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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.
The 2025 Ujima Wednesdays Workshop Series theme: Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project and the programs dedicated to it explore the tension and nuances that power inspires, posing questions about the metaphorical, political, and social dimensions of power. 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. How is power enacted and performed across histories and institutions? Who holds power, and who resists or rejects its use? How do we reclaim, redistribute, or shift power, and is it ever enough? Can power bring us closer to justice, to liberation, to a more equitable society? How do we learn through power? What are we empowering, and by what measures? When does a shift in power lead to true transformation, to revolution? Understanding these types of power —and the pillars of support that sustain existing systems— can help us become weapons of mass construction.
The 2025 Ujima Wednesdays Workshop Series invites participants to explore the contradictions of power, making space not only to consider existing power structures and systems but also to challenge our relationship with and responsibility toward power. Drawing inspiration from global anti-colonial, and revolutionary resistance movements, we’ll explore how communities can organize to build political and financial power, advance transformative policies, and create miracles rooted in love, justice and collective liberation. You can register for our upcoming workshops on our events page.
February | Grounding in Power: Grasping at the Root
This February, we are kicking off our yearly theme, Power, Transformation, and Miracles: Ujima Power Project, with Grounding in Power: Grasping at the Root. Join us in an exploration, understanding, and flipping the switch on power. This series workshops will provide participants with an understanding of how power is garnered, harnessed and enacted. We’ll also explore how communities can collectively use their power to strategically move toward a more just and liberated future.
Power to the People: Exploring Power, Justice, and Community: February 12, 2025 | 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: February 19, 2025 | RSVP
Building on our conversation about power, this 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.
Flipping the Switch: Shifting the Balance of Power: February 26, 2025 | 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 movement elder Elena Letona. 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!
About our Facilitators:
Rei Fielder- Ryan Fielder, affectionately known as Rei, is an organizer, educator, social worker, and artist who hails from the Motor City, Detroit, MI. Rei has been organizing around issues that impact BIPOC Michiganders since they were 15 years old. Their dedication to movement work is fueled by their desire to see true liberation come to fruition. Rei is the Director of Coalitions, Policy & Grassroots Organizing with Boston Ujima Project, They provide strategic leadership and management of Ujima’s legislative advocacy and coalitional activities.
Noemi Mimi Ramos, Executive Director of New England Community Project, brings a fresh pair of eyes from Boston’s neighborhoods and a savvy approach to community and political organizing. For over 20 years, she has served the community, fighting for social, racial, and economic justice in Boston and across the region. Mimi has gained most of her experience from working on direct advocacy issues such as Earned Sick, Early Education, Housing Justice, Worker Rights and the power of Base Building connected to Civic Engagement. The strength of her organizing has been focused on local power that deepens and strengthens the leadership led by black and brown resident leaders and building intentional relationships and partnerships with allies that reflect and support building the strength and long-term agenda that centers BIPOC and working-class neighborhoods. Some of the partnerships and spaces Mimi has supported uplifting and anchoring are Right to the City Boston, Community Labor United, Homes for All Mass. T4Mass and the Voter Table. Her continued support from family and close friends have given her the motivation and courage to keep building. She always says she learned grace and courage from her mother, strategy from her father, her boldness from her grandmother and the power of love and gratitude from her brothers.
Elena Letona, Ph.D., has over 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector as a volunteer, organizer, activist, teacher, director, and consultant. Born in El Salvador, she earned a Bachelor's in piano performance and music history from Oberlin College-Conservatory and a Ph.D. in public policy from UMass Boston. She has led two Massachusetts community organizations, Centro Presente and Neighbor to Neighbor, transforming them into member-led organizations rooted in community power. As Director of Philanthropy and Learning at the Episcopal City Mission, she developed a grantmaking strategy supporting BIPOC-led power-building organizations. In 2005, she was selected as a Barr Foundation Fellow. Elena was formerly the Co-Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the Movement Sustainability Commons and currently works as an independent consultant for movement organizations in Massachusetts.
