Communities of Color Don’t Need Starbucks. We Need Funding. w/ Keta Price and Dani Dynes
1h 0m
·
According to Weeze
·
In this episode Keta & Dani of the East Oakland Collective and I talk about the changes they’re creating in Oakland to increase accessibility. We all know there’s no damn reason for communities of color to be under-resourced other than whyteness doing what it does! And Dani let us know that no community, even if it’s underdeveloped, ever goes unmapped or unplanned. So what can we do about houselessness, transportation, and making sure our communities thrive? How can we be the ones to stand up for our cities to increase access? Bc let’s face it, we’ve always known WE gotta take care of US.! How can we create what we want to see and get the resources for it? Listen, learn, and get involved!
ABOUT WEEZE
Louiza Doran, known and referred to as Weeze, is a cis-het Amazigh* female-identifying human who uses she/her/they/them pronouns. She’s known as a coach, podcast host, advocate, agent of change, strategist, and educator (to name a few) but is ultimately a compassionate provocateur that is out to help folks uncover their path of possibility.
ABOUT KETA & DANI
Marquita “Keta” Price (she/her/Goddess), aka “The Hood Planner,” is a third-generation East Oakland native serving as the Director of Urban and Regional Planning for The East Oakland Collective. Keta’s formal passion for urbanism came about during recreational research on how gentrification has impacted low-income Black “hoods” across the nation. As director, Keta is the lead on several East Oakland neighborhood & transportation planning projects, participates in the development of local urban and regional planning, and holds the city of Oakland accountable to equitable zoning and land use in East Oakland.
Her early activism and care for community is rooted at Merritt College, where she served as the Vice President of The Black Student Union, President of the Kem(istry) Club, President of the Associated Students of Merritt College (ASMC), and served as a Student Trustee of the Peralta Community College School District. Keta’s initial goals were to restore the intellect and militancy of Merritt’s student government. Seeded by Chairman Bobby Seale and other former Black Panthers, ASMC focused on leveraging the institution’s resources to address the socioeconomic issues from the flatlands prohibiting students from thriving academically. Keta’s political and social goals pulled her away from studying chemistry to deeply exploring how societies, communities, and cities are planned, designed and constructed.
As a chemistry major, Keta received an achievement award for the completion of The Center for Educational Partnerships NIH-UCB internship. During this project Keta synthesized pro-fluorophores used for live-cell RNA imaging. Keta also received recognition and commendation from the California Legislature Assembly and State of California Senate and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for her student advocacy work with the Tobacco-less Club at Merritt College. Keta has an Associates of Science in Mathematics and Natural Science. When the opportunity presents itself, Keta plans to further her education in Urban Studies, Data Analysis and Design.
Danielle "Dani" Dynes is a dedicated community planner who was born in East Oakland and raised in West Oakland. As a planner, she focuses on the present needs of residents and while creating strategies to deal with the challenges of the future. She works to bring more resources and infrastructure to Oakland and ensure we have safer, healthier, and well-connected communities moving forward.
Danielle has a B.A. in Urban Studies and Planning from San Francisco State University. She has previously worked at the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) in their Planning and Project Development section. Several of Danielle's projects at OakDOT prioritized equitable and culturally relevant change in the East Oakland community. She facilitated events around the 90th Avenue Scraper Bike Way and conducted community outreach for the East Oakland Mobility Action Plan. She also helped manage Sustainable Transportation Planning grants while interning at the California Department of Transportation.
Before she studied planning Danielle taught website design and visual communication to students in Oakland and Richmond. In 2016 she was honored as a Youth Development Fellow by Coro, a civic leadership training organization. In her leisure, Danielle enjoys photography, crafting, hiking, and gardening.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT
- How EOC’s founder, Candace Elder, said hell nah to the ways her community was deteriorating due to gentrification and decided to address issues like pollution + houselessness.
- The fuckery with folks seeing systemic challenges and thinking it’s random or beyond our control, but it’s not! We knowwww this!
- Why disparities and underdeveloped communities even exist, when communities are always mapped out and planned.
- How the white flight outta of East Oakland and left the whole area for dead!.
- There's no designated funding to give to communities to plan their own communities surprise surprise, so a lot of that grunt work falls on nonprofits, grassroots people, and individuals to fill that gap.
- How a lack of economics, transportation, and accessibility affects communities + what we can do to help!
CALL TO ACTION
- Support the East Oakland Mobility Action Plan.
- Get involved with the Mobility 4 All program, their new clean mobility fellows, and an upcoming project funded by the STEP Grant to explore the feasibility of implementing a zero-emission bus shuttle to bridge access to nearby local/regional park-The Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eq-twyoJeB5ipLs7kbAWjF0Kgq210WRO/view?usp=sharing
FOLLOW WEEZE TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze
The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy
FOLLOW KETA & DANI TO STAY ENGAGED
Website: https://www.eastoaklandcollective.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastoaklandcollective/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eoakcollective
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eoakcollective
The episode Communities of Color Don’t Need Starbucks. We Need Funding. w/ Keta Price and Dani Dynes from the podcast According to Weeze has a duration of
1:00:12. It was first published
More episodes from According to Weeze
Hi Friends, I'm Back!
