Unit 8: Taking Action, Getting Inspired, Getting Involved

Questions:

  • What lessons do we take from past civil rights movements into today?
  • How can young people enter activism?
  • What can you learn and how can you learn from activism and activists of the past?
  • What makes activism sustainable?

 

Materials:

 

Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s” (BlackPast.org)
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s/

Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger” (BlackPast.org)
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism/

Civil Rights: Then And Now Series of 6 short videos (about 3 minutes each)
focusing on activists of today as well as activists from the 60s looking back, the Internet and social change, Black Lives Matter, etc.)
https://kcts9.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/eyes-on-the-prize-then-and-now/

Taking Action 
“Sunstorm,” Alicia Garza and Ai-Jen Poo  
(podcast, Episode 2, Getting Into Good Trouble, 22 mins)

Solidarity Is ProjectCollection of resources, plus the Solidarity Is podcast 
https://www.solidarityis.org/
“What does solidarity really mean in reality? What are solidarity values and how do we center them?”

Girls In Politics “Advocacy 101” (webinar)
https://www.girlsinpolitics.com/programs/

“Unpacking Action” (Online activity and plans, Teaching Tolerance) 
https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/social-justice-standards-unpacking-action

Dolores Huerta, “How to overcome apathy and find your power,” 2018 TED talk
https://www.ted.com/talks/dolores_huerta_how_to_overcome_apathy_and_find_your_power/

Social Change in America
On Social Change Angela Davis, “How Does Change Happen?” (2008, YouTube video, 1 hr.)
https://youtu.be/Pc6RHtEbiOA

Keeanga Yamhatta-Taylor, “How Do We Change America?”
(New Yorker, article, 2020)
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-do-we-change-america

Making Art and Social Change – Patrice Cullors
“Patrice Cullors Talks About Decarceration and The Freedom of Performance” – ArtForum
https://www.artforum.com/interviews/patrisse-cullors-talks-about-decarceration-and-her-activist-art-83031