a constellation of circle keepers

a constellation of circle keepers

a constellation of circle keepers

Interviews conducted by Sierra Parsons and Ricky Reyes.

Images courtesy of Eboni Wyatt.

“WA-BLOC Land, Labor, and Practice Acknowledgement” What was the first thing you did this morning? Wherever we are, we likely woke up on land that remains illegally occupied by settlers. In Seattle, this is the stolen land of the Duwamish and Coast Salish peoples—who are still here and continue to assert their sovereignty. We also live with the enduring legacy of stolen African labor. These First Harms—the theft of Indigenous land and the enslavement of African peoples—continue to shape our lives and systems today.

Take Action Support local movements working to repair these harms: - Donate to Duwamish River Community Coalition - Real Rent Duwamish – Make recurring contributions to sustain Duwamish cultural resurgence - Grow native plants and support land rematriation to the - Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center

Black and Indigenous Intersections We also honor the complex, intertwined histories of Black and Indigenous peoples. Some tribes enslaved African people; others offered refuge, kinship, and belonging. These histories must be held together to tell a fuller truth.

Honoring Lineages of Circle Practice WA-BLOC’s circle practice comes through lineages connected to the EPIC movement and the teachings of the Tagish and Tlingit.

Calling In Our Own Lineages Restorative practice invites us to connect with our personal and ancestral lineages. Whether we know where we come from—or are still searching—it matters that we carry this awareness into the spaces we hold.

Afam Akiya Amber Donaldson Chelsea Gallegos Chevas Gary

Jabali Stewart Jerrell Davis Mariam Bayo Princess Shareef Zion Thomas

“I always knew I was supposed to serve young people, but I always knew that it would be in different capacities. I didn’t know that it would change as much as it has, and I’m grateful for that. But, I knew that was my purpose.”

AMBER DONALDSON

I think that self-work is like the core of a healthy community. And that is one thing that Restorative Practices plays in is it always leads back to you. It’s not about anybody else, it’s about you. And I think a lot of the reason why people have so much pushback against it is because they don’t wanna do their own work.

People are like, “Well, what is Restorative Practice, what is it?”

It’s a way of life.

AFAM AYIKA

“I’m the father of Restorative Justice in Seattle. I’m the guy who brought it in 2014 as a moral concept, but I did it through the community, which means that no system will ever recognize me.”

So, Restorative Practices are sets of Indigenous practices, right, based on just sitting around a Circle. And they’re used to mitigate conflicts, celebrate, and do all these different things.

Restorative Justice is when you replace any punitive system with a Restorative Practice. That’s how I describe Restorative Justice.

We had just, you know, fun Circles, and we got into some deeper stuff. They were saying stuff about the community and they’re like, “You know what?

There’s, like, two white people at the school, but all our signs are white,” I was like, “Oh, okay. Well, we can do something about that,” right?

So, I went home, and I drew a picture of a Black Viking. And I put it up on my door.

In the library, the signage has a Black female Viking. And so, I think about, like, all the people who were in that Circle, they’re now like, in college or out of college, they all love Rainier Beach High School.

Like they leave that place loving that place.

CHEVAS GARY “If I break confidentiality to tell this story, then why tomorrow should someone trust me with theirs? You know? And why should I ask someone to tell me their story if I won’t hold it?”

[Kane Lowry] started what is Cleveland’s model currently of Restorative Facilitation.

He gave understandings from like Indigenous practices, like the histories of Circle Keeping or whether it was like current newer pedagogies being used in educator spaces, or whether it was like how, Restorative Practices is aligning with the histories of racism and disproportionate discipline in Seattle Public Schools, whether it’s framing of how like Circles can be used as a model to uplift Black and brown voices. Like so, he helped bring a lot of these things together in the way that we have really like cultivated it now.

Even though school never felt like a place where it was okay to be, I look back, and I can remember one or two people from those places where I was like, “I’m not safe here, but I’m safe with you.”

Sometimes these were the same people who were like holding me accountable to some behaviors that were not acceptable in school. And sometimes they were people who were telling me hard truths that I did not want to hear or face.

And sometimes they were people who were just willing to be silent, and give me spaces to speak and process. So, I had a really clear example of what a dope-ass educator looked like.

“We did a march for Transit Justice that shook the [city]. I mean, the fact that now, all those students, if you’re 18 or under get a free ORCA pass, that was literally what we said should happen in 2015.”

- Jerrell Davis

So my first thing was like, “All right, how do I get bus passes?”

