dpnadmin, Author at Dignity and Power Now

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Dignity and Power Now Statement on Cherie Townsend

What happened to Cherie Townsend is exactly why Dignity and Power Now exists–to fight for the dignity and power of all incarcerated people, their families, and communities while remaining rooted in community power with the goal of achieving transformative justice and healing justice.

We #StandwithCherie in demanding a public apology from L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell for wrongfully and very publicly accusing this single mother–who was minding her own business–of murder.

The damage caused by the pain and humiliation suffered by Ms. Townsend and her children when Sheriff McDonnell and Sheriff’s Department investigators–who we believe targeted Ms. Townsend simply for the color of her skin and for being in a community where Blacks apparently don’t belong–cannot be understated.

A public apology from Sheriff McDonnell is a necessary first step the restorative justice process and toward making Ms. Townsend and her family whole.

We call on the Civilian Oversight Commission, the FBI and the County Board of Supervisors to investigate whether or not the targeting to Ms. Townsend by the Sheriff’s Department was racially motivated and qualified as a hate crime.

We call on the community at large to #StandWithCherie with the understanding that what happened to her, could happen to any one us simple for being the wrong color and in spaces that considered anti-people of color.

Dignity and Power Now founder Patrisse Cullors, attorney Nazareth Haysbert and Cherie Townsend.

Watch the Cherie Townsend 10/01/2018 Pres Conference – https://www.facebook.com/jasmyne/videos/10216023386710996/

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Forever Rooted: Leadership, Storytelling, and Skill-Building

Forever Rooted is a program for formerly incarcerated people where we meet once a week for seven weeks and go over a curriculum that consists of leadership building, storytelling, and facilitation skill-building and encourages folks to become active in their own communities.

We understand that fresh out of prison people are waiting on that first call to say that they’re hired, which makes participating in a voluntary program like Forever Rooted challenging. Our recent cohort began with a nice number of participants and ended with around the same number of people, finishing strong. Through perseverance and dedication every person that graduated this year didn’t miss a single day! Shoutout to our previous graduates, Todd and Al, for showing up and supporting our most recent group.

Forever Rooted Spring 2018 Graduation

This last Forever Rooted cohort was active in our signature gathering events where we gathered signatures to put the Reform L.A. Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative on the ballot in 2020. Among other things, the initiative if passed would grant subpoena power to the L.A. Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. Forever Rooted participants were also active at our monthly Member Engagement Meetings and our Freedom Harvest summer pop-up arts and wellness events that take place outside the county jails. This group of folks was great and I was also blessed with a great intern. Grateful for everyone that helped my work and the program flourish!

T.E.A.M. work! (Together Everyone Achieves More)

If you have recently gotten out of prison and want to participate in our next free Forever Rooted program please contact me here.

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Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute: Youth on the Rise

The Dandelion Rising Leadership Institute (DRLI) is close to my heart because of two main reasons:

1. At the age of 19 I was arrested for a murder I did not commit.
2. The way I introduce myself and the program to our students each year.

As an introduction I ask the new students their names and their ages. After I tell them my story I go right back to that first introduction and let them know why I asked: to show them that I was close to their age when I was sent away to do a life sentence for a murder I didn’t commit. I show the DRLI students that I am just now able to speak to them in person at 52 years old. This introduction tends to get their attention.

Once I have their attention I share that I now understand the way I became so subjected to the system. I didn’t know the laws or the depths of the neglect in my community and surrounding areas, and at the same time I became known to the police as a gang member. Nevertheless, I didn’t murder anyone. So I tie the 7-week DRLI curriculum into my personal life story and the personal stories of DRLI students, which include subjects like mass incarceration, police violence, and even fellow students being choked in classrooms by law enforcement officials.

As part of the institute students get a chance to learn through our Know Your Rights training, and to use the skills learned whether it be on campus or at home. These are some smart students! They even have a few campaigns of their own including Students Not Suspects and Students Deserve – fights that strive for decreased policing at schools across Los Angeles.

That’s why I enjoy working with the youth. A lot of them want to know better so they can do better, in particular by understanding their rights. The police profile people when they are looking for a suspect and the person who is arrested and charged might be them even if they did not commit the crime, as was true in my case. When young people are impacted by major stressors such as racism and poverty they can sometimes end up participating in harmful behavior. While DPN believes we must be accountable for harm caused we also believe that the system also needs to be accountable for the environments it creates.

Youth want to understand how campaign work for justice is done. In addition to in-classroom learning, our DRLI students receive the opportunity to intern with DPN staff and participate in LA County Board of Supervisors meetings, Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission meetings, Freedom Harvest wellness events, and supporting our Reform L.A. Jails ballot initiative.

Are you a teacher interested in hosting or a student interested in participating in DRLI? Contact me!

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The Womyn of Success Stories

Feminist Group From All-Male Prison Featured in Recent CNN Film Thrives with Contributions from Committed Womyn

Success Stories, recently exhibited in the CNN documentary The Feminist on Cell Block Y, is a program where young incarcerated men transform their lives by challenging their patriarchy. The film beautifully reveals the struggles of the participants and leaders as we wrestle with our toxic masculinity in prison to build freer more integrated lives. However, the Success Stories team doesn’t only include these men. It also includes visionary womyn whose support make the program possible and have done so since the beginning.

Chantal Coudoux
Prison programs like Success Stories do not survive without support from the outside. They require surgically precise navigation through prison bureaucracy and communication with imprisoned leadership through slender, approved channels. Chantal has been volunteering her time connecting the group with outside resources since 2014 as its Community Liaison. She links graduates with education and employment resources once they parole. She coordinates between the incarcerated directors and the prison administration to bring in outside speakers. She works with Success Stories’ fiscal sponsor, LA-based Dignity and Power Now (DPN), to supply the group with learning aids such as The Mask You Live In, a documentary about toxic masculinity that Success Stories uses in its curriculum.
 
Taina Vargas-Edmond
Success Stories feminist authenticity is largely built upon Taina’s investment of her time and her story. Her relationships, conversations, and visits with multiple Success Stories directors and facilitators keep the group plugged into womyn’s experiences with patriarchy. As shown in the documentary, it is her generous sharing that enlightens the group to contemporary feminist conversations like those around street harassment and rape culture.
 
Janice Bonello
Janice led Success Stories’ patriarchy workshops with her friend Chris Siders for three straight seasons in 2015 and 2016. She and Chris were leaders of a feminist club at California State University Monterey Bay when Taina connected them with Success Stories. Janice’s interactive workshops drew participants’ toxic beliefs into the open. She then contested those beliefs by speaking out her personal experience as a survivor of multiple forms of patriarchal violence. Her openness and candor still echo in the group’s antipatriarchy work today.
 
Patrisse Cullors
The #BlackLivesMatter cofounder and DPN founder was an original supporter of Success Stories, bringing it on as an official project of DPN early in the lives of both organizations. This relationship supplied Success Stories with the budget required to bring in outside presenters and resources. It also brought forth Chantal as a volunteer and offered Success Stories legitimacy in the eyes of the prison which helped it become a state recognized program. DPN has since hired one of the incarcerated men who made Success Stories possible, James Nelson, when he paroled in 2014 after serving 29 years. He continues to work with them as a full time Community Organizer.
 
bell hooks
The patriarchy workshop Success Stories delivers is largely inspired by the writings of feminist social critic and author bell hooks. Her books The Will to Change, We Real Cool, and All About Love are each quoted throughout the curriculum and in The Feminist on Cell Block Y. Success Stories sees itself as a mediator, relaying her insights to incarcerated men in the common language of California male prisons.

Watch the full documentary here.

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