Sherika Shaw
Sherika Shaw works at Dream Defenders. Lives in Miami, Florida. She is the partner of Steve Peace
Sherika Shaw is a mother to a toddler while being an aspiring revolutionary. As an internationalist, from Miami, Florida by way of Jamaica. Sherika has had the opportunity to learn from movements and freedom fighters in Palestine, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, among others. Sherika began organizing on the campus of Florida State University with the Dream Defenders, where she eventually became a founding staff member and the South Florida Regional Organizer.
In her time with Dream Defenders, she among many initiatives, bodies and campaigns, she supported the group in founding the organization’s Womyn’s Faction, which worked to bring a gender justice lens to the group. Since then, Sherika has been the inaugural Director if the Summer School of Resistance and Co-Director of Militia Design where she worked to shift culture and bring more creatives into the mainstream of the movement. Militia’s drive comes from an understanding that there are many difficult tasks facing society. We have a culture in flux, dissatisfied with the status quo and in desperate need of significant and deep-rooted change.
Currently Sherika is the Radical Hope Program Director, a program that is a collaboration of women leaders from Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Dream Defenders, Faith in Florida, Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami/Haitian Women of Miami (FANM), Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Miami Workers Center, New Florida Majority, Florida Immigrant Coalition, The Wildfire Project, Organize Florida and SEIU, among others to embolden a grassroots feminist framework to the work in Florida. In her spare time Sherika is a community doula and artist.[1]
Facilitation Team
The Wildfire Project has a team of 17 experienced facilitators, all of whom are leaders in a wide range of movement sectors and issue areas. Many of these practitioner-facilitators emerged from the organizations we’ve partnered with, and now make up our Leadership Team – which is one way that Wildfire is led by its grassroots base. This team keeps us rooted in many different movement arenas, allowing us to cross-pollinate cutting edge innovation and insights from different social change efforts across the country. We are proud that our team is active in the movements they serve on the ground, and distilling these insights allows us to be uniquely multi-sectoral.
Akua Deirdre Smith, Andrew Smith, BJ Star, Catherine Salonek, Claire Bergren, Ileia J. Burgos, Jonel Edwards, Joshua Kahn Russell, Executive Director , Kirin Kanakkanatt, Lex Barlowe, Lu Aya Nephew, Michael Strom, Sachie Hayakawa, Sam Corbin, Sherika Shaw, Sofia Campos, Yotam Marom.
Dream Defenders Palestine Delegation
Dream Defenders Palestine Delegation toured "Palestine" and in Israel, early January 2015.
The full list of delegates included five Dream Defenders (Phillip Agnew, Ciara Taylor, Steven Pargett, Sherika Shaw, Ahmad Abuznaid), Tef Poe and Tara Thompson (Ferguson/Hands Up United), journalist Marc Lamont Hill, Cherrell Brown and Carmen Perez (Justice League NYC), Charlene Carruthers (Black Youth Project), poet and artist Aja Monet, Patrisse Cullors (Black Lives Matter), and Maytha Alhassen.[2]
On a historic trip to Palestine, freedom fighters from Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, New York, Ferguson, and Atlanta were able to witness firsthand the effects of Israeli apartheid and occupation, and to learn from the people who are actively resisting on the front lines. In Nazareth, the delegates decided to do a solidarity demonstration as a call for support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that was called for by Palestinian civil society in 2005.
This demonstration was coordinated by Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, and features "Ella's Song" by Sweet Honey in the Rock, sung by Charlene Carruthers, National Director of the Black Youth Project 100 and Dream Defenders’ Executive Director Phillip Agnew; poet, artist, and New York Justice League member, Aja Monet; rapper and Ferguson/Hands Up United organizer Tef Poe, and Ferguson/ Hands Up United organizer, Tara Thompson. Dream Defenders Ciara Taylor, Steven Pargett, Sherika Shaw, and Ahmad Abuznaid, journalist Marc Lamont Hill, New York Justice League organizers Cherrell Brown and Carmen Perez, and Maytha Alhassen, a University of Southern California Doctoral Candidate, are seen preforming the debke, a traditional Palestinian folk dance.[3]
Revolutionary Strategies to Beat the Rising Right Wing
Revolutionary Strategies to Beat the Rising Right Wing, was a nationwide conference call organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Sunday October 30, 2016.
- What's the nature of this right-wing threat? What has this election cycle changed about the political terrain we're fighting on? How do we need to prepare for whats coming after the election? Hear about these crucial questions from our panel of top political strategists, including Nelini Stamp, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Linda Burnham, and Sendolo Diaminah.
Those invited, on Facebook included Sherika Shaw.[4]