Montreal, Canada: 

Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel

Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel is a Mohawk activist and visual artist from Kanehsatà:ke, Kanienkehala Nation -Turtle Clan. She is known for her involvement as the official spokesperson chosen by the People of the Longhouse during the 1990 Kanehsatà:ke siege, commonly known as the 'Oka Crisis'.  She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. She was former president of the Quebec Native Woman's Association and former Coordinator of McGill University’s First People’s House. Ms. Gabriel has presented at numerous parliamentary committees, as well as, the national assembly in Quebec, and at the international level, participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as well as the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.   Presently she is a cultural consultant for the Kanehsatà:ke Onkwawén:na - Niión:kwarihoten (Language and Cultural Center). She remains a vigilant advocate for gender equity, justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women; the revitalization of Indigenous languages, culture, traditions, Indigenous peoples' rights to self-determination and Climate Change.

New York City, New York:

Mia Charlene White

Mia Charlene White is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies in the Environmental Studies Program at The New School for Public Engagement, with a co-teaching appointment at the Milano School for International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy. She is a faculty-affiliate of the Tishman Environment and Design Center (TedC), as well as with the Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Political Science from the State University of NY at Stonybrook, a Master of International Affairs (Environmental Policy) from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a Ph.D in Urban Studies and Planning (Housing and Environment) from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Given the diversity of her training, Mia's work is interdisciplinary and she situates herself among radical geographers (race geography) and applied anthropologists, planning/urban theorists (fugitive planning), radical sociologists/historians and those others seeking to link social science concepts of space and race, to the humanities via art and protest. In her research and teaching, Mia theorizes "space" and "environment" through critical race concepts, seeing race as a series of historical and spatial projects. Critical race theories and black geographical concepts permeate her outlook. She is currently working on her first book manuscript titled Race, Space, and the Wake-Work of our Undercommons —an ethnographic and photographic exploration of socio-spatial resistance and everyday revolution in Brown and Black spaces, towards what she hopes to suggest as a "Theory of Love." Mia has been featured in Harpers, Glamour, AlterNet and HuffPost. She has also been honored as a Ford Foundation Minority Fellow and a National Science Foundation Fellow;  her published work has been awarded the Marsha Ritzdorf Prize for the Best Student Work on Diversity, Social Justice and the Role of Women in Planning by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), a consortium of university-based programs offering credentials in urban and regional planning.

Tacoma, Washington

Miriam McBride and Adriane Wilson

Miriam McBride is a Black and Fijian young queer organizer who began organizing in high school. Miriam comes from a line of chiefs, resistance builders, and self governing people and believes it is her purpose to play their role in creating liberation and fueling Black joy. Miriam believes in the power of people and creating spaces that allow those most impacted to show up and be in their full selves because that is how authentic change happens. Miriam is a dancer, poet, photographer, mentor, and space holder. They are the community organizer at Hilltop Urban Gardens for the Land and Housing Liberation Campaign to defend, increase, and preserve Black home ownership in Hilltop. Miriam works with the The People's Assembly's Youth Voice Team to empower youth voices, the Making Connections Initiative to address holistic centered solutions to community mental and emotional health, Black and Indigenous Organizing (BIO) to foster spaces for young Black and Indigenous folks to have a space for accountable and healing solidarity, and she also has her own media platform Truth Movement Innertainment aimed to highlight community joy.

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Adriane Wilson is a driven community activist and an impassioned advocate for uplifting and empowering black, brown and low income communities through grassroots efforts. She focuses on issues of food justice, land and housing liberation, and financial empowerment for African Americans. She excels at clearly articulating community concerns and creating suggestions for how to improve community engagement to ultimately improve outcomes and advance equity goals. Her work centers communities of color and low-income communities that are typically underrepresented in the policies, programs, and services that seek to serve them. As a woman of color who has deep ties in Tacoma and who has herself overcome personal and professional challenges, she is extremely skilled at connecting with people where they are, listening and motivating their engagement to bring about real change. Adriane has more than 10 years of experience working with non-profits and government agencies. She is supported by a network of grassroots activists and serves on a few Boards and Community groups.

Adriane is known as a truth teller, she holds those in power accountable and responds to social and community plights through anti-racists actions.

Jackson, Mississippi

Sacajawea "saki" Hall

Sacajawea "saki" Hall is a radical black feminist activist, a mother, birth-worker, educator and journalist. Saki sees her life's work as engaging in the collective struggle for African liberation, human rights and social transformation. She is a native Lower East Side New Yorker and has migrated to Jackson, Mississippi where she is a founding member of Cooperation Jackson. In supporting Cooperation Jackson as an emerging vehicle for sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership, saki's leadership includes strategic planning, cooperative development, fundraising, communications and developing the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust. Sacajawea has experience on the local, national, and international level, having provided leadership for political mobilizations, direct actions, conferences, fundraising initiatives, and communications to a number of organizations, coalitions, and networks throughout the United States including People’s Production House, the US Human Rights Network, RHIZE, Right to the City Alliance and the Homes For All Campaign.

Moderator:

Courtney Knapp

Courtney Knapp, AICP is an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment at the Pratt Institute. Courtney teaches studios as well as courses in planning methods, main street revitalization, housing, and social planning. Her book, Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Urban Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, (University of North Carolina Press 2018), examines the politics of racialized placemaking and urban development over the course of the city's three century history. She has published about radical planning in the South, anarchist approaches to community planning, collaboration with public libraries, and integrating critical autobiographical writing into education and community engagement processes. Her current research examines the local planning dimensions of community reentry and integration among formerly incarcerated populations. She is also involved with a mixed method study of the community engagement process leading to the re-envisioning of Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. Courtney previously worked in Massachusetts and New York as an affordable housing, economic development, and public space planner, and was an Assistant Professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona between 2014-2018. She is a former Board member of the Los Angeles section of the American Planning Association.