Cooperative Journal

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #7A collaboration with New Economy CoalitionSolidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. Cooperate Western North Carolina weaves cooperative economics and ecological design to nurture a regional-scale mutual aid network to meet community’s basic needs with trust at the foundation. In this episode I speak with the founder Zev Friedman. We discuss the relationship between regeneration in natural and human cooperative ecosystems, how they are practicing regional mutual aid through models like bulk purchasing and savings pools, conflict as an opportunity transformation, finding the balance between relational trust building and practical work, and tools for shifting from individualism to a collective way of life.Show NotesCooperate WNCWNC Food Coalition: Regenerative food system coalition in Western North CarolinaAsheville Nuttery: Cooperatively run nut processing facility in Asheville, NCCommunity Purchasing Alliance: A network of local cooperatives that leverage the buying power of community institutions through bulk purchasing in Washington D.C.Silver Run Forest Farm: Co-founder Jonathan McRay teaches organizers about the process of conflict systemsTransformative Justice Collective: Community group based out of Oakland, CA working to build and support transformative justice responses to harm and violence

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #5A collaboration with New Economy CoalitionSolidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. Creative Wildfire supports artists and grassroots organizations to create art that fuels our movements and imagines the world we need to thrive. This cultural organizing project is an embodiment of the strength of coalitions to resource the wider web. Three powerhouse organizations in the movement for a Just Transition and the Solidarity Economy pooled their budgets to redistribute to artists - Movement Generation, Climate Justice Alliance, and New Economy Coalition. In 2023-2024, Creative Wildfire convened a 10 month cohort that prioritized deeper relationship building, co-creation with a partner organization, and political education. 7 incredible artists and 7 organizations were selected to explore what's possible when we shift from transaction to collaborative liberation. In this episode Ebony speaks with Lizzie Suarez and Lily Xie, two of the most recent Creative Wildfire grantees. We talk about their roles as artist and cultural organizers, challenges that arise when collaborating with organizations, what can symbiosis look like when artists and orgs co-create, the value artists bring beyond being producers, and the cultural shifts needed to have a just transition in the arts.Show NotesNew Economy CoalitionCreative WildfireLily Xie WebsiteLizzie Suarez WebsiteLook Loud: visual strategy accomplices, supporting communities taking control of their own media narrativesBuilding Irresistible Movements: Best collaboration practices for organizations and visual artistsPedagogy of the Oppressed book by Paulo FreireCreative Study ‘Creatives Rebuild Guaranteed Income’: A free course about the three year guaranteed income initiative for artists in NYCCartoonist CooperativeEpisode Music by MADlines

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #3A collaboration with New Economy CoalitionSolidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. Sol Underground is an abolitionist ecosystem in Atlanta dreaming of a Black and Indigenous liberated world that is resisting colonial systems of oppression. They are actualizing this dream as an autonomous community-led group that is building, joining, and maintaining networks of care. In this episode, Ebony speaks with the founder Sunny who begins with defining what abolitionism is and its correlation to the solidarity economy. How their shape transformed from an artist collective to supporting the unhoused community through mutual aid. They share some of the models they organize like Sol Below, a pop up tent that provides warmth and food to the homeless when the temperature drops below a certain degree. They paint a beautiful vision for a world when exploitative systems are abolished, offer practical tips for adopting an abolitionist mindset, and how to put theory into practice. Show NotesSol Underground Freedom Archives: dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of historical audio, video, and print materials documenting progressive movements and culture from the 1960s to the 1990s. Abolition Notes: a free and evolving, volunteer-run education project to make the work of radical and revolutionary movements throughout history fighting for liberation more accessible New Economy Coalition Episode Music by MADlines

Solidarity Economy Shorts Episode #1 A collaboration with New Economy Coalition Solidarity Economy Shorts are conversations with frontline organizations & individuals that are putting solidarity economy principles into practice. They are using different strategies to build an economic system where communities are meeting their own needs outside of capitalism. Nuns and Nones is a community of sisters and seekers connect to explore the themes of justice, spiritual practice, and how to respond to the needs of the times. The Land Justice Project evolved to support these religious communities to reimagine and shift who has ownership and access to the land they are on. In this episode Ebony speaks with Brittany Koteles, the director of the project. Brittany begins with laying a foundation for what land justice is and how the Land Justice Project embodies it through its models and practices. She shares when and why land became commodified, how the aging community of nuns is navigating the mistrust and contradictions that emerge when giving Catholic owned land to Native American and Black people, and ways you can engage in land justice. Show Notes: New Economy Coalition Nuns & Nones Sustainable Economies Law Center Agrarian Commons: model of land stewardship and access that allows for community ownership of farmland Center for Ethical Land Transition: explores ways to decommodify, rematriate, and increase accessibility to land for BIPOC communities

