Enough – a fabulous site focused on “the Personal Politics of Resisting Capitalism” –  just posted a new article by Jessica Hoffman: The Practice of Freedom: A History of the Self Education Foundation.

The Self Education Foundation is a big part of what I did with my life from ages 20-25,  how I learned much of what I know about grassroots fundraising, building and running organizations (collectively), and wrestling with the intersections of oppressive systems.

My dear friend Tyrone Boucher of Enough writes in the introduction:

Their story is especially inspiring in this era of professionalized social change work – SEF is a great example of what capitalism often makes us forget: that change is created by regular folks with vision and creativity, learning as we go, making mistakes, making up new models, taking risks, working together. Check it out.

For me, one of the coolest things about SEF has been seeing what the people involved – as then bad-ass youth activists – have gone on to do with our lives. I definitely track my work with SRLP to the education on both fundraising and racial/economic justice that I got in SEF.  Taina Asili is a revolutionary performer and activist.  Sara Zia Ebrahimi is film-maker who raised tons of $$ for social justice movements in her work with Bread and Roses Community Fund and then went on to turn her indendependent film screening series into a business. Adrian Lowe did all kinds of work for trans justice and is now in law school getting another set of tools. Billy Wimsatt went on to found and run the League of Young Voters, which had a big impact on the 2004 and 2008 elections.   & there’s lots more stories out there…