Cooperative Journal – Détails, épisodes et analyse

A collaboration with New Economy Coalition

Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. 

Creative Wildfire supports artists and grassroots organizations to create art that fuels our movements and imagines the world we need to thrive. This cultural organizing project is an embodiment of the strength of coalitions to resource the wider web. Three powerhouse organizations in the movement for a Just Transition and the Solidarity Economy pooled their budgets to redistribute to artists - Movement Generation, Climate Justice Alliance, and New Economy Coalition. 

In 2023-2024, Creative Wildfire convened a 10 month cohort that prioritized deeper relationship building, co-creation with a partner organization, and political education. 7 incredible artists and 7 organizations were selected to explore what's possible when we shift from transaction to collaborative liberation. 

In this episode Ebony speaks with Lizzie Suarez and Lily Xie, two of the most recent Creative Wildfire grantees. We talk about their roles as artist and cultural organizers, challenges that arise when collaborating with organizations, what can symbiosis look like when artists and orgs co-create, the value artists bring beyond being producers, and the cultural shifts needed to have a just transition in the arts.

New Economy Coalition

Creative Wildfire

Lily Xie Website

Lizzie Suarez Website

Look Loud: visual strategy accomplices, supporting communities taking control of their own media narratives

Building Irresistible Movements: Best collaboration practices for organizations and visual artists

Pedagogy of the Oppressed book by Paulo Freire

Creative Study ‘Creatives Rebuild Guaranteed Income’: A free course about the three year guaranteed income initiative for artists in NYC

Cartoonist Cooperative

Episode Music by MADlines

A collaboration with New Economy Coalition

Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. 

The Black Solidarity Economy Fund (BSEF) was created by the New Economy Coalition to resource, convene, and uplift the work of the Black Solidarity Economy movement. The fund is managed by their member-led working group that has the autonomy to make decisions about who receives the grant and how much is awarded. Since 2020, they have redistributed $730,000 to Black solidarity economy groups across the nation. 

In this episode, Ebony speaks with former grantees and members of the working group, Erin Backus from the Maternal Health Equity Collaborative and Georie Bryant from Symbodied. They share about their  solidarity economy organizing in maternal healthcare and agriculture as well as the ancestral wisdom that informs their work. They talk about the collective regranting process and how it felt to shift from grantee to grantmaker. We also delve into the current barriers to weaving a Black solidarity economy network, the future they envision for a robust Black solidarity economy, and some practical ways to activate this vision.

Before the interview begins, Shardé Nabors, the Resource Redistribution Director at New Economy Coalition, grounds us in defining the solidarity economy, what BSEF is, the intention for starting it, and their plans for growth and expansion. 

Black Solidarity Economy Fund

Maternal Health Equity Collaborative 

Symbodied

Episode Music by MADlines

Established in 1972, A.I.R is the first artist cooperative gallery for women in the United States. They maintain an exhibition space in Brooklyn, NY and showcase the work of hundreds of women artists each year. They also offer ways for members to build a support network and engage with the community through public open calls, fellowships, workshops, lectures on feminism, and discussion groups. Their multi-media exhibitions have explored themes of identity politics, historical archives, fractals, the symbiotic relationship between our body and environment, and so much more.

In this episode I speak with member Susan Stainman about how A.I.R has cultivated a space for women artists to be fully autonomous and given a platform in a male dominated industry. We speak about the history of female oppression in the United States, the lack of representation of women in the art world, benefits of membership like retaining majority of sales and camaraderie, how artist cooperatives can shift the centralization of wealth in the art industry that’s worth more than transportation and agriculture, and more wisdom.

A.I.R Website

A.I.R Instagram

A.I.R Facebook

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

Share your gifts with us on Open Collective Foundation

Manyverse is an open-source, decentralized social network. Rather than a company controlling data and communication, the user has complete ownership and responsibility. Their goal is to make social networking independent of internet connectivity, allowing for “off the grid” communication when disconnected from the internet. 

In this episode I speak with founder Andre Staltz about transforming social networks into a method of communication and community, not a business. He shares why the interweb is dying, what it means to decolonize and demonetize social networking, dissolving hierarchy in social media platforms, how they receive financial support, and a new vision for the world wide web.

Manyverse Website

Open Collective Foundation page

Learn About Local-first Software 

Next Generation Internet - European Union Grant

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

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Tariq El Nahl translates from Arabic to Way of the Bees. They are an herbal collective based in Lebanon that formed after the explosion in the capital of Beirut in 2020. Lebanon has been compounded with crises in the past 50 years - from a civil war, to a financial crisis, and most recently the explosion left 300,000 people homeless and a government collapsed. When faced with trauma, broken infrastructure, and governmental systems that fail to meet our needs, how do we heal and progress? Tariq El Nahl is answering this question through fully embodying and bringing people back to their essence - Mother Earth.

