The kitchen floor

The kitchen floor

The workers who gutted the house didn’t touch the kitchen floor

They pulled up every other one

Except this 

Why?

The handyman I thought would come

Never did

So it became our task

First the thick wedges of tile and the layer underneath it

Gave way to more layers – linoleum, and more linoleum, and more tile

Five layers to the subfloor

They kept adding them on, the people who lived here before

Just covered over the old floor

Time after time

Covered over the stains

Covered over the scrapes

Covered over the torn parts

The damage

And every time things could be clean and neat for a while

Every layer on top brought a reprieve, hope, newness

And with each layer the people felt good for a while

(Until they were compelled to do it again)

But what was underneath never changed

Covering it over never changed what was underneath

Dust, dirt, mold, decay, rot

Nijmie doing things

some stuff I’ve co-created in 2020 so far

Where Do We Go From Here with the University of the Poor

https://phl17.com/in-focus/in-focus-nj-and-de-primaries-and-2020-presidential-election-race-and-the-law-poor-peoples-campaign-virtual-rally/
Interview on PHL 17 In Focus on the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Mass Digital Gathering
Talking about the role of Put People First! PA in the BLM uprisings across PA
Profile with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

Video of me at Philly protest sponsored by the Party for Socialism and Liberation

Short from The People’s Forum on the International Response to the Crisis

On various forms of state violence, with People’s Dispatch

Alive, Awake, Avenge Enthusiastic

The only real revolutionary, people say, is a man who has nothing to lose” – MLK

I can’t sleep cause it’s a war zone in my head” – PTSD, G Herbo

the first person i ever slept with

dead

my mother

dead

my father

dead

my grandparents

dead

the first baby i ever held

dead

aunts and uncles

dead

three of the students i was closest to

dead

the person who is the reason i am alive

dead

me:

But How Will We Pay For It?

We pay for it every day with our lives

We pay for it in anxiety, sleeplessness and depression

We’ll pay for it by taking back what was stolen from us

We pay for it sitting in debtor’s prison

We pay for it with GoFundMe

We’ll pay for it by shutting down the war machine

We pay for it rationing insulin

We pay for it with a pile of pulled teeth

We’ll pay for it by eliminating the parasitic profiteers

We pay for it in funerals

We pay for it in tears

We’ll pay for it by shutting down the streets, taking over the hospitals, crashing the stock market

We pay for it in gravestones and waiting rooms

We pay for it in overdoses

We’ll pay for it by liquidation and expropriation

We’ll pay for it in revolution 

Healing our ancestors: a visualization

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Healing our Ancestors: A Visualization

Do you come from a lineage of people who led small, pinched lives because of oppression and trauma?

And/or people whose own sense of freedom and joy was so harmed by the boundaries set for them by society that they self-destructed?

Do you have relatives who have passed on who could never forgive themselves for their mistakes ?

Glorification of our ancestors is a common practice in U.S. social justice movements, and while it is critically important to acknowledge, recognize and thank our ancestors, I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the shadow side of ancestor worship: some of our ancestors were downright bad role models.

This is a visualization for those of us who have troubled ancestors, which can cause uncertainty and confusion in our lives. What if we had ancestors that we’re supposed to respect, but ultimately can’t? What if we had ancestors whose negative impacts reverberated through generations and are still felt in our lives today? Or those who we wanted so desperately to help when we were children, but of course couldn’t?

The prerequisite for engaging in this exercise is forgiveness. This visualization is not meant to be engaged by those who have not yet forgiven their troubled ancestors. If you have already forgiven your ancestors but you still walk around carrying the sadness and burden of their lives and their actions, this exercise is designed to help you heal your ancestors and also release yourself from the sorrow associated with them.

Get comfortable, with as few distractions as possible, in a quiet, naturally lit room. Sit in meditation on the floor or in a chair with both feet on the ground and eyes gently closed.

Pull up a mental image of an ancestor. Ideally this image is one of your loved one during a happy moment in their life – perhaps from a picture that you’ve seen.  You need not have known your ancestor in this moment.

Visualize yourself sitting across from your family member close enough so that your hands, when held, make one unbroken circle between you.

