Posted 4 weeks ago by Alice Wong Guest Blog Posts

Another World Is Possible

Dom Kelly

Editor’s note: This was originally published on Medium.com on May 1, 2024

I woke up at 5:52am this morning, just two minutes before my first alarm. God, do I hate it when that happens. I didn’t get great sleep last night and admittedly went to bed way too late. Being away from my wife and daughter always screws up my sleep, but I wound up staying up pretty late glued to both the TV and social media. My feed was filled with videos of NYPD officers dressed in full riot gear and marching down the street onto the campus of Columbia University. My heart raced as I watched them approach the school, climb onto a crane, and enter the building through a window. Militarized police on college campuses. Scared but steadfast students holding the line. Parents, I imagined, at home, worrying for their children’s safety. All the while, thousands of miles away, bombs are actively dropping on Rafah in Gaza. Again, parents worrying about their children’s safety. Watching them die before their very eyes.

What is this world?

As I got up this morning, the videos still swirling through my head, all I wanted to do was FaceTime my girls (as I call them.) My loves. Black and Jewish women living in a world that isn’t for them. How can I keep them safe?

How can I build a new world?

This entire week I’m in Illinois, one hour behind my family at home in Atlanta. I’m a yearlong fellow with Rockwood Leadership Institute, and this is our second in-person convening so far this year. Getting to know and learn with this cohort of movement and social justice leaders has been unbelievably powerful and transformative. I have been looking forward to this week since our last convening four months ago. And yet, months later, we’re still here. Still watching this genocide unfold before our eyes. Still in a pandemic. Still having to face the reality of either a Biden or Trump presidency after this year.

Still in the same world.

Today’s session was focused on strategy — specifically strategy for the long term. How do we shift the way we as leaders think about and develop strategy from a shorter term, organizationally-focused mindset to one rooted in and centered around the “long generational arc.” In other words, how are we strategizing for a movement that creates the kind of world we want to see for our children and grandchildren and beyond?

To be frank, I entered our space this morning feeling skeptical.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the media consumption that kept my brain wired for too long. Maybe it was the heaviness we all carried knowing that one of the members of our cohort and her husband, both Palestinian Americans, were arrested just two days prior while protesting on a college campus, and that she couldn’t join us this week because he was hospitalized after a brutal and vicious beating by police. Maybe it was because the viral video of his brutal beating randomly found its way onto my feed last night during my doom scroll. Maybe it was also the constant barrage of texts from Jewish family members yesterday blasting me for my pro-Palestinian activism. Maybe it was also thinking about friends who abandoned masking and community care getting COVID once again. Maybe it was bird flu fears. Maybe it was a little of everything all at once.

Whatever the reason, I really didn’t want to think about the “long arc.” Shit felt a little too bleak for that. Yes, in my head, in that moment, it was all about me.

I listened though. I listened as we heard about the wins of indigenous communities. As our facilitator helped us understand and articulate our purpose and goals. As we were guided to make our strategy “flexible” and consider the short term tactics that could hinder our long term strategy.

Near the end of the long afternoon today, we were tasked with breaking into small groups to think about what purpose we were working toward for “our people.” We were to brainstorm the values that undergirded that purpose and the outcomes of a long term strategy toward that purpose.

I couldn’t help but think, at that moment, about a text that a family member sent to me just 24 hours before. “Remember who your people are, Dom.” They were referring to the Jewish people. That person wanted to remind me that my loyalty should be to the Jewish people, and by default, the Israeli people and the Israeli government.

When our small group got together and had to define who “our people” were, we agreed it was all of humanity. It was all of us–Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Black, white–everyone. And as we articulated our purpose, it became clear that the goal was collective liberation. We started to put on paper the values and outcomes we associated with a world where all people were liberated: interdependence, community care, freedom from systems of oppression, meeting everyone’s needs. This was an exciting exercise.

But as we walked back into the larger room to share, I felt that same skepticism I walked in with this morning. Was this idealistic? A pipe dream? How the fuck could we build a long arc strategy toward this world we wanted to see? A world which seems so unattainable?

As I settled in my chair, I looked around and it hit me; we were already creating it together, in this space, in our container.

Every person in the room was masked and every person in the room had COVID tested each day we were together. There was a HEPA air purifier behind me cleaning the air. People were already organizing to get resources for our colleague whose husband had been brutalized by the police. People were sitting in chairs, laying on the floor, standing against the wall, taking their shoes off–showing up in our space however they needed to. Throughout the day folks had taken breaks, walked outside, gone to rest, and everyone else gave them grace. We helped each other through difficult situations and found ways as movement leaders to support each other in our work and personal lives.

Our multiracial, multiethnic, gender diverse, cross-religious, intergenerational, queer affirming cohort of brilliant and accomplished leaders was literally creating the kind of world we wanted to see right there in this room. Together.

I shared this thought with the group, with tears welling up in my eyes and gratitude overflowing, especially as a disabled person in this space. A room like this, where collective access, interdependence, and solidarity were not merely ideas but practices, was new to me and completely overwhelming.

As our shares ended, one member of our cohort, a minister, made an announcement: the United Methodist Church has, as of today, voted to remove all anti-gay language from their doctrine and repeal the ban on LGBTQIA+ clergy.

The kind of change we all want to see is happening.

Another world is possible.

ABOUT

A white man with curly dark hair, glasses, and tattoos on his arms and chest, wearing an orange and white patterned shirt with black pants. He’s sitting down in front of a dark green background.

Dom Kelly is the Co-Founder, President & CEO of New Disabled South, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and New Disabled South Rising, its 501(c)(4) arm. He has been organizing in the South since 2009, committed to building a progressive future for disabled people in his region. His previous roles as a senior advisor and founding staff of Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign, and as a lead fundraiser and advisor for her voting rights organization Fair Fight Action, both led him to make his vision for New Disabled South a reality.

Dom is one of a set of triplets born with Cerebral Palsy and has been a disability advocate since he was four years old. Starting when he was a young teenager, Dom and his brothers played around the world with their rock band A Fragile Tomorrow, touring and collaborating with artists like Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Bangles and more and releasing 6 records over 15+ years.

He received a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice where he also received the Excellence in Social Impact award. Additionally, he holds a bachelor’s degree in music production, a master’s degree in journalism, an executive certificate in social impact strategy, and a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary disability studies. Dom was chosen as a 2024 Rockwood National Leading From the Inside Out Yearlong Fellow and as one of ten winners of The J.M. Kaplan Fund’s 2023 Innovation Prize. He was a 2021 New Leaders Council fellow, serves as Chair for the board of The Kelsey, as Treasurer for the board of Disability Victory, and as a member of the NationSwell Council. Dom lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Catie, their daughter Mahalia, and their dog Vivi.

Another World Is Possible