About
Reclaim Philadelphia’s podcast, Our Political Moment:The stories behind the structures, features stories from Philadelphians impacted by some of the biggest issues facing our city, including education, housing, workers’ rights, mass incarceration, immigration and poverty. The host of the episode offers an analysis of the dominant narratives and structural oppression involved in these issues and interview’s organizers across the city who are fighting for solutions. Each episode will conclude with a call to action, a way our listeners can get involved and be part of local collective change. Between episodes, we’ll also be posting blogs on our website www.reclaimphiladphia.org, which offer political education and help define political jargon terms in plain english.
Episodes
In episode 6 Lea Devon Sorrentino and Sergio Cea are joined by Staci Moore and Christi Clark of the Women’s Community Revitalization Project. Staci shares her story of moving to Philadelphia and her experience with housing insecurity and the importance of fighting for affordable housing. Christi shares with us the ways that WCRP and 65 other organizations are trying to make Philadelphia a sustainable affordable city for low income and working class residents.
Immigration is a hot topic around the country. Philadelphia is known as a welcoming and Sanctuary City to immigrant populations, but what does that mean? Miguel Andrade an organizer with Juntos recaps his most recent visit to the York County Detention Center a few hours outside the city. He also gives a compelling interview that questions what it means to be a Sanctuary City.
In the first part of the episode Madusa Carter shares the third act of their play Mary’s Daughter: Memoir of an Artivist. The story is followed by an interview between Madusa Carter and Rick Krajewski on why women have not been centered in mass liberation organizing and how can change the narrative and prevent that eraser from continuing to happen.
Episode 3 features a hotel housekeeper, Katherine Paine and a union organizer Earlene Bly, fighting for a fair process to allow employees to decide if they want to unionize their workplace.
Episode two hosted by Kelly Morton explores the state of the Philadelphia School system. Listen to Nayeli Perez, a student at Palumbo Academy talk about her experience in a special admissions public school. Kelly first met our storyteller speak at a fundraiser for school funding last fall. At that time, she pointed out that as a student, she didn’t have a lot of power but she hoped that by speaking others would amplify her words to create change.
The conditions in our schools and the experiences of our students compared to those across the state is not accidental. In this episode you will also hear from Kendra Brooks from Our City Our Schools about how Philadelphia public schools reached this point of crisis.
We at Reclaim Philadelphia cannot be more excited to announce the launch of our NEW podcast Our Political Moment! Listen to stories from Philadelphians impacted by some of the biggest issues facing our city. We will also be interviewing organizers around the city who are fighting for solutions and providing actionable steps for listeners to get involved.
We started this podcast with a mission to demonstrate how the Universal is Personal and how the Personal is Political. The purpose of this first season was to bring to life how dominant narratives and structural oppression play out across this city and to show how our individual struggles are connected. We also timed this season with the Primary Elections to illuminate how policies dictate the lives of Philadelphians and how important this upcoming election is to creating a Philadelphia that works for all of us.
In this episode we come together to reflect on the season and discuss the Reclaim Philadelphia endorsed candidates and how they align with our values.