Help Ridgecrest residents stay in their homes!
Help Ridgecrest residents stay in their homes!
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DC has a homelessness crisis and the whole country knows it. Bowser alleged that there were only 221 homeless people in DC after completing several raids of encampments across the city. Housing organizers and community advocates have different ideas about how to address these issues. This video shares some thoughts from those impacted.
upcoming events
The PLWG seeks to protect public property throughout the District of Columbia. We want to end DC's sordid track record of privatizing public land & public air rights for speculative profit extraction. Following on, we want to pursue Social Housing for any public land scheduled for residential redevelopment.
Learn about the ongoing movement led by Black women fighting for the right to live, gather, and belong in Washington, DC.
Deepen your knowledge of the long and ongoing struggle for safe, decent, and affordable housing in the nation’s capital and the central leadership of Black working-class women, like Linda Leaks, in the movement.
Known locally as the "Godmother of DC Housing Cooperatives," Linda Leaks serves as an important theoretical and political figure. This teach-in will extend access to this critical history at a moment when it has great value, as the nation’s capital continues to be one of the most rapidly gentrifying cities in the United States.
At this teach-in, join humanities scholars, activists and organizers, and DC area educators and more and engage in three learning experiences—a moderated roundtable, small group discussions, and a collective share back session designed to amplify this vital movement.
Metro DC DSA and the Congressional Progressive Staff Association are teaming up for an Election Night Watch Party to remember!
Join us as we watch the results roll in with, drinks, music, and exciting speakers coming soon! Come celebrate a new wave of progressive federal, state, and local electeds up and down the ballot.
Save the date so you can help us to cheer for the wins, commiserate over the losses, and leave with a few more comrades for the fight ahead. Bring a friend or colleague; all are welcome! From NYC to LA, let’s usher in the only kind of Red Wave a good leftist can get behind.
📅 Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2026
📍 Time, Location: To be announced
📋 Attendees: Open to CPSA members, Metro DC DSA members, and friends — RSVP required!
On November 5, DC Council will hear testimony on three crucial bills that provide safety and accountability during this dangerous and deadly occupation:
The Body-Worn Camera bill requires MPD to release their body cam footage if a federal officer uses force in front of them.
The Full Accountability in Arrest Reporting bill (FAAR) requires MPD to list federal officers and agencies present in arrest reports and affidavits.
The Safe Places bill prohibits MPD from assisting with federal operations in schools, churches, and other "safe places", barring emergencies.
We have seen federal agents violate rights, shoot at residents, and terrify students and other community members, all while hiding behind a smokescreen of ever-shifting "partnership" with MPD. Council must pass these laws, in their strongest possible form, and remind everyone that MPD works for us, not them.
We are excited to host you at this year's Curtain's Up: An Evening With Ally Theatre & Voices Unbarred! Come prepared to eat, create, give, and be in community.
This intimate evening is our opportunity to celebrate you, the community of supporters who make our work possible, and to share what your generosity has helped us build and sustain over the past year.
Join us for an evening of:
Powerful performances from our Community Advocates;
Lived experiences and reflections from members of our Voices Unbarred community;
A taste of the work itself, with interactive games and exercises that invite you to get up, participate, and experience our programming firsthand;
Good food, conversation, and connection with the people who make this work possible; and
Opportunities to give back, including our silent auction and other ways to support Ally & Voices as we look toward the year ahead.
Mothers Outreach Network will host the Mother Up National Convening on November 5–6, 2026, in Baltimore, Maryland, in partnership with the University of Baltimore School of Law's Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC). I am honored to announce that Professor Dorothy Roberts will deliver the keynote address — a special opportunity to hear directly from the scholar who has defined the legal and constitutional critique of family policing.
Learn more about Professor Roberts: https://www.dorothyeroberts.com
This convening brings together researchers, advocates, funders, and mothers with lived experience, offering the Mother Up Pilot's methodology as a model others can build on and help spread. The pilot itself is the first known guaranteed income research pilot studying the impact of cash on child welfare system involvement, with independent research conducted by the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School. Its concept was published in 2022, in the article "Building a Guaranteed Income to end the 'Child Welfare' System." At its core, this work is about transforming family policing — the harmful, coercive, and unconstitutional policing of families — into systems of care that keep families whole. This convening also marks the launch of an ongoing group that will continue this work together beyond the event itself.