Put yourself in the mind of the prophets and channel their loving kindness and compassion. Right now you are a conduit for love, grace and divine attention. Visualize beaming this love and attention at your ancestor.

You are channeling god-consciousness, and the only thing that matters about this person is that they are a child of god. You can see their fundamental goodness/baby nature because you fully recognize that it is the sum total of their experiences that diverted them from retaining this nature – and that’s not important now.

Communicate to them:

You are released! You are loved! You are free! You are good!

Fill your body with Ultimate grace. Ultimate compassion. Ultimate love. Transmit this through your palms into your ancestor.

Sit with them and beam at them for a few minutes. Feel whatever comes up for you.

I do believe that your ancestors will appreciate this gift from you and releasing them can also help release us and help us achieve a sense of our own power with respect to our family history. 

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Movement-killing behaviors

Of special relevance within the context of movement-building organizations

The author pictured with Larry Gibson, Keeper of the Mountains on Kayford Mountain, 2008
The author pictured with Larry Gibson, Keeper of the Mountains on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia with the Poverty Scholars Program, 2008. Larry asked us to consider the question: “What is it in all the circle of life that is so important to you that you would give your life for it?”

We must be able to live by the principles that we set for others and for the society that we are in the process of transforming. If we are to help everyday people come into greater activity, leadership and collectivity then we must cultivate the utmost integrity individually and collectively, we must be trustworthy and cultivate mastery of “movement-building” practices while minimizing “movement-killing” practices. Otherwise we follow in the footsteps of all that have abused their power and applied a double standard to their own behavior while harming others.

 

Shared principles:

  • Our behaviors are not “who we are”.
  • We all make mistakes – the key is admitting, correcting and repairing harm.
  • Movement love does not look like co-dependence. We have an obligation to hold each other accountable.
  • Good practice can help build relationships. Bad practice can help destroy relationships.
  • Good process can help build relationships. Bad process can help destroy relationships.
  • We’re not always going to be happy with each other. Conflict and contradictions are a natural part of our process.
  • Your goal is not to avoid anyone ever being mad at you.
  • Regular feedback is an important part of our process.
  • Feedback is very different from attack.
  • We are all on a learning and healing journey.
  • We take responsibility for resolving our own conflicts as a leadership task whenever possible.
  • We all deserve patience, respect and care in how we are treated and talked to. That doesn’t mean sugarcoating just as it doesn’t mean being vicious.
  • Intention is not the same as impact. Assume best intention but attend to impact.
  • There is no basis for working with those who are not doing so in good faith.
  • The fact that you may be dealing with the impact of trauma and mental health issues does not place you outside the realm of accountability.
  • Everything changes – including our emotions.

