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2016Post Office Box 7307 z New York NY 10116-7307 z davisputter@davisputter.org z www.davisputter.org

Spring ReportDavis-PutterScholarship Fund

May 1, 2016Dear Friend of Davis-Putter,

I’m writing to you once again to share some of the amazing work of our grantees – student activists that you have supported with your past giving. As our trustees are interviewing the 2016/17 applicants and as our grantees continue their important work, I wanted to create a space where they could say in their own words; why they do this work for peace and justice, what inspires them and how Davis-Putter has impacted their lives. I am struck by the passion expressed by our grantees as they seek peace, justice and liberation, magnifying the impact they are having in varied spaces, movements, academic fields and geographic locations. No doubt, you will be too!

Alexa Bailon challenged the increased police presence in Denver Public schools and organized against fracking in North Eastern Denver. “My activism and my coursework has inspired me not only to work for big changes in our community but also to work on reversing some internalized racism. Being able to understand positionality and intersectionality has made me a better person and a better leader.”

Sandra Brown continues mobilizing incarcerated women to advocate for sentencing reform, while teaching inside the prison community. “I often see women return to prison or worse, learn of their deaths because they are left without the ability to think critically, change drastically, want differently and live purposefully. The Davis-Putter grant is allowing me the opportunity to complete my Master’s degree and inspire others.”

Mariana Bruno focused on her Women, Politics, and Activism oral history project…“The values of equality, respect, and justice are my foundation to analyze the environment around me, and to contribute to the efforts of conducting oral history interviews of marginalized groups, largely missing in the dominant narrative. Decades of women who have influenced communities and policies will disappear from our history and collective memory if we do not take the responsibility to preserve them.”

Lindsey Chen organized solidarity actions, anti-oppression trainings and events with Queer Vision Access Project, the Burmese/Myanmar Student Association and Parisol, the Pacific Rim Solidarity Network. “Activism is deeply personal for me and it is profound to see the way our collective movements can redistribute power.”

Nathalie Meza Contreras helped recover stolen wages for workers at the Carwash Worker Center in L.A.,

Johnny Buck (above far right) helped organize the Communities

of Color for Climate Justice Summit, a historic gathering of leaders

RI�FRORU�IURP�DFURVV�:DVKLQJWRQ�6WDWH�WR�EXLOG�WKH�¿UVW�VWDWHZLGH�multi-racial coalition on environmental justice and equity. “I work

for peace and justice because I want my daughter, and all of our

children, to grow up on a planet that is healthy. Our ancestors

cared for the Earth with our wellbeing in mind, and we have the

opportunity and responsibility to stand up and turn things around

for the future to continue that legacy.”

coordinated and trained students to participate in street vendor legal clinics, as legal observers and to assist formerly incarcerated persons expunge their criminal records. “Coming to law school is not a solution to my community’s problems – it’s like a hammer in the shed that my community will use to smash the injustices for a better tomorrow. I honestly can say that I would not be in law school if DPSF had not believed in me as an undergraduate student” (Nathalie was also a 2007/08 grantee).

Cynthia Diaz led protests against an Arizona restaurant called, “Illegal Pete’s” as well as organized Chican@ students on campus and nationally. “I became an activist because I needed my mother – she had been deported and I needed to reunite our family. Now I organize because we need to strategically work in solidarity to benefit movements for social change.”

Enrique Garcia Naranjo works as a community artivist challenging police brutality, hate crimes and sexual assault through theatre, poetry and visual art and was part of the Borderlands Theater production of Mas, about the student movement to save Mexican-American Studies (MAS) in

Tucson. “The movement was an important moment in my community’s history of resistance, and I am glad I was a part of the team to breathe life into this narrative for the next generation of student activists.”

Jasmine Kent continued building the racial justice organization she founded, strengthening its mission of exposing systemic racial injustices, initiating a campaign to rid San Antonio of local racist symbols and leading actions following the killing of Marquis Jones, a young unarmed black man by an off-duty police officer. “I never wanted to become an activist. I never thought that I would be one. I became an activist out of necessity - because racism is an epidemic, too damaging to ignore.”

Danilo Machado organized solidarity actions with Syrian Refugees in Connecticut, led the campus LGBTQ group and has begun working on his thesis, on queer and feminist theory, text, and activism “I have experienced profound transformation in both social justice organizing and academia and have seen how these spaces are conducive to action toward social change and resilience.”

