April 5, 2022 • 28 mins
Miski Noor is an organizer and writer based in Minneapolis, MN where they are Co-Director with Black Visions, a power and base-building force for Black Queer and Trans people and their families within the larger Movement for Black Lives. They were mere blocks from George Floyd when he was murdered in 2020 and can speak to what it was like protesting during a pandemic along with how transformative justice informs their vision for a brighter future in Minneapolis. Part one of a two part series.
Learn more about Black Visions: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/home1
Episode Transcript: https://app.trint.com/public/ac998ef7-8913-4b0f-939d-c3389656540a
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everyone in Wilmer vol Derama, and I'm m r Riquel.
This is essential Voices. I'm really looking forward to our
show today because when we think about essential work, we
often think of doctors, mail carriers, and grocery store workers,
all of whom are basically our modern day version our
superheroes throughout this pandemic, and we don't always think of
folks who are necessarily getting paid to be out in
(00:24):
their communities doing very important work. I'm talking about community organizers,
folks out there in the front lines protesting and showing
up for Rachel equality. When we think of essential work,
it goes beyond getting the job done in the present.
It also applies to those looking forward and thinking of
necessary change. Over the past two years, we've seen an
uptick in supportive networks for these changes to public safety infrastructure,
(00:48):
continuing the work that community organizers have been building on
for decades. As we've spoken about on the show before,
all of this became part of the more dominant public
narrative in the wake of the murders of George Floyd,
Brianna Taylor, Ahmad are Very macayah Bryant, Dante Right, Daniel Prude,
A mere lock and devastatingly. These folks are just amongst
(01:10):
some of the special and loved family members, parents, children,
and siblings members of this country who were killed by
the police in the last two years. We have to
continue to say their names and not forget the lives
that have been taken much too soon and well that
remembrance can be sobering throughout these pandemic years. I've also
(01:32):
been hardened to see so many of us continue learning
to be better allies and show up for communities of color.
When I think about this kind of community based support,
I think about our essential worker, miss Key Nure, who
was just to block away from where George Floyd was
murdered in May. And it's here with us today to
(01:53):
speak about what life was like in Minneapolis during that moment,
what a transformative justice framework has to teach all of us,
and how essential it is to care for one another
in ourselves well fighting for change that's right. Msky is
an organizer and writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they
are the co director with Black Visions, a power and
(02:14):
based building force for black, queer and trans people and
their families within the larger movement for Black Lives We
had the honor of speaking with miss Ky just before
they Yes for Minneapolis campaign was set to be voted
on locally. While the campaign unfortunately did not pass, there's
a lot to be learned from what was proposed, and
we'll hear about this and so much more in just
a moment and a note to listeners. Today's episode is
(02:35):
part one of a two part series, so stay tuned
next week for a round table conversation with civil rights
attorney Ben Crump. I can't wait to dive into miss
key story. Let's do its story starts now. My name
is miss Ky Noore. I'm calling in from Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and I'm an organizer here and currently I'm co executive
(02:57):
director of an organization called Black Visions, which is a
queer and trans centering organization for black career and trans
people and our families, trying to build power and dismantled
systems of violence so that our communities can really thrive.
Thank you so much for being here with us today,
miss Key. Um, So to get us started, you just
(03:17):
mentioned that you're an organizer. Can you tell me more
about your work as an organizer, maybe how you got
into it and what you're currently working on. My first
organizer job was surprisingly enough, being a paid canvasser on
the Kerry Edwards campaign when I was a college student
back in oh four. I ended up being inside of
(03:38):
electoral politics for a while. I worked on the Frankie
campaign and OH eight where there was like a runoff
election that we had to have, and from there, I
actually ended up working for our congressman here for three years,
and I worked in that office and did all of
the outreach to like the black community and the black
immigrant community. I did all of our immigration pace work.
(04:00):
It was fulfilling in some ways, and in some ways
it just really wasn't you know. I go out to
community meetings and folks would expect me to just be
a representative of the office instead of a community member
myself who really cares and has my own opinions and
thoughts and wants to struggle with folks around what our
path forward could possibly be. And at this time, this
was actually like two thousand and twelve, and so this
(04:23):
is like a tea party congress, right, and like nothing
is actually getting done in the federal government. And I
just became really disillusioned and actually left left organizing, Left
politics period, and like during that time period, I was
just really asking myself questions around like who am I
doing this with and for and for the sake of why.
(04:44):
While I was asking myself those questions, the first thing
I ended up doing was running for my local neighborhood
association board and I did that for a couple of years.
And while I was doing that, basically this current iteration
of the black freedom struggle movement popped off. It was
in my living room where like some of the very
first meetings of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis were happening. And
(05:04):
so for me, in that moment, it really felt like
somebody pressed the go button for black liberation and I
had to be involved, and so was involved in building
that chapter, which led to us actually holding down what's
now known as the Fourth Precinct occupation here in Minneapolis.
So in the Minneapolis Police Department murdered Jamar Clark within
(05:29):
sixty one seconds of showing up on the scene, and
that was just the real outrage to community. And so
one of the things that we did was called for
a rally, which then turned into like a no cop zone,
which then turned into an eighteen day occupation of the
police station and which was a really really powerful experience
this community like taking over and providing for one another
(05:50):
and was one of the most transformational experiences of my life.
And at the same time, at the end of it,
all of us were like really sick and burnt out
out and beat down from the experience. I ended up
in the hospital myself and needed like for blood transfusions
and a lot of said even all this like mental
health despair that was happening where we were just needing
(06:13):
the lot of like emotional, mental and physical support to
even be okay after that, which really led us to
thinking about, like, hey, how do we actually organize in
a way that isn't just like responsive or reactive to
the violence that we experienced at the hands of the state,
but instead, how do we build a visionary, strategic, and
sustainable organization for black people that's able to build power
(06:36):
and really honor our lives. And so we took a
couple of years to recover and to really answer that
question is when we started to build out Black Visions,
And so that's where my organizing path is at right now.
