Activism should start with “growing souls” rather than radical uprisings, an iconic
Activism should start with “growing souls” rather than radical uprisings, an iconic Detroit activist told members of the Asian American Journalists Association on Thursday.
Grace Lee Boggs, 96, also told the group gathered at Cobo Hall for the association’s national convention to look beyond economics as they eye the future. About 800 journalists are in Detroit for the four-day annual convention, which runs through Saturday.
“We have to grow our souls and have to stop thinking about economic growth that is poisoning the air and water,” Boggs said.
About 20 attendees at Boggs’ talk watched a documentary about her life, “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” due out next year. Then they listened to the feisty woman talk about her walk through life with civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as her husband, Detroit activist James Boggs, who died in 1993.
But instead of suggesting a march down Woodward like the one she helped organize in June 1963, she said people who want to see change should start in their own neighborhood — like the nonprofit organization she created, Detroit Summer. The multicultural, intergenerational group she co-founded with Oakland University journalism professor Shea Howell is a youth leadership program that inspires community engagement.
“Do something very real in your community, maybe no more than a block party,” she said. “A lot of little things like that can make a big difference for yourself, the community and the world.”
With Boggs was Scott Kurashige, co-author with her of the book “The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century,” and television and radio commentator Emil Guillermo. Kurashige said he appreciates that Boggs questions liberal and conservative philosophy and takes a human approach to her activism.
“What Grace is doing is challenging both of them,” Kurashige said. “The intellectuals have to come out of the ivory tower, and the activists have to do more thinking.”