Introducing Equity Rising S1 : Episode 1
Meet TraeAnna Holiday, community builder and organizer with Africatown Community Land Trust, producer with Converge Media, and contributor of King County Equity Now. In this season, Trae will talk to organizers fighting for equity around the world to share tactics, build strategies, and get connected. King County Equity Now is a coalition of Black-led community organizations that focuses on advocacy and policy reform in King County, WA.
Transcript
Voices on the street
To me, looks like money, obviously, equal access for everyone. It looks like our old neighborhoods before gentrification came in and whitewashed, every goddamn thing. Just everything available to everybody.
Rally leader
When I say King County, you say Equity Now! King County -
Crowd
Equity Now!
Rally leader
King County -
Crowd
Equity Now!
Rally leader
Pay the fee!
Crowd
Pay the fee!
Rally leader
Pay the fee!
Crowd
Pay the fee!
Trae Holiday (at rally)
Hey everybody! For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Trae Holiday, community builder organizer for Africatown Community Land Trust. I'm also a producer for Converge Media and a contributor of King County Equity Now. We do it all around here, because we know it's what our community needs.
Trae Holiday (in studio)
You're listening to King County equity Now's new podcast, Equity Rising, hosted by me, Trae Holiday. In this season, I'll talk to organizers fighting for equity around the world so that we can share tactics, build strategies, and also get connected with folks all over the world who are doing this equity work. But first, I wanted to share a bit about who I am, and what King County Equity Now is all about. I hope you enjoy it.
King County Equity Now is really just a coalition that's focusing on advocacy, policy reform, creating demands that are then uplifted by the coalition. And it is led by Black led community initiatives and community organizations throughout King County that have been doing this work on the ground. Again, this movement isn't new.
Rally leader
What do we want?
Crowd
Equity!
Rally leader
When do we want it?
Crowd
Now!
Rally leader
Equity means ownership, so we gotta get this. Thank you all. Let’s keep going!
Crowd
(cheers)
Trae Holiday (in studio)
One of my last jobs that helped propel me into community was in advertising. And I ended up on the administrative team, but I was, should have been on the creative team and I pushed this heavy so then they let me do creative projects. And honestly, that led me to doing my own documentary with the crew that I was working with there. And you know, lo and behold, it was like that was where I was supposed to be, was really telling the stories in our community really elevating and highlighting so many of the beautiful people that have made the Central District what it is today, as well as Seattle, and I want to say even more particularly Black Seattle, because for me, there are certain leaders that emerge for very specific reasons and causes that are truly dedicated towards bringing about equity for Black and brown folks, and it just resonated with me and ultimately, once I started working for Africatown. And I was like, I don't know if there's ever any going back to corporate, I love being a part of the community. And I also love being able to bring my creative background into the community space.
Trae Holiday (at rally)
Why isn't the community aware? How can the community become aware, no longer will all of the decisions that are made in the dark, actually float to the surface, and then we as a people just deal with it, right? (cheers) We won't deal with it.
Trae Holiday (in studio)
You know, I'm really excited in this first season of Equity Rising, we will have a podcast that really focuses on connecting to different thought leaders, activists, community organizers, CEOs, and executive directors of nonprofits, right, whoever really fits this space in terms of they’re working on equity in their community. I think it's important that the communities hear all of the steps that are really being taken to implement sustainable change. And I think that will bring about some level of comfort towards a lot of this transformative change that really does make some people in our country and other countries very uncomfortable. And I understand that because it makes them face things that they haven't had to. So I want these discussions and these conversations, to really focus on some of the steps that people are taking, so they can understand this is incremental, and they can actually be okay. And be comforted knowing that there are very smart people that are really behind these movements. This is not about young folks who are just fed up with the system, or anarchy. This is actually well thought out and well researched over many decades.
What I would love to bring is a lot of the coalition tactics that we've been utilizing right here in Seattle, particularly in King County, and how we can do this as a model across the country. And what I would love to do is bring in my skills and my experience right here in Seattle, and connect to others across the country that have their own unique lived experience in their city and learn from them. And they learn from me so that we can begin to have a general body of work that really will then provide a framework for how scholars begin to look at this work, how it begins to be dissected from different, you know, leaders or different writers, things like that, how we begin to shape history, right? Because Because as history is going we also have to market it right. We have to like I mean, mark it down, we have to know what it is we have to be able to have something to go back to and say well, that happened right. And I'm going to be a part of that. I want to be a part of telling this very particular story around this movement in this shift in the minds of Americans.
(music)
You've been listening to season one of Equity Rising with me, Trae Holiday, coming soon wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe now and go follow us at King County Equity Now on social media. Bring your skills and talent to the table, folks!