Elena Everett

Elena Everett

Elena Everett is a Durham North Carolina activist. She was the Operations Manager for Ignite NC, and is now the Executive Director of the Southern Vision Alliance.

Elena Everett began organizing at NC State University, where she was active in anti-war and labor solidarity campaigns.

She has experience with community media, organizing, and program management. She is a founder and current director of of Action for Community in Raleigh (ACRe) and the Youth Organizing Institute. She was the communications director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice from 2008-2010, a program associate at the Institute for Southern Studies from 2005-2007, and the Instant Run-off Voting Program Director at FairVote NC from 2007-2008. She was elected state Chair of the NC Green Party from 2003-2007, which at the age of 23, made her the youngest state party chair in the country. She loves working with young people and helping them realize and actualize their potential as revolutionary game-changers.

She is the partner of Peter Gilbert.

North Carolina Green Party

The North Carolina Green Party; Elena Everett, as Chair and Kai Schwandes, as Co-Chair of the party; Nicholas Triplett, as a prospective North Carolina Green Party candidate for public office; Hart Matthews and Gerald Surh, as members of the party and qualified voters.

Durham for All people

Durham For All June 21, 2017 · We had a busy weekend with our 2nd Monthly Mass Meeting, a Campaign Team mid-year retreat, and a base-building Community Dinner!

Durham folks, JOIN OUR 10K STRONG SQUAD: durhamforall.org/pledge

Let's win political power and build a Durham for All!

1. 10KSTRONG

Sendolo Diaminah, Kaji Reyes, Laila Nur, Jillian Johnson, Bennett D. Carpenter, Melissa Norton, Tim Stallman, Salma Mirza, Elena Everett, Aiden Riley Graham, Tony Marimbondo Macias, Anna Duncan, Anna Grant, Ade Oh, Zaina Alsous, Jadebroo KS, Sijal Nasralla, Anthony Maglione, Ashlyn Nuckols.

2010 WWP National Conference

poster for the conference

The 2010 National Workers World Party Conference was held on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 13 - 14, 2010, and had the tagline, "2010 National Workers World Party Conference".

Opening Plenary Session: The Capitalist Elections, Economic Crisis and Struggle for Socialism: What does it mean for the left and for the working class?
Chair: Elena Everett; Speakers: Fred Goldstein, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Hales, Larry Holmes; Cultural performances by Miya Campbell and Mike Martinez.

March on Wall Street South

In August 2012, March on Wall Street South organizers helped to build a multi-city network of more than 20 organizing centers. They report that the Detroit Moratorium NOW! Coalition has chartered a bus, organizers from Occupy 4 Jobs and other groups are coming in vans from New York City, and activists from the South and elsewhere are joining the protests.

Elena Everett, of Occupy Durham and a March on Wall Street South lead organizer, told WW, “As an organizer from the South, the process of pulling together these mobilizations in this coalition has been and is inspiring. It’s truly a grass-roots, homegrown, Southern-led coalition, and it proves that the people’s movement is alive and well in the South.”

Everett explained: “The South has been historically underrepresented and underresourced. It exists in a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. It’s important for all justice-minded people to understand the importance and significance of our region. We have a third of the entire population of the country living in the South. The working conditions here are the worst in the country.

“If we really want change in our country, we need to focus on organizing the unorganized and putting forth the resources and solidarity necessary to help Southern organizers organize themselves in their own name. We need to make sure people’s voices are heard, so we need to mobilize and come together.”

Ignite Staff

Ignite NC staff, as of 2015;

• Bryan Perlmutter (Director)
• Irving Allen (Triad Field Director)
• Elena Everett (Operations Director)
• Bree Newsome (Western Field Director)
• Loan Tran (Communications Team Leader)
• D’atra Jackson (Triangle and East HBCU Coordinator)

Ignite training

Bryan Perlmutter August 30, 2014 ·

Ignite NC fellow training day one is over! #peopleovermoney the work is only starting! #fall2014 — with Sanyu Lukwago, Saif Roshan, Irving Allen, Gavin Jerrod VIncent, Bree Newsome, D’atra Jackson, Lela Ali and Elena Everett.

Durham Solidarity Center advisory board

Durham Solidarity Center advisory board as of 2014;

• Cameron Aviles
• Ben Carroll
• Alissa Ellis
• Elena Everett
• Jillian Johnson
• Marc Lee
• Connie Leeper

Youth Organizing Institute

Rosa Saavedra, Toxic Free NC, Qasima Wideman and Elena Everett Youth Organizing Institute, 2015.

Donors and monthly sustainers Durham Solidarity Center

Supporters of Durham Solidarity Center.

People’s Durham, Vision 2.0 Tech, Workers World Party, Youth Organizing Institute.

Zaina Alsous, Felicia Arriaga, Ben Carroll, Ben Crawford, Jason Cross, Alissa Ellis, Elena Everett, Peter Gilbert, Susie Goodman, Luke Hirst, Jillian Johnson, Andy Koch, Roxane Kolar, Jonathan Kotch, Jodi Lasseter, Connie Leeper, Fernando Martinez, Eva Panjwani, Josh Reynolds, Cathey Stanley, Dante Strobino, E. Swan, Tamara Tal, Rachel Valentine.

