The Ray of Hope Walk & My Community
By Penelope Ramirez
My introduction to community organizing work dates back to my youth. As a 16-year-old young person I was a member of several community programs and organizations whose main focus was doing political education through a gender and racial justice lens. It was in those programs that I first learned what patriarchy was, what the four I’s of oppression are, and how to name systemic violence in the form of racism, sexism and classism. These programs gave me the language to better understand the injustices I was seeing in my community, and they also taught me how to mobilize my community and organize against any issue that we wanted to address. Consequently, it wasn’t long before my friends and I started to plan community conferences and action projects against sexual violence and sexism. Although difficult and scary I found a lot of power in doing work with and for my community. Ultimately the power, love and protection I felt when I was organizing with my community changed me. It prompted me to see the world through a political and communal lens and this informed the work that I did, and still do, as a youth worker, a birth worker and a Black feminist.
On October 5th, 2019 I attended The Ray of Hope Walk to End Violence Against Women, in New York. As a walk that takes place in three cities (New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles) The Ray of Hope Walk serves as a grassroots fundraising effort organized by an organization named Omega Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Every two years the organization selects a beneficiary whose work falls under the scope of addressing violence against all women. After the beneficiary is selected the organization works with them for two years and raises funds for them by way of the Ray of Hope Walk. For the past two years the organization has been raising funds for SisterSong, one of the founding organizations of the Reproductive Justice Movement and this year, like years past I was able to witness the power and impact of grassroots fundraising and organizing. It is important to name that I am a member of the organization, and one of my key roles as a member is to guide all organizing efforts for the walk and as someone who oversees all planning efforts for the walk I know first hand that it is a community effort.
Every city has its own organizing committee that is composed of 5-6 members who have been raised in those cities and share a kinship with the local community. Although small, these committees worked with other local organizing groups and community organizations to plan and host events that would serve as fundraising efforts for the beneficiary organization, SisterSong. This method and practice allowed us to ensure that all funds that we raised for SisterSong is coming from the community and not being supported by companies or organizations whose politics and ethics are not aligned with what the community wants or believes in. The major event that every city has is the actual walk.
The walk itself serves as a community event where folks in the neighborhood were able to attend a community concert, participate in activities that outline the history or the reproductive justice movement, connect with organizations that are providing free or low-cost resources, and have learn more about the work that SisteSong is doing in their respective city to support the community. Although the activities in every city change they all follow this similar outline but, what made the walk in NYC so powerful was not this general outline, it was the emotion that was evoked in me when I chanted with other participants and made our presence known in the park and in the community. It was seeing young people share their stories of joy, and their stories of survival through their performances. It was seeing how the committee members were able to mobilize over 400 people, and how they mobilized them under the belief that the lives of Black women/Black mamas/women of color/young women matter so much that they deserve to be poured into and deserve the resources and space that organizations like SisterSong provide. It has been two months now since the Ray of Hope Walk, and as the year is coming to a close and I along other folks are working to finalize all the funds that were raised through this national yet very intimate effort I am still in awe of what this walk is able to do. Furthermore, I am in awe of the work that such small groups of people are able to do simply because we believe that Black women/Black mamas/women of color/young women matter.
As I mentioned earlier my introduction to doing community organizing work started at a young age and for that I am grateful because, had it not been for that early introduction, I would not be who I am today. I would not be the person that is able to tell you how our classroom conversations on abolitionist teachings, collective action, Black and Indigenous resistance, state-sanctioned violence are directly connected to the efforts of The Ray of Hope Walk because it is a walk that is rooted in collective action and community accountability. It is an action that is rooted in the fact that the spaces who we organize for are politically and ethically invested in liberation, abolition and grounded in the needs and wants of the community. Most importantly it is a walk that has created the space for me to continue to invest and pour into my people and the places I call home.