I've been helping to build this organization for the last
four years now and over the last year and a
half really trying to push this public safety campaign, really
(06:59):
push people to reimagine what safety could actually look like,
um and right now doing it in the form of
the Path Forward campaign, and also trying to get folks
to vote yes on our valid amendment to create a
Department of Public Safety here in Minneapolis. We'll be right
back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices. You're
(07:20):
talking about reimagining Minneapolis as a city that's supportive of
black and brown folks, where safety of community is at
the center, And you mentioned Black Visions. Can you describe
the ethos behind the organization and how you're looking at
organizing as sustainable for the folks who are involved. Uh so, Yeah,
a little bit of background on how Black Visions even
(07:41):
like got to be here in this moment. Like I said,
you know, in we were like, how do we build
a visionary, strategic, and sustainable black organization. And one of
the first things we knew we had to do was
asked for help in order to be able to do that.
Black Visions is an organization that just like sprung out
of nowhere. We rest on the legacy and the teachings
(08:03):
of generations of organizations that came before us, and so
we knew we wanted to get an organizational development coach
to support our process. And then the other thing we
knew we needed was a transformative justice coach because we
really wanted to hold transformative justice at the center of
our organization and we knew we needed support to be
able to really do that. And so we've always had
a t J coach to help us think about, like, hey,
(08:25):
how are we accountable and how are we embodying the
values of accountability and transformative justice and transformation Because if
we want to transform the world, we have to be
willing to transform ourselves. And what does it mean to
be an organization that's actually able to do that and
it's actually showing up in ways that are about care
and not about like punitive response. And so we've always
(08:47):
had a t J coach to help us continue to
figure that out and build out practices and policies that
allow us to move from that way, to move from
our values instead of you know, just becoming yet another
cookie cutter nonprofit, because that's not what we're up to
in the world. And after George Floyd was murdered, it
was our organization who called for the defunding of the
police and got folks, you know, really on board with
(09:09):
the idea of actually moving police money out of the
police budget and into other areas of our city budget
so that we could actually take care of our folks.
And so what that's looked like is us actually moving
one this Path Forward campaign, and our Path Forward campaign
consists of basically these two big pillars, one of them
(09:30):
being people's movement assemblies, and so we're bringing folks together
all across the city, all across different part organizations, to
have conversations about what does safety mean to us in particular,
and we're actually documenting and synthesizing all of that information
from all of these different people's assemblies that are happening,
so that then we can have a report to actually
(09:52):
give to the City of Minneapolis next year, give to
the people of Inneapolis and say, hey, we talked to
hundreds of folks here and this is what they've at
safety needs, and so this is what we actually have
to move on. And so it's actually a practice of
building people's governance muscle, you know, are is actually building
the muscle of decision making with each other um so
that we can truly govern and make decisions with one
(10:13):
another versus having other people make decisions for us. The
other part of it is obviously the Yes for Minneapolis campaign,
where we're trying to get folks to go yes on
question too. You know, right now, Minneapolis, our city Charter,
which is effectively our city constitution, has the police department
written into it. There's a clause in there that's like,
(10:33):
for every x amount of citizens, you have to have
x amount of police. And so right now, because of
the way the constitution is set up and the way
that bureaucracy works, we can even have less than roughly
eight hundred cops in the city of Minneapolis, and we
want a lot less than that. And so it's a
way for us to actually get this amendment passed, is
a way for us to actually change the size, the scale,
(10:56):
the scope, the power of the police department and really
actually the infrastructure that supports it. And so what it
would do is it would want eliminate that requirement and
to develop or actually create a Department of Public Safety
that then could decide, hey, we actually have these different divisions,
like a mental health division, like a drug overdose one,
like the escalation It could be a whole department of
(11:19):
public safety that has different strategies for how to respond
so that every single time somebody calls for help, it
isn't a guy with a gun that shows up, so
that you call for help and you actually need somebody
who knows how to deal with overdose. It's a mental
health professional that's sent out there. Right, if you're actually
in the middle of some sort of domestic violence issue,
it's somebody that's actually able to intervene and able to
(11:42):
actually de escalate that violence. Right, if somebody is having
a mental health crisis, then it's somebody that's actually able
to to talk to that person and knows what to
do instead of showing up with more violence. And so
we're really hoping that we're able to get this amendment
pass because it just like actually diversifies what is actually
possible are around our folks calling for help. And so, yeah,
(12:02):
those are two big things. And then obviously it's not
just about this ballot amendment. It's not just about this year.
It's not just about this last year and a half.
Like we're going to get rid of the Minneapolis Police
Department in Minneapolis, and that is only one part of
creating safety for our folks. This is a multi year
process um to actually create something new with each other. Right,
(12:24):
A lot of people here abolition and think abolition is
just about tearing something down. But Ruth Wilson Gilmore teaches
us that abolition is about presence, and so how are
we getting more present in each other's lives and how
are we actually building what it is that we need?
M hm, that's exactly right. Abolition has become sort of
like a buzzword in a sense. So I really appreciate
(12:45):
your quoting Ruth Wilson Gilmore here for folks to have
a little bit of a more nuanced understanding of the word.
And something you're talking about is working within community to
create entirely new futures. I'm wondering what this work looks
like when being in community with your fellow organizers, Like
in what ways do you come together and support one
another through the journey? And maybe also could you tell
(13:07):
me how doing this work makes you feel? How does
this work make me feel? You know, most of the
time I feel very honored to do the work that
I do, to care so deeply about it. Not everybody
gets to do work that they love and that they
feel called to in a lot of ways. And then
and you know, I'm an organizer, so a lot of times, honestly,
(13:29):
I do feel not honored for my contributions are not
supported in many ways because a lot of people really
do orient to organizing or organizers as like this martyr.
Sometimes it feels like that, you know, with organizing that
it's just a job where you eventually will get burnt out,
(13:51):
or a job in which you don't have the support
that you need. Um, the orientation is that like, yes,
since you do this for the love of community, that
you're just gonna keep doing it even when you're not
getting what you need. And so that's been a huge lesson.