Jodi Lynn Maracle began a statewide campaign to eradicate Native mascots from New York state public schools after successfully organizing to rename Squ*w Island as Unity Island. “As I continue my journey to creating a healthy, safe, respectful world for future generations of Indigenous children and peoples to feel psychologically and physically safe to be fully Indigenous, free from normalized forms of harassment, be it mascots, place names, or erasure from our homelands, I am forever grateful for the support of the Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund.”

Jasson Perez served as a National Co-Chair of Black Youth Project 100, which has been at the forefront of a city-wide social and political uprising in Chicago. “I deeply believe in building a movement locally, nationally and internationally for economic, social and political justice through working to transform systems of oppression – we are doing just that with BYP100.”

Swati Rayasam became involved in the radical South Asian community in the Bay Area around issues of climate change, Dalit women’s activism and

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Brittany Brathwaite (above right) appeared on the Melissa

+DUULV� 3HUU\� 6KRZ� ZLWK� *LUOV� IRU� *HQGHU� (TXLW\�� GLVFXVVLQJ�KHU� UHVHDUFK� ¿QGLQJV� RQ� KDUVK� GLVFLSOLQH� RI� JLUOV� RI� FRORU� ZKLOH�developing campus leaders to create a more inclusive, anti-racist

environment at Columbia. “While I value my direct action organizer

role and love nothing more than leading an Assata Shakur chant,

I feel that it is integral and responsible of organizers and leaders

to train and harvest the leadership of new folks in the movement.”

T.J. Jourian �ULJKW��FRPSOHWHG�KLV�3K'�ZKLOH�EXLOGLQJ�FROOHFWLYH�SRZHU�ZLWK�WUDQV �IRONV�LQ�KLJKHU�HGXFDWLRQ���RUJDQL]LQJ�ZLWK�WKH�%<3�����6D\+HU1DPH�&DPSDLJQ�DQG�OHDGLQJ�WUDLQLQJV�DQG�ZRUNVKRSV�RQ�7UDQV�$FWLYLVP�DQG�WKH�History of Revolutionary Leadership. “I am committed to be the kind of

intellectual that breaks down the binaries that limit our potentials.”

challenges to Title IX violations on Berkeley’s campus. “The DPSF as a community encourages me to stand up against the pressure to assimilate and become just another research scientist in order to become a true intersectional social justice scientist conducting compassionate environmental health research in historically oppressed populations.”

Dashamelle Robinson continued teaching at the freedom school and leading COPWATCH patrol and trainings, while organizing solidarity efforts with detained, LGBTQ youth of color. “To get free we must organize communities of color to stand against the police structure that terrorizes them, the housing administration that ignores them.”

Ernesto Rocha organized with the Coalition to End Wage Theft in Long Beach, CA, successfully raising the minimum wage to $15 and securing anti-wage theft measures. “My work in advancing social and economic justice stem from my own experiences as a member of marginalized communities in this country. I have a deep admiration for the compassion and kindness that is unearthed as we develop a sense of community that strives for the inclusion, protection and well-being of all of its members. I organize because that is my purpose. I’ve learned that my power resides in storytelling and being able to critically analyze and dismantle the social constructions, categories and institutions that prevent us from achieving true human connection.”

In addition to participating in UC Berkeley campus worker solidarity, Seleny Rodriguez focused on her senior thesis discussing the complexities of the “DREAMer” narrative and how it is detrimental to the undocumented immigrant community. “I hope to continue using this work in my fight for social justice that disrupts US imperialism, capitalism, racism, sexism and homophobia - challenging academic institutions and their rhetoric of producing respectability politics that do not challenge systemic structures, rather support and reproduce them.”

Anthony Sandusky continued organizing against gun violence and mass incarceration and challenged faculty racism on Yale’s campus. “Exploring my own experience of rage this semester and reflecting that amidst the vast African Diaspora has rekindled my fire towards continuing movement building work in the world.”

Nayantara Sen began her graduate research related to storytelling that supports politicization and intersectional narratives on structural oppression and developed original curriculum about radical imagination and fictional storytelling as liberatory tools for movement building, while training social justice leaders on anti-racism. “As a first generation Bengali immigrant working in concert with peace-building groups to disrupt immigration raids in our community, I began to understand the value of solidarity, storytelling and grassroots strategy.”

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Alexa McMenamin�FR�RUJDQL]HG�WKH�)RUGKDP�%ODFNRXW��SLFWXUHG�above), one of many actions planned to create a radicalized and

anti-racist campus climate. “My greatest goal overall is to call

more white people into the movement for racial justice.”

