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The Advocate Daily Podcast interviews CEO activist Carmen Perez

Advocate Daily is a podcast and editorial series focused on highlighting young community organizers and social justice advocates of color. In collaboration with The Gathering for Justice, we have recorded 10 episodes of audio content focused on different topics in the social justice sphere. Advocate Daily is a reminder:

Educate. Empower. Elevate.

CEO/ President of The Gathering for Justice, Carmen Perez, sat down with us to discuss The Gathering‘s conception and mission, intergenerational mentorship and supporting the next generation’s leadership.

 

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I’m so excited to collaborate with @kulturehub to elevate the voices of youth leaders of color in a 10-part podcast series. In episode 1, I talk about intergenerational mentoring and supporting the next generation’s leadership. You can find it on all podcast platforms! 🔥 #Repost @kulturehub ・・・ Educate. Elevate. Empower 👊🏾👊🏼⁣ ⁣ Together with The Gathering for Justice (@gather4justice) we’re highlighting young advocates and community organizers of color on our platform KultureHub.com in a 10 episode podcast series. ⁣ ⁣ —⁣ ⁣ The Advocate Daily Podcast is available on all platforms! Hit that link in bio or hit the story to tune in 💪. ⁣ ⁣ —⁣ ⁣ To lead off the series we had the honor to chop it up with The Gathering for Justice CEO and President Carmen Perez (@msladyjustice1). ⁣ ⁣ —⁣ ⁣ The leader spoke with us about her role in the current fight for social reform, the inception of The Gathering, the youthful leaders dedicated to the movement, and the importance of mentorship in community organizing and social justice work.⁣ ⁣ —⁣ ⁣ Continue to follow us and The Gathering for Justice as we continue to discover the next generation heroes. #advocatedaily #podcast #thegatheringforjustice #justiceleaguenyc #marchforourlives #advocateforchange #communitydevelopment #newpodcastalert #onallplatforms

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Carmen Perez: “I believe in intergenerational leadership and relationships, and so I’m really big on cultivating the leadership of young people. The Gathering is a national movement to end child incarceration and we have two state-based task forces, Justice League NYC (which really works on police accountability) and Justice League California.”

Carmen told me and my co-host on the podcast, Claude J. Easy, that her work is personal. And many young people are getting involved because for them too it is personal too. How can we live for today while the nefarious powers that be are tarnishing our tomorrow?

The action and organizing by millennials and gen z’ers is not only inspirational, but it is motivational. These are the people that will lead the fight forward.

These are the people that are rising up in a different way than previous generations. These young people are the ones saying that even though they haven’t been on this Earth for as long as their elders, they want to see an equitable and righteous future on the horizon. The people saying enough is enough.

Carmen Perez: “My job, as an organizer, is to channel that righteous anger, that righteous pain, into action. I’m a bridge. I’ve always been a bridge. I’ve always known that my responsibility in this world was to be a bridge between those that had access, and those that didn’t.”

Carmen mentioned that her generation (those in their 40s) realized that they could not wait years down the line to smart mentoring younger folks. Not only are millennials and gen z’ers hungry for change, but they are focused, they are wise, their plans are nuanced.

The fight is now, and it is not a struggle that’s end can be seen like a blimp in the distance. There will never be a day where there is no one trying to infringe on others’ rights.

Liberation for one group is not enough until it is liberation for all.

We encourage you to listen to the full episode available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more. Carmen helped introduce us to what The Gathering does, the importance in intergenerational mentorship and communication, and supporting the next generation.

But our efforts to inform and empower others does not stop here. Nor will they ever. Stay tuned for the next episode of Advocate Daily where we talk to 18-year-old Luis Hernandez about his initiative Youth Over Guns, the benefits and struggles of being a young policy maker, and NYC’s current efforts in listening to the people.