You know, I think there's obviously been this whole wave
around self care, self care not to just feel good,
(14:11):
but like self care to actually like care for your
well being. And so that's a thing that comes up
for me, not even just around myself, but around my comrades,
you know, making sure that folks are caring for themselves
and for each other. And then your second question was like,
how do we show up to care for each other?
I think we think about how we create spaces, you know,
(14:33):
after George Floyd was murdered. We built community alters in
both North and South Minneapolis to really be able to
just like hold space within for each other. We provide
folks with a healing stipend every month, so like just like,
how are you taking care of your wellness? And like
you can put that towards body work, you can put
that towards acupuncture, you could put that towards a Cairo appointment,
(14:57):
put that towards therapy. Like you know, a membership whatever
is actually going to provide you with the care that
you need and create more access for that and support
for that. And I think you know, for us, a
part of the way that we really do that is
that we are building into being a member partnership organization.
And so we have members and those are the folks
that we are like most accountable to and are in
(15:18):
relationship with. And so our members guide our organization forward
and end our work, and we always thinking about how
we're showing up for them. So whether it's like the
membership development fund that we've created for our folks, or
the emergency funds so that they can access things whenever
it is um that they're in need, or just the
spaces that we create. You know, we have monthly spaces
or folks to connect over a meal to just be
(15:40):
present with each other. And then also like just creating
creative spaces. Right, we have a lot of artists in
our organization, and you know, there is no movement without art,
and so also thinking about like, hey, how are we
actually like supporting and feeding the creative pieces of our
folks as well, um, so they're able to bring themselves
into this work as well. And then lastly, I'll say,
like being an organization that holds transformative justice at the center,
(16:04):
like providing political education and care around that even um
so our folks are able to opt into that. Right, Like,
accountability is not possible. Transformation is not possible unless like
you're in relationship and you're willing to do it. And
so we have to give people the tools to be
able to engage in those kinds of conversations so that
they are able to transform alongside and with us. And
(16:25):
so we work a lot both inside of our membership
and also inside of like our ecosystems around organizing folks
to move towards that, so that we're all thinking about
how we're moving away from and depending less on these
systems that really harm us and are moving towards creating
together other ways of being with one another. We'll be
(16:46):
right back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices.
That's so beautiful and incredible that you're able to offer
the monthly healing stipend to everybody. I mean, you mentioned acupuncture,
you mentioned body work, and I'm stoked to hear that
those acts of self care being talked about and offered
as possibilities. It also makes me think about how this
(17:08):
phrase of self care in quotes for those who can't
see us has exploded recently and especially during the pandemic.
We haven't yet talked about directly. You know the impact
of COVID on your organizing, but I'm wondering how the
pandemic affected Black visions and you're organizing, I mean, especially
being right in the center of the protests after the
(17:28):
murder of George Floyd. What new challenges and what new
hopes did the pandemic bring for you all? When George
Floyd was murdered. So I live just like two blocks
away from where he was murdered, and I walked over
to like Malone neighborhood corner store because folks have called
a rally, and me and my little pod walked over
(17:49):
in our masks, and you know, folks are wearing masks,
and folks were trying to social distance, but we couldn't
get close enough to actually hear the folks on the mic,
and it was because it was too crowded. We're like, okay,
let's go around this alleyway and see if we can
hear from this angle or this side of the street. Um,
just because we were still trying to socially distance. And
once the speeches were over and folks started marching towards
(18:12):
the third precinct, I was so shook because I saw
thousands of folks marching like shoulder to shoulder, front to back,
and I just like, won't ever forget that moment, because
in that moment, I was like, Oh, people have decided
that police violence is more dangerous than this pandemic. I
feel really inspired by that resilience. And I think the
(18:35):
other reason people were really out of the streets like
that is like people were in deep need of connection,
Like we were so isolated and so like I still
feel really inspired that folks were like so deeply desiring
connection with each other that they were like, Okay, we're
gonna figure it out. We're gonna figure out how to
be in the streets with each other. And so I
think some of the challenges were like, Wow, how do
(18:56):
we keep people safe? We don't know what's going on
with this pandemic, right, so like actually figuring out PPE
and social distancing and like following along to what the
CDC was saying every day, you know, the whole reason
we are organizers is to figure out how to keep
more of our people safe. And so it was just
in another layer of that, another challenge was like us
(19:18):
switching up our tactics. Like if we're organizers, what we're
trying to do is reach people, and if we can't
reach everybody in person by knocking on their doors, then
we got to like have these trainings on zoom, right,
and we've got to be doing phone banking. We've got
to figure out alternatives, and so we have to get
more creative about how we were able to reach people
and also how we're able to keep people safe. And
(19:39):
so that was like some of the challenges that came
up and that we're still navigating, right, Like the DOLTSA
variant is wild out here, Like who knows what's going
to happen and what other variants are going to pop up,
and so you know, there is no post COVID world,
and so we're just gonna have to continue to like
be adaptive and learn and experiment with like what can
keep our people safe and what can help us continue
(19:59):
to reach them, because like the isolation can't happen, and
we also just like can't be so lax that more
and more of our folks are actually getting sick. Yeah,
those were definitely some of the challenges that came up.
And then I remember being really inspired and I still
continue to be really inspired by just like all of
the conversations around abolition that folks were having, whether it
(20:20):
was like at the kitchen table with their families or
at George Floyd Square or online, folks were like getting
really curious and like we got to a new place
around abolition over the last year and a half that
we didn't before. And it's not that it was a
new demand, it was a demand that like just in
that moment, we were really able to reach people with
and really be able to catalyze uprisings that went from
(20:42):
Minneapolis across the world to really demand something different and
use that as a moment to demand more for our
folks and move towards you know, these campaigns for safety.
