It is now the last week of our internship and we are looking at all we have accomplished in the past two months. From voter registration drives and tabling at various events, to speaking engagements and meeting with our elected officials, it has all been such a learning experience. I have definitely learned a lot [...]
The end of Democracy Summer also marks the beginning of our work. We return to our lives and respective campuses equipped with tools for organizing. There is no slowing down here in the triad only the shifting of gears. As meetings, events, tabling, and one-on-one’s count down the end this phase, pre-filled calendars in months [...]
We’re closing out our last full week as Democracy Summer interns this week. On the road a lot, recently -- Kinston twice (last Thursday and this Tuesday), Goldsboro once, Greenville once. In Goldsboro last Thursday, we met Mayor Alfonzo King and a got a brief overview of city politics. Though unfortunately we were never able [...]
Greetings all. My efforts to raise voter turnout all across the southeastern region have been dynamic, creative, and borderline exhaustive. I've done my share of speaking at engagements and canvasing the general public as they go about their day to day lives. Well, Tuesday was when the rubber met the road: Election Day. I guess [...]
As we have reached the home stretch of our Democracy Summer experience, there lingers this sense of “sadness” amidst the enthusiasm and excitement of each day. Now, I placed quotes around sadness because that doesn’t necessarily describe the mood in the air, but it was the closest way to describe the daily joy felt with [...]
This week has been a continuation of some of the work that we had envisioned ourselves doing in the beginning: ending corporate personhood, organizing in colleges, and increasing voter engagement. We had our first kick-off event for our “We the People” Truth Tour titled “The Art of Democracy”, an event at central plaza downtown. Along [...]
This week has started off with our regular routine of Phone Banking, but this time we were focusing on a different issue: Getting People out to Vote in the runoff election!!!! Our team focused on Henderson County. We made a number of phone calls to inform citizens about the upcoming election on July 17, 2012 [...]
Our July 4th event will probably go down as one of the highlights of my summer. Offering a space where members of the community could share their voices and express themselves proved extremely powerful and productive. Art has the capacity to go so far beyond entertainment purposes—it is a tool, an asset to the movement [...]
Busy week of travel but interspersed with a couple days off, at least for those of us on the Greenville team. Killian and I made an unaccompanied trip out to Greenville this Saturday so as to give Jake some much-needed rest. Given the stultifying heat outside, we thought our luck was pretty good -- registering [...]
Why oh why North Carolina? Why do you send me on this roller coaster of success and disappointment? What is the root of the oppressive conservatism we witnessed in recent days? Why do elected officials across the state and on both sides of the isle seem to simultaneously laud and laugh at the democratic process? [...]