Ekundayo Igeleke
Ekundayo Igeleke (he/him/his) is RG's Chapter Organizing Director. Additionally Ekundayo is a Hip Hop educator and a lead organizer with the People’s Justice Project focusing on leadership development and the decriminalization of working class people of color. In 2013, he organized his first Freedom School site to address the needs of an entire community by using education as a tool for liberation. In 2014, Ekundayo became a member of the National Juvenile Justice Network through the Youth Justice Leadership program where he co-launched a Freedom School program inside of three youth correctional facilities in Ohio from 2014-2016 to decrease the reentry rate and empower system involved youth. Ekundayo‘s work over the past 6 years has primarily focused on implementing prevention, intervention and restorative practices in schools, after-school programs, and in communities of color with the Arts and Hip Hop as the foundational pedagogy. He combines organizing, curriculum development, youth and young adult leadership development, and public policy as tools to liberate the African working class and other communities of color.
When Ekundayo is not in radical action, he watches anime, hits the gym, spends time with his wife, filling his life with the aesthetics of art (writing, poetry, visual art, dance, etc.) meditation, and trying new afro vegan recipes.
Presentations from Facing Race 2018
Organizing Rich People to Close the Racial Wealth Gap
We are living in a time of historic wealth inequality, and the wealth gap between white and black Americans has more than tripled in the last 50 years. Wealthy people of all racial backgrounds have benefited from the systemic exploitation and theft of land, labor, and lives and have a role to play in returning wealth to where it belongs.
This participatory workshop will connect wealth accumulation with systemic racism, and debunk the bootstrap and meritocracy myths about being rich. Participants will learn how their personal class and money story connects to the history of racialized capitalism, and action steps they can take to help close the racial gap. Resource Generation will share lessons learned from 20 years of organizing a multi-racial wealthy base towards racial and economic justice, and how to bring young wealthy people’s money, time, stories, and long-term commitment to movements.
Headwaters Foundation for Justice will share the nuts and bolts of the Giving Project, a multiracial and cross-class giving circle process that builds relationships and solidarity across class to raise money for movements. This session is open to people from all class backgrounds but is especially relevant to people in the top 10% of net wealth (see https://resourcegeneration.org/2018/01/new-fundraising-policy-and-update...).
Speakers: Iimay Ho, Allison Johnson Heist, Ekundayo Igeleke