prison for a life sentence.
Everybody I know-- family members, friends--
has been afflicted by this prison system.
This is healing space, and I think sometimes I
see where we need systems.
We need process, we need intake forms, we need numbers,
we need-- and it's like, no, this is it.
This is it.
Like you sharing what you've been through,
me sharing what I've been through, people holding space,
listening-- medicine.
We, we become a movement, a resistance.
I'm real militant y'all.
I'm trying not to--
I'm Bella's mom, and I try to keep it lowkey.
That's Mama BAHHS, y'all.
But sometime it come out.
Y'all are going to be helping me heal,
and I hope I help y'all heal.
Come on.
And then when people say, these kids are out of control.
What's going on?
Well, who raised them?
It's survival of the fittest, it's Lord of the Flies.
They're trying to survive the best way they can.
I've had these ideas for a long time.
And finally being able to get them out
and give Black women a platform.
All of that was incredible.
So a lot of us are literally acting out inferiority
on each other, and I think that's a form of violence.
This is a pathway to love.
Of course, still making edits of the presentation
right beforehand.
He said, wasn't your graduation in the dark?
I'm like, yes, it was.
Yes, it was.
OK.
So we're going to get started.
Yes, thank you.
We will work towards this, but if it doesn't happen,
it's not your fault necessarily.
OK?
OK.
Hi, I have to pee.
So right now, they're deliberating
on whether I passed my hearing or not,
this preliminary examination.
All of the other little dissertation handbook, things
I've read, it's always like, practice.
Practice your presentation before your hearing,
time yourself, et cetera, et cetera.
And I had all the anticipation doing that, and I, you know,
didn't have time and it showed.
I mean, I did not practice that presentation at all.
That was nerve wracking.
Janaé?
Yes.
Passing is such a great thing.
So I'm crying because I'm happy.
And I'm sleep deprived, and I'm just so glad,
I'm so glad that all this was not for naught.
I believe in this work.
I believe that my research is connected
to my political imperative, to find ways for Black women
to be safe, to be free from violence.
And I'm really glad that my committee saw that today,
and I'm happy to be a PhD candidate and--
If we don't get it-- shut it down!
If we don't get it--
I'm happy that I chose Chicago, because of the community
that I've been able to cultivate and build here,
both within and outside of BYP 100.
Someday, one day, we will be free.
Come on!
One day, someday--
Come on, one day, we will get free.
One day, someday, today!
We will get free!
Organizing, its healing in a way that
meant that I was surrounded by a community of people, who
understood the plight of Blackness
and understood what I was going through as a Black woman.
I've seen time and time again, how
Black women do a lot of thankless and undervalued work
that no one else wants to do.
The bulk of putting out fires, and just carrying things
to the end.
It's not our sole responsibility to do
all of the emotional labor.
It's not our sole responsibility to carry the burdens
that we often end up having to.
And on one hand, it points to our strength,
our resilience and the realness of Black girl magic.
But on the other hand, Black women cannot continue to be
the mules of the world.
We have a collective responsibility to get free.
Black women can't go no lacking.
No.
No, Black women don't do no lacking.
Never lacking, I be packing like a--
Suitcase!
I ain't tripping, I'll be right here on my--
Off days!
Women back me like I'm bout to toss the--
Bouquet!
Niggas fronting.
They say I'm not really--
That great!
Need to reconstruct the Reconstruction Act.
Sorry, I'm not sorry, unapologetically Black.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
See, she's telepathic, call it Black girl magic.
Yeah, she scares the government.
Deja vu of Tubman.
We go missing by the hundreds.
Ain't nobody checking for us.
The camera loves us, Oscar doesn't.
Ain't nobody checkin' for us.
They want us in the kitchen, kill our sons with lynchings.
We get loud about it.
Oh, now we're the bitches.
Look at what they did to my sister, last century,
last week.
They put her body in a jar and forget her.
They love how it repeats.
Look at what they did to my sister, last century,
last week.
They make her hate her own skin, treat her like a sin.
Oh, I--
But what they don't understand-- but what
they don't understand-- but what they don't understand
is-- but what they don't understand--
but what they don't understand-- but what
they don't understand-- see, what they don't understand.
