lead to life ARCHIVE | Oakland 2019

Please click below to witness photos, memories, and reflections from our Permaculture Action Day hosted in collaboration with Permaculture Action Network in support of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust & Planting Justice and our public Oakland gun transformation ceremony that closed out the annual march to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy hosted by Anti Police-Terror Project. | Photos by AYŞE GÜRSÖZ.

And read below for reflections on our 2019 Oakland ceremonies and what it means for us to ecologize Dr. King’s legacy.

A Note on Lead to Life’s Jan 2019 Ceremonies & Ecologizing King’s Legacy

During the Jan 2019 memorial weekend to honor the legacy of Dr. King, Lead to Life set out to embody and vision ecologizing King’s legacy. This meant situating his work in the context and lineage of the community who made his work possible (black women, black queer folks, young black students, working class folks, folks of unwavering faith, ancestors, the land, the cosmos…) while also grounding his legacy in environmental justice. We believe there is no racial justice without environmental justice.

We believe memorializing Dr. King’s legacy (a radical instigator and caretaker of love and justice) requires continuing the dream through praxis (theory + embodiment). Dr. King’s commitment to racial justice has still not been realized - especially in Oakland’s current context of indigenous and black displacement, rapid gentrification, a significant houseless POC population, environmental racism, police brutality, food insecurity, and impending climate apartheid.

We set out to not only create spaces for prophetic community to dream together but to actually embody those dreams by accompanying our art praxis & ceremonies with those who are doing the on-the-ground to work to protect and support black and indigenous people’s wellness. Collaborators like Anti Police-Terror Project, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust & Planting Justice are creating healthier lives for our communities in Oakland through advocacy, policywork, organizing, food and land sovereignty, and environmental justice. We are grateful for their embodied & prophetic dreamwork that has made our art practice possible and realized us into being.