Feminist Collective/s

2024 marks 50 years since the iconic radical Black feminist group, Combahee River Collective, began meeting. As they write in their statement, which is unanimously recognized as an ur-text of radical feminist politics: “We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements.” Taking the work of Combahee as a point of departure, we take the occasion to meditate on “feminist collective/s” as an organizing force, a practice, and concept that is just as urgent in the 21st century as it has been in the history. Whether it reference a group acting together to achieve a goal, a gathering of people to be in community, or the power of collective organizing the idea of the “collective/s” is essential to feminist praxis. Our speakers will ruminate of the collective/s in various forms and from multiple perspectives. 

Panelists:

• Demita Frazier, Public Intellectual & Unrepentant Radical Black Feminist

  Demita Frazier, JD, has more than 40 years’ experience as a radical thought leader, educator, organizer and activist, as a Black feminist theorist and community builder. She is a co-founder of the Black radical feminist Combahee River Collective, and a co-author of the Combahee River Collective Statement, considered a ground-breaking Black feminist treatise that introduced the innovative analytical concept of intersectionality and has, since its publication in 1977, laid the foundation for the emergence and development of global Black feminist movements. She is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, and has subsequently worked as a lecturer and educator on issues of cultural competence in the professional spheres of law, medicine, environmental advocacy, and other fields. Frazier has lectured widely on Black intersectional feminism, in numerous settings, nationally and internationally.

  Her interest in mentoring and coaching Black women and girls evolved from her experiences as a young working class Black woman given the opportunities to assume leadership roles in a number of community based organizations, notably in the non-profit organizations she served. The lack of mentoring, and the challenging and frustrating encounters with structural racism and misogyny inspired her to apply her analytical and organizing skills to the project of essentially creating a mentoring model based on a Black feminist ideas of mutual aid, empowerment and the centrality of the role of Black women as community leaders.

  Frazier began developing her mentoring and coaching models in earnest in the 1990s, while working for numerous woman-owned and led diversity consulting groups in the greater Boston area. Studying organizational development and systems analysis while working with clients exploring the burgeoning diversity, equity and inclusion programs, in both for- and non-profit spheres, gave her ample opportunity to collaborate with clients who saw the value of mentoring as they attempted to diversify their organizations. Ultimately she began designing innovative coaching models based explicitly on Black feminist precepts aligned with approaches coming out of political cross-cultural organizing groups. In relational collaboration with her clients, she created a model that is practical, open sourced and constantly evolving to meet the varied needs of Black women in the diaspora. Her work has been recognized by the clients she served as innovative and affirming in ways that supported their growth, leadership and whole persons.

• Pascale Solages, Co-founder and General Coordinator, NÈGÈS MAWON

  Lucia D. Pascale SOLAGES is a grassroots feminist organizer passionate about improving the lives of Haitian Women and Girls. With over 10 years of experience, Pascale’s advocacy work exists at the intersections of feminist movement building, reproductive justice, end of violence against women, effective participation of Women in Public Affairs and globally promoting a feminist society. She is experienced in developing projects and programs for changing conditions of lives of Women, documenting women’s experiences, design thinking, project building and management with special expertise in Gender and Development. 

  She is a founding member and general coordinator of the feminist organization NÈGÈS MAWON - one of Haiti's most active feminist organizations fighting for the rights of women and girls. 

  In addition, she is a human rights advocate and embraces all progressive social justice and human rights issues in Haiti, such as LGBT rights, abortion rights, good governance, etc. She co-founded in 2018, the collective of committed citizens NOU PAP DÒMI for social justice, against corruption and impunity from the mobilization movement against corruption "PETROCARIBECHALLENGE" in Haiti.  She works now for a non-profit organization in New York, where she engages, provide community-based support and linkage to Haitian migrants. 

  In Haiti, she was a consultant for UNFPA, PLAN INTERNATIONAL, WORLD VISION and many other institutions. She was a member of the cabinet of two Minister of Women's Affairs and Women's Rights in Haiti. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of the TOYA Foundation, a women's organization of which she is a member since 2009. She represented the women's sector for two years in the Multisectoral Coordination Committee of the Global Fund in Haiti for HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. 

  She is Multi Award winning Feminist Organizer. Her last award was from The Haitian Women Collective in New York in 2022. She is a former candidate in the municipal elections of Port-au-Prince in 2015. She has a finance degree from Quisqueya University, a diploma in gender and development obtained in Belgium. She also has a certificate in human rights education obtained in Canada. Now, she is doing a master's degree in Gender Studies in NY. 

  She’s passionate about politics and advancing a vision of Haitian feminism through advocacy at all levels, from the interpersonal to the global. She is passionately driven by the need to protect human rights for those currently marginalized.

• Courtney Thorsson, Associate Professor, University of Oregon

  Courtney Thorsson is an associate professor at the University of Oregon, where she teaches, studies, and writes about African American literature. Her first book Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women's Novels argues that Toni Cade Bambara, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison reclaim and revise cultural nationalism in their novels of the 1980s and 90s. Her writing has appeared in publications including Callaloo; African American Review; MELUS; Gastronomica; Contemporary Literature; Legacy; and Public Books. Her new book, The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture tells the story of how a remarkable community of Black women writers and intellectuals transformed political, literary, and academic cultures. She is the recipient of a Public Scholars Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of The Sisterhood.

Moderated by Régine Jean-Charles of Northeastern University