See, she's telepathic.
Call it Black girl magic.
Yeah, she scares the government.
Deja vu of Tubman.
And she, she, she, she, she don't give up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, she don't give up.
She don't don't don't don't don't give up.
No, no, no, no, no, she don't give up, up.
Rosa was a--
OG, OG, Granny was an entrepreneur.
When she moved to the Chi, she was dirt poor.
Had kids to provide for, would die for, Black woman
in America, a mule woman.
Made something out of nothing, made millions
off flipping work.
No, the feds watching real niggas flip the bird,
speak in code.
If they catch you, keep the code, keep your soul.
My mama didn't fold, did time, never told.
My mama, she a OG, bought a Benz at 14.
At 23, my OG had a different car for every day of the week,
still got a '95 AMG.
Baby girl was born in '93, finally, now here is me.
Granny raised a bunch of queens.
I done seen a bunch of things.
I'm the heir to a bunch of dreams.
All they dreams live inside of me.
I know that they all count on me to bring them to reality.
I know they already proud of me, got to keep
making them proud of me.
I do it for the family, love is what inspires me.
Mookey said I could be anything I want to be.
I should never want to be anything that wasn't me.
I just wanted to be free.
Half our family tree been trapped by the streets
or the penitentiary.
I just want to set them free, run away from poverty.
I'm feeling like Harriett, burden of a Black woman,
you can't carry it.
Why should I tell my story if I know they're going to bury it?
Why should I have this baby if I know I'm going to bury it?
Look, this some heavy shit.
And my mama had weight on top of it, moving it,
did it all for the fam, did it all for her kids, uh.
My mama, she a OG.
Grandmama, she a OG.
I got a bunch of aunties and they all OGs,
a long line of Black queens.
They all helped raise me.
So what you think they taught me?
What you think that make me?
My mama, she a OG.
Grandmama, she a OG.
I got a bunch of aunties and they all OGs,
a long line of Black queens.
They all helped raise me.
So what do you think they taught me?
What you think that make me?
Look, growing up I never thought that I was poor.
I was spoiled.
I got everything I wanted plus more.
Every week, another pair of Jordans,
every game system and every game for them.
I thought we could afford it.
All our cars were imported, like drugs across borders.
Feds help that cross borders, but arrest kids, deport them.
I wish I was postmortem.
Like granny taught granddaughter,
but devils walking upon us.
They hate the shine, hope it tarnish.
Glowed up, I got it honest.
My parents, they kept their promise, sent their baby
girl to college, gave me the life that they wanted.
I appreciate it. $100,000 piece of paper, my granny framed it.
To her, I'm already famous.
Fame has never been a goal, but I'm a natural born leader
so I already know, that it's coming
so I'm ready like I'm all packed to go.
Niggas hunting, they aim at me, but I might be next to go,
supposed to be the next to blow.
West Side of Chicago, you never really know,
bottom of the totem pole.
That's why niggas toting poles.
I ain't really ready to go.
I ain't stepping at the door.
OK, I'll pop out.
I'm Nell daughter, niggas better watch out.
I might pull a Cartier watch out.
Time is money.
I ain't sitting in the damn house.
Granny worried, steady calling about my whereabouts.
I'm probably with the shooters when they air it out.
Lord, forgive me, I'm just trying to make it out,
sending all these prayers up, hope a blessing come down.
Lately I've been feeling if I stick around, be another Nipsey
Hussle, be a Mike Brown.
Even with our hands up, still getting gunned down.
That ain't how I'm going out.
That's his story.
That ain't my story.
I'm about to white it out.
Fuck it.
Black it out.
Man.
Fuck it.
Black it out.
Look, my mama, she a OG.
Grandmama, she a OG.
I got a bunch of aunties and they all OGs,
a long line of Black queens.
They all helped raise me.
So what you think they taught me?
What you think that make me?
My mama, she a OG.
Grandmama, she a OG.
I got a bunch of aunties and they all OGs,
a long line of Black queens.
They all helped raise me.
So what you think they taught me.
What you think that make me?
My mama, she a OG, a long line of Black queens.
So what you think they taught me.
What you think that make me?