Oyatunde Amakisi
Present
- Represents the Detroit Local Organizing Committee on the National Planning Committee
- Chair of the March 2013 Meeting Working Group
- Resource Development Working Group
- United States Social Forum Historical Documentation Working Group with NPC members and a national team of sociologists
- Detroit Grassroots Community Arts Collective
Founder, Executive Director
The Detroit Grassroots Community Arts Collective is community based programming that promotes social change and community restoration through neighborhood gardens, a grassroots library and visual and performing arts. We bring our programs directly to the people.
http://amakisi.wix.com/dgcac#!home/mainPage
- Detroit Women of Color, Inc.
Founder, Executive Director and Film Curator
The Detroit Women of Color, Inc. (DWC, Inc) produces the annual Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival and facilitates workshops and programs to empower, educate, and entertain. We present exceptional, culturally diverse programs of inter-generational films and videos by African American, Continental African, Asian, Caribbean, Latina, Middle Eastern and Native American women filmmakers. DWC, Inc strengthens our communities by honoring our differences while highlighting our shared experiences, and expanding our cultural awareness through film. We utilize the film festival, workshops, and programs to advance dialogue on social and women's issues. We promote positive empowering images of people of color in the media; while providing useful resources and global networking opportunities for the film community in Metro Detroit.
http://amakisi.wix.com/dwcfilms2#!home/mainPage
- Amakisi Unlimited, LLC
Detroit, MI Website Designer
Design and maintain websites for individuals, businesses, churches, schools and grassroots organizations. Created online promotions. Maintain online email data base for several grassroots organizations, businesses and churches.
2010 United States Social Forum
- Detroit Local Organizing Committee Representative
- Chair of the Cultural Working Group and Committee
- Co-Chair of the Programming and Culture Working Group
- Detroit Expanded Co-Chair
- Work Projects Working Group
Detroit Local Organizing
The Detroit Local Organizing Committee represented over fifty organizations in the state of Michigan that served as organizers and hosts for the United States Social Forum in 2010.
Job description: Representative
Recruited organizations and activists in Michigan to join in organizing the forum; traveled to other cities to encourage other organizations to build coalitions in their communities, spokesperson for national and international media; represented the Detroit Local Organizing Committee in the National Planning Committee, plenaries and the Organizing Committee.
Cultural Working Group and Committee
Art was an organizing tool used to educate, empower, heal, and inspire our communities. Culture was integrated into all aspects of the United States Social Forum. The Culture Committee/Working Group showcased art, culture and entertainment conveying a vision that challenged poverty, exploitation, oppression, militarism/war and environmental destruction-- locally, nationally and globally. Over eight hundred national and international cultural arts activists representing diverse communities participated with performance art, visual art, a creativity lab, murals, film and political actions. Another goal of the committee/working group was to teach the pedagogy and uplift how cultural artists/activists are doing the work of creating open dialogue about movement building through arts activism. This committee worked in conjunction with the Program Culture Working Group (vetted and organized workshops for the USSF). Cultural expressions were included at the Opening March, Opening Ceremony, and Closing Ceremony, United States Social Forum Concerts, Children’s Art Village, Cultural/historical/political/green tours of Detroit, Mural and Graffiti Art Projects, Another World is Possible Progressive Film Festival, Creativity Lab, and incorporated in plenaries, workshops, and People’s Movement Assemblies.
Job Description: Chairperson
Managed all the cultural expressions throughout the United States Social Forum; supervised over one hundred volunteers and eight hundred artists at three different locations simultaneously (Cobo Hall Convention Center, Hart Plaza and the AFSCME theater); represented culture in the International Working Group, Gender Justice Working Group, Organizing Committee of the National Planning Committee, the Logistics Working Group, and the Programming Committee (put together the overall programming for the United States Social Forum); and set up logistics for the multiple venues at each location.
Detroit Expanded (DEX)
Utilizing the Belem Expanded model from the World Social Forum, Detroit Expanded was established at the 2010 United States Social Forum. Detroit Expanded made the video conferencing/streaming of the 2010 United States Social Forum accessible to viewers around the world, with emphasis on groups and community centers (coffee houses, local libraries, community centers, churches, mosques, etc). DEX hubs were set up in Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Mexico, Liberia, Japan and many places throughout the United States and world to exchange ideas and build relationships with beyond borders.
Job description: Co-Chair
Managed volunteers, facilitated meetings, and set up DEX ‘hubs’ around the world with international activists and organizations. Worked closely with the ICT, Youth, and Communications Working Groups to administer DEX; developed youth leadership, utilized digital justice as a global medium; gave a positive view of the city of Detroit to an international audience, and allowed participants to interact with the programming at the United States Social Forum.
http://organize.ussf2010.org/culture