The show is baaaaaaack! We know it’s been a little bit… and Weeze is excited to reconnect. If you’re tuned in on social media or substack, you’ve been dialed in to the shifts, changes and transformations that have been afoot. In this short and sweet chat, Weeze rehashes what’s been up, how things are shifting, what is pulling her forward and what you can expect as you dive deeper into community with Weeze whether through the Podcast, the Community or over on Patreon.
How do we continue to show up for community without first practicing and more deeply embodying the work we teach? In this episode, Weeze shares candidly about her journey towards deeper alignment with her work, and values. Tune in to hear about all the things!
Lastly, Weeze would love for you to get involved with her foundation, The Asafa Collective through Volunteering, Donating and Sharing about the work (linked below).
Key Takeaways:
-
Rest, Transformation and Alignment as Liberation Tools
-
Broadening the Conversations and Applying Liberatory Lens
-
Cultivating space for the full work
-
Get involved with The Asafa Collective; volunteer, donate, share.
-
Rewriting all the rules, all the time
Links:
Support the Show:
https://www.patreon.com/accordingtoweeze
Share, Donate, Volunteer for with the Foundation:
https://www.doranfamilyfoundation.com/
Dive deeper into the work:
https://louizadoran.com/collective
Stay Connected:
https://www.instagram.com/accordingtoweeze/
1948 to Freedom: From Gaza
In this session, we speak with a Doctor from Gaza. For their safety and protection, their voice has been altered. There is a transcript below for easier listening.
This Doctor shares important data and experiences to keep in mind regarding the day to day lived experience of those in Palestine, centralized in Gaza; from manufactuered poverty, to education, to the power grid, to daily struggles of families before and after 10/7/2023.
Transcript Here:
https://1948tofreedom.com/2023/10/30/session-1-from-gaza/
1948 to Freedom: From Palestine To Lebanon
In this session, Louiza “Weeze” Doran talks with a biracial Palestinian whose family fled Palestine during 1948, landing in Lebanon and later in the United States. They share insight from their lived experience, as well as, point us to research and tracked data regarding the experiences of those in Palestine. From refugee experiences during the Nakba to refugee camps, to Palestinian rights to Israeli apartheid, to mental health and resistance to settler colonialism.
They state, “And so part of our rage about the reaction to certain things, to only certain communities, is that these decades and decades and decades of violence have been literally unknown, ignored. I mean, by everyone, forever, and yet, suddenly, they’re worth attending to and I would say they’re absolutely worth just like they’ve been worth attending to, for the last 75 plus years.”
Resources:
More Learning:
–https://www.jadaliyya.com/
More On Apartheid:
– https://jewishcurrents.org/understanding-apartheid
–https://www.btselem.org/apartheid
–https://thisisapartheid.btselem.org/eng/#1
Transcript Here:
https://1948tofreedom.com/2023/10/30/session-3/
1948 to Freedom: From Yaffa
Mx. Yaffa is an acclaimed disabled, autistic, trans, queer, Muslim, and indigenous Palestinian individual who has received multiple awards for their transformative work around displacement, decolonization, equity, and centering the lived experiences of individuals most impacted by injustice.
In this session, Louiza “Weeze” Doran speaks with Yaffa regarding their experience as a displaced indigenous Palestinian, who has lived in multiple countries during war and revolutionary movements. They share about their family’s experience of displacement in Palestine, the family that still lives in Gaza, and more. Yaffa also shares about their work in the Muslim community around Sexual & Gender diveristy as the Executive Director of Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD), and their forthcoming book regarding the same experiences.
Resources:
Ebook Preorder Now
Paperback Preorder Link – Coming Soon
Virtual Book Launch 11/13
Yaffa’s Instagram: @yaffasutopia
Yaffa’s Tiktok: @yaffasutopia
Yaffa’s Linktree
Transcript Here:
https://1948tofreedom.com/2023/10/30/session-2-yaffa/
The Enneagram Journey with Jessica Dickson
At this point we all know all about the Enneagram, right? Wrong. Take what you think you know and set it aside. I am honored to have Jessica Dickson here with me today. Jessica is an Enneagram genius and an antiracism educator, and a RAY OF SUNSHINE! She is utilizing the inner work of the Enneagram, with the context setting of antiracism, to create healing environments for her clients and we are lucky to have her share some of that with us today! Join me as I sit down with Jessica and dig into the challenges that come along with the Enneagram, why embodiment work has to come first, and the problematic practices that have been involved with both.
We’re exploring:
- The goal of body love and how it may need to start with body relationship and loyalty
- What exactly Enneagram is, and how can it drive our liberation work
- How our social conditioning changes how we access ourselves
- Why it’s important to allow yourself to hold on to your protection
- Dealing with labels specific to being a certain “type”
- Getting underneath a behavior to find the motivation driving it
- Avoiding healing work that “tells” you what you are and what to do
- Why tests are not the best way to find your Enneagram
- And so much more!!
Mentioned in this episode:
The Enneagram for Black Liberation: Return to Who You Are Beneath the Armor You Carry by Chichi Agorom https://bit.ly/Theenneagramforblackliberation
Listen to Episode 36 with Elizabeth DiAlto HERE
Catch up with Weeze!
Website: https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/
Instagram: @accordingtoweeze
The Academy (it’s like Patreon): https://www.accordingtoweeze.com/the-academy
Get to know Jessica and sign up for her courses at https://jessicaddickson.com/
Instagram: @jessicaddicksoncoaching