How Community-Oriented Research Can Dismantle Systems and Dispel the Myth of Data Neutrality, ft Jessica Bellamy & Josh Poe (Root Cause Research Center)

Borrowed Wisdom with Robert Barry Fleming

08/18/20 • 41 min

Co-Principal Investigators Jessica Bellamy and Josh Poe share their work connecting data justice, housing justice, and abolition and discuss their practice of accountability and accompaniment, and subversive intellectualism in the South.

Jessica Bellamy is an award-winning international speaker, workshop facilitator, motion infographic designer, and research analyst. She and her colleague Josh Poe are the founders of the Root Cause Research Center which is a grassroots-led institution that collects data, creates data visuals, and trains impacted community members in research and data storytelling.

Jessica's research career began at the University of Louisville's Neurodevelopmental Science Lab, where she worked for nearly five years. She later used her training as a research analyst, as well as her training in community organizing and graphic design to start GRIDS: The Grassroots Information Design Studio, which was a social enterprise that combined all three skill sets to benefit social initiatives.

Josh Poe is the co-founder and Co-Principal Investigator at the Root Cause Research Center here in Louisville. He is an urban planner, community organizer, and geographer with over 20 years of scholarship, activism and practical experience in planning, urban land policy and housing issues in his home state of Kentucky and Seattle, Washington, including with Black Lives Matter Louisville.

Make your voice heard about the Smoketown development: https://www.cflouisville.org/resources/smoketown-feedback/

📚 Resources:

Root Cause Research Center: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/

“Weaponizing Truth: A Spirited Analysis of Movement Science & Design” by Jessica Bellamy: https://link.medium.com/81jQmwxv28

GRIDS: The Grassroots Information Design Studio: https://www.gridsconnect.me/

Our Data Bodies: https://www.odbproject.org/

Stop LAPD Spying Coalition: https://stoplapdspying.org/

Invest/Divest Louisville: https://www.investdivest.org/

#CancelRent: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/cancelrent

“Russell: What is the Right to Remain? Part 1: https://www.rootcauseresearch.org/post/russell-what-is-the-right-to-remain-part-1

Tressie McMillan Cottom, "Race in the U.S.": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwYjmEuvldg

Actors Theatre of Louisville: https://actorstheatre.org