This social is open to all Black folks in DC. Come meet someone new, chat about how we are strategizing around the elections, and learn how you can be part of our organizing.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change deliver a day of online conversation, curriculum highlights, workshops, and idea exchange — preceded by a short keynote presentation. Participants will have the chance to attend two rounds of workshops and engage with each other virtually via Zoom. Registration coming soon!
For more information about Initiative 83 and the effort to bring Ranked Choice Voting to DC check out Grow Democracy DC. They also have a video presentation Ranked Choice Voting Training with Grow Democracy DC along with slides in English and Spanish
Below is a list of webinars hosted by the DC Board of Elections to explain how Ranked Choice Voting works. You can find them at https://dcboe.org/rcv
Below is a list of videos to help explain Ranked Choice Voting
HAPPY SPRING! We are pleased to announce the launch of a new podcast by the Grassroots DC team: Yet To Be Determined [YTBD]
Every episode of Yet To Be Determined Podcast starts with a question. Chances are the question will relate to the District of Columbia, not so much the Federal City but the DC that long-time residents know, love and are challenged by. The cost of housing is insane. Despite paying more taxes than at least 12 states, we have no say in how that money is spent. Congress on the other hand gets to decide what local laws we get to enact. And our mayor and city council too often go along with their wishes rather than pushing back.
Given the limited control we have over our own affairs, what kind of future can we expect for the District of Columbia? Local organizers, advocates and nonprofit leaders will be featured on the podcast to help us answer that question. Together we’ll explore possible futures for the city and its residents. Solutions will be suggested. Calls to action will be made. The future we want to build depends on how involved DC residents become. and as such it’s Yet To Be Determined.
The Grassroots DC team put together a zine summary of our media literacy workshop. We hope this content will spark conversations about how we gather information and decided what we believe and what we doubt.
Learn How To Use The Media Before It Uses You at our Media Literacy workshop!
In this workshop we will:
Unpack the ways local news is created
Learn to how to make mainstream media work for you
Deconstruct the way the local news reports on issues that affect our community
Understand when and why the news gets it wrong
Learn how to convince local news producers to pay attention to issues they normally ignore and include perspectives that they usually omit
Let’s face it. DC is becoming more and more dystopian by the minute. Just like the frog in the pot of water that’s slowly coming to a boil, we District of Columbia residents are likely to get used to it. In truth, the water’s been simmering for a long time, well before Trump took control of the stovetop. Things are getting hotter though. The question is will we survive or get out of the pot in the nick of time?
Dystopia: A society where life is miserable, oppressive and dehumanizing. Characteristics include a suppression of dissent, constant surveillance, arbitrary arrests and detention, environmental collapse, extreme inequality, etc.
Dystopias persist not only because we don’t realize we’re in them—’that’s happening to them, not to me’—but also because they’re not bad for everyone. For a small few, dystopia is the foundation for their own personal utopias. Those who benefit, even if only temporarily, will do whatever is necessary to keep them going. Those not oblivious to the suffering, who also have enough time and resources, may choose to fight as allies alongside those clearly targeted by the regime in power. Most will find ways to physically and/or emotionally insulate themselves. Some will simply relocate to happier climates.
So where does that leave the rest of us—the targeted, the soon to be targeted, the complicit? In 1971, the revolutionary George Jackson made this strongly worded suggestion:
“Settle your quarrels. Understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if we fail to act.”
We’ve been dying and living poor butchered half lives for generations. Sometimes it’s more of us, sometimes it’s less.
What’s true for everyone is the need for security, shared resources, and the ability to cooperate on complex problems. This is why societies come together. Here on Turtle Island, most commonly known as the United States, we humans formed a representative democracy as the basis of our society. We rely on elected officials to create and enforce laws that respect our rights and dignity, to use our tax dollars to meet our collective needs, and to achieve things that we couldn’t possibly achieve as individuals.
