Under the Banner of Grief

Authors

  • Ash Williams

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Keywords:

grief, organizing, social justice, stopcopcity, abortionaccess

Abstract

Grief is a radically social phenomenon that can be used to connect the unique experiences of individuals across space, time, and place. Organizers and activists within various social justice movements have used collective grief and public mourning to transform political landscapes and to process systemic forms of oppression. Understanding the ways that grief is central to organizing and activism deserves critical analysis. Pairing death doula activism with Stop Cop City organizing, I argue that grief and mourning is foundational to activism and organizing and I intend to examine what can be learned from frontline organizers who both respond to and hold compounded grief with and for others while holding solidarity and action at the center. 

Author Biography

Ash Williams

Ash Williams (he/him) is a Black trans person from so-called Fayetteville, North Carolina. Since 2012, Ash’s work has included theorizing dance and performance art as tools for understanding bodies and corporeality within The Movement for Black Lives, leading rapid response and guerilla actions, particularly as an architect of Charlotte Uprising, which followed the murder of Keith Lamont Scott. This work has included co-leading a successful statewide campaign (#EndShacklingNC) to end the practice of shackling pregnant incarcerated people in North Carolina, as well as a successful campaign (#TransferKanauticaNow) to transfer Kanautica Zayre-Brown, a Black Transwoman, from a correctional facility designated for men to a women’s facility in 2019.

Making headline news in 2014, Ash disrupted business as usual at a private fundraiser for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, demanding that Cliinton apologize to Black people for mass incarceration, and for her racist use of the word “superpredator.”

He holds a Master’s degree in Ethics and Applied Philosophy, and a Bachelor’s in Philosophy and a Minor in Dance from UNC-Charlotte. He served as an Adjunct Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at UNC-Charlotte from 2018 until 2021. From 2022-2023, Ash served as Project Nia’s Decriminalizing Abortion resident.  For years, Ash has been vigorously fighting to expand abortion access by funding abortions and training other people to become abortion doulas. Ash is also a disabled dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher.

References

Oxford English Dictionary (OED). 2023. S.v. “vigil (n.1),” https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4264147725. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4264147725

Unicorn Riot. 2023. “Family and Friends Gather for Tortuguita’s Memorial.” YouTube. Accessed 31 March 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV30sbkNl-U.

Published

26-02-2025

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2024): With the Dead: Performance Philosophy, Dying, and Grief

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Ash Williams

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