What shapes can community organizing take as we navigate this era of pandemic and protest? Community organizer E.N. West shares reflections on relationship building in times of crisis in this expansive and engaging conversation with Loam Listen host Amirio Freeman. Brimming with heart and inspiring lessons, E offers us all a blueprint for how to take care of each other when the world surrounding us is shifting.

Guest: E.N. West, affectionately known as "E" (they/E), proudly hails from the DC metropolitan area, by way of Alexandria, Virginia. They graduated from William & Mary with dual degrees in American Studies and Government. E deeply believes "we are uninhibited when we know our power" and is committed to co-creating a world where everyone intimately knows how powerful they are and directs that power toward collective liberation. They are many things, but at the heart of all of them, they are a community organizer based in Seattle, Washington.

E feels called to community organizing as both a vocation and way of life. They are also deeply committed to lifelong leadership formation. To those ends, they’re currently:

Building toward a Black queer feminist future at Surge Reproductive Justice.
Learning nonprofit leadership as a Community Impact Fellow through RVC.
Organizing around faith land and equitable development with The Church Council of Greater Seattle.
Serving on the board of and organizing with Got Green, a BIPOC-led environmental justice organization rooted in South Seattle.

In their moments of play and rest, E enjoys reading social justice literature, listening to podcasts of all kinds (especially those featuring QTPOC) & being the queer jock of their own dreams (boxing, capoeira, biking & training for a 10k).

Recommended Resources:

Emergent Strategy - adrienne maree brown
Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paolo Freire
Jubilee (Leviticus 25 & Luke 4:18)
Yes! Magazine
Puget Sound Sage CREST Cohort - Seattle, Washington
Leaven Community Land & Housing Organizing - Portland, Oregon
Equitable Development Initiative, Office of Planning & Community Development - Seattle, Washington
Hayoa Miyazaki // Studio Ghibli
Animal Crossing
Song: Saturn - Stevie Wonder
Album: What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye, song: “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” & “What’s Going On”

(Re)envisioning Relationships Through Conspiracy: In Conversation With E.N. West