Breakout Sessions and Facilitators

Healing and Resiliance

Dr. Yusef Shakur

Breakout Session - Going Beyond White Supremacist Institutions

Yusef Bunchy Shakur is the son of Ava Jo and, who is well versed in the language and syntax of Black Detroit as a father, author, and organizer. Yusef epitomizes redemption and Black Transformation from what he identifies as a street-holic as a Black organic intellectual and unorthodox leader. He has demonstrated his commitment to the revolutionary principles of racial and social justice to enhance the lives of Black people and other oppressed people through his works of Restoring The Neighbor Back To The ‘Hood, as the Director of the Mama Akua Community House, and a member of Community Movement Builders. He has been featured in many newspaper articles, TV and radio interviews and have received numerous awards such as the University of Michigan School of Social Work Carol Goss Leadership Award 2019, Michigan Chronicle Men of Excellence Award 2019, and Michigan Coalition for Human Rights Community Activist Award 2022 and The Moth Grand SLAM Detroit Champion 2022. He currently serves as Deputy of Director with the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion and has completed his dissertation defense, Unveiling My Soul: A Dialect Memoir Using Scholarly Personal Narrative and Autoethnography to Examine Controlling Images Between My Mama and Me in November of 2023 at Union Institute & University with a focus in Public Policy & Social Change 2024.

Oppression Here and There

Detroit Will Breathe

Breakout Session -

The second Trump presidency has unleased a rapidly changing political situation both domestically and internationally. It has come with renewed attacks on immigrants coupled with resurgent imperialist, expansionist ambitions with implications for the whole world from Canada to Gaza. At the same time, starting in 2020 and continuing through the Biden years, we have been in a regime of escalating political repression which is likely to reach new heights under Trump. Charting a path forward will mean drawing lessons from our collective experiences in the BLM and Palestinian Liberation struggles. In this workshop we'll grapple with three main questions: 1) What does it mean to be anti-imperialist and stand with the oppressed/exploited across the world? 2) How have people linked the fight against political repression in America with the fight against oppression? 3) What is the role of repression in breaking solidarity?

Detroit Will Breathe is an integrated, youth-led, militant organization fighting against police brutality and systemic racism in Detroit. Born out of a nationwide and international response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, our struggle is part of a broader fight against state violence in all its forms, including gentrification, mass incarceration, school closures, immigration policy, and wage theft. We believe in direct action and organized, collective resistance, refusing to kneel, run, or back down to state-sanctioned violence. Education is the foundation of our militancy, empowering us to understand and wield our power effectively. We reject the failed political system that continuously disregards the material interests of Black, Brown, and working-class people, instead placing our faith in mass movements as the path to liberation. We do not cooperate with the police, recognizing them as agents of state violence, and demand the defunding of law enforcement to reinvest in housing, healthcare, education, and essential community services. Committed to a restorative justice framework, we take interpersonal harm seriously, holding individuals accountable while rejecting disposability. Our fight is inherently intersectional, standing in solidarity with Black and Brown disabled people, undocumented immigrants, refugees, trans and LGBTQ+ communities, sex workers, the houseless, and all those criminalized by the state. We resist US imperialism, economic exploitation, and settler colonialism, fighting for liberation in Detroit and beyond.

Organizing Across Identities

482Forward

Breakout Session - Nothing About Us Without Us: Multiracial, Intergenerational Youth Organizing

Teen members of the 482Forward Youth Organizing Collective, along with 482Forward staff, will discuss the strategies, nuances, benefits, and struggles of intergenerational, multiracial community organizing in Detroit. Attendees will come away from this workshop with an understanding of the basics of community organizing for education justice, new skills for working intergenerationally, and opportunities to support young organizers with their work toward increasing racial equity and fully funding Michigan's schools

482Forward is an intergenerational, multiracial grassroots organization focused on education equity in the city of Detroit. We engage in organizing and resident-led advocacy through building power amongst Detroit students, parents and educators. The 482 Youth Collective is comprised of student leaders from across the city who are organizing around issues such as diverse curricula, increased mental health funding, immigration justice, police free schools, and equitable school facilities. Youth organizers with 482Forward are passionate about and proficient at youth-led facilitation, organizing strategy, planning direct actions, and intergenerational/multiracial organizing techniques.

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