We’ve gotten a lot of messages recently asking how they can learn more about the movement that is currently happening and here is a great opportunity to start. Join San Diego Daybreaker producers, Justin Navalle and Amanda Malcolm-Brown, and the global dance movement, Daybreaker, in a worldwide study group on racism. Love to our sister Radha Argrawal and the Daybreaker team for presenting this opportunity to our West Coast Weekender fam. (*The text below is credited to Radha Argawal and Daybreaker Headquarters*) Here’s How it works: We will reading: How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi (available only as an audible book since hard copies are sold out — which is a good thing as it means people are reading it). If you are experiencing financial hardship and would like to participate but can not afford to purchase the text, West Coast Weekender will be sponsoring a limited amount of books for our community (while supplies last). apply. This will take place over 4 weeks through a Zoom Town Hall, co-hosted by Daybreaker friend and former Daybreaker DC producer Roman Haferd, a restorative justice practitioner, civil rights lawyer and advocate (scroll down for his full bio). Each week, we’ll be reading just a few chapters to allow us to really take everything shared with focused intention—so we can sit with it, take notes and go deep into our ancestral biases. Imagine 500,000+ of us unpacking our own racism — that would ripple out to millions of people across the country and the world.We can treat this as “tender topics for tender times” or “courageous topics for courageous times.” Let’s choose the latter. There’s no time to feel shame about our own racism. It’s time to have the courage to face ourselves. We can do this — and as always — together. Fill out the sign up form below so Daybreaker HQ can add you to our study group and we’ll see you at our first Zoom Study Hall on Tuesday, June 9th from 8:30 – 9:30PM Eastern Time. |
About Robert “Roman” Haferd Robert “Roman” Haferd is a restorative justice practitioner, civil rights lawyer, organizer, and cultural innovator. He has focused his career on advocating and building capacity with marginalized families. Roman serves as the Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where he has helped build a first-of-its-kind restorative justice program inside Washington D.C.’s justice department. In this role he is the team’s primary point of contact with system stakeholders, speaks regularly on restorative justice, while also facilitating a full caseload of restorative justice conferences referred by local prosecutors and other community partners in the District. An active community organizer, Roman is a co-founder of Catharsis on the Mall, a nonprofit arts and advocacy community dedicated to facilitating community art in public spaces and demonstrations. Prior to joining the AG’s office, Roman worked as a senior program associate with the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice, an Oakland, California-based research and innovation institute. A lawyer by training, Roman has represented plaintiffs in cases around the country involving deprivations of Constitutional rights and wrongful death by law enforcement. While earning his JD, Roman represented juvenile and adult defendants in the Boston Municipal and Juvenile Courts through the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, interned at the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa, and served on the editorial board of the Harvard International Law Journal. After law school, Roman served as a law clerk for the Hon. Algenon L. Marbley, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio and as a Voter Protection Coordinator for Northeast Ohio during the 2012 national election. He also worked in the Washington, D.C. office of WilmerHale LLP as a litigation associate. Mr. Haferd is a native of Akron, Ohio, with roots and relatives in the farming trade across the mid-Ohio region. He spends as much time as possible enjoying nature and making moves to good music. Roman is a proud Daybreaker DC Producer “emeritus.” He also recently joined the board of Activate Labs. |