So that's another thing I feel really inspired by. There
are like defund campaigns and campaigns for public safety all
across this country, and folks are going to see more
more of that as we moved towards election day. But
(21:02):
I'm really proud of all of the different ways folks,
like you know, supporting Minneapolis, but also went into their
own communities, talk to their folks and decided, hey, this
is how we're going to get clear on what we
need together. And so I just feel really inspired by
everybody who was experimenting with alternatives and experimenting with community
governance and passing on those lessons to each other. And
(21:23):
so I want to shout out, you know, Cooperation Jackson
and some of the Hobies in the South that have
really helped to model what collective decision making could look
like so that we could learn from their lessons and
continue to build on that. And so yeah, that's what
I'm feeling inspired by what you're saying about hearing folks
talk with their families about abolition really resonates. For me,
(21:45):
I remember listening to a lot of webinars during lockdown
when I was living at home with my mom, and
for me especially a couple of the webinars I tuned
into We're with Miriam Kaba and at least one with
with Beth Ritchie, and those were ones that I held
close during the pandemic. And you know, when I was
living with my mom, we definitely spent many dinners talking
about abolition while we were eating, and I felt like
(22:08):
we were having very different kinds of conversations than we
usually do, which which made me feel very inspired as well.
And you know, you're talking about being inspired and being proud,
So it makes me wonder if there's a story or
a moment during the pandemic when you were proud of
something that you individually or or collectively with Black visions
were able to accomplish. Okay, So last year with for Minneapolis,
(22:33):
we fought for the ballot amendment the Charter Commission, which
is an appointed body of folks, only one black person
on there. We're able to block us from getting it
on the ballot last year, and so we ended up
doing what is actually the more democratic process, and we
collected petition signatures to get it on the ballot this year,
and we got over twenty two thousand signatures to get
(22:55):
it on the ballot, and our opposition decided to take
us to court the three times to block our language
from being on the ballot. So we had to go
to court three times, continue to appeal it, and just
last week, um, we had to appeel it to the
Supreme Court. Um, not even a week ago, the Supreme
Court voted on our side to allow our ballot language
(23:17):
to be on the ballot. And so one that feels
really exciting. Um feels like a win for democracy because
people actually get to vote. Like these people were just
trying to stop it from being on the ballot instead
of just letting it beyond the ballot, and people bo't
know if they don't want it, right, So it was
really some voter suppression tactics that were happening here from
some old guard leadership that is just really entrenched in
(23:39):
their values and their views. And so that's one. And
then I feel like I have to shout out last
summer when we got a video cruise majority of our
city council to commit to actually defunding the Police and
establishing a Department of Public Safety. And I say that
because it was on Prince's birthday and it just feels
really magical. Yeah, I feel like Prince Magic made that happen,
(24:01):
and so I'm just always going to remember that moment
in Powder Home Park on Prince's birthday. It's just like
the most Minneapolis thing. Wow, I love that. That's amazing.
And I've been sitting here throughout this entire conversation just
like nodding constantly in agreement with everything you've been saying.
So I'm I'm really really honored to be in conversation
with you to hear about the work that you're doing
(24:22):
and just how visionary you and Black Visions are and
creating the futures that you know should be existing, and
being in solidarity to build power for these sustainable futures.
So as we wrap up, I just have a couple
more questions. The first is, how can the community, whether
it's the Minneapolis community or folks living around the United
States or even outside of the US, how can communities
(24:44):
support the work that you and Black Visions are doing.
M thank you so much for your kind words and
also for this question for us. I said, where we've
got this ballot campaign going, and so we've got like
some cute animations and videos and cont and online follow
us at Black Visions on Instagram and Black Visions and
(25:04):
Men on Twitter, Black Visions just on Facebook. You know,
keep following our campaign. Some of the tactics our opposition
are using here or you know, are some of the
things that they're going to be using and are using
in other places. And so us like sharing strategies and
keeping up to date on each other's fight so that
we can support when it's like most crucial, I think
is really really important. Uh, and so yeah, please share
(25:27):
out about about the Yes from Minneapolis campaign and the
Path Forward campaign, and uh, continue to stay involved with
us because we need and appreciate your support. Amazing, Thank
you for sharing those resources. And finally, to wrap up
our conversation today, what message or messages would you like
to leave for future community organizers? Maybe as a follow
(25:48):
up to that, what would you like to tell your
younger self today as we wrap up this conversation. I
think the message I'd like to leave this like, um,
like your vision is not too radical, you know, your vision,
Your vision is not too much everything that we see
right now in the world, unless it's just nature, is
something that came out of somebody's brain. And so especially
(26:11):
when we're talking about systems and institutions, like this is
all human made. And so if you can imagine something different,
something better, and you can get with folks to bring
that vision to life, it is so possible. I want
to encourage folks to seek out the support, the tools
that they need in order to continue to break the
ceiling on their own imagination, because that's what we need
(26:33):
to get to freedom land. And I think, um, what
I would tell my younger self, I probably just tell
me to breathe, um, like breathe and it's coming. And
I think to trust my belonging, I would re mind
myself to feel or to return to feeling um and
(26:53):
so that I could actually just like feel more of
even my own life blood like dignity and feel my
own humanity d as well. And I would say trust
my belonging to know that like, yeah, I do belong,
I do have offerings and to move beyond like imposter
syndrome um as well. And yeah, and that I I
(27:13):
deserve care and honoring too, and that I'm not here
just to be of service, but that I get to
trust my belonging and that my light gets to shine
and that doesn't take away from anybody else's. There's so
much love and care behind the work that ms Key
and their team does. Not only are they working to
protect and care for their community, they're also looking inwards
(27:36):
to make sure that their fellow organizers are supported throughout
the process. The image of seeing all the protesters and
community organizers out in the front lines has really stuck
with me, because even in the pandemic, it's been a
reminder that's showing up safely in large numbers makes a
huge impact. I'm grateful for misk Is time, and I'm
(27:56):
looking forward to continuing the conversation next week with esteemed
civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the families of
victims of police violence and continues to fight for justice.