In this episode, I speak with Paul Saad, one of the members of the collective.. He poetically shares how they are utilizing land–based practices for reclaiming, highlighting, and accessing ancestral knowledge including creating native botanical gardens, delivering handmade baskets filled with herbal medicine from the land, herbal medicine toolkits as well as how they are raising money to fulfill these needs, and suggestions for finding light and grounding amidst darkness. 

Herbal Guidebook

Mini-doc on Tariq El Nahl

Tariq El Nahl Instagram

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

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In this special 1 year anniversary episode, Cooperative Journal's host - Ebony Joy finally opens up to share their personal story.

I explain what inspired me to start this form of storytelling, why I've shifted from the language of "alternative economics", expanding into a multimedia/multi-sensory platform, and why this is an opportune times for collectivized economic solutions.

My friend/collaborator Robin also joins me in the later half of the episode to share a bit about themself. They've been central in the recent reinvisioining process and is the visual strategist/artist at Cooperative Journal Media.

Cooperative Journal Media: Media platform that the podcast is now under the umbrella of

Anticapitalism for Artists: A platform for artists interested in anti-capitalism

Creative Wildfire: Group of artists Robin and I joined to make art about "not going back to normal"

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

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Understory is a worker-led restaurant, bar, and incubation kitchen in Oakland, CA. In collaboration with Oakland Bloom, they center immigrant, working class, and people of color chefs through pathways to worker-leadership, project support and training, and economic opportunities. It is more than just a restaurant, they offer a platter of ways to physically and socially nourish the community in a co-creative way. You can experience the roots of the workers through their rotating menu of Filipino, Moroccan, and Mexican cuisine, check out local art, attend a dance party, or support an immigrant or refugee chef at their weekly pop-up.

In this episode I speak with one of the chefs Florencio Esquivel about how Understory is shifting the narrative of who receives support and amplification in the restaurant industry. They share how the pandemic influenced the restaurant’s formation, process of assuming responsibilities and navigating decision making, impact and intention of their worker emergency fund, importance of preserving indegenous recipes, and their vision for a changed restaurant world that is horizontally structured while honoring the diversity of workers and their lineage.

Understory’s Instagram

Understory’s Website

Wahpepah’s Kitchen (Kickapoo Tribe Restaurant in Oakland)

Play Cousins Collective is a Black centered family care network based in Louisville, Kentucky. They are building multi-generational and inter-sectional Black spaces and community resources rooted in ancestral methods of healing and resistance. Through offering programs at every stage of development, from in utero to adult they are able to foster a supported and resilient community.

In this episode I speak with executive director Kristen Williams about the significance of building a village amongst the African-American community. She shares how they started with mapping out all of the Black businesses and practitioners in their community, voids children of color experience in educational institutions and communities, tools they are utilizing to affirm Black power and beauty from a young age, decolonization of mentality and practices, the multitude of programs they offer to all ages, membership structure, how they navigate generational trauma and healing, and more! 

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy

Want to support Cooperative Journal?

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East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is based in the East Bay of California. They facilitate BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the market. Residents, investors, community members, and EB PREC staff then co-own and co-steward the property. It creates a shift toward community controlled assets, and empowering their communities to be ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative.

In this episode, I speak with executive director Noni Session about how EB PREC is garnering support to shift real estate ownership from extractive developers into the hands of the BIPOC community in Oakland and the East Bay. She shares the difference between a permanent real estate co-op and land trust, ancestral remembrance of cooperative ownership, how they got the first group of people to invest, their governance structure and multi-stakeholder model, prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility to individual investors, transparency of investment risks and how they mitigate it, and their exciting new venture - a historic Black arts svenue they’ve acquired for Black artists and small businesses at 50% of market rate. 

Document detailing their direct public offering: https://ebprec.org/offering

Esthers Orbit Room - mixed-use Black cultural venue: https://ebprec.org/esthers

Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperatives

St. Louis Mutual Aid is based in St. Louis, MO. They are a network of organizers, healers, artists, community leaders, and every day people coming together to deliver food and supplies, provide financial solidarity, offer emotional support, and ultimately connect people to their neighbors.

In this episode I speak with members Marcus Hunt, Julia Ho, and Carmen Ward about how STL Mutual Aid has built a robust network of care in their community. In this episode we speak about how mutual aid can be used to introduce people to the solidarity economy, peer-2-peer learning between cooperatives and mutual aid initiatives, taking a holistic approach to fulfilling needs, resources of support offered including their no strings attached financial solidarity fund, how to make the distinction between mutual aid and charity, and more.

St. Louis Mutual Aid Website

St. Louis Mutual Aid Instagram

Solidarity Economy St. Louis