Movement-Killing Behaviors

  • Shit-talking – speaking disparagingly of people when they are not present
    • How to interrupt: “Have you shared any feedback with this person?” “Please don’t talk negatively about this person in front of me, I don’t want to hear it.”
    • Alternatives to shit-talking: Incorporating regular feedback sessions into your meetings. Tell people what you appreciate about them and what you see as their areas for growth.
    • Talking about members and their growth and development in the context of base building and leadership development without them present does not constitute gossip.
  • Untruthfulness
    • Outright lying cannot be tolerated.
    • Some people live by exaggeration. It’s been a survival mechanism to help them to be heard or to get what they want.
      • Additionally, some people are not rigorous with their word or the truth. They have a pattern of intentional or subconscious laziness about how to portray what happened or what was said, constantly stretching the boundaries of reality like silly putty, adding to, omitting or changing parts of the story as they go along. We all need to be held to account for striving to be as accurate as possible in our representations of meetings, conversations, processes, plans, etc. If you know this is an issue for you please make a note that it’s something that you need to work on.
    • Don’t tell two different people two different things based on what you think they want to hear. Tell both people the same thing. Telling everyone a different version of the same events keeps people off kilter and is a mechanism to sow confusion and manipulation. If you find yourself telling many people a slightly different version of the same events or if you feel like you are hearing a different version than what was told to someone else, you’re likely participating in gossip, please see that section.
  • Accusation and attack
    • Making vague or general accusations instead of giving direct feedback
      • Don’t say “people do this”. Give feedback to specific individuals in an appropriate time and place (ie not in front of a group or when they are leading something). Do not generalize and suggest that the organization does something or has a policy that in reality happened with one individual inside the organization, or in a social setting.
    • Attacking the organization/enlisting others to attack the organization on social media, ie tagging the organization’s name on Facebook or Twitter with slanderous remarks
    • Blowing up a shared space, taking the opportunity in front of a group to air your grievances with a particular person or situation in ways that are unaccountable, not related to the matter at hand, and target particular individuals while they’re trying to facilitate or lead a group process.
  • Defensiveness
    • Refusing all constructive critique; repeated defensiveness + playing the victim when you are called to account
    • Defensiveness is the enemy of leadership. If you find yourself on the defensive, ask “what did I do to co-create this situation?” Go through this list and see if you have participated in any of these behaviors. Ask yourself about your follow through. For all of the ways that you want to lash out, question every justification that you’re providing for your own behavior. Do those justifications really stand up to the light of day?
  • Rugged individualism
    • Using the organization’s name and credibility to take action on your own rather than acting collectively with the organization, misleading others into thinking that you’re representing the organization when you’re only representing yourself.
    • It’s fine to have other organizational affiliations or roles! However, please be transparent about your intentions. If you’re running for office or leading another organization and you want to use the organization’s energy and work to bolster your visibility and win more allies (for example), you must make clear what your intentions are before embarking on any process so that everyone in the situation can make clear informed choices about how to proceed.
  • Refusing to participate collaboratively or to work with others on the basis of their gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, language, age, religion, documentation status.
  • Refusing to acknowledge the realities of power and oppression, to listen openly to others’ experiences and to acknowledge when you’ve contributed to harm.
  • Refusing to participate in political education and leadership development processes and studies.
  • Constant negativity. Consider that never being able to find the good in any situation and constantly thinking of what went wrong or what people didn’t do well is a reflection on how you feel, not on the process or other people. Please be careful that you don’t project the ways you may have been conditioned to be hyper-critical of yourself onto other people or to the organization.
  • Manipulation
    • Trying to operationalize or manipulate another member for your ends
      • If you see a situation in which a current member or someone who has already left the organization has attached themselves to you or to another member and is constantly “in their ear” about what they should be doing, and trying to use that member as a conduit to have influence in the organization without the operator’s explicit participation and accountability, this is a problematic situation that should be avoided. By the same token, don’t allow yourself to be operationalized by someone who is seeking to be outside the boundaries of community and accountability.
  • Being a “people-pleaser”. Telling everyone what they want to hear so as to avoid conflict. Never making tough calls or holding people accountable so that they won’t be mad at you.
  • Abuse or harassment whether verbal, physical, or sexual of any member.
  • Reactivity – reacting, responding, writing, posting before you breathe and check in with yourself. How is my response going to benefit myself, the other person and the organization as a whole? Reactivity is another enemy of leadership. It takes strength, resolve and courage to pause before reacting. It takes patience and wisdom to not always say the first thing that pops into your head. Reactivity is flawed practice. It is not the same as speaking your mind, being true to yourself, or being honest. It is possible to do all of those things – and do them well – without being reactive. Being reactive is responding with a lack of self and community awareness, defaulting to conditioned patterns rather than being in our choice, agency and power. Reactivity damages trust.
  • Stuck in place, refusing to accept that things change. A month ago, you may have been dismayed that another person wouldn’t step up and do their fair share. A month later, they are stepping up! Isn’t that what you wanted? It’s what you said you wanted, but you’re still harboring resentment for this person instead of appreciating the shift that has occurred. Holding onto past grievances as if reality is static as opposed to ever-changing is counter-productive. Go with the flow.
  • Fomenting conflict, ill will, troubles, and problems through any of the above means

 

New Poems!

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I’ve been in silent meditation retreat for the last week at Vallecitos in (New) Mexico getting My. Whole. Life. Together. In deep gratitude for this time. The practice and the nature ignited my creativity and I wrote some new poems!

Please feel free to quote/use with attribution to Nijmie Dzurinko.

Family Traditions

Not saying I love you.

Not showing affection.

Working until you drop dead.

Being abandoned.

Being abused.

Watching people fighting.

Addiction.

Hating ourselves.

Hating each other.

