The revolution will require furious dancing!! For most of my life, I was taught that art and organizing were two different things, divorced from one another. Art was something you got to do as a special treat, it was reserved for the gifted and talented and the point was to become famous, to entertain and distract the masses from oppression. But that never sat right with me. Poetry and performance saved my life. It helped me make meaning after my father was brutally unalived when I was an adolescent. It gave me hope to go on. Art helped me bring literacy, emotional intelligence skills and revolutionary thought to incarcerated children and helped me create fun and engaging organizing sessions across the country. Oakland was the first place where I saw the massive, multicultural power of intentionally connecting arts & culture to organizing for liberation. Everyone talks about the problems when the solutions are right in front of us. Oakland arts has always had a fraction of the budget that’s given to police. That has got to change. Donate ➡️ destinyarts.org/donate #storytime #oakland #artistsonwhistlr