Essential Voices with Wilmer val Drama is produced by me
M r Raquel, Alison Shano, and Kevin Rotkowski, with production
(28:16):
support from Associate producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer Val Drama,
Adam Reynolds, Leo Clem, and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was
edited by m R. Riquel and Sean Tracy and features
original music by Will Risotti. Special thanks to this week's
Essential Voice, miss Key Nor and to Black Visions. Additional
(28:37):
thanks to Undolo E. Lat This is a Clamor and
w V Entertainment production in partnership with I Heart Radio's
Michael Dura podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heeart,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, everyone in Wilmer vol Derama, and I'm m r Riquel.
This is essential Voices. I'm really looking forward to our
show today because when we think about essential work, we
often think of doctors, mail carriers, and grocery store workers,
all of whom are basically our modern day version our
superheroes throughout this pandemic, and we don't always think of
folks who are necessarily getting paid to be out in
(00:24):
their communities doing very important work. I'm talking about community organizers,
folks out there in the front lines protesting and showing
up for Rachel equality. When we think of essential work,
it goes beyond getting the job done in the present.
It also applies to those looking forward and thinking of
necessary change. Over the past two years, we've seen an
uptick in supportive networks for these changes to public safety infrastructure,
(00:48):
continuing the work that community organizers have been building on
for decades. As we've spoken about on the show before,
all of this became part of the more dominant public
narrative in the wake of the murders of George Floyd,
Brianna Taylor, Ahmad are Very macayah Bryant, Dante Right, Daniel Prude,
A mere lock and devastatingly. These folks are just amongst
(01:10):
some of the special and loved family members, parents, children,
and siblings members of this country who were killed by
the police in the last two years. We have to
continue to say their names and not forget the lives
that have been taken much too soon and well that
remembrance can be sobering throughout these pandemic years. I've also
(01:32):
been hardened to see so many of us continue learning
to be better allies and show up for communities of color.
When I think about this kind of community based support,
I think about our essential worker, miss Key Nure, who
was just to block away from where George Floyd was
murdered in May. And it's here with us today to
(01:53):
speak about what life was like in Minneapolis during that moment,
what a transformative justice framework has to teach all of us,
and how essential it is to care for one another
in ourselves well fighting for change that's right. Msky is
an organizer and writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they
are the co director with Black Visions, a power and
(02:14):
based building force for black, queer and trans people and
their families within the larger movement for Black Lives We
had the honor of speaking with miss Ky just before
they Yes for Minneapolis campaign was set to be voted
on locally. While the campaign unfortunately did not pass, there's
a lot to be learned from what was proposed, and
we'll hear about this and so much more in just
a moment and a note to listeners. Today's episode is
(02:35):
part one of a two part series, so stay tuned
next week for a round table conversation with civil rights
attorney Ben Crump. I can't wait to dive into miss
key story. Let's do its story starts now. My name
is miss Ky Noore. I'm calling in from Minneapolis, Minnesota,
and I'm an organizer here and currently I'm co executive
(02:57):
director of an organization called Black Visions, which is a
queer and trans centering organization for black career and trans
people and our families, trying to build power and dismantled
systems of violence so that our communities can really thrive.
Thank you so much for being here with us today,
miss Key. Um, So to get us started, you just
(03:17):
mentioned that you're an organizer. Can you tell me more
about your work as an organizer, maybe how you got
into it and what you're currently working on. My first
organizer job was surprisingly enough, being a paid canvasser on
the Kerry Edwards campaign when I was a college student
back in oh four. I ended up being inside of
(03:38):
electoral politics for a while. I worked on the Frankie
campaign and OH eight where there was like a runoff
election that we had to have, and from there, I
actually ended up working for our congressman here for three years,
and I worked in that office and did all of
the outreach to like the black community and the black
immigrant community. I did all of our immigration pace work.
(04:00):
It was fulfilling in some ways, and in some ways
it just really wasn't you know. I go out to
community meetings and folks would expect me to just be
a representative of the office instead of a community member
myself who really cares and has my own opinions and
thoughts and wants to struggle with folks around what our
path forward could possibly be. And at this time, this
was actually like two thousand and twelve, and so this
(04:23):
is like a tea party congress, right, and like nothing
is actually getting done in the federal government. And I
just became really disillusioned and actually left left organizing, Left
politics period, and like during that time period, I was
just really asking myself questions around like who am I
doing this with and for and for the sake of why.
(04:44):
While I was asking myself those questions, the first thing
I ended up doing was running for my local neighborhood
association board and I did that for a couple of years.
And while I was doing that, basically this current iteration
of the black freedom struggle movement popped off. It was
in my living room where like some of the very
first meetings of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis were happening. And
(05:04):
so for me, in that moment, it really felt like
somebody pressed the go button for black liberation and I
had to be involved, and so was involved in building
that chapter, which led to us actually holding down what's
now known as the Fourth Precinct occupation here in Minneapolis.
So in the Minneapolis Police Department murdered Jamar Clark within
(05:29):
sixty one seconds of showing up on the scene, and
that was just the real outrage to community. And so
one of the things that we did was called for
a rally, which then turned into like a no cop zone,
which then turned into an eighteen day occupation of the
police station and which was a really really powerful experience
this community like taking over and providing for one another
(05:50):
and was one of the most transformational experiences of my life.
And at the same time, at the end of it,
all of us were like really sick and burnt out
out and beat down from the experience. I ended up
in the hospital myself and needed like for blood transfusions
and a lot of said even all this like mental
health despair that was happening where we were just needing
(06:13):
the lot of like emotional, mental and physical support to
even be okay after that, which really led us to
thinking about, like, hey, how do we actually organize in
a way that isn't just like responsive or reactive to
the violence that we experienced at the hands of the state,
but instead, how do we build a visionary, strategic, and
sustainable organization for black people that's able to build power
(06:36):
and really honor our lives. And so we took a
couple of years to recover and to really answer that
question is when we started to build out Black Visions,
And so that's where my organizing path is at right now.
