#UJIMAWEDNESDAYS

#ujimawednesdays

Every week on Wednesday, starting at 6:00PM EST.

We hold financial and political education workshops every Wednesday that are open to the public, where community members come together to co-learn and then later co-create at our member team meetings. Watch all past events on our Youtube.

Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project

Power exists in many forms: the power to, the power with, the power over, and the power within. Power holds the potential to transform, uplift, and dismantle. It is the ability to act, influence, and create change. Yet, the potential of power and its capacity to drive transformation are complex, often accompanied by contradictions and challenges.

Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project examines power as a concept with concrete, material consequences. This workshop series is dedicated to exploring the collective power of communities to transform ourselves and the systems that shape our lives.

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Power to the People: Exploring Power, Justice, and Community

Ujima staff and Members

Haymarket People's Fund

42 Seaverns Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, USA

February 12, 2025

6:00 PM

RSVP

Join Ujima staff and members for a dynamic conversation on the nature of power - its possibilities, its pitfalls, and its role in shaping our collective future. Is power inherently good, bad, or neutral? What happens when individuals and communities wield their power? Together, we'll explore how people's power can be harnessed to move us toward a more just society and examine the power our communities already hold. Moderated by Rei Fielder, Director of Coalitions, Policy and Grassroots Organizing, this discussion invites deep reflection, principled struggle, and a vision for transformative change. Come ready to share, listen, and build!

Understanding Power: Unpacking the Pillars That Hold Up Systems

Noemi Mimi Ramos

Haymarket People's Fund

42 Seaverns Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, USA

February 19, 2025

6:00 PM

RSVP

Building on our conversation about power, this interactive workshop - facilitated by Noemi Ramos from the New England Community Project - will break down how power operates within the pillars of support that uphold systems of oppression and change. Together, we’ll explore different types of power, how institutions maintain control, and how communities can strategically challenge and shift power dynamics.

Print Prototyping

Carmellite Chamblin

Haymarket People's Fund

42 Seaverns Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, USA

February 26, 2025

7:15 PM

RSVP

Join us for an evening of creativity and fun at Print Prototyping with Ujima, facilitated by Carmellite Chamblin. We'll be making scrapbooks to honor ourselves and our people, trying our hand at a collective friendship album, and prototyping poster-making at Haymarket People's Fund. Carmellite Chamblin, a poet from Carrefour, Haiti by way of Massachusetts, explores themes of grief, aging, and the immigrant experience in her artistry. A 2021 fellow of the Writer’s Room of Boston, she continues to center community voice and to work and volunteer within the arts.

Flipping the Switch: Shifting the Balance of Power

Elena Letona

Haymarket People's Fund

42 Seaverns Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, USA

February 26, 2025

6:00 PM

RSVP

Too often, power is seen as mechanical and transactional, creating barriers to real connections. This week we will be continuing our grounding in power facilitated by Elena Letona from Strategy and Partnerships at the Movement Sustainability Commons. This workshop will guide participants in exploring how power operates in our everyday lives and communities, and how we hold, wield, and transform it. Through reflection and practice, we’ll examine power as a shared responsibility, the leadership it requires, and how true solidarity comes from seeing ourselves in each other. Whether you're an organizer, advocate, or simply curious about power dynamics, this session will help you sharpen your skills and strengthen your ability to navigate and shift power in any space. No campaign experience necessary —just a commitment to learning, reflecting, and practicing together!

Ujima 101

Mari Gashaw and Georgios Costomiris

Virtual

Zoom

March 13, 2025

6:00 PM

RSVP

Missed a member orientation? Haven’t made it to an Ujima cafe? Had general questions about the Boston Ujima Project but haven’t gotten a chance to ask? Join us at the Boston Ujima Project Member Info Session to learn about the Ujima ecosystem, connect with other members, and ask any questions you may have. Participants share insights, deepen their understanding of our collective mission, and build community in a space dedicated to collaboration and engagement.

member teams

Our member teams occur on a monthly, rotating schedule.

The Ujima Member Teams are a self-organized, non-hierarchical group of community members that work to strengthen Ujima’s participatory governance structure, community relations and help the wider public learn about and enroll in Ujima, solidarity economy, and economic democracy.

Coalitions, Policy & Grassroots Organizing

Hybrid

February 12, 2025

7:15 PM

RSVP

The Coalitions, Policy & Grassroots Organizing (CPGO) member team is a collaborative initiative committed to actively participating in existing coalitions, prioritizing issues such as community safety, economic and environmental justice, and adopting a multigenerational approach. Open to various matters brought forth by coalition members, the team serves as a bridge for collaboration within the coalition pillar, emphasizing principles rooted in community and liberation. The policy pillar supports ongoing policy efforts aligned with the mission, membership, and community base, while the grassroots pillar strives to build political alignment within our organizations and communities.

Anchor Institution Organizing Member Team

Hybrid

February 19, 2025

7:15 PM

RSVP

The Anchor Institution team consists of Ujima members and solidarity members with the primary objective of supporting the Ujima ecosystem by organizing institutions in Greater Boston, focusing on universities, hospitals, and faith-based organizations, to actively support Ujima’s mission. Key strategies include focusing on procurement, involving purchases from Ujima Good Business Alliance members' businesses; and engagement in values-aligned campaigns through Ujima’s grassroots partners, such as the PILOT Action Group.

Between The Everyday and The Sacred

Virtual

March 12, 2025

7:15 PM

RSVP

Using Zadie Smith’s essay on photography, Through the Portal, as a point of departure, this three-session workshop series explores the relationship between contemporary art-making and the sacred in everyday life. Through a range of multimedia practices—including video, literature, and photography—the series examines how artists use these mediums to document the present, engaging with it as a site of both artistic and spiritual inquiry. Over the series, participants will develop their own individual or collective digital exhibition. This exhibition will reframe participants' works within the theme of transformation and transcendence, inspired by the ritualistic qualities found in daily experiences. The series draws upon online exhibitions such as Art in a Time Like This by Barbara Pollack and Anne Verhallen, Queer.Archive.Work by Paul Soulellis, Home Alone Survival Guide by Max Siedentopf, and The Free Black Woman’s Library by OlaRonke Akinmowo, which all emphasize the act of preserving the ordinary while transforming it into a space of reflection.