#UjimaWednesdays | Winning Power Through Elections | March 19, 2025

Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project

The 2025 Ujima Wednesdays Workshop Series theme: Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project and the programs dedicated to it explore the tension and nuances that power inspires, posing questions about the metaphorical, political, and social dimensions of power. Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project  examines power as a concept with concrete, material consequences. This workshop series is dedicated to exploring the collective power of communities to transform ourselves and the systems that shape our lives. How is power enacted and performed across histories and institutions? Who holds power, and who resists or rejects its use? How do we reclaim, redistribute, or shift power, and is it ever enough? Can power bring us closer to justice, to liberation, to a more equitable society? How do we learn through power? What are we empowering, and by what measures? When does a shift in power lead to true transformation, to revolution? Understanding these types of power —and the pillars of support that sustain existing systems— can help us become weapons of mass construction. 

Event Description:

Join Winning Power Through Elections with Georgia Hollister Isman, Senior Advisor for State and Local Governance & New England Regional Director at the Working Families Party (WFP). Georgia will discuss the power WFP seeks and wins through elections, including governing, narrative, organizing, and coalitional power. The workshop will challenge common myths about elections and share stories of community leaders achieving surprising victories. Participants will explore the organizing strategies needed to ensure elections fulfill their promise of making a difference in people's lives. Plenty of time will be reserved for Q&A, including insights into the early stages of building WFP in Massachusetts.

Facilitator Bio:

Georgia Hollister Isman (she/her) is the New England Regional Director for the Working Families Party where she works with labor, community, and activist leaders to build and execute plans for working people to build power and govern their states. She has advised hundreds of state and local political campaigns across the region. She has led legislative campaigns that win tangible improvements in the lives of working people--including paid sick days and equal pay in Rhode Island. She serves as one of the senior leaders inside the Working Families Party. She works with states across the country to organize Working Families Champions in elected office as the Senior Advisor on State and Local Governance. She lives in Boston with her husband, daughter, and dog.