How Do You Fix a Failed System?

05/29/18 • 33 min

Poet and scholar Gloria Anzaldua said "a woman who writes has power, and a woman who has power is feared." My guest Kelly Wickham Hurst says "Once writing started to happen for me, there was power there." So we explore the unfurling of Kelly's power and how she found her identity as a storyteller.

Kelly Wickham Hurst used her many years as an educator and the power of her voice to create Being Black at School, which advocates for equity and safety for Black students. Kelly's team helps teachers, school boards, and students navigate tough conversations in the classroom. Kelly is a systems thinker, and she's taking on a big, broken system.

This episode will be useful for anyone who's wondering how to make the leap from personal writing into activism, or how to take a lifetime of professional knowledge into a brave new place.

This episode will be useful for anyone who's wondering how to make the leap from personal writing into activism, or how to take a lifetime of professional knowledge into a brave new place.

Previous Episode

No Match for Moms

From the time she was five, Kelsey Wirth traveled with her dad Tim Wirth as he was up for reelection in Congress- every two years in a swing district. Kelsey says she grew up in the spirit of both unpredictability and standing up for what you believe in. She is comfortable with uncertainty, something she credits with her success as an entrepreneur (she co-founded Invisalign at 27) and her work behind the non profit Mothers Out Front, which uses grassroots organizing to tackle the dirty energy powering climate change. Mothers Out Front creates practical solutions against a threat that can feel hopeless. Recently, members mapped gas leak spots in their community, setting in motion a plan that could reduce methane from gas leaks Massachusetts by 50%.

"We take an enormous threat and we break it down into pieces that enable mothers to take action and make meaningful change." The grief Kelsey felt while watching a documentary about polar bears in the Arctic with her daughters led to the birth of Mothers Out Front, but the work of Mothers About Front is local and not political in focus. Local moms and grandmothers take on often giant, entrenched utilities and corporate interests. Kelsey is hopeful and inspiring in her belief behind the power of the "snowflake" organizing model, made popular by President Obama in his Presidential runs and created by Marshall Ganz at Harvard. If you're an organizing nerd you'll love listening to how Mothers Out Front has grown!

Next Episode

Fixing Digital in Politics

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What's the best path forward for digital campaigns? Online fundraising, organizing, and campaigning are fundamental to how we run for office now, but we're rightly nervous. Social media is a hugely powerful tool for candidates and organizing for change, and online fundraising a cash cow that allows normal people to meaningfully contribute to political campaigns when they might otherwise be shut out.

But the entrenched consultant culture in our politics doesn't always have incentives to drive innovation- or the strategies that will have the largest impact. How do we know the supporters we garner on Facebook aren't trolls? As we head into the midterms, Tara and I talk through the path forward for digital strategy and politics.

Learn more about Tara McGowan's work.