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Where To Listen
It started, as promised, on Day 1 of this super-charged Trump Administration. His targeting of political foes, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, people of color and the nonprofit organizations that defend their rights morphed into punitive and legally dubious executive orders. Fortunately, the civil rights community was prepared for the onslaught. They had studied Project 2025, pre-election, the administration’s playbook for autocratic rule. John C. Yang, President and Executive Director of Advancing Justice – AAJC, my guest on this episode of Power Station, is one of those insightful and courageous leaders. He and his team at Advancing Justice – AAJC are standing up, in court and on Capital Hill, to the administration’s efforts to defund Asian American organizations, decimate the federal workforce (8% of which is Asian American) and deport community members, including naturalized citizens. Advancing Justice – AAJC is working in concert with civil right and public interest organizations representing all communities who are being maligned and attacked. And these efforts are winning. We talk about diversity, a word that Trump now prohibits, and John reminds us that diversity is our strength and part of our national identity. This is a conversation about truth, hope and action. Listen and share!
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Where To Listen
As a nation we are learning a powerful lesson in real time. In the just completed first 100 days of the Trump administration, the president has led a reckless campaign of retribution that relies on the flouting of laws, courts and the constitution itself. From freezing federal funding to nonprofits that keep families fed to seizing immigrants and dispatching them without due process to foreign prisons he is adhering to Project 2025, the administration’s autocratic playbook for diminishing civil rights, a precursor to dismantling democracy. In this week’s episode of Power Station I speak with Skye Perryman, the intrepid and unbowed President and CEO of Democracy Forward, the national nonprofit on the frontlines of defending those whom the administration targets from his attacks. Democracy Forward is winning in the courts and in communities by giving a voice to those who are under attack. Its communications team is telling the stories of nonprofit leaders, lawyers and immigration advocates who are standing up for their rights and continuing to serve their communities. And Skye invites us to be a part of the movement. Listen and learn how we can move forward together.
To see disenfranchisement in action, look no further than Washington DC, whose 700,000 residents pay the highest taxes per household in our nation and yet have no voting members in the U.S. Congress. This inequity has persisted through both democratic and republican administrations and is intensifying in the 119th Congress and the Trump presidency. For almost 3 decades, DC Vote, a local nonprofit with national reach has led the movement for DC Statehood. It achieved the passage of Home Rule, but our elected leaders still do not control their budgets, and their legislation can be overturned by members of Congress who do not respect the right of a majority Black and Brown citizenry to govern itself. In this episode of Power Station I speak to DC Vote’s Organizing Director Kelcye Adams whose political savvy and organizing know-how is generating powerful pro-statehood coalitions across the nation. Kelyce, an organizing superstar, co-founded Free DC, which invites everyone, not just the organizationally affiliated, to advocate for democracy. Along the way she found time to launch Long Live GoGo, which celebrates the official music of DC and catalyzes civic action at the  intersection of art, politics and culture. Listen and share!
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with tackling inequitable conditions in non-profits with limited resources and recognition.
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how you are powering up your non-profit
I was propelled into community organizing when I was illegally evicted 30 years ago. I understand the challenges and potential of working for social justice in non-profits with finite resources and support.
I was launched into nonprofit policy advocacy 30+ years ago when my landlord, looking to maximize his profits in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood harassed, robbed and illegally evicted me from a property he owned. I quickly found neighborhood and statewide nonprofits, learned about tenant’s rights and how to advocate for policy change at city hall and the state capitol. Most importantly, I joined my neighbors who waged a successful years-long battle to stay in their homes.
Since then, I have worked in nonprofits with a social change mission as an organizer, fundraiser, policy advocate, program developer and executive director. I understand what it takes to be effective, stay solvent, and improve the lives of underinvested people and communities. I care, deeply, profoundly about the systemic and racial injustices that have marked public policy making and I know that nonprofits are critical to reimagining what can be. I started Power Station to amplify the voices of leaders who build community, influence and power. They are our pathway to progressive change.
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