Not speaking.

Not listening.

Telling lies.

Keeping secrets.

Dying without knowing

You were forgiven and

You did the best you could.

 

No-mind haiku

Please don’t ever ask

Me for advice because I

Don’t know anything

 

Doing Too Much 

Sometimes you cannot

Make things better but you can

Stop making them worse

 

Stories

there’s a man

hitting stone on stone

almost like he’s trying to

light a fire. but that’s not it.

he promptly drops one stone

into a mug of water as if

he’s making stone tea

i have no idea what he’s doing

and i probably never will

like any of us, i make up stories

 

Breathing

This meditation is my way

Of honoring God

The Awakened Ones

Universal Consciousness

For breathing me

I am involuntarily alive

I can hold my breath but I cannot

Stop it at will

God breathes me and I simply

Pay attention

Pay homage

Thank you for this breath

Thank you for this life

The whole earth and everything in it is good

 

Starting Over

Who am I

but a series of stories

I tell myself

everyday

in order to remember

who I am?

starting over feels

impossible until

I remember

without these stories

every day is starting over

every moment is

 

We Need To Turn Dreamers Into Doers and Doers Into Dreamers

organizing

like walking on a path

is a process

so many little ants

like details

seem to be a distraction

from getting where you’re trying to go

but you must be careful not

to step on any because

to do so would be to

extinguish a life

 

Maybe

Maybe  I have done enough

been enough

given enough

said enough – even when they didn’t

want to hear it. maybe they will

look back and say “now I understand”

or not

either way

I can’t keep wondering

Nijmie 101: Get to know me

1968Cartoon_GettingIntoStep

 

Here are some snapshots from my organizing over the years in terms of some of the issues and campaigns that I’ve worked on, and the trajectory of my political orientation and theory of change.

 

Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

A New Poor People’s Campaign on the Dig (audio)

History of the Poverty Initiative (Kairos Center -) one of the two national co-convening organizations of the Poor People’s Campaign

Ending Poverty: Immersion in the Mississippi Delta (article)

Katrina: Poverty, Race and Ethics (article)

Healthcare is a Human Right

On building a diverse working class movement on the Dig (audio)

The Strategic Significance of Healthcare as a Human Right with Sarah Jaffe (article)

Revolutionary Common Sense on Hack the Union (video)

Education is a Human Right

Campaign for Nonviolent Schools (article)

https://mediamobilizing.org/mmptv-episode-6-no-education-no-life-preview/

Housing is a Human Right

Supporting the Community Leadership Institute in Philadelphia (article)

Community Preservation Network (article)

International Human Rights

International Women’s Peace Service (article)

The Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (MST) (article)

Co-founder: 

Media Mobilizing Project

Put People First! PA

Restarted and Former Executive Director

Philadelphia Student Union

What’s Killing Me

Steven Covey, author of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People talks about our “Emotional Bank Accounts”. Despite the fact that it’s weird to talk about banking in this context,  I think the concept of making investments in our relationships – actions that demonstrate trust, understanding and support – is a good one. He takes the metaphor further to suggest that when we violate trust or make a mistake, it’s akin to making a “withdrawal” against the investments that we’ve already made. I have often thought of this metaphor when I think about building trust with movement colleagues.

The more that I work with this metaphor the more I become aware that this grounding is only useful when it is broadly understood and reciprocal. There is much that gets in the way of us treating each other with deep respect, including ego, competition, lack of self-awareness, and oppressive conditioning.

At times the lack of respect that I experience make the work almost unbearable. I also have said and done things that I’ve regretted, made lots of mistakes and treated people with less respect than they deserved. I am in no way saying that I do not exhibit problematic behaviors.

I am also working on improving my practice.

I think the thing that I’ve been most harmed by is that people that I’ve invested in heavily – that I’ve given jobs, provided opportunities, supported, mentored, helped, not over the course of months, but over the course of years, have been able to turn on me as a result of a real or perceived “withdrawal” that feels so asymmetrical – especially in light of our history of multiple, sustained investments of trust. That kind of betrayal really pains me. There has to be a way to understand, overcome and avoid it outside of simply not trusting anyone ever again, or being made to feel ashamed for being taken advantage of – like I’m the one at fault for “having it happen to me”. Also seems important to note here that every single person who has ever behaved this way toward me was a man.