Duke-Durham occupation

Sendolo Diaminah backed the Duke-Durham occupation April 8 at 6:40pm, 2016. ·

Come celebrate the struggle as it moves from occupation to the next stage! Bryan Proffitt, Kaji Reyes, Laila Nur, Rufus Firefly, Anca Stefan, Alec Greenwald, Manzoor Cheema, Monica Huerta, James Hill, Elena Everett, Chanelle Croxton, D’atra Jackson, Ajamu Dillahunt, Jr., Jadebroo KS, Nia Wilson, Anthony Maglione, Sijal Nasralla, Gary B Durham, Alec Greenwald, Aiden Graham, Melissa Norton, Bro Ray, Saba Taj, Ade Oh.

SVA Executive Staff

Southern Vision Alliance executive staff, as of September 2017;

• Elena Everett (Director, SVA)
• Alissa Ellis (Deputy Director, SVA)
• Felicia Arriaga (Operations Director/CFO, SVA)
• Loan Tran (Director, Youth Organizing Institute | Communications, SVA)
• Bryan Perlmutter (Development, SVA)
• Juan Miranda (Bilingual Project Coordinator, SVA)

Confederate statue tear down

Workers World Party Durham Branch, August 15, 2017

Statement on arrest of our comrades: on the eve of the arrest of Takiyah Thompson.

Qasima Wideman, a member of Workers World Party who was present at the Durham action on August 14:

"Confederate statues aren't just hunks of metal and concrete. They represent the roots and history of a system of white supremacy that disenfranchises, murders, displaces and harms Black and Brown people up through today. If the people decide they want to remove such a statue, that should be their right. Love does not trump hate. It hasn't taken down any Confederate statues or stopped any of the racist and fascist violence that people in Charlottesville, Charlotte, Ferguson, Baltimore and every where face every day. Only organized people's power will take down white supremacy. Through racist drug laws and the prison industrial complex, cops do the paid work of white supremacy. The Trump regime has emboldened these racists."

Takiyah Thompson, member of Workers World Party and student at N.C. Central University, who climbed to the top of the statue to tie a rope around it's neck before the crowd tore it down:

"The people decided to take matters into our own hands and remove the statue. We are tired of waiting on politicians who could have voted to remove the white supremacist statues years ago, but they failed to act. So we acted."

Arrested at or soon after Thompson’s court appearance on Aug. 15 were Dante Strobino, Ngoc Loan Tran, and Peter Gilbert, also WWP members. By Friday, Aug. 18, Aaron Caldwell, Raul Jimenez, Elena Everett and Taylor Jun Cook had been arrested.

Aftermath

Activists and community and family members gathered here the morning of Dec. 5 2017 to show their support and solidarity for 11 anti-racist activists who were returning to court to face charges related to their militant challenges to white supremacy. The Dec. 5 hearing was the first time all 11, who have had several court hearings since August, appeared in court together.

Inside the court, the cases of nine of the activists, who were charged in relation to the Aug. 14 removal of a Confederate statue in front of the old Durham courthouse, were continued by a judge to Jan. 11. The cases of the other two, who face charges related to an Aug. 18 community mobilization against an announced KKK march, were continued to Feb. 8. After the hearing, a rally and press conference were held.

The defendants are inviting community members across Durham to sign up to be witnesses for the defense for the Jan. 11 trial. Elena Everett, a Workers World Party member who faces charges relating to the statue removal, said: “We invite all those who believe that Durham is a better place without the monument, that the monument had no value to our community, and was in fact a liability, to sign up to be a witness. We will set up an online form and email to collect your testimony.”

In a press release prior to the hearing, Workers World Party member Loan Tran stated: “The events of Aug. 14 and 18 were an act of community service and defense. We have to remember what happened just a few days before in Charlottesville, Va., when white supremacists and neo-Confederates terrorized, occupied and brutalized its residents. Heather Heyer was murdered, and many other anti-racist activists were injured.”

“Removing symbols of white supremacy from our community is not a crime,” said WWP member Jess Jude, one of those facing charges regarding the statue removal. “What happened on Aug. 14 was a service to the Durham community and an example of taking righteous action, a small step to correct centuries of injustice.”

Celebrating with Defend Durham

Pam Tau Lee February 23 2018;

Celebrating the dismissal of charges with members of Defend Durham in Durham, North Carolina. Read about the case here... https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/durham-confederate-monument-charges-dismissed/553808/ — with Dante Strobino, Loan Tran, Elena Everett, Bernadette Ellorin, Adrian Bonifacio and Terry Valen.

Blueprint NC Board

Blueprint North Carolina board, as of January 5, 2018;

• Melvin Montford, A. Philip Randolph Institute
• Anita Earls, Southern Coalition for Social Justice
• Pat McCoy, Action NC
• Brian Rowe, UNIFOUR ONE
• Conen Morgan, Progress NOW Foundation
• Courtney Patterson, NAACP
• Elena Everett, Southern Vision Alliance
• Pat Orrange, Retired
• Marcus Bass, Democracy NC
• Larsene Taylor, NC Public Service Workers Union
• Linda Stout, Spirit In Action

References

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