CHELSEA GALLEGOS

There would be lots of kids getting sent to me with like all sorts of needs, but I didn’t necessarily know how to meet them-- and this is eventually what led to the ORCA card movement. But it became very obvious to me that getting to and from school was a major struggle for Beach kids because Seattle Public Schools doesn’t provide free transportation.

Eventually, we came up with like this system where a very kind bus driver, who shall not be named, gave us like unlimited packets of transfers. The transfer color and letter changes every day, so then I got on like this Facebook group that would like tell you in the morning what the transfer was.

At the end of the day, like kids would just line up and I [laughs] would have to like figure out what the right thing was, and they have to be like cut at particular angle. So that was like the little scheme that we were runnin’ to just like get kids home.

Then, eventually, we were like, “Okay, this is a systemic problem, and like we need to do more than just try and scam the system.”

On Summer Freedom Schools: “Just creatin’ space for young people [at] Rainier Beach. The young people were fired up. The young people were -- they embraced what we were doin’. We looked stupid sometimes. We were doin’ Harambee. We’re singin’ about hope.

We’re singin’ about, uh, history, you know. Um, and they received it. They bought into it. These kids could be anywhere else, and they’re here. Like, we have to scream. [laughter] We have to sing. We have to dance, or they’re not gonna come.”

- Jerrell Davis

“We were in a space that was connected to direct organizing. We’re gonna do a protest in front of their building when the mayor’s gonna be there. And we’re gonna hold a Circle for the young people on Wednesday.

JERRELL DAVIS

Image courtesy of Jerrell Davis.

Because it wasn’t just about the direct action.

It was about creating solutions for our community.”

ZION THOMAS “I’m very proud that I stuck to, my core vision of spreading love as a community leader for Black and brown queer and trans folks, and especially Black and brown women and femmes too.”

I loved leading [the Gender and Sexuality Alliance] because it was my kind of revolution. Like, we had ‘Talk Tuesdays’ on the second and fourth weeks of the month, and then we had ‘Twerk Tuesdays’ on the first and the third, [laughs] Tuesdays of the month. And it was just awesome. We were able to just be ourselves and have fun and, you know, find community with other Black and brown queer and straight allies, um, and, you know, folks on the gender spectrum.

To know that me just needing a space to convene with other queer people is now a legacy that gets to be passed on to other, you know, queer kids in the south end that need that space. It’s so healing and so powerful to know that, like, I created that domino effect, and, um, I’m just so blown away by having done that because it really set the tone for where I’m at now because I’m still doing the same stuff.

“How many Black people can come together who really care about the system of education and just wanting to, like, ensure that Black and brown students have people who look like them, who want to teach, like, better material?”

Image courtesy of Mariam Bayo.

MARIAM BAYO

“They [school administration] didn’t really like [Restorative Justice]. It wasn’t, like, an easy start. It was definitely, like, a rocky start, a slippery slope, you know? But, you know, in order to really care for somethin’ like that, you kinda have to acknowledge yourself as a person and some of the things that you wanna grow upon. And I think because they weren’t willing to do that for themselves, they didn’t want it to happen for anyone else.” - Mariam Bayo

PRINCESS SHAREEF

Oh boy. Okay, another story.

This old Cadillac drives up. A woman gets out. It’s grandma. Grandma said, “There’s about to be some stuff happening up in here,” -- she didn’t say stuff -- “some stuff happening,” and she was holding her arm up like she had a gun in it. And so, I had to go down and talk grandma down and talk the family down because they did not trust that we would solve the problem. That’s what they said.

They said, “We don’t trust that you’re going to solve this.

So, we had to. We solved it.

I think Restorative Justice helped us with -- definitely helped us with that, gaining trust of the community and the families. No more grandma’s.

JABALI STEWART

“You travel around, learn, listen, pay attention.”

People say that they want to do it, but then when you actually do it, you find out the truth, you know? And it’s not for everybody. Uh, it is, but not -- the time has to be right. People have to be willing, you know? And I know enough people who think that they’re ready, but the actual act of sitting and listening to others is harder than people give it credit for.

You know, a lot of people think it’s easy.

One of my favorite questions is, who will you not sit with? And I want to know if you’ll actually answer the question. Do you have enough self-reflection in you to actually answer that question for real? And then that’s your growth edge.

“If we don’t do it, if you and I don’t become self-aware to the point where we can sit down and have a conversation, right, how can we ever renegotiate the contract known as common life, right?”

- Afam Ayika

Listener, this is your space to reflect on the power of Restorative Practices in your life.

The quotes mentioned in this zine include themes of changemaking, self-awareness, and the legacy of Restorative Practices within South End Seattle Public Schools.

To learn more visit: www.wa-bloc.org

zine designed by eboni wyatt | @ebandfl0w