Mutual Aid Society Podcast

“We learn to love by giving service. The moment we choose to love we begin to move against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom.” - excerpt from the essay “Love as the Practice of Freedom” from the book  “In Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations” written by Bell Hooks.

In this episode, we discuss community healing, technology, social businesses, honor, accountability, and design in Brooklyn. Whitney is a co-founder of a new mobile app called Greenish, a Brooklyn-based directory that aims to provide safety and agency for Black consumers and businesses.

Whitney McGuire, Esq., is a mother, a New York state licensed attorney, a sustainability consultant & strategist, and co-founder of Sustainable Brooklyn, an organization that disrupts the whitewashing of sustainable fashion, agriculture and well-being in order to concretize equity for those first and most impacted by the climate crisis. Whitney is a pioneer in the field of fashion law and supports the sustainability of BIPOC artists as an attorney and advocate.

“Social business is about using creativity to solve human problems in a sustainable way...Social business represents a crucial element in the transition from our current greed-based civilization to a civilization based on the deeper human values of sharing and caring.” - combined excerpts from “A World of Three Zeros” by Nobel Peace Prize winner and economist, Muhammad Yunus.

In this episode we discuss lineage, indigenous knowledge, diaspora, land ownership, artmaking, and ancestral celebration. Colleen is currently fundraising and building towards establishing a major cultural center in Liberia.

Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald is a multidisciplinary performance artist, activist and cultural worker of Liberian and Euro-American descent. Her work is movement-based and centers women of the African diaspora, as well as her feminist, antiracist and anticolonial politics. As an indigenous African woman, she’s interested in reclaiming the indigeneity of Blackness. She has trained extensively in Afro-diasporic, West African and Contemporary dance, and received her Bachelor’s in Dance and Anthropology from Bates College. As an independent artist she has performed and taught in the US, Argentina, Paraguay, and Mexico. A few years ago, while Colleen briefly lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she co-founded Kukily, a transnational afrofeminist arts collective. The 4 collective members currently work across borders and cultures in performance art, audiovisual, installations, and community-centered practice. Colleen recently started her dream project to build a cultural institution in Liberia. Her artist practice is always collective, whether it’s with Kukily , her ancestors, or her communities.

“African American folk healing is defined by a focus on connection with others, nature, the dead and the unborn, and a belief that sickness is caused by more than germs...treating illness and aiming for health entails a scope expanded beyond the limits of the physical self, emphasizing connections to the community and nature and nations, as well as links with the past and future.” - Excerpt from “African American Folk Healing” by Stephanie Mitchem

In this episode we discuss transitions, grief, death, birth, and the role of doulas and movement in providing aid to Black people. Ogemdi is co-founder of a recently launched community online resource center called, Afropeach.

Ogemdi Ude is a Brooklyn-based, Nigerian-American dance artist, educator, and birth and postpartum doula. She graduated Magna Cum Lau-day from Princeton University with a degree in English. Her performances focus on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. She aims to incite critical engagement with embodied Black history as a means to imagine Black futurity (FEW-TOUR-ITY). Her work has been presented at numerous places such as: Recess Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Danspace Project, Gibney, and BAM’s DanceAfrica Festival. She is a 2021 danceWEB Scholar and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grantee. With her creative collaborator, Rochelle Jameela Willbin, together they are 2021 Create Change Artists-in-Residence with The Laundromat Project. They created AfroPeach, a new online resource center for Black birthing and bleeding people in Brooklyn.

“Imagination is the last weapon for people who have lost all their bearings. This is what keeps them alive because nobody can do anything about it; it’s the ultimate hope.” - Abderrahmane Sissako, award-winning Mauritanian-born Malian filmmaker.

In this episode we discuss afro-futurism, artmaking, imagination, film, spirituality, and the relationship of imagination and place in community development. Aisha is co-founder of Intelligent Mischief, a creative studio that is opening a new physical space in Brooklyn.

Aisha Shillingford is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer and cultural strategist originally from Trinidad & Tobago. She has a degree in Environmental Analysis & Policy, a Masters in Community Organizing & Social Innovation, and an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship. She is an alumna of the Laundromat Project's Create Change Fellowship, a member of the New Museum Incubator, and an inaugural Fellow at the Race Forward Butterfly Lab for Immigrant Narrative Strategy. Her written work has been published in Black Discourse and Grantmakers In the Arts. Her work has been commissioned by the Movement for Black Lives, Root Rise Pollinate and Creative Wild Fire. She has served as an organizer or director at several key community organizations, for example: the Muslim American Society Boston Chapter, the New Economy Coalition, and Movement Strategy Center.  With her creative collaborator, Terry Marshall, they run a creative studio and futures design lab based in Brooklyn, called “Intelligent Mischief”.

“Culture is who we are, and what shapes our identity. Placing culture at the heart of development policies is the only way to ensure a human-centred, inclusive and equitable development.” -  Jyoti Hosagraha in the essay “Culture: at the heart of SDGs” (UNESCO, 2017)

In this episode, we discuss dance, intentionality, neighborhood engagement, spirituality, and the role of culture and connection in community development. Kendra’s organization STooPs, is a recent winner of the People-Powered-Pay-It-Forward monetary award from the Laundromat Project.

Kendra J. Ross is a proud Detroit native working as a dancer, choreographer, facilitator and community organizer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As a dancer in New York City, she has worked with numerous groups and individuals. For example: Urban Bush Women, Ase Dance Theater Collective, and Moving Spirits Dance Company, and Melanie Green.  She has also completed a European tour dancing with Adira Amram and DJ Kid Koala in Vinyl Vaudeville 2.0 and performed with Gyptian at the MTV Iggy awards. Kendra is currently a company member of Movement of the People Dance Company. Her choreo-graphic work has been presented at places like the Florida A&M University, the Off-Broadway show “7 Sins”, Museo de Arte in Salvador, Brazil, Dixon Place, Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, and Actors Fund Theater.  She’s been an Artist in Residence at places such as: Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Bates College, and The Neighborhood Project Through 6-51 Arts. Along with sharing her art world-wide, Kendra serves as the Founder/Director of STooPS, an outdoors-based community building event that uses art as a catalyst to strengthen ties between different entities in Bed-Stuy and as a Facilitator with UBW’s BOLD network.

Mutual Aid Society is a multimedia storytelling project created in 2020 by host Selamawit. The first act of the project is a public participatory exhibit on instagram (@mmutualaidsociety). The second act is a limited series podcast that features conversations with creative individuals whose work or practices incorporate a component of mutual aid, healing, or community development. This series was created to explore the various forms of mutual aid that can exist in communities and how it often goes beyond money or financial support.

In this episode, host Selamawit shares her intentions and inspiration behind this limited series.

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