Join MoCADA (@mocada_museum) and Asian American Arts Alliance (@aaartsalliance) for the next installation of Bandung Community Conversations this Thursday, March 20. The finale to our 4-part organizer workshop series and toolkit, this special community conversation features Kei Williams (@blackboikei), a Black queer/transmasculine abolitionist organizer, historian, and artist, who, aside from art-making, is an effective community organizer. With nearly a decade of practice at the intersections of racial justice, prison abolition, queer liberation, gender equality, and climate justice movements, Williams will guide us through the ins and outs of scaling up our work. 

WHAT: Bandung Community Conversation: Kei Williams

DATE/TIME: Thursday, March 20 @ 6:30PM – 7:30PM

LOCATION:  ZOOM

RSVP

This event, which is made possible thanks to the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Immigrant Fund, is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required. The talk will also be livestreamed HERE, if you can’t make it in real time. 

Accessibility: If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please email jlee@aaartsalliance.org.

Recordings: This event will be recorded and uploaded to our YouTube after it concludes.

About the Workshop

Now in 2025, we are in the midst of deep disruption to our social movements. These are very challenging times. And that is where practice comes to play. The best thing about practice is that you can always return to it, with the opportunity to deepen and grow it especially when you have the right tools.

In this interactive workshop, participants will engage with decentralized network building as a means of movement sustainability and learn ways to grow their organizing skills. Key concepts are derived from on-the-ground strategies from the Black Lives Matter movement, and influenced by experiences in climate justice and gender equity spaces. We’ll also touch on the importance of pedagogy.

Learn how to assess the phase your organizing is in and how best to respond, methods of co-creation through valuing interdependence, plan and act together on multiple levels beyond the individual, while being grounded as your spirit is tested.

It’s a reminder that “when you are not practicing, someone else is getting better.” Let’s return – by being in community together.

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About Kei Williams

Kei Williams (they/them) is a Williams acts as Community Manager and Story Guide at Black Gotham Experience, supporting on a number of commissions for the storytelling project. They are a founding member of Black Lives Matter and part of Movement Netlab—a practice-centered “think-make-and-do” tank. Aside from art-making, Williams is an effective community organizer whose work spans nearly a decade at the intersections of racial justice, prison abolition, queer liberation, gender equality, and climate justice movements.

They have presented and provided learning experiences at several institutions including Federal Hall, Barnard College, The Lark Theatre, Columbia University, Museum of the City of NY, and Community Justice Action Fund. They have previously worked with the People’s Climate Movement, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, and is currently the Interim Executive Director for the NEW Pride Agenda. Kei was honored with the Black Voices for Black Justice Award (2022). They are serve as a board member for Queer|Art. Follow Kei @blackboikei on Twitter and Instagram.

About the Bandung Residency

The residency is named for the groundbreaking 1955 summit held in Bandung, Indonesia, bringing together leaders from 29 newly independent Asian and African states emerging from colonial rule, with the aim of ending racial discrimination and ensuring collaboration and a peaceful coexistence. This Residency is made possible through the NYS AAPI Community Fund, Ford Foundation, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, and Apicha Community Health Center.