From structural vulnerability to resilience: A reflexive essay on refugee-led responses to COVID-19

On this episode I am speaking to Adelle Asantiwa from Afrikaniwa about their work following their participation in RJN's space in December 2023. Her focus on climate justice, lived experience and knowledge production.

Episode 06 of The Catalyst Show made its debut in late September, featuring our director, Penny, in conversation with special guests Joe Williams, the director of Heritage Corner, and Mama D from Community Centered Knowledge. They engaged in a spirited dialogue covering topics like activism, Black History Month, and the days leading up to our International Symposium, which featured our special guest, the distinguished professor and elder Ngũgĩ wa Thiang'o.You can now conveniently access our playlist to get up to speed on all our episodes or tune in to BCB 106.6 FM every Friday.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://racialjusticenetwork.co.uk/2021/04/10/from-structural-vulnerability-to-resilience-a-reflexive-essay-on-refugee-led-responses-to-covid-19/

A discussinf the RJN's report 'Between a rock and a hard place: Structural Vulnerabilities, resilience and migrant-led responses to covid-19 in West Yorkshire'. Highlighting institutional racism, multiple barriers and resilience.

A discussion between Mama D, Maia Kelly and myself talking about the importance of having an international perspective on climate and RJN's race and climate justice framework called the 13th recommendation. Pushing for inner standing of interconnectedness nature of all issues and climate justice as a social justice matter by upholding internationalism, activist solidarity, and acknowledgment of colonial legacies when addressing climate repairs. We also spoke about the damages of the politics of representation and the invisibility of whiteness

A collective conversation on Race and Climate in Brazil

Ngugi wa Thiongo is a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, has been translated into 98 languages from around the world.  Ngũgĩ was imprisoned for over a year. Adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, the artist was released from prison, and fled Kenya. In the United States, he taught at Yale University for some years, and has since also taught at New York University, with a dual professorship in Comparative literature and Performance Studies, and at the University of California, Irvine. Ngũgĩ has frequently been regarded as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://racialjusticenetwork.co.uk/2021/06/03/police-scanning-report/

RJN team discussing the recently launched report on policing, immigration raids and kill the bill.

RJN’s Race & Climate Justice group is honoured to be joined by patron Esther Stanford-Xosei, Reparationist, Jurisconsult, Community Advocate, Educator and emerging Ourstorian of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations.   A conversation on why reparations need to be at the heart of any climate justice demands and how our organising can reflect this. We also spoke about next steps around a reparations movement in Leeds and how you can get involved!