2016 Davis-Putter - Davis

Davis-Putter
Scholarship Fund
Post Office Box 7307
New York NY 10116-7307
Dear Friend of Davis-Putter,
2016
Spring Report
[email protected]
www.davisputter.org
May 1, 2016
I’m writing to you once again to share some of the amazing work of our grantees – student activists that you have supported with
your past giving. As our trustees are interviewing the 2016/17 applicants and as our grantees continue their important work, I
wanted to create a space where they could say in their own words; why they do this work for peace and justice, what inspires them
and how Davis-Putter has impacted their lives. I am struck by the passion expressed by our grantees as they seek peace, justice and
liberation, magnifying the impact they are having in varied spaces, movements, academic fields and geographic locations. No doubt,
you will be too!
Alexa Bailon challenged the increased police presence in Denver Public schools and organized against fracking in North
Eastern Denver. “My activism and my coursework has inspired me not only to work for big changes in our community but also to
work on reversing some internalized racism. Being able to understand positionality and intersectionality has made me a better person
and a better leader.”
Sandra Brown continues mobilizing incarcerated women to advocate for sentencing reform, while teaching inside the
prison community. “I often see women return to prison or
worse, learn of their deaths because they are left without the
ability to think critically, change drastically, want differently
and live purposefully. The Davis-Putter grant is allowing me
the opportunity to complete my Master’s degree and inspire
others.”
Mariana Bruno focused on her Women, Politics, and
Activism oral history project…“The values of equality,
respect, and justice are my foundation to analyze the
environment around me, and to contribute to the efforts of
conducting oral history interviews of marginalized groups,
largely missing in the dominant narrative. Decades of women
who have influenced communities and policies will disappear
from our history and collective memory if we do not take the
responsibility to preserve them.”
Lindsey Chen organized solidarity actions, antioppression trainings and events with Queer Vision Access
Project, the Burmese/Myanmar Student Association and
Parisol, the Pacific Rim Solidarity Network. “Activism is
deeply personal for me and it is profound to see the way our
collective movements can redistribute power.”
Johnny Buck (above far right) helped organize the Communities
of Color for Climate Justice Summit, a historic gathering of leaders
multi-racial coalition on environmental justice and equity. “I work
for peace and justice because I want my daughter, and all of our
children, to grow up on a planet that is healthy. Our ancestors
Nathalie Meza Contreras helped recover stolen wages cared for the Earth with our wellbeing in mind, and we have the
for workers at the Carwash Worker Center in L.A., opportunity and responsibility to stand up and turn things around
continued inside for the future to continue that legacy.”
continued from page 1
coordinated and trained students to participate in street
vendor legal clinics, as legal observers and to assist formerly
incarcerated persons expunge their criminal records.
“Coming to law school is not a solution to my community’s
problems – it’s like a hammer in the shed that my community
will use to smash the injustices for a better tomorrow. I honestly
can say that I would not be in law school if DPSF had not
believed in me as an undergraduate student” (Nathalie was
also a 2007/08 grantee).
Cynthia Diaz led protests against an Arizona restaurant
called, “Illegal Pete’s” as well as organized Chican@
students on campus and nationally. “I became an activist
because I needed my mother – she had been deported and
Brittany Brathwaite (above right) appeared on the Melissa I needed to reunite our family. Now I organize because we
need to strategically work in solidarity to benefit movements
for social change.”
developing campus leaders to create a more inclusive, anti-racist
Enrique Garcia Naranjo works as a community artivist
environment at Columbia. “While I value my direct action organizer
role and love nothing more than leading an Assata Shakur chant, challenging police brutality, hate crimes and sexual assault
I feel that it is integral and responsible of organizers and leaders through theatre, poetry and visual art and was part of the
to train and harvest the leadership of new folks in the movement.”
Borderlands Theater production of Mas, about the student
movement to save Mexican-American Studies (MAS) in
Tucson. “The movement was an important moment in my community’s history of resistance, and I am glad I was a part of the team
to breathe life into this narrative for the next generation of student activists.”
