Forward Together: A Podcast from the Arkansas Poor People's Campaign

A Conversation with David Murray

In Episode 12, Nate sits down with Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign Coordinating Committee member David Murray in a rangey conversation as David reflects on growing up poor in Northern Illinois, on his  migration to Arkansas, and ultimately to his involvement in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Listen in as David shares his experience of growing up in poverty in a Northern Illinois community devastated by the abandonment of a coal mine corporation that controlled the area. David speaks on the lessons and values that were instilled in him from his childhood as he observed the members of his neighborhood and wider community, gleaning from their wisdom and behavior. These values were revived in his adult life when he left the life of a drug dealer to pursue a more sustainable livelihood. David explains the stark differences in how law enforcement interacted with his rich clientele compared to the poor folks around him. Nate and David discuss the value of unions and the need for new formations of people to unify and work together for a better present and future. David articulates the role fear and scarcity play in the suppression and discouragement of poor people by the powerful. This final episode of season 1 concludes with a call to unite, cast off fear, and do good for one another and the least of these among us. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/forwardtogetherarppc/message

A Conversation with Mary Givens

In Episode 11, longtime Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign committee member and Little Rock, Arkansas native Mary Givens explains the generational trauma and the relationship with her dad that sets her activism on fire. Givens’ 20-year-career in literacy activism right here in Central Arkansas, her parents’ wisdom, and Mary Turner, a woman who was barely twenty-years-old and eight months pregnant when she met with a Georgia mob in 1918, unfold in this episode as Mary lays out the causal relationship between generational racist violence and the structural oppression that protects it as poverty and illiteracy go unchecked in Black communities crying out for healing and repair. Listen in as Mary breaks down the different kinds of racists and likens them to the various Covid strains that have infected communities, some more harmful than others, but each dangerous and potentially deadly.  Our podcast ends on a high note with a nod to the work that activist groups have done and continue to do despite setbacks like murdering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Arkansas’ newest stand your ground laws. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/forwardtogetherarppc/message

A Conversation with Kaleem Nazeem

In Episode 10, Nate Davis catches up with Fair Sentencing activist Kaleem Nazeem, a charter member of the Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign, who left his Little Rock community at the age of 17 to begin a life sentence in what he calls the “Bondage System”. Kaleem shares what Little Rock was like in the late 80s and 90s and how the streets compensated for what the school to prison pipeline steals from young black boys. You’ll find out what happened when 21-year-old Kaleem wouldn’t pick cotton for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, and what it means for a soul to live with intention. Listen in as Kaleem, who will graduate from Arkansas State University with an Associate’s degree in science this summer, explains freed spirits, enslaved spirits, and its impact on the metamorphosis that we all undergo while becoming the whole and fulfilled human beings that we are truly meant to be. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/forwardtogetherarppc/message

A Conversation with Zachary Crow, Director of DecARcerate

Welcome to Episode Nine of Forward Together: A Podcast from the Arkansas Poor People’s Campaign where we shine a light on the people and ideas that drive the movement to end the evils of systemic racism, poverty, militarism, ecological devastation, and false moral narratives of religious nationalism. As Director of DecARcerate Arkansas, Zachary Crow is a familiar name in Arkansas’ activist circles. DecARcerate is a young organization, founded in late 2015,  and in today’s podcast, Zachary shares challenges and successes that DecARcerate Arkansas faces while appealing to a conservative Arkansas legislature for policy change. In July 2020, Nate sat down with the Vilionia, Arkansas native to probe his ideas on abolition and incarceration, his route to Director, and the difficulty that many White Americans have acknowledging that systemic racism and inequality actually exist--- despite real evidence, like Covid-19’s impact on lives of incarcerated people here in Arkansas. To learn more about DecARcerate, go to https://www.decarceratear.org/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/forwardtogetherarppc/message

A Conversation with Osyrus Bolly

In this episode, Southwest Little Rock, Arkansas native Osyrus Bolly, reflects on the many ways that solutions for social injustice actually refine and defend systemic racism rather than remove false narratives that lead to injustice like “colorblindness” and the “over-policing of African American communities” that begin in elementary school. Osyrus Bolly’s work to defund the police and rebuild the Little Rock School District centers his activism. Stay tuned as Osyrus, a long time member of the Arkansas Poor People's Campaign, explains how his success with invigorating youth advocacy rests in his being a Little Rock native, aware, at a very young age, of the structural differences in place that disrupt positive outcomes for Black and Brown communities. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/forwardtogetherarppc/message