What would it look like if we collectively designed decentralized, democratized, distributed, and diversified energy systems? People Power Solar is a California based cooperative that invests in community-led projects to create alternatives to PG&E and other private utilities. They are working to ensure that power can be accessed by all without compromising the health and safety of any community. I speak with worker-owners Hannah and Crystal about the necessity to transition from privatized energy to localized and cooperative structures. They share some community led projects they support like mobile solar power, framing energy as a verb, how they are shifting from focusing on pooling financial resources to deepening in relationships and dialogue around what energy really is, and why our dominant energy sector is inefficient, overpriced, and unreliable.Show Notes:People Power Solar WebsitePeople Power Solar YoutubePodcast episode that inspired framing energy as a verb

Mumbet’s Freedom Farm is a Black and Brown-led cooperative farm located at the base of a mountain in Sheffield, Massachusetts. It is a community sanctuary for connection, creativity, education, and wellness. The name is in reverence to Elizabeth ‘Mumbet’ Freeman, who was an enslaved African nurse, midwife, and herbalist who sued for her freedom in Sheffield and won. The land is abundant with a flowing brook, natural spring, waterfalls, forest trails, and a diversity of natural life.In this episode I speak with worker-owner DeeArah Wright about their journey from the city towards collective rural land stewardship. We talk about the power of the land to heal trauma associated with Black land history, barriers they experienced when trying to purchase land, how they got into a mutual benefit, non-extractive land agreement, food and land as a source of liberation, benefits and challenges of cooperative farming, establishing local relationships to build financial security and community, holding space on the land for art, education, and play, their plans to create an ecosystem of homesteads and sanctuaries cooperatively owned, managed by Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color.Connect with Mumbet's Freedom FarmWebsite Instagram

Established in 1972, A.I.R is the first artist cooperative gallery for women in the United States. They maintain an exhibition space in Brooklyn, NY and showcase the work of hundreds of women artists each year. They also offer ways for members to build a support network and engage with the community through public open calls, fellowships, workshops, lectures on feminism, and discussion groups. Their multi-media exhibitions have explored themes of identity politics, historical archives, fractals, the symbiotic relationship between our body and environment, and so much more.In this episode I speak with member Susan Stainman about how A.I.R has cultivated a space for women artists to be fully autonomous and given a platform in a male dominated industry. We speak about the history of female oppression in the United States, the lack of representation of women in the art world, benefits of membership like retaining majority of sales and camaraderie, how artist cooperatives can shift the centralization of wealth in the art industry that’s worth more than transportation and agriculture, and more wisdom.A.I.R WebsiteA.I.R InstagramA.I.R FacebookWant to support Cooperative Journal?Share your gifts with us on Open Collective Foundation

Tariq El Nahl translates from Arabic to Way of the Bees. They are an herbal collective based in Lebanon that formed after the explosion in the capital of Beirut in 2020. Lebanon has been compounded with crises in the past 50 years - from a civil war, to a financial crisis, and most recently the explosion left 300,000 people homeless and a government collapsed. When faced with trauma, broken infrastructure, and governmental systems that fail to meet our needs, how do we heal and progress? Tariq El Nahl is answering this question through fully embodying and bringing people back to their essence - Mother Earth.In this episode, I speak with Paul Saad, one of the members of the collective.. He poetically shares how they are utilizing land–based practices for reclaiming, highlighting, and accessing ancestral knowledge including creating native botanical gardens, delivering handmade baskets filled with herbal medicine from the land, herbal medicine toolkits as well as how they are raising money to fulfill these needs, and suggestions for finding light and grounding amidst darkness. Herbal GuidebookMini-doc on Tariq El NahlTariq El Nahl InstagramWant to support Cooperative Journal?Share your gifts with us on Open Collective Foundation

Understory is a worker-led restaurant, bar, and incubation kitchen in Oakland, CA. In collaboration with Oakland Bloom, they center immigrant, working class, and people of color chefs through pathways to worker-leadership, project support and training, and economic opportunities. It is more than just a restaurant, they offer a platter of ways to physically and socially nourish the community in a co-creative way. You can experience the roots of the workers through their rotating menu of Filipino, Moroccan, and Mexican cuisine, check out local art, attend a dance party, or support an immigrant or refugee chef at their weekly pop-up.In this episode I speak with one of the chefs Florencio Esquivel about how Understory is shifting the narrative of who receives support and amplification in the restaurant industry. They share how the pandemic influenced the restaurant’s formation, process of assuming responsibilities and navigating decision making, impact and intention of their worker emergency fund, importance of preserving indegenous recipes, and their vision for a changed restaurant world that is horizontally structured while honoring the diversity of workers and their lineage.ResourcesUnderstory’s InstagramUnderstory’s WebsiteWahpepah’s Kitchen (Kickapoo Tribe Restaurant in Oakland)