I've been helping to build this organization for the last
four years now and over the last year and a
half really trying to push this public safety campaign, really
(06:59):
push people to reimagine what safety could actually look like,
um and right now doing it in the form of
the Path Forward campaign, and also trying to get folks
to vote yes on our valid amendment to create a
Department of Public Safety here in Minneapolis. We'll be right
back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices. You're
(07:20):
talking about reimagining Minneapolis as a city that's supportive of
black and brown folks, where safety of community is at
the center, And you mentioned Black Visions. Can you describe
the ethos behind the organization and how you're looking at
organizing as sustainable for the folks who are involved. Uh so, Yeah,
a little bit of background on how Black Visions even
(07:41):
like got to be here in this moment. Like I said,
you know, in we were like, how do we build
a visionary, strategic, and sustainable black organization. And one of
the first things we knew we had to do was
asked for help in order to be able to do that.
Black Visions is an organization that just like sprung out
of nowhere. We rest on the legacy and the teachings
(08:03):
of generations of organizations that came before us, and so
we knew we wanted to get an organizational development coach
to support our process. And then the other thing we
knew we needed was a transformative justice coach because we
really wanted to hold transformative justice at the center of
our organization and we knew we needed support to be
able to really do that. And so we've always had
a t J coach to help us think about, like, hey,
(08:25):
how are we accountable and how are we embodying the
values of accountability and transformative justice and transformation Because if
we want to transform the world, we have to be
willing to transform ourselves. And what does it mean to
be an organization that's actually able to do that and
it's actually showing up in ways that are about care
and not about like punitive response. And so we've always
(08:47):
had a t J coach to help us continue to
figure that out and build out practices and policies that
allow us to move from that way, to move from
our values instead of you know, just becoming yet another
cookie cutter nonprofit, because that's not what we're up to
in the world. And after George Floyd was murdered, it
was our organization who called for the defunding of the
police and got folks, you know, really on board with
(09:09):
the idea of actually moving police money out of the
police budget and into other areas of our city budget
so that we could actually take care of our folks.
And so what that's looked like is us actually moving
one this Path Forward campaign, and our Path Forward campaign
consists of basically these two big pillars, one of them
(09:30):
being people's movement assemblies, and so we're bringing folks together
all across the city, all across different part organizations, to
have conversations about what does safety mean to us in particular,
and we're actually documenting and synthesizing all of that information
from all of these different people's assemblies that are happening,
so that then we can have a report to actually
(09:52):
give to the City of Minneapolis next year, give to
the people of Inneapolis and say, hey, we talked to
hundreds of folks here and this is what they've at
safety needs, and so this is what we actually have
to move on. And so it's actually a practice of
building people's governance muscle, you know, are is actually building
the muscle of decision making with each other um so
that we can truly govern and make decisions with one
(10:13):
another versus having other people make decisions for us. The
other part of it is obviously the Yes for Minneapolis campaign,
where we're trying to get folks to go yes on
question too. You know, right now, Minneapolis, our city Charter,
which is effectively our city constitution, has the police department
written into it. There's a clause in there that's like,
(10:33):
for every x amount of citizens, you have to have
x amount of police. And so right now, because of
the way the constitution is set up and the way
that bureaucracy works, we can even have less than roughly
eight hundred cops in the city of Minneapolis, and we
want a lot less than that. And so it's a
way for us to actually get this amendment passed, is
a way for us to actually change the size, the scale,
(10:56):
the scope, the power of the police department and really
actually the infrastructure that supports it. And so what it
would do is it would want eliminate that requirement and
to develop or actually create a Department of Public Safety
that then could decide, hey, we actually have these different divisions,
like a mental health division, like a drug overdose one,
like the escalation It could be a whole department of
(11:19):
public safety that has different strategies for how to respond
so that every single time somebody calls for help, it
isn't a guy with a gun that shows up, so
that you call for help and you actually need somebody
who knows how to deal with overdose. It's a mental
health professional that's sent out there. Right, if you're actually
in the middle of some sort of domestic violence issue,
it's somebody that's actually able to intervene and able to
(11:42):
actually de escalate that violence. Right, if somebody is having
a mental health crisis, then it's somebody that's actually able
to to talk to that person and knows what to
do instead of showing up with more violence. And so
we're really hoping that we're able to get this amendment
pass because it just like actually diversifies what is actually
possible are around our folks calling for help. And so, yeah,
(12:02):
those are two big things. And then obviously it's not
just about this ballot amendment. It's not just about this year.
It's not just about this last year and a half.
Like we're going to get rid of the Minneapolis Police
Department in Minneapolis, and that is only one part of
creating safety for our folks. This is a multi year
process um to actually create something new with each other. Right,
(12:24):
A lot of people here abolition and think abolition is
just about tearing something down. But Ruth Wilson Gilmore teaches
us that abolition is about presence, and so how are
we getting more present in each other's lives and how
are we actually building what it is that we need?
M hm, that's exactly right. Abolition has become sort of
like a buzzword in a sense. So I really appreciate
(12:45):
your quoting Ruth Wilson Gilmore here for folks to have
a little bit of a more nuanced understanding of the word.
And something you're talking about is working within community to
create entirely new futures. I'm wondering what this work looks
like when being in community with your fellow organizers, Like
in what ways do you come together and support one
another through the journey? And maybe also could you tell
(13:07):
me how doing this work makes you feel? How does
this work make me feel? You know, most of the
time I feel very honored to do the work that
I do, to care so deeply about it. Not everybody
gets to do work that they love and that they
feel called to in a lot of ways. And then
and you know, I'm an organizer, so a lot of times, honestly,
(13:29):
I do feel not honored for my contributions are not
supported in many ways because a lot of people really
do orient to organizing or organizers as like this martyr.
Sometimes it feels like that, you know, with organizing that
it's just a job where you eventually will get burnt out,
(13:51):
or a job in which you don't have the support
that you need. Um, the orientation is that like, yes,
since you do this for the love of community, that
you're just gonna keep doing it even when you're not
getting what you need. And so that's been a huge lesson.
You know, I think there's obviously been this whole wave
around self care, self care not to just feel good,
(14:11):
but like self care to actually like care for your
well being. And so that's a thing that comes up
for me, not even just around myself, but around my comrades,
you know, making sure that folks are caring for themselves
and for each other. And then your second question was like,
how do we show up to care for each other?
