Blog
More on Building Power and Winning
Tags: Collective Visioning, linda stout
And, More to Do! I am writing today for two reasons: to thank you for your partnership with me over the years (some of you have supported my work for the past 40 years!) and to let you know that I am retiring from Spirit in Action. My NewsI have only had three jobs during […]
Peace, Power & Love
I sign all my letters, my emails and blogs with these three words. So, it seems fitting to begin 2023 writing about it. What do I mean when I sign: Peace, Power, Love?
A Love Letter to Poll Workers
When you go to the polls in another week, thank and recognize the unsung and underappreciated heroes and heroines who are waiting there: the poll workers.
Stepping Into the Fear
And becoming a leader “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” —-Nelson Mandela Are you afraid to take the next step to becoming a leader? When I was first contemplated […]
From Student to Volunteer to Employee
My former colleague, Lia Kaz, started as an intern for Spirit in Action’s project, We the People: Working Together. Lia wrote this blog when she moved on in 2017. It is such a great blog about learning to be an organizer! Thinking of my own experiences that I’ve been writing about, I want to share […]
How to Keep the Conversation Going
As I and my colleagues at Piedmont Peace Project began to do workshops on classism and racism, white middle- and upper-class folks were often upset. They felt they were being accused of being “bad or wrong” because they had power and privilege – something they didn’t see. They often left a workshop upset rather than empowered to work differently.
My Surprising Harvard Experience – Teaching Organizing 101
In 1993 I received a Public Policy Fellowship from Harvard University. The Vice President of Harvard, John Shattuck, knew me from an award I had received honoring unsung heroes from the Petra Foundation. He suggested I apply for the Harvard fellowship, to be followed by becoming a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College.
Moving From Class to Privilege and Back Again
Tags: Black Lives Matter, classism, Driving While Black, linda stout, Ludovic Blain, Progressive Communicator's Network, Storytelling, straddlers
How to Navigate the Obstacles Talking about class and privilege is multi-layered and complicated. A few of us have moved up in class. I certainly have. Even if the whole family has moved up in class, people most often still carry into their adult lives the early feelings of inadequacy and shame I’ve described. People […]
A Precarious Life – On the Slippery Slope of Class
A Precarious Life – On the Slippery Slope of Class
I live in a nice house, drive a nice car, and have nice things – the way I always dreamed of living. It’s been a long struggle to get to this place.
But I still struggle.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – The Power of Coming Out of the Closet as a Poor Person
I and others at the Piedmont Peace Project (PPP) began to see and talk openly about our struggles with poverty. Yet, much of our membership was so uncomfortable talking about it! This is what I called, “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” They felt ashamed to discuss our own poverty and would prefer we (or they) didn’t talk about it.
