About Our Work & How to Join
In a city torn by inequality, ravaged by segregation, and enforced by racist carceral systems, we declare our time has come.
We are the generation that resists, united by our unyielding belief in justice, Black life, and the indomitable spirit of liberation for all people.
The Kansas City Defender is first and foremost, a Black-led, Abolitionist organization. When we refer to “abolition,” we mean a world free from imprisonment, policing, and warfare, replaced by essential, life-affirming resources like food, housing, healthcare, arts, and education. Abolition is our vision and our practical organizing strategy. Therefore, we are not just a news outlet, we are a radical, Black-led power-building organization.
Our members are Black students, organizers, artists, educators, community members, elders, and more.
Where to Plug In: Our 3 Committees
Mutual Aid
- Free Clothing Program: Challenging violent systems that neglect our needs, we redistribute essential resources to our community members including; new and lightly used clothes. We have various bins at Black businesses and organizations throughout the city, which we accept donations, then redistribute them to Black organizations and individuals.
- Grocery Buyout Program: Directly confronting food scarcity with community-powered support – we utilize our platform to crowdsource funds, then pull them out in cash and distribute cash directly to Black people while they are shopping at grocery stores in Black neighborhoods.
Our initiatives are direct confrontations against capitalist exploitation, embodying our revolutionary values by assisting the material conditions of our people. Through these actions, we not only address the material conditions of our people, but also grow the foundations for power-building, and growing in relationship with our community.
Arts & Culture
Our Arts & Culture committee is foundational to our mission, embodying the belief that Black joy, creativity, and cultural expression are revolutionary acts.
- Through Young Black Writers Socials, Black Creative Workshops, Open Mic Nights, and Hip Hop Concerts, we affirm that culture is a battleground for liberation.
- We hold our cultural initiatives with the same gravity as our political work, understanding that the celebration of Black joy and creativity is vital to the health and resilience of our communities.
Political Education
We believe that political education is the bedrock of transformative, radical, and revolutionary change.
- Our political education is not centered around electoral politics and voting; it is, instead about understanding and actively dismantling the systems and structures that uphold race, class, and gendered oppression.
We delve into lessons from past and present revolutionary movements such as the Black Panther Party, Combahee River Collective, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, applying their insights to our modern context.
We also embrace the concept of Black Radical Imagination & Future People.
- This perspective allows us to imagine beyond our immediate conditions, exploring speculative realms where imagination fuels radical action.
