JUSTICE
Who Are The Organizers?
Unpacking the lived experiences of those who took to the streets this summer BY KIA SMITH PHOTOS BY ALLY ALMORE
This piece is part of a series that explores the various perspectives around defunding the police.
T
he air has turned brisk here in Chicago, symbolic like a peace offering after what was a sweltering summer, literally and figuratively. While navigating the global health pandemic of COVID-19, Chicago saw burgeoning social unrest and calls to defund the police, sparked by the deaths of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis, the shootings of Latrell Allen in Englewood and Jacob Blake in Kenosha, and countless instances of police violence against Black people nationwide. But who are the organizers who took to the streets? What activates the activists? What drives them to continue to fight for liberation and against state-sanctioned violence? Alycia Kamille and Hijo Legba of GoodKids MadCity; Damon Williams and Jennifer Pagan of the #LetUsBreathe Collective; Thought Poet of Black Youth Project 100; and Ariel Atkins of the Black Abolitionist Network joined the Weekly on a recent afternoon to discuss the side of protesting that most people don’t know. Mohawk Johnson, a hip-hop artist accused of assaulting a CPD cop with his skateboard during a protest, joined briefly by phone while on house arrest.
12 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
ÂŹ SEPTEMBER 16, 2020
