Toni-Michelle Williams
Toni-Michelle Williams, Executive Director [full-time] Toni-Michelle (she/her) is an Atlanta-Based artist, embodied leadership/somatics coach. She is a celebrated community organizer in prison abolition/criminal (IN)justice reform issues and leadership development for Black transgender, LGBQ people, sex workers, people living with HIV (PLHIV), and Black youth. She has co- led city wide campaigns that have incubated the Atlanta Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, cannabis reform, sex worker protections, closing down the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC), and police accountability for the families of Alexia Christian, Scout Schultz, DeAundre Phillips, Tee Tee Dangerfield and Rayshard Brooks.
Presentations from Facing Race 2022
Restorative Justice for our Movement
“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?… Just so’s you're sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed, cause wholeness is no trifling matter. A lot of weight when you’re well.”― Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters. What do just liberating practices of healing look like? What are the curiosities as well as the contradictions we bring to this question? Can we foster the psychological safety of having these conversations honestly and foster collective healing? Moments in our history of struggle have given us an inkling of what might be needed as well as the danger to our community if we do not answer these questions. Join us as we work together to explore what is needed today as well as for future generations.
Moderator(s): Everette R. H. Thompson-François Speakers: Ashley Thomas, Toni-Michelle Williams, Sendolo Diaminah