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Voting Rights / Democracy focus on General Assembly bills and work in new year

Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 26, 2021

KFTC Voting Rights Strategy TeamWe had a January 9 Voting Rights Strategy Team meeting with 20 attendees, unpacking the political moment we’re in, celebrating our work last year to register people with felonies in their past, and winning a strong general election infrastructure. We set to work planning with a focus on the General Assembly. We also held a January 15 Voting Rights meeting where more than 50 people from 30 organizations joined to strengthen our coalition, build a shared analysis and make plans (both in the legislature and for field work). 

Your eyes do not deceive you

Posted by: KfTC on January 7, 2021

“Your eyes do not deceive you.”

Yesterday we saw both the power of democracy and the fragility of our hold on it. In both, we hear our call to Organize. 

Yesterday’s inept attempt at a coup was both shocking and unsurprising. We’ve invoked Nsé Ufot many times since she shared this affirmation/warning with members at this year’s Fall Gathering – “Your eyes do not deceive you.” They continue to resonate. Donald Trump has never hidden his connection to organized white supremacists or his intention to undermine democracy. The elected leaders who’ve supported him left him unchecked and fed the disease of hatred and racism that fueled his power, and they embedded it in our institutions at every level. We see it clearly here in Kentucky. The path Mitch McConnell cleared for Donald Trump is the same path he laid for Daniel Cameron, and the same path the Kentucky General Assembly is taking.

Justice for Breonna Taylor: Amplifying and learning from the Louisville uprising

Posted by: KfTC staff and members on January 4, 2021

On March 13, 2020 Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) murdered Breonna Taylor – a 26-year-old Black woman, award-winning EMT and beloved community member – while she was resting in

Northern Kentucky (virtual) Sustainability Tour

Northern Kentucky office intern Molly Spicer
Posted by: Molly Spicer on December 21, 2020

On Saturday, December 5, Sydney Gregory and myself hosted a virtual sustainability tour on ways to stay sustainable in a Coronavirus time.

Encouragement, communication and education move us forward in the fight for voting rights

Posted by: KFTC Staff on December 1, 2020

2020 launched the Kentucky Democracy Project, a new campaign to register, educate and mobilize Kentucky voters to participate in the 2020 election and beyond. As Kentuckians, we can work together to build a healthy democracy where everyone has a voice and a vote. Our focus is on communities often left out of the political decision-making process – lower income communities, people of color, and young people – particularly 170,000 Kentuckians with felonies in their past who got back their right to vote.

This November KFTC spoke with three of those 170,000 to discuss what voting means to them and what it's going to take to restore and respect the voting rights of all Kentuckians. Links to the full audio interviews are listed at the bottom. 

Aubrey Clemons Aubrey Clemons has always valued voting. But Clemons lost his right to vote after a felony conviction in 2006. He got his right to vote back through Gov. Andy Beshear's executive order. He lives in the Smoketown community of Louisville and is a KFTC member.

Q: What is your history with voting and what does voting mean to you?

Aubrey Clemons: Voting on a personal level is really special to me because as a young man, when I was 18 I never played into politics or policies. My up-comings and my community, the last thing we thought is that our voice mattered. It was typical to hear a brother of 18, 19, 20 years old say, I’m not voting, it doesn’t mean anything. 

I didn’t start hearing the conversation about voting until maybe 2004? The only reason why I voted is because my son’s mother was really big on voting. She made it a date. She’d get all dressed up and took me/us to the polls. 

Unfortunately in 2006 I got into some mess in Hart County, Kentucky. I never knew that boot-legging DVDs and CDs to be sold was bad, but I lost my right to vote because of it and became a felon. 

Voting was a part of our tradition as a couple, that we could have started but never got the chance to. Right after I was able to vote, right after I learned the power of my voice, I lost my right to vote. So that tradition got stomped. Even when I was in that place, serving my time in the state of Kentucky, she would always call me and let me know that she voted, that it was voting time. She had my kids out there excited to vote for Obama, twice! It’s really a big deal to me.

KFTC is "All In" for building regional progressive power and standing with Georgians

GAining Ground graphic with black background
Posted by: Meta Mendel-Reyes on November 30, 2020

KFTC has been in conversation with national and regional allies, and particularly with our allies in Georgia, about ways that we can pitch in to build power in the South through our continued work to unseat Mitch McConnell – if not as Kentucky’s senator, at least from holding the power of the US Senate Majority Leader.

KFTC’s Immediate-Past Chair, Meta Mendel-Reyes, has helped lead this work, and here is her request to fellow members. 

Art Nurtures Justice auction a success for Rolling Bluegrass

Posted by: Rosanne Fitts Klarer and Amelia Cloud on November 25, 2020

Grassroots fundraising in a pandemic is challenging at best. We thought it wouldn’t work. Nevertheless we persisted because it’s how we stay tight as a chapter. Together we planned an online fundraiser.

Art Nurtures Justice began with a 90-minute Facebook Live event on November 14 and continued with an online auction through November 20.

As we planned this event, we communicated often, and we encouraged each other. We laughed a lot and brainstormed ideas about how to make it work. What really convinced us to continue with this project was when we started asking artists to donate art. They were almost all glad to help. Friends like Casey Papendieck of Turtle Farm Pottery in Wolfe County even met us in Lexington to hand off their donation.

What it will take to win: grassroots organizing, deep connections

Posted by: kfTC Staff on November 24, 2020

When KFTC members gathered on Zoom November 21 to elect officers and reflect on this year, they considered what it will take to achieve the Kentucky we envision.

Executive Committee elected at annual business meeting

Posted by: KfTC Staff on November 21, 2020

KFTC members re-elected most of the leaders currently serving on KFTC’s Executive Committee.

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