Once more for the folks in the back: Congress’ Plan to Defund DC by $1 Billion Is Not Yet a Done Deal!
The Congress has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. [If you were raised in the District of Columbia, you will have learned this in your DC History class.] It means that we have a shadow senator and two shadow “representatives” of the House but neither of them have the right to vote in either congressional body. In essence, DC residents have no federal representation. Despite this, we pay plenty of federal taxes.
Even if you learned your American History outside of the District, you probably remember that “no taxation without representation” was a key rallying cry during the lead-up to the American Revolution. Back then, folks willing to fight a tyrannical regime thought it was unjust to impose taxes on citizens without giving them a voice in the legislative body that determines how taxes would be levied. It’s still unjust.
It’s been some time since many of us had any kind of history class [decades for me]. I don’t know why the US Constitution was set up to screw over the citizens of the capital city but that’s where we are and have been since the nation’s founding. But let’s not digress.
Because Congress has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, the argument can be made that every DC resident is a constituent of every senator and representative that does have a vote. It is perfectly legitimate for each and every DC resident to go to the congressional office buildings, knock on the doors of the elected officials there and say, “I didn’t vote for you. You do not represent me. You have no right to tell DC’s city council and mayor—the people who do represent me—how to spend the taxes that I pay to the District of Columbia.”
On the other hand, we may not be prepared to do a repeat of the Revolutionary War. A more strategic option might be to ask them to pass the DC Local Funds Act. Below is a plan of attack put together by Free DC. We can get some control over our tax dollars without firing a single musket.
https://freedcproject.org/news/encourage-representatives-to-pass-the-dc-local-funds-act
Throughout the last year the city saw several initiatives to improve the state of education in the city. We’ve collected some highlights from mainstream news sources to see what they were talking about. Local parents with children enrolled in DCPS are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on attendance and educational grade level standards. Amid lowering crime rates across the city people still seem to be concerned about crime. What questions do you have about education in Washington DC? Tell us here and we’ll investigate for you!
Important before. Important now.
We at Grassroots DC reaffirm our commitment to community power through grassroots storytelling.
In the face of the changes soon to come, we will utilize our First Amendment rights to uplift stories that need telling, stories that need to be heard, and actions that need to be taken.
Standing up to tyranny is a choice you make everyday, regardless of who's in office. Together we can be the solution and work toward what is best for our community and therefore ourselves.
At the end of the day, we keep us safe.
The Bronx-born actress has made a home here in the District, just over the Anacostia, and has established herself as one of the region’s more prolific performers. Just in the last year alone you could find her in Signature’s Passing Strange, Private Jones, and most recently Hair — first in the ensemble, but finishing out in the role of Sheila. But Signature isn’t her only turf, of course: she was recently seen in Mosaic’s workshop of Postmortem, and later this year she’ll be playing Anna in a massive staging of Disney’s Frozen at Olney Theatre Center, in one of the very first productions outside of Broadway.
While her talent and range are the drivers behind these roles, there’s something else that seems to get her in the audition room that’s less eager: her skin color. Or rather, the fairness of it which creates an “exotic” ambiguity that casting directors seem to prefer. Recently she posted some thoughts about the matter to her social media story. I’ve had similar experiences in my own life, so I took some time to chat with Alex about her experiences as a mixed person in theater spaces. There is an ever-growing desire to tell diverse stories, but not always the talent pool with the lived experience to do so.
(Alex uses she/her pronouns and spells her last name with a capital D in De Bard.)
This interview was conducted with the support of Grassroots DC, an East of the River-based media organization who specializes in bringing the power of the press to marginalized groups. You can support their cause by donating here.
A series of important events affecting our communities
Representation for Ward 8 residents is under attack. As you may have heard, Councilmember Trayon White (D, Ward 8) was arrested on a criminal complaint of bribery on August 18th. The claim alleges that White accepted payments in exchange for the extension of contracts with the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE). The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the FBI, the D.C. Office of the Inspector General, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Washington Field Office.