Jasmine Kent continued building the racial justice organization she founded, strengthening its mission of exposing systemic
racial injustices, initiating a campaign to rid San Antonio of local racist symbols and leading actions following the killing of
Marquis Jones, a young unarmed black man by an off-duty police officer. “I never wanted to become an activist. I never thought
that I would be one. I became an activist out of necessity - because racism is an epidemic, too damaging to ignore.”
Danilo Machado organized solidarity actions with Syrian Refugees in Connecticut, led the campus LGBTQ group and has
begun working on his thesis, on queer and feminist theory, text, and activism “I have experienced profound transformation in both
social justice organizing and academia and have seen how these spaces are conducive to action toward social change and resilience.”
Jodi Lynn Maracle began a statewide campaign to eradicate Native mascots from New York state public schools after
successfully organizing to rename Squ*w Island as Unity Island. “As I continue my journey to creating a healthy, safe, respectful
world for future generations of Indigenous children and peoples to feel psychologically and physically safe to be fully Indigenous, free
from normalized forms of harassment, be it mascots, place names, or erasure
from our homelands, I am forever grateful for the support of the Davis-Putter
Scholarship Fund.”
Jasson Perez served as a National Co-Chair of Black Youth Project 100,
which has been at the forefront of a city-wide social and political uprising
in Chicago. “I deeply believe in building a movement locally, nationally and
internationally for economic, social and political justice through working to
transform systems of oppression – we are doing just that with BYP100.”
Swati Rayasam became involved in the radical South Asian community
in the Bay Area around issues of climate change, Dalit women’s activism and
T.J. Jourian
History of Revolutionary Leadership. “I am committed to be the kind of
intellectual that breaks down the binaries that limit our potentials.”
challenges to Title IX violations on Berkeley’s campus. “The
DPSF as a community encourages me to stand up against the
pressure to assimilate and become just another research scientist
in order to become a true intersectional social justice scientist
conducting compassionate environmental health research in
historically oppressed populations.”
Dashamelle Robinson continued teaching at the
freedom school and leading COPWATCH patrol and
trainings, while organizing solidarity efforts with detained,
LGBTQ youth of color. “To get free we must organize
communities of color to stand against the police structure that
terrorizes them, the housing administration that ignores them.”
Alexa McMenamin
Ernesto Rocha organized with the Coalition to End above), one of many actions planned to create a radicalized and
Wage Theft in Long Beach, CA, successfully raising anti-racist campus climate. “My greatest goal overall is to call
the minimum wage to $15 and securing anti-wage theft more white people into the movement for racial justice.”
measures. “My work in advancing social and economic justice
stem from my own experiences as a member of marginalized
communities in this country. I have a deep admiration for the
compassion and kindness that is unearthed as we develop a
sense of community that strives for the inclusion, protection
and well-being of all of its members. I organize because that is
my purpose. I’ve learned that my power resides in storytelling
and being able to critically analyze and dismantle the social
constructions, categories and institutions that prevent us from
achieving true human connection.”
In addition to participating in UC Berkeley campus
worker solidarity, Seleny Rodriguez focused on her senior
thesis discussing the complexities of the “DREAMer”
narrative and how it is detrimental to the undocumented
immigrant community. “I hope to continue using this work
in my fight for social justice that disrupts US imperialism, Eric Tolson
capitalism, racism, sexism and homophobia - challenging
academic institutions and their rhetoric of producing
respectability politics that do not challenge systemic structures,
rather support and reproduce them.”
