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The Workshop: for Activist Organisations

The Workshop: for Activist Organisations

Written by: Christy Alves Nascimento
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 Defining, designing and crafting our own toolsCopyright 2026 Christy Alves Nascimento Economics Hygiene & Healthy Living Management Management & Leadership Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Ep 2 — The Master's Tools: Part 1

    Ep 2 — The Master's Tools: Part 1
    Mar 23 2026
    Welcome to episode two of the workshop. Okay, so today's episode is part one of a two part series titled The Master's Tools. Part of what inspired this podcast was the sheer plethora of approaches, conversations, recipes, frameworks, spells, books, politics, and other expressions of feminist knowledge that lend so much insight into building and sustaining organizations as sites of liberation. Right? There are just so many resources around that together. I kind of think of as a bit of a constellation, similar to patterns of stars that voyages would perhaps read to interpret their positioning in relation to where they want to go. In the same way, we can and must tap into and learn to interpret systems of our collective knowledge to orientate ourselves, give cardinal points to our positioning, and map our way forward.But hold up, before we catapault ourselves into liberatory reimaginings and insights within our political lineages. Part of why I want to host this series is because I feel there is something really important we first need to unpack when we talk about liberation. What exactly is it that we are trying to liberate ourselves from? And are there systems that constrain activist organizations from pursuing liberation as something tangible, experienced, and sustainable? Now, as a footnote, when we talk about activists in the NGO sector and activist organizations on this podcast, I want to quickly take a moment to distinguish this podcast's audience from the majority of players within the NGO sector. Here, we're talking about actors that are doing the hard work of consistently reckoning with their power in relation to their contexts of organizing. We're talking about folks and collectives who care less about the flashy lights they mount around their newsletters and social media posts and care infinitely more about the purposefulness and sustainability of their relationships with allies. Even when, and especially when, those allies don't hold the kind of social capital that give us visibility. We're talking about organizations whose leadership are intent on hiring people whose sense of purpose align with the most rebellious and liberatory visions of the organization. About organizations whose staff insist on designing programs in community with others. We're talking about activists who step into organizations with lived experience that resonates with the desires and knowledges expressed in the communities their organizations serve. If any of those descriptions resonate with how you understand your work and your place of work, this is for you. Okay, so back to our question. Attempting to liberate ourselves implies that we're not free, right? What is constraining us? The organizations in which we locate ourselves, hold people and orientations of work that are close to our hearts at the same time. There is a reality that for as long as we remain oblivious to, it prevents us from stepping into radical imaginations of alternative realities. This will perhaps not be the first time you have heard in these or other words, that if we situate the NGO sector within its historical context, it is an instrument of capitalist white supremacist patriarchy. Hear me out for a second, because as activists, it is important that we notice the water we are swimming in. This system, sometimes referred to as the NGO Industrial complex in its collusion with governments, development agencies and philanthropy is just another way in which colonization has reinvented itself in what some folks might refer to as the post-colonial era. This is what we need to liberate ourselves from. Over this and a follow up episode, I want to shed some light on the history. The power frameworks, and also some patterns of lived experience I've witnessed among. Activists working in organizations that expose age old colonial tactics for inventing and perpetuating logics of oppression. While the existence of the NGO sector is intrinsically tied to our world's colonial history, the narratives plural of that history are expansive and complex. The purpose of this series is by no means to provide a comprehensive history