March | Grounding in Power: Grasping at the Root
This March, we are continuing Grounding in Power: Grasping at the Root in collaboration with the Working Families Party at the Frugal Bookstore. This workshop series will provide participants with an understanding of how power is garnered, harnessed, and enacted. We’ll explore how communities can collectively use their power to strategically move toward a more just and liberated future. Through discussions on movement-building, elections, and governance, participants will gain insight into the strategies used to win and wield power for transformative change.
Who we Are with Yaye Amtyh Osunbunmi Asili: March 12, 2025 | RSVP
Join for Who we Are with Yaye Amtyh Osunbunmi Asili, the Working Families Party Director of Radical Education. This session introduces the Working Families Party (WFP), their theory of change, and how they build power. Yaye will explore the political system, the role of elections, and the function of campaigns within broader movement-building. Participants will gain insight into WFP’s approach to organizing, their definition of a party, and how they use elections as a tool for transformative change. This is the first in a three-part series, with future sessions focusing on campaigns and featuring local WFP elected officials.
Winning Power Through Elections with Georgia Hollister Isman: March 19, 2025 | RSVP
Join Winning Power Through Elections with Georgia Hollister Isman, Senior Advisor for State and Local Governance & New England Regional Director at the Working Families Party (WFP). In this workshop, Georgia will discuss the power WFP seeks and wins through elections, including governing, narrative, organizing, and coalitional power. Participants will challenge common myths about elections and share stories of community leaders achieving surprising victories. Together, we will explore the organizing strategies needed to ensure elections fulfill their promise of making a difference in people's lives. Plenty of time will be reserved for Q&A, including insights into the early stages of building WFP in Massachusetts.
Governing Power with Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler: March 26, 2025 | RSVP
Join us for #UjimaWednesdays with Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, the Working Families Party New England Progressive Governance Director. In this workshop Jivan will explore how WFP has leveraged electoral victories and relationships with progressive elected officials into governing power to deliver tangible policy victories for the multi-racial working class. Together, we’ll talk about the components of effective governing power, how to build a caucus of legislators, and the challenges and opportunities of organizing a group of electors to act together in support of legislative and political priorities in different contexts.
About our Facilitators:
Yaye Amtyh Osunbunmi Asili (Bunmi) is a seasoned trainer, empowerment facilitator, liberatory curriculum designer, and cultural organizer who approaches organizing through a spiritual-political healing lens. With decades of experience, she creates transformative learning spaces that bridge political strategy, cultural grounding, and community organizing.She is also a Mother, Empowerment Alchemist, Freedom Organizer, M.C., Traditional West African Dance Student/Instructor, Public Speaker, Healer, and Business Consultant specializing in supporting infrastructure for goods and services that heal, restore, and elevate.
At WFP, she serves as the National Director of Radical Education, embedding facilitation and training into the party’s organizing strategy to deepen political consciousness and build collective power. Her role at WFP enables her to support transformative education within a national political movement, ensuring that those most impacted by injustice are supported to lead real change.
Georgia Hollister Isman (she/her) is the New England Regional Director for the Working Families Party where she works with labor, community, and activist leaders to build and execute plans for working people--Black, white, and brown--to build power and govern their states. She has advised hundreds of state and local political campaigns across the region. She has led legislative campaigns that win tangible improvements in the lives of working people--including paid sick days and equal pay in Rhode Island. She serves as one of the senior static leaders inside the Working Families Party. She works with states across the country to organize Working Families Champions in elected office as the Senior Advisor on State and Local Governance. She lives in Boston with her husband, daughter, and dog.
Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler is the New England Progressive Governance Director for the Working Families Party, where he works with elected officials to turn election wins into governing power for the multi-racial working class and pass legislation on topics like affordable housing and childcare. He works with state representatives and senators, as well as advocates and WFP members, to identify and advance collective legislative priorities. Jivan is also a City Councillor in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he is serving his second term on the Council and works on issues including affordable housing, tenant protections, safe streets, climate and sustainability, and creating transparent and responsive local government.