Anthony Sandusky continued organizing against gun violence and mass incarceration and challenged faculty racism
David Lemus (left) on Yale’s campus. “Exploring my own experience of rage this
semester and reflecting that amidst the vast African Diaspora has
Student Labor Committee rekindled my fire towards continuing movement building work
in the world.”
challenging
exploitation
Nayantara Sen began her graduate research related to
theft and for a higher storytelling that supports politicization and intersectional
campaign. “It is my
responsibility
as
a
student to assure that the
workers of my school be
treated with respect…we
are committed to continue
campaigning until all the
workers are insourced
and treated fairly.”
narratives on structural oppression and developed original
curriculum about radical imagination and fictional storytelling
as liberatory tools for movement building, while training
social justice leaders on anti-racism. “As a first generation
Bengali immigrant working in concert with peace-building
groups to disrupt immigration raids in our community, I began
to understand the value of solidarity, storytelling and grassroots
strategy.”
continued on back
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Myra Solliday “Completing my degree with the help of Davis-Putter before my release this June will allow me to hit the ground
running in my continued pursuit to conquer and overcome decades upon decades of injustice, abuse and corruption within the prison
system.”
Adisa Stewart worked with Black Lives Matter leaders around the country developing a research project around healing
justice, systemic trauma and collective social change. “We spend so much energy organizing around our traumas, imagine how we
could strengthen our movement work with more access to collective resilience.”
Romilly Tsinhnahjinnie organized with Citizens for Alternatives for Radioactive Dumping and Dine No Nukes, while
educating students of the health science programs at the University of New Mexico. “I am committed to educating the community
and health care workers in New Mexico about the radiation danger we have in our state and the risk factors to our health.”
Shunya Wade worked with the Native American and Indigenous Law Students Association to encourage inclusion of
indigenous issues in the first year law curriculum and to bring the World’s Indigenous Lawyers Conference to the US. “I am
working to build an international coalition of indigenous peoples to gain sovereignty in an imperialized world.”
Lonzo Young continued working as a “jailhouse lawyer”, filing grievances for prisoners being denied medical treatment and
is working to establish a National Lawyers Guild chapter in the Michigan Department of Corrections facilities.
Current grantee Johnny Buck said, “The Davis Putter Scholarship Fund supports my activism on local and national levels, and also
supports me to take care of my life and my family while I am going for my higher education goals. I am 38, I have a beautiful and
intelligent daughter I am the sole financial provider for, and also am a first-generation college student. Your investment in the Davis
Putter Scholarship is the most powerful investment in community change. By supporting the DPSF, you are supporting sustainable,
life-long leadership for college students making the systemic change our people and planet desperately need.” Will you give generously
today to support the DPSF grantees chosen next month? Your gift will directly impact the amount we award in June.
In Solidarity,
Carol J. Kraemer, Director
P.S. You can make your tax deductible donation online or set up a recurring gift at www.davisputter.org. Are you interested
in discussing a planned gift, hosting a house party or event in support of the Fund? Please contact me at davisputter@
davisputter.org.
Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund
Congratulations to our graduating grantees: T.J. Jourian, PhD in Higher Education, Loyola University Chicago;
Danilo Machado, BA in English, University of Connecticut; Ernesto Rocha, BA in Political Science and Chican@ Studies,
UCLA; Myra Solliday, BS in Psychology and Social Science, Ohio University; Adisa Stewart, BA in Somatics and Trauma,
Hampshire College
Sponsors: Huwaida Arraf, Margaret Burnham, Mina D. Caulfield, Noam Chomsky, Johnnetta B. Cole, Angela Y. Davis,
Chandler Davis, Terry Davis, Quentin Davis, Ed Dubinsky, Lennox S. Hinds, Nancy J. Hodes, Ruth Hubbard, Robin D. G.
Kelley, Mel King, Richard C. Lewontin, Jill Nelson, Jan Phillips, Barbara Ransby, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Paul Schachter,
Andrés Torres, Mary Helen Washington.
Trustees: Lisa Brock, James A. Donaldson, Carol Giardina, Kai M. Green, Sora Han, Carlos Jimenez, Carol J. Kraemer, Beth
Rose Middleton Manning, Laura McSpedon, Luke Patterson, Walter L. Putter, Clarissa Rojas, Rachel L. Stocking, Gina Velasco,
D Pei Wu.