Since the election of Trump in 2016, and even more acutely since George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent uprisings during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, organizers have faced an increasing number of polarized internal conflicts in our organizations. Maurice Mitchell described these conflicts in “Building Resilient Organizations” in 2022, identifying and analyzing many of the factors contributing to them. But even as an organizer and coach well-versed in these conflicts, I found myself surprised at how fast things escalated with a conflict of this type in my organization. As a virtual organization we didn’t have to see each other in person, and I was left wondering what might have happened if we’d been in an office. Would our communication have missed each other so much if we’d been face-to-face?  

Click here to read the rest of this piece on the Forge.
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Going back to school wasn't something I was very sure about... but my first semester I landed in a class applying the study of cultural trends to creative projects and I immediately saw how useful it could be for community organizing. My class project work led me to a first attempt at creative campaign tactics for base building and power building. And, with my classmates, we did the research for a new trends report - a process that was an incredibly rich learning experience. The map pictured here was an early draft ... there was much color coding and I loved it! I proud to have my work featured in this report, and excited to continue my studies with my thesis project this year. 

Read the whole report here: creativecultures.letras.ulisboa.pt/gtc/trends2023/