Eric Tolson� �DERYH�� RUJDQL]HG� ZLWK� WKH� <RXWK� 3HRSOH¶V�$FWLRQ�&RDOLWLRQ� LQ�0LQQHDSROLV�� 01�PRELOL]LQJ� \RXQJ� SHRSOH� WR� VKRZ�VROLGDULW\�ZLWK�UHWDLO�MDQLWRUV�DQG�IDVW�IRRG�ZRUNHUV�RQ�WKHLU�VWULNH�LQ�WKH�QDWLRQDO�¿JKW�IRU�����DQG�WKH�ULJKW�WR�XQLRQL]H��

David Lemus (left)

RUJDQL]HG� ZLWK� WKH��Student Labor Committee

DW� 8&� %HUNHOH\�challenging exploitation

RI�ZRUNHUV��DJDLQVW�ZDJH�theft and for a higher

KRXUO\�ZDJH�WKURXJK�WKHLU��-XVW LFH�8&:RUNHUV�campaign. “It is my

responsibility as a

student to assure that the

workers of my school be

treated with respect…we

are committed to continue

campaigning until all the

workers are insourced

and treated fairly.”

Congratulations to our graduating grantees: T.J. Jourian, PhD in Higher Education, Loyola University Chicago; Danilo Machado, BA in English, University of Connecticut; Ernesto Rocha, BA in Political Science and Chican@ Studies, UCLA; Myra Solliday, BS in Psychology and Social Science, Ohio University; Adisa Stewart, BA in Somatics and Trauma, Hampshire CollegeSponsors: Huwaida Arraf, Margaret Burnham, Mina D. Caulfield, Noam Chomsky, Johnnetta B. Cole, Angela Y. Davis, Chandler Davis, Terry Davis, Quentin Davis, Ed Dubinsky, Lennox S. Hinds, Nancy J. Hodes, Ruth Hubbard, Robin D. G. Kelley, Mel King, Richard C. Lewontin, Jill Nelson, Jan Phillips, Barbara Ransby, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Paul Schachter, Andrés Torres, Mary Helen Washington.

Trustees: Lisa Brock, James A. Donaldson, Carol Giardina, Kai M. Green, Sora Han, Carlos Jimenez, Carol J. Kraemer, Beth Rose Middleton Manning, Laura McSpedon, Luke Patterson, Walter L. Putter, Clarissa Rojas, Rachel L. Stocking, Gina Velasco, D Pei Wu.

Myra Solliday “Completing my degree with the help of Davis-Putter before my release this June will allow me to hit the ground running in my continued pursuit to conquer and overcome decades upon decades of injustice, abuse and corruption within the prison system.”

Adisa Stewart worked with Black Lives Matter leaders around the country developing a research project around healing justice, systemic trauma and collective social change. “We spend so much energy organizing around our traumas, imagine how we could strengthen our movement work with more access to collective resilience.”

Romilly Tsinhnahjinnie organized with Citizens for Alternatives for Radioactive Dumping and Dine No Nukes, while educating students of the health science programs at the University of New Mexico. “I am committed to educating the community and health care workers in New Mexico about the radiation danger we have in our state and the risk factors to our health.”

Shunya Wade worked with the Native American and Indigenous Law Students Association to encourage inclusion of indigenous issues in the first year law curriculum and to bring the World’s Indigenous Lawyers Conference to the US. “I am working to build an international coalition of indigenous peoples to gain sovereignty in an imperialized world.”

Lonzo Young continued working as a “jailhouse lawyer”, filing grievances for prisoners being denied medical treatment and is working to establish a National Lawyers Guild chapter in the Michigan Department of Corrections facilities.

Current grantee Johnny Buck said, “The Davis Putter Scholarship Fund supports my activism on local and national levels, and also supports me to take care of my life and my family while I am going for my higher education goals. I am 38, I have a beautiful and intelligent daughter I am the sole financial provider for, and also am a first-generation college student. Your investment in the Davis Putter Scholarship is the most powerful investment in community change. By supporting the DPSF, you are supporting sustainable, life-long leadership for college students making the systemic change our people and planet desperately need.” Will you give generously today to support the DPSF grantees chosen next month? Your gift will directly impact the amount we award in June.

In Solidarity,

Carol J. Kraemer, DirectorP.S. You can make your tax deductible donation online or set up a recurring gift at www.davisputter.org. Are you interested

in discussing a planned gift, hosting a house party or event in support of the Fund? Please contact me at davisputter@davisputter.org.

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Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund