Join us for Pizza and Conversation!
Bronx Campus: Tues., February 25th @ 5pm
Manhattan Campus: Thurs., February 27th @ 5pm
The February “MCNY Pizza and Conversation in the Library” session takes up the intertwining of economic justice and race from a new angle.
Please join our guest facilitators Bianca Shaw and Angelica Delacruz of Tribe Co-Create and Jess Turner of Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC) in exploring: What is the cooperative economy? How have cooperative structures served communities of color in the past and what opportunities do they offer today for economic autonomy and collective healing from economic racial violence?
Our shared reading is the introduction to Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s book Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice attached here and available in the library. If you prefer a viewing, an interview with Jessica Gordon Nembhard is available here (15 min.).
For a flash intro to the cooperative economy model, see Building a Cooperative City (1 min.) and for more about worker-owned cooperatives in New York City, see The NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives (5 min.).
Facilitator Biographies:
At the Bronx:
Bianca Shaw is a queer, Black, femme from the Bronx by way of Antigua, West Indies. She is responsible for the visioning, planning and development of TRIBE. Bianca has always been called to do work that addresses the intersections of her existence. As a licensed social worker, she is dedicated to amplifying the voices and power of those harmed by systemic oppression. In 2018, she founded TRIBE as a means to intersect entrepreneurship, healing and community building.
Angelica Delacruz is an Afro-Latina, womxnist from the Bronx. Born in the Dominican Republic, she migrated to the Hunts Point community at the age of five. As someone who believes that community building is a form of resistance and care, Angelica’s mission is to cultivate joy-filled spaces that encourages connection and collaboration. She achieves this by developing and leading programs and events at TRIBE. In the words of Alice Walker, Angelica believes that we should all look closely at the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming of.
In Manhattan:
Jess Turner is a Black herbalist, urban farmer, gardener and educator living in Lenapehoking (New York City). Influenced by popular education, social ecology, food sovereignty, and Black liberation movements, she ferments, forages, grows herbs, makes plant medicine and works to support marginalized communities in building autonomy through land-based healing practices.