Not unlike many other council members who have been involved in scandals and/or criminally charged, Trayon White is not perfect. The violence interruption programs that he supports are being credited for reducing crime and violence in Ward 8. If fully supported, they could transform policing to one that is more community-based. An increase in the number of violence interrupters may also result in a decrease in the need for the current number of patrol officers in the areas, something that the Office of the DC Auditor’s MPD audit suggests is needed. Trayon White’s involvement in a potential bribery case could jeopardize those programs. What's more consequential, is that the case could leave Ward 8 without DC council representation, in a city filled with residents who are not given equal representation in congress.
On Monday, September 9th at 7pm many residents of Ward 8 and the city at-large signed into a virtual community town hall hosted by Harriet’s Wildest Dreams (HWD) titled “What’s at Stake for Ward 8”. The meeting was facilitated by HWD’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, NeeNee Taylor and HWD Policy Organizer, Jillian Burford. Who, after grounding the meeting in the organization's principles, gave the virtual floor to Councilmember Robert White (D, At-large) to go over what will and may happen next in regards to Trayon White’s seat on the DC Council and several committees.
...
Many mainstream media outlets are reporting as though Trayon is sure to be found guilty but during the community town hall many called for reminders that we are all innocent until proven guilty in this country. As an elected official, he continues to represent Ward 8 until voters decide otherwise. Federal charges don't change that immediately, and with an upcoming election, we'll soon find out who Ward 8 residents choose to represent them.
Upcoming events
The PLWG seeks to protect public property throughout the District of Columbia. We want to end DC's sordid track record of privatizing public land & public air rights for speculative profit extraction. Following on, we want to pursue Social Housing for any public land scheduled for residential redevelopment.
Learn about the ongoing movement led by Black women fighting for the right to live, gather, and belong in Washington, DC.
Deepen your knowledge of the long and ongoing struggle for safe, decent, and affordable housing in the nation’s capital and the central leadership of Black working-class women, like Linda Leaks, in the movement.
Known locally as the "Godmother of DC Housing Cooperatives," Linda Leaks serves as an important theoretical and political figure. This teach-in will extend access to this critical history at a moment when it has great value, as the nation’s capital continues to be one of the most rapidly gentrifying cities in the United States.
At this teach-in, join humanities scholars, activists and organizers, and DC area educators and more and engage in three learning experiences—a moderated roundtable, small group discussions, and a collective share back session designed to amplify this vital movement.
Metro DC DSA and the Congressional Progressive Staff Association are teaming up for an Election Night Watch Party to remember!
Join us as we watch the results roll in with, drinks, music, and exciting speakers coming soon! Come celebrate a new wave of progressive federal, state, and local electeds up and down the ballot.
Save the date so you can help us to cheer for the wins, commiserate over the losses, and leave with a few more comrades for the fight ahead. Bring a friend or colleague; all are welcome! From NYC to LA, let’s usher in the only kind of Red Wave a good leftist can get behind.
📅 Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2026
📍 Time, Location: To be announced
📋 Attendees: Open to CPSA members, Metro DC DSA members, and friends — RSVP required!
On November 5, DC Council will hear testimony on three crucial bills that provide safety and accountability during this dangerous and deadly occupation:
The Body-Worn Camera bill requires MPD to release their body cam footage if a federal officer uses force in front of them.
The Full Accountability in Arrest Reporting bill (FAAR) requires MPD to list federal officers and agencies present in arrest reports and affidavits.
The Safe Places bill prohibits MPD from assisting with federal operations in schools, churches, and other "safe places", barring emergencies.
We have seen federal agents violate rights, shoot at residents, and terrify students and other community members, all while hiding behind a smokescreen of ever-shifting "partnership" with MPD. Council must pass these laws, in their strongest possible form, and remind everyone that MPD works for us, not them.
We are excited to host you at this year's Curtain's Up: An Evening With Ally Theatre & Voices Unbarred! Come prepared to eat, create, give, and be in community.
This intimate evening is our opportunity to celebrate you, the community of supporters who make our work possible, and to share what your generosity has helped us build and sustain over the past year.
