#UjimaWednesdays | Black Protest Strategy | 11.19.25

Month Description: Tranformation through Direct Action

This November, we explore the long tradition of Black protest and the unfinished work of direct action. From its deep historical roots to the frameworks that guide strategic, intentional planning today, these sessions invite us to study how Black communities have organized, disrupted, and created under constraint—and how we continue to shape freedom struggles in our own time.

Event Description:

This session takes us deeper into the practice of direct action by examining the four core frames that guide its design. Together, we will consider how Black organizers and communities can become more intentional in the choices we make: where we intervene, how we escalate, and what stories our actions tell. The use of the term "strategy" here is not abstracted; it is grounded in clarity of purpose and the discipline of planning.

Led by Epiphany Summers of the Center for Third World Organizing at the BlackOUT Collective, this conversation will move beyond inspiration to the mechanics of effective action. Participants will leave with frameworks to sharpen their approach, and with a shared sense of how strategic direct action strengthens Black freedom struggles across time and place.

Facilitator Bio:

Epiphany Summers, she/her pronouns, is a Philly native and currently lives in Atlanta. She is a scholar, a Black Queer Feminist, an organizer and a music enthusiast. While in graduate school, at George Washington University, she focused her research on Hip Hop music and the interpretations of Black women listeners. Following that she started her career in community organizing with faith based organizing in Florida, which eventually lead her to Dream Defenders. At Dream Defenders Epiphany held the role of Organizing Director where she developed young people of color nationally as leaders and agents of social change for 5 years. Currently the works with the Center for Third World Organizing at BlackOUT Collective as Program Coordinator. There she develops Black direct action practitioners nationally to execute powerful and creative actions.