Letter to Self
Dear Shewa, This is the year you have been waiting for. The year you have been praying for, because being 30 represents a new beginning....
WRITER SPEAKER WITNESS
I stand here to remind you that Black history is American history, Latinx history is American history, Indigenous history is American history. History is not a linear timeline, it is a web of narratives and it is our job to find the narratives this world tries to conceal.
Peninsula College created an opportunity for conversation and dialogue during an unprecedented moment in history.
Part 1: Shewa Dedeke details her personal journey of continuous action in the Black Lives Matter era as an organizer, writer, and international traveler. From Rwanda to South Korea, Shewa shares moments of guilt and despair to hope and strength. In the footsteps of James Baldwin, Dedeke hopes to use her testimony to affirm the realities of Black people worldwide.
Part 2: Dedeke poses and discusses questions like, Why is this shift happening now and what does continuous action look like? International perspectives help to parallel the Black Lives Matter movement with similar struggles happening across the globe.
The police have the power of life or death, and too often when it comes to Black people, they choose the latter. Here, I share how our skin has been weaponized to justify state-sanctioned murder.
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