Join us for an evening of:
Powerful performances from our Community Advocates;
Lived experiences and reflections from members of our Voices Unbarred community;
A taste of the work itself, with interactive games and exercises that invite you to get up, participate, and experience our programming firsthand;
Good food, conversation, and connection with the people who make this work possible; and
Opportunities to give back, including our silent auction and other ways to support Ally & Voices as we look toward the year ahead.
Mothers Outreach Network will host the Mother Up National Convening on November 5–6, 2026, in Baltimore, Maryland, in partnership with the University of Baltimore School of Law's Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC). I am honored to announce that Professor Dorothy Roberts will deliver the keynote address — a special opportunity to hear directly from the scholar who has defined the legal and constitutional critique of family policing.
Learn more about Professor Roberts: https://www.dorothyeroberts.com
This convening brings together researchers, advocates, funders, and mothers with lived experience, offering the Mother Up Pilot's methodology as a model others can build on and help spread. The pilot itself is the first known guaranteed income research pilot studying the impact of cash on child welfare system involvement, with independent research conducted by the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School. Its concept was published in 2022, in the article "Building a Guaranteed Income to end the 'Child Welfare' System." At its core, this work is about transforming family policing — the harmful, coercive, and unconstitutional policing of families — into systems of care that keep families whole. This convening also marks the launch of an ongoing group that will continue this work together beyond the event itself.
This social is open to all Black folks in DC. Come meet someone new, chat about how we are strategizing around the elections, and learn how you can be part of our organizing.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change deliver a day of online conversation, curriculum highlights, workshops, and idea exchange — preceded by a short keynote presentation. Participants will have the chance to attend two rounds of workshops and engage with each other virtually via Zoom. Registration coming soon!
As the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) celebrates 25 years of advancing racial and economic justice, we’re using this milestone to look beyond the immediate political landscape and think boldly about what comes next.
The Monday after Election Day, we’ll gather to discuss the imperative of a Third Reconstruction —a new era of transformative change in our democracy, economy, and public institutions—and what it will take to advance that change. We’ll discuss DC’s specific role in catalyzing a new wave of political rights nationally and the next wave of transformative economic rights locally.
Join us for this critical conversation about what’s possible—and what it will take to build the future we deserve.
Join us for a snapshot of the work Harriet’s Wildest Dreams is engaged in. Our liberation is tied to one another, and we need each other to do this work to protect our people — Black people, formerly incarcerated folks, queer and trans communities, and all those at risk of state-sanctioned violence.
Being in the nation's capital, we are at the center of the empire and also a target for far-right extremists. DC is NO ONE’S playground, and we must remain vigilant in our fight for statehood, our fight against mass incarceration, and the fight for gender liberation and bodily autonomy for all.
If you and your friends are interested in building a better world, free from patriarchal violence, a world where queerness is in, then you've come to the right place! Come sit with us as we re-imagine what this world can be and reclaim safety for all of DC.
👉🏽 This month's info session will feature a mini political education session.
Explore new ways to teach the Civil Rights Movement by centering the people who made it possible, especially young people, women, and community organizers. Through lessons, poetry, film clips, primary sources, and classroom-ready activities, participants will examine the struggle for voting rights and its connections to contemporary voter suppression. Designed for K-12 social studies and language arts educators, this interactive workshop includes free teaching materials. Participants will leave with classroom-ready lessons, resources, and strategies they can bring into their teaching.
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For more information about Initiative 83 and the effort to bring Ranked Choice Voting to DC check out Grow Democracy DC. They also have a video presentation Ranked Choice Voting Training with Grow Democracy DC along with slides in English and Spanish
Below is a list of webinars hosted by the DC Board of Elections to explain how Ranked Choice Voting works. You can find them at https://dcboe.org/rcv
Below is a list of videos to help explain Ranked Choice Voting
Ranked Choice Voting in the District of Columbia
What is Rank Choice Voting? DC Board of Elections
What is Ranked Choice Voting?
How Ranked Choice Voting Works in DC
Ranked Choice Voting: Here’s What You Need to Know
Ranked Choice Voting Explained — with Cute Pets
Ranked-Choice Voting Explained w/Spanish subtitles