Facing Race: A National Conference in St. Louis, MO — November 20-22, 2024

Tanasia Newman

Tanasia Newman is the Senior Communications Manager at Essie Justice Group, the nation’s leading advocacy organization of women with incarcerated loved ones. At Essie Justice Group, Tanasia develops and drives communications strategies that center the leadership and power potential of the 1 in 4 women with incarcerated loved ones, rooted in Essie’s Black feminist, abolitionist politic. Tanasia serves as an Advisory Council member of the National Bail Out Collective, and is a Black Organizers for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD) graduate.


Presentations from Facing Race 2024

Our Ancestral Strategy: Black Feminist Organizing Tactics Against the Prison Industrial Complex

Isolation is an unseen and under-discussed tool of control used to perpetuate mass incarceration. For the 1 in 2 Black women with an incarcerated loved one, that isolation has widespread political impact.

Learn how Essie Justice Group is using the power of isolation-breaking as part of a Black Feminist organizing model to drive social change. This workshop will bring attendees in on the disproportionate harms of incarceration to Black women, uncover the radical power of connection, and uplift key insights, tactics, and strategies attendees can leverage in movement-building work.

You will hear from Essie Justice Group organizers about how women with incarcerated loved ones are caregivers and the strategic backbones of their families, rooted in lived experience, ancestral strategies, and the leadership development that results from graduating from Essie Justice Group’s Healing to Advocacy Program: advocating for self, advocating for family, and advocating for community.

Speakers: Tanasia Newman, Yemi Belachew