Manju Rajendran
Manju Rajendran is a facilitator, trainer, conflict transformation practitioner, and organizer with 27 years of local, state, regional, and national-level experience. Her work is grounded in popular education pedagogy and healing justice. Manju is a trainer with Ready the Ground Training Team, member of Sanctuary Beyond Walls, and member of Durham Beyond Policing Coalition. Manju is a queer, working class, South Asian, immigrant woman who grew up in North Carolina. She hopes her facilitation work can support participants in planting seeds for strong and joyful futures.
Presentations from Facing Race 2020
Abolitionist Change Strategy Lab with Durham Beyond Policing Coalition
In 'Abolitionist Change Strategy Lab' we will share stories about powerful experiments in pushing back on policing, jails, prisons, and the ways criminalization and incarceration are hurting our communities while we build the world we need.
Durham Beyond Policing is a grassroots coalition to divest from policing and prisons and reinvest municipal resources into supporting the health and wellbeing of Black & Brown communities, benefiting all community members. In 2019 we organized Durham residents to keep our Southern city from hiring 72 new police officers and invested those resources instead in eviction diversion and living wages for city workers. We'll share the story of our ongoing abolitionist organizing efforts as a case study to explore together.
This workshop will unpack the concept of abolitionist change and will feature stories from multiple sites across the United States. We'll invite candid conversation among presenters and participants about the contradictions, challenges, and complexities we are navigating. Bring your stories! We'll share what's inspiring us and keeping us united even when the work is tiring or heartbreaking.
Speakers: Manju Rajendran, Danielle PurifoyPresentations from Facing Race 2016
Multiply and Mobilize: Narratives of Resisting Divide and Conquer Tactics in Multiracial Work
The act of dividing potential allies and communities who could come together to rise up is one of the oldest and most infuriatingly effective tricks in the book. Too often anti-racist movements have splintered as a result of not being prepared to counter such moves. A key tool for countering such tactics is learning from the stories of how previous organizations and coalitions have avoided the pitfalls of divide and conquer.
In this workshop, movement activists and elders will join us to tell the stories of historic (and current) moments of successful resistance to efforts to divide our movements for social justice. Through telling stories of multiracial movement building for systemic solutions in North Carolina, New Orleans, and other Southern struggles, will lift up lessons, tools, and strategies we can use as activists, organizers, and community members to collectively combat divide and conquer tactics and to increase our capacity to grow strong and unified movements for collective liberation.
Speakers: Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Manju Rajendran