Every year, IMPACT Silver Spring hosts a community-wide gathering at which we either lift-up grassroots network-building efforts or shine a light on topics related to equity, justice, and liberation. This year, our annual event will be virtual and focused on a topic we believe is critical in this moment of new awakening, heightened activism, trauma, and fear.

Building a Multi-Racial Movement: Challenges and Promises

Our diverse panel of racial justice activists will discuss the challenges and promises of cross-racial organizing and how they sustain themselves as activists. Panelists: Aaron Goggans, Mary Hart, Shuo “Jim” Huang, Oswaldo Montoya, Michael Solomon, and Tanya Cruz Teller. Moderators: Deepa Iyer and John Landesman.

Register here – https://building_justice.eventbrite.com

Panelist Bios:

Aaron Goggans is writer, organizer and activist living in the DMV. Aaron has over a decade of experience in social movements including being one of the instigators of the D.C Chapter of Black Lives Matter. After organizing with BLM DC for over 5 years, Aaron co-founded a worker-owned collective that helped non-profits manage their anti-racist transformations. Now Aaron is one of the founders of the WildSeed Society which is a spiritual community of people hoping to combine their political, spiritual and social worlds to be better prepared to build the liberated worlds they want.

Mary Hart is a long time Silver Spring resident, a consulting teacher with MCPS, and teaches in the Equity and Excellence in Education certificate and master’s program with McDaniel College. She is also a member of the MORE Network education committee. She is currently developing a process for teacher observers to intentionally observe for, and coach teachers to interrupt, the damaging effects of implicit bias and racism.

Shuo “Jim” Huang has been organizing in the DMV since 2017, is a part of the MORE Network, a founding member of the DMV De-escalation Collective, and was previously on the core team of SURJ MoCo. Jim helped build multi-racial coalitions to push for the Rockville Trust Act and other campaigns around the DMV. His favorite part of the work is building community through sharing skills. In the daytime, Jim is a PhD student where he is a teaching assistant in health policy at UMD and where he is writing a dissertation on mutual aid healthcare.

Oswaldo Montoya (he/him) has a master’s degree in educational psychology. He has been a trainer, curriculum developer, researcher and network builder for more than 20 years. He comes from the tradition of Popular Education, which was developed in Latin America as an instrument for consciousness-raising, community mobilization and social justice. Working with different NGOS in Nicaragua and the US, he´s been involved in pro-feminist men´s activism, anti-racism work and advocacy for children´s rights.

Michael Solomon is a Co-Founder of student advocacy group, MoCo For Change. He is a graduate of Springbrook High School and attends the University of Southern California. Michael’s work focuses on education policy, social justice, and civic engagement.

Tanya Cruz Teller is passionate about systems change and applies her 20+ years of experience in international, organizational, and community development to bring to life her principles of personal transformation, collaborative partnerships, and strengths-based solutions. Her roles in South Africa have included bringing together government, business and civil society in partnerships that create a more equitable society in SA and the region. Tanya has co-authored a book entitled: Thriving Women, Thriving World: An Invitation to Dialogue, Healing and Inspired Actions; and will soon have her work published in the book Inclusive Leadership: Transforming Diverse Lives, Organizations, and Societies.

Moderator Bios:

Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, lawyer, strategist, facilitator, and activist. She is a Senior Advisor at Building Movement Project and director of Solidarity Is, a project that provides trainings, narratives, and resources on building deep and lasting multiracial solidarity and sustainability of social change ecosystems. Iyer served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade, and has held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center. Iyer is also the author of We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future, published by the New Press in 2015. Deepa is a resident of Silver Spring and has been active with Impact Silver Spring’s racial equity program.

John Landesman has more than 20 years of experience developing and organizing dialogue-to-change programs that address the effects of racism and racial barriers. John has developed numerous curriculum guides, organizing manuals, dialogue formats, and facilitator trainings that help many different kinds of organizations develop the relationships and structures necessary for long-term change. John was formerly the director of Community Assistance at Everyday Democracy, a national organization that builds the capacity of organizations to address issues such as systemic racism, police/community relations, and education reform. He was the founding coordinator of the Montgomery County Public Schools Study Circles Program, an initiative that has engaged over 15,000 students, parents, staff, and district leaders, and the founding director of Interfaith Works’ Community Dialogue to End Racism.