Relatedly, I’ve recently been reflecting on the things that are getting increasingly difficult for me in the course of doing this work. There are a lot of narratives out there about how we are supposed to expect that movement work is a hard and never-ending slog through shit. However, I am very much interested in improving our practice and not having the work produce a lot of collateral damage. If the work that we are doing serves to re-traumatize ourselves and others, how exactly are we getting free? We are already situated within an economic, political and social system that prevents us from being our fullest selves. We have no choice but to transform it. However as we do that, the ends don’t actually justify the means when the means are bullshit. We all have to make sacrifices and compromises, and our hands aren’t clean. We can’t stand outside the system to do our work. However, as we make the road by walking, we have to clear the path through our actions, and act – create systems, structures and processes – in ways that liberate instead of oppressing, for ourselves and others.

As I’ve been doing these reflections, here are some places that feel like they are becoming untenable for me in terms of the emotional labor that I’m doing on top of the intellectual and physical labor of movement work.  It’s not any one of these that’s untenable, it’s the fact that sometimes it feels like I am doing all of these things, all of the time. No single one of these is a deal-breaker, but taken together, and when performing these tasks of emotional labor actually crowds out my ability to be well myself, and do the things that I really love, like strategy, base building, and study, they become unbearable.

  • Constantly mediating conflict between people for the good of the work
  • Absorbing people’s emotional outbursts, when targeted mistakenly at me or others; being expected to de-escalate and mend the situation even when it is re-traumatizing
  • Anticipating and troubleshooting problems and providing extra support proactively in order to avoid re-traumatizing other people – ie trying to solve problems before they happen
  • Accepting people being impatient, judgmental, negative or demanding in ways that are very challenging to deal with because of where they are in their leadership development process
  • Cleaning up after other people’s bad behavior, playing a reassuring or ameliorating role to calm people’s feelings because of someone’s unaware or intentional bad actions
  • Being someone that people come to when they have problems, being someone that is expected to fix people’s problems and make them feel better, rather than them fixing their problem on their own, or offering to help fix my problems
  • Constantly being expected to absorb negativity, people unawarely not balancing their critiques, complaints and problems with affirmation and appreciation
  • Making issues personal instead of understanding them as part of the process, organizational, and co-created (ie acknowledging their own role)
  • Being the object of the assumption that I am able to do a tremendous amount of work without strain, stress or pain
  • My ideas being repeated as if they were the original ideas of others who then get credit and recognition for them
  • Despite fighting for people, helping them and defending them, being treated as if I am not worthy of the same, being turned on quickly for the convenience and benefit of others
  • Having a position of non-conflict and nonviolent communication used as an excuse to be an “easy target” or scapegoat as needed because I won’t make the kind of scene that others will
  • Perceiving my work and my ability as a threat rather than an asset because of ego and behaving in ways that lack integrity as a result
  • Working with people who are afraid of conflict, therefore if conflict arises, quickly exit the scenario rather than take a principled stand for the sake of no one “being mad at them”; can’t distinguish between reasonable or justified accountability and unprincipled attacks
  • To not have the role of oppression acknowledged in situations, to have people around me not acknowledge power when being treated badly by someone that society imbues as more deserving of respect and dignity than I am. To have the oppressive component of the mistreatment ignored or minimized, to exhibit a complete unwillingness to assist the person doing the behavior to achieve greater awareness.
  • Being a constant cheerleader, having to maintain hope and continue to be inspirational during moments when others are lost or feel hopeless. Having to maintain discipline around hope and a clarity of vision that carries other people through difficult times.
  • People who use their privilege to step on you, using your emotional and intellectual labor for their own benefit and using it to maneuver themselves into positions of power or influence without giving credit or assistance to help better your situation.
  • Constantly getting the unaware and oppressive feedback that I’m aggressive, threatening and intimidating simply as a reaction to my natural way of speaking and being.
  • Not being allowed to express anger or frustration at the above treatment, expected to always appear to be okay with whatever is happening even when it is unacceptable, receiving reactions of anger and frustration for my reactions because they are seen as a distraction and an inconvenience when none was given for what caused them.