East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is based in the East Bay of California. They facilitate BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the market. Residents, investors, community members, and EB PREC staff then co-own and co-steward the property. It creates a shift toward community controlled assets, and empowering their communities to be ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative. In this episode, I speak with executive director Noni Session about how EB PREC is garnering support to shift real estate ownership from extractive developers into the hands of the BIPOC community in Oakland and the East Bay. She shares the difference between a permanent real estate co-op and land trust, ancestral remembrance of cooperative ownership, how they got the first group of people to invest, their governance structure and multi-stakeholder model, prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility to individual investors, transparency of investment risks and how they mitigate it, and their exciting new venture - a historic Black arts svenue they’ve acquired for Black artists and small businesses at 50% of market rate. Document detailing their direct public offering: https://ebprec.org/offering Esthers Orbit Room - mixed-use Black cultural venue: https://ebprec.org/esthers Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperatives East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is based in the East Bay of California. They facilitate BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the market. Residents, investors, community members, and EB PREC staff then co-own and co-steward the property. It creates a shift toward community controlled assets, and empowering their communities to be ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative. In this episode, I speak with executive director Noni Session about how EB PREC is garnering support to shift real estate ownership from extractive developers into the hands of the BIPOC community in Oakland and the East Bay. She shares the difference between a permanent real estate co-op and land trust, ancestral remembrance of cooperative ownership, how they got the first group of people to invest, their governance structure and multi-stakeholder model, prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility to individual investors, transparency of investment risks and how they mitigate it, and their exciting new venture - a historic Black arts svenue they’ve acquired for Black artists and small businesses at 50% of market rate. Document detailing their direct public offering: https://ebprec.org/offering Esthers Orbit Room - mixed-use Black cultural venue: https://ebprec.org/esthers Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperatives https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06216-7.html

Looms of Ladakh is a women owned luxury wool clothing cooperative based in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, India. They are a farm-to-fashion initiative, focusing on small-scale and high quality production to illuminate and preserve the traditions of the Changpa nomads of that region. Their pashmina, yak, and sheep wool are of the highest quality in the world. It’s sourced directly from the region and handmade by the local women who’ve been using the backstrap loom for generations. In this episode I speak with co-founder Abhilasha Bahuguna about the importance of creating a sustainable source of income to support the Changpa people of Ladakh living in a harsh altitude of 14,000 ft, why their self-sufficient lifestyles are being threatened, the history of textiles in that region, how the co-op is supporting members to reach their full potential, their governance structure, how they received funding, their experimentation with natural dyes, challenges of competing with fast fashion, and their exciting plans for expansion.

O+ is a festival created in Kingston, NY to support the health of underinsured artists and musicians through the exchange of art making and performances for wellness services. Festival goers can experience the medicine of art through everything from murals, films, installations, and live music. At the clinic, artists, musicians, and volunteers can receive free care from allopathic and alternative practitioners including dental, bodywork, mental health, and much more. The greater community is supported with Narcan and CPR trainings, health and wellness expos, classes in the healing arts, healthcare forums, and cycling events.In this episode I speak with executive director Holly Kelly and art director Lindsey Wolkowicz about the festival’s evolution and the ongoing needs it fulfills. They share what the process is for contributors to join, how they receive funding, creating equal value between health practitioners and artists, recommendations to support artists' health needs outside of the festival, and advice on starting an art for medicine exchange in your community.

Essential Food and Medicine is a mutual aid initiative based in Oakland, CA that started during the pandemic but has done an incredible amount of work in a short period of time. The co-founders integrated their love for community connection, food security, sovereignty, plant, and holistic medicine to create a resource to meet all of those essential needs for people. They reclaim surplus and locally grown produce to make juice, soups, smoothies, and natural medicine for underserved communities for free. In this episode I speak with co-founders Xochitl Moreno and AshEL Elidrige. In the first half of the conversation we speak about Essential FAM as a whole -- like the voids they are filling, how they built the partnerships needed to supply the resources, how they distribute the medicine, and then we start to talk about Cob on Wood, a community built with cob they co-created in a homeless encampment. It has a free store, free health clinic, kitchen, bathroom, and community events to empower residents and have a safer environment. We speak about the history of Wood St. benefits of building with cob, how they raised money to build, the impeding and rapidly increasing issue of homelessness in CA, why they are facing eviction and how you can help.