I think we think about how we create spaces, you know,
(14:33):
after George Floyd was murdered. We built community alters in
both North and South Minneapolis to really be able to
just like hold space within for each other. We provide
folks with a healing stipend every month, so like just like,
how are you taking care of your wellness? And like
you can put that towards body work, you can put
that towards acupuncture, you could put that towards a Cairo appointment,
(14:57):
put that towards therapy. Like you know, a membership whatever
is actually going to provide you with the care that
you need and create more access for that and support
for that. And I think you know, for us, a
part of the way that we really do that is
that we are building into being a member partnership organization.
And so we have members and those are the folks
that we are like most accountable to and are in
(15:18):
relationship with. And so our members guide our organization forward
and end our work, and we always thinking about how
we're showing up for them. So whether it's like the
membership development fund that we've created for our folks, or
the emergency funds so that they can access things whenever
it is um that they're in need, or just the
spaces that we create. You know, we have monthly spaces
or folks to connect over a meal to just be
(15:40):
present with each other. And then also like just creating
creative spaces. Right, we have a lot of artists in
our organization, and you know, there is no movement without art,
and so also thinking about like, hey, how are we
actually like supporting and feeding the creative pieces of our
folks as well, um, so they're able to bring themselves
into this work as well. And then lastly, I'll say,
like being an organization that holds transformative justice at the center,
(16:04):
like providing political education and care around that even um
so our folks are able to opt into that. Right, Like,
accountability is not possible. Transformation is not possible unless like
you're in relationship and you're willing to do it. And
so we have to give people the tools to be
able to engage in those kinds of conversations so that
they are able to transform alongside and with us. And
(16:25):
so we work a lot both inside of our membership
and also inside of like our ecosystems around organizing folks
to move towards that, so that we're all thinking about
how we're moving away from and depending less on these
systems that really harm us and are moving towards creating
together other ways of being with one another. We'll be
(16:46):
right back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices.
That's so beautiful and incredible that you're able to offer
the monthly healing stipend to everybody. I mean, you mentioned acupuncture,
you mentioned body work, and I'm stoked to hear that
those acts of self care being talked about and offered
as possibilities. It also makes me think about how this
(17:08):
phrase of self care in quotes for those who can't
see us has exploded recently and especially during the pandemic.
We haven't yet talked about directly. You know the impact
of COVID on your organizing, but I'm wondering how the
pandemic affected Black visions and you're organizing, I mean, especially
being right in the center of the protests after the
(17:28):
murder of George Floyd. What new challenges and what new
hopes did the pandemic bring for you all? When George
Floyd was murdered. So I live just like two blocks
away from where he was murdered, and I walked over
to like Malone neighborhood corner store because folks have called
a rally, and me and my little pod walked over
(17:49):
in our masks, and you know, folks are wearing masks,
and folks were trying to social distance, but we couldn't
get close enough to actually hear the folks on the mic,
and it was because it was too crowded. We're like, okay,
let's go around this alleyway and see if we can
hear from this angle or this side of the street. Um,
just because we were still trying to socially distance. And
once the speeches were over and folks started marching towards
(18:12):
the third precinct, I was so shook because I saw
thousands of folks marching like shoulder to shoulder, front to back,
and I just like, won't ever forget that moment, because
in that moment, I was like, Oh, people have decided
that police violence is more dangerous than this pandemic. I
feel really inspired by that resilience. And I think the
(18:35):
other reason people were really out of the streets like
that is like people were in deep need of connection,
Like we were so isolated and so like I still
feel really inspired that folks were like so deeply desiring
connection with each other that they were like, Okay, we're
gonna figure it out. We're gonna figure out how to
be in the streets with each other. And so I
think some of the challenges were like, Wow, how do
(18:56):
we keep people safe? We don't know what's going on
with this pandemic, right, so like actually figuring out PPE
and social distancing and like following along to what the
CDC was saying every day, you know, the whole reason
we are organizers is to figure out how to keep
more of our people safe. And so it was just
in another layer of that, another challenge was like us
(19:18):
switching up our tactics. Like if we're organizers, what we're
trying to do is reach people, and if we can't
reach everybody in person by knocking on their doors, then
we got to like have these trainings on zoom, right,
and we've got to be doing phone banking. We've got
to figure out alternatives, and so we have to get
more creative about how we were able to reach people
and also how we're able to keep people safe. And
(19:39):
so that was like some of the challenges that came
up and that we're still navigating, right, Like the DOLTSA
variant is wild out here, Like who knows what's going
to happen and what other variants are going to pop up,
and so you know, there is no post COVID world,
and so we're just gonna have to continue to like
be adaptive and learn and experiment with like what can
keep our people safe and what can help us continue
(19:59):
to reach them, because like the isolation can't happen, and
we also just like can't be so lax that more
and more of our folks are actually getting sick. Yeah,
those were definitely some of the challenges that came up.
And then I remember being really inspired and I still
continue to be really inspired by just like all of
the conversations around abolition that folks were having, whether it
(20:20):
was like at the kitchen table with their families or
at George Floyd Square or online, folks were like getting
really curious and like we got to a new place
around abolition over the last year and a half that
we didn't before. And it's not that it was a
new demand, it was a demand that like just in
that moment, we were really able to reach people with
and really be able to catalyze uprisings that went from
(20:42):
Minneapolis across the world to really demand something different and
use that as a moment to demand more for our
folks and move towards you know, these campaigns for safety.
