Desiree Evans

Interim Executive Director | Women With A Vision, Inc.

For more than eighteen years, Desiree Evans has worked for domestic and international advocacy organizations as a policy advocate and activist. Much of Desiree’s organizing work has centered around movements for racial, economic, and gender justice. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. and a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York, NY. Hailing from southwest Louisiana, Desiree is currently the Interim Executive Director at Women With A Vision, Inc. in New Orleans, La.

Presentations from Facing Race 2016

My Existence is Political: Black Feminist Freedom Dreams in the Incarceration Capital of the World

This session asks participants to go into the intersection of race, geography, gender, and incarceration to explore the unique ways it impacts our communities. This interactive session will allow attendees to reflect upon the centrality of the penal state in producing/enforcing structures of gender, reproductive, and sexual injustice, as well as explore and build upon the strategies that formerly-incarcerated cis and trans* women are using to change policy, decarcerate their communities, and pave the way for others coming home. Session is hosted by the staff and volunteers of Women With A Vision, Inc. (WWAV), New Orleans’ only Queer, Black-women-led organization doing grassroots and policy level work at this intersection. Through our work, WWAV argues that “my existence is political,” using public health, human rights, and Black feminist frameworks, alongside the liberation histories of the Deep South, to craft new visions for change.

Speakers: Desiree Evans, Mwende Katwiwa