Rosa Clemente has been an organizer since the 1990s, working on and studying Black and Brown liberation efforts in the US. Her work has taken her from hip hop centered organizing with youth in Brooklyn as a part of the Malcom X Grassroots Movement to campaigning across the country as a Vice Presidential candidate in 2008 for the Green Party. Through it all, one thing that has always remained, her determination to show up and be her most authentic self.
Bio
Rosa Alicia Clemente is a Black-Puerto Rican woman born and raised in the Bronx, NY. She is an organizer, producer, independent journalist and scholar-activist. Rosa was the first ever Afro-Latina woman to run for Vice-President of the United States in 2008 on the Green Party ticket. She and her running mate, Cynthia McKinney, were to this date the only women of color ticket in American presidential history. She is a frequent guest on television, radio and online media, as her opinions on critical current events are widely sought after. As president of Know Thy Self Productions, she has produced several major community activism tours over the last 20 years. As a co-founder and national coordinator of the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention in 2003, Rosa helped bring together more than 3000 activists to create and implement a national political agenda for the Hip-Hop generation. She also co-founded the REACH Hip-Hop Coalition, a Hip-Hop generation-based media justice organization. You can learn more about her and her work on her website.
Episode Questions
1) How does authenticity show up in your life?
2) Are you a part of any social movements? Do those spaces affirm you and allow you to show up as your whole self?
3) What are ways we can be sure to uplift our community members and comrades?
4) What has been authentic cost you?
5) What do you think you gain by being authentic?
Resources
Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Mai'a Williams, China Martens
Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities by Victoria Law
During our full interview Rosa talked about the Green Party's radical platform, here is a link to it.
Credits
This episode was hosted, edited and produced by me, Shantrice King. Special thank you to the Afro American Cultural Center at Yale and our co-sponsor for this episode, La Casa Cultural de Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center.
Music from the episode is from bensound.com