So that's another thing I feel really inspired by. There
are like defund campaigns and campaigns for public safety all
across this country, and folks are going to see more
more of that as we moved towards election day. But
(21:02):
I'm really proud of all of the different ways folks,
like you know, supporting Minneapolis, but also went into their
own communities, talk to their folks and decided, hey, this
is how we're going to get clear on what we
need together. And so I just feel really inspired by
everybody who was experimenting with alternatives and experimenting with community
governance and passing on those lessons to each other. And
(21:23):
so I want to shout out, you know, Cooperation Jackson
and some of the Hobies in the South that have
really helped to model what collective decision making could look
like so that we could learn from their lessons and
continue to build on that. And so yeah, that's what
I'm feeling inspired by what you're saying about hearing folks
talk with their families about abolition really resonates. For me,
(21:45):
I remember listening to a lot of webinars during lockdown
when I was living at home with my mom, and
for me especially a couple of the webinars I tuned
into We're with Miriam Kaba and at least one with
with Beth Ritchie, and those were ones that I held
close during the pandemic. And you know, when I was
living with my mom, we definitely spent many dinners talking
about abolition while we were eating, and I felt like
(22:08):
we were having very different kinds of conversations than we
usually do, which which made me feel very inspired as well.
And you know, you're talking about being inspired and being proud,
So it makes me wonder if there's a story or
a moment during the pandemic when you were proud of
something that you individually or or collectively with Black visions
were able to accomplish. Okay, So last year with for Minneapolis,
(22:33):
we fought for the ballot amendment the Charter Commission, which
is an appointed body of folks, only one black person
on there. We're able to block us from getting it
on the ballot last year, and so we ended up
doing what is actually the more democratic process, and we
collected petition signatures to get it on the ballot this year,
and we got over twenty two thousand signatures to get
(22:55):
it on the ballot, and our opposition decided to take
us to court the three times to block our language
from being on the ballot. So we had to go
to court three times, continue to appeal it, and just
last week, um, we had to appeel it to the
Supreme Court. Um, not even a week ago, the Supreme
Court voted on our side to allow our ballot language
(23:17):
to be on the ballot. And so one that feels
really exciting. Um feels like a win for democracy because
people actually get to vote. Like these people were just
trying to stop it from being on the ballot instead
of just letting it beyond the ballot, and people bo't
know if they don't want it, right, So it was
really some voter suppression tactics that were happening here from
some old guard leadership that is just really entrenched in
(23:39):
their values and their views. And so that's one. And
then I feel like I have to shout out last
summer when we got a video cruise majority of our
city council to commit to actually defunding the Police and
establishing a Department of Public Safety. And I say that
because it was on Prince's birthday and it just feels
really magical. Yeah, I feel like Prince Magic made that happen,
(24:01):
and so I'm just always going to remember that moment
in Powder Home Park on Prince's birthday. It's just like
the most Minneapolis thing. Wow, I love that. That's amazing.
And I've been sitting here throughout this entire conversation just
like nodding constantly in agreement with everything you've been saying.
So I'm I'm really really honored to be in conversation
with you to hear about the work that you're doing
(24:22):
and just how visionary you and Black Visions are and
creating the futures that you know should be existing, and
being in solidarity to build power for these sustainable futures.
So as we wrap up, I just have a couple
more questions. The first is, how can the community, whether
it's the Minneapolis community or folks living around the United
States or even outside of the US, how can communities
(24:44):
support the work that you and Black Visions are doing.
M thank you so much for your kind words and
also for this question for us. I said, where we've
got this ballot campaign going, and so we've got like
some cute animations and videos and cont and online follow
us at Black Visions on Instagram and Black Visions and
(25:04):
Men on Twitter, Black Visions just on Facebook. You know,
keep following our campaign. Some of the tactics our opposition
are using here or you know, are some of the
things that they're going to be using and are using
in other places. And so us like sharing strategies and
keeping up to date on each other's fight so that
we can support when it's like most crucial, I think
is really really important. Uh, and so yeah, please share
(25:27):
out about about the Yes from Minneapolis campaign and the
Path Forward campaign, and uh, continue to stay involved with
us because we need and appreciate your support. Amazing, Thank
you for sharing those resources. And finally, to wrap up
our conversation today, what message or messages would you like
to leave for future community organizers? Maybe as a follow
(25:48):
up to that, what would you like to tell your
younger self today as we wrap up this conversation. I
think the message I'd like to leave this like, um,
like your vision is not too radical, you know, your vision,
Your vision is not too much everything that we see
right now in the world, unless it's just nature, is
something that came out of somebody's brain. And so especially
(26:11):
when we're talking about systems and institutions, like this is
all human made. And so if you can imagine something different,
something better, and you can get with folks to bring
that vision to life, it is so possible. I want
to encourage folks to seek out the support, the tools
that they need in order to continue to break the
ceiling on their own imagination, because that's what we need
(26:33):
to get to freedom land. And I think, um, what
I would tell my younger self, I probably just tell
me to breathe, um, like breathe and it's coming. And
I think to trust my belonging, I would re mind
myself to feel or to return to feeling um and
(26:53):
so that I could actually just like feel more of
even my own life blood like dignity and feel my
own humanity d as well. And I would say trust
my belonging to know that like, yeah, I do belong,
I do have offerings and to move beyond like imposter
syndrome um as well. And yeah, and that I I
(27:13):
deserve care and honoring too, and that I'm not here
just to be of service, but that I get to
trust my belonging and that my light gets to shine
and that doesn't take away from anybody else's. There's so
much love and care behind the work that ms Key
and their team does. Not only are they working to
protect and care for their community, they're also looking inwards
(27:36):
to make sure that their fellow organizers are supported throughout
the process. The image of seeing all the protesters and
community organizers out in the front lines has really stuck
with me, because even in the pandemic, it's been a
reminder that's showing up safely in large numbers makes a
huge impact. I'm grateful for misk Is time, and I'm
(27:56):
looking forward to continuing the conversation next week with esteemed
civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the families of
victims of police violence and continues to fight for justice.
Essential Voices with Wilmer val Drama is produced by me
M r Raquel, Alison Shano, and Kevin Rotkowski, with production
(28:16):
support from Associate producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer Val Drama,
Adam Reynolds, Leo Clem, and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was
edited by m R. Riquel and Sean Tracy and features
original music by Will Risotti. Special thanks to this week's
Essential Voice, miss Key Nor and to Black Visions. Additional
(28:37):
thanks to Undolo E. Lat This is a Clamor and
w V Entertainment production in partnership with I Heart Radio's
Michael Dura podcast Network. For more podcasts from I Heeart,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com