Liveblogging: Nicole Mason Keynotes

Posted by Deborah Siegel on Mar 21st, 2009

2009

Mar 21

Nicole Mason: “I was the first person in my family to go to high school, and definitely to go to college. About a year and a half later, one hot summer day, I was bored, and decided to volunteer at a local women’s center. That experience changed my life. It was there that I began to have language to help describe my growing up. I decided from that point, with that community, that I was going to be a social justice activist….Today, I’m a social justice researcher with radical roots. I tell this story because there’s something to be said about how we come to the work. It’s our perspective, our standpoint, our point of view.

Artists often create out of nothing. They take a blank canvas, raw materials, and even scraps. They interpret the world, and their interpretation is framed in their lived experiences, values, and beliefs. They draw on their experiences to create something new.

Like the artist, I want the social justice activist to draw on our experiences to create something new. The old is no more, and the new is not yet. We have an opportunity in this historical moment — the times are urgent — to create something new. The economic crisis has had a devastating effect on women and children….The socioeconomic cleavages between groups continue to deepen.

The problems are not new. But figuring out how we work across our differences is key. It’s about making my issues your issues.Â And the time is now.

In college, I had a zine called Give a Sister a Lift (some name I got from Berkeley, lol), and in every issue I included this quote: ‘Whether one chooses to label oneself a nationalist, a democrat, etc, the real test is whether one is dedicated to the liberation of all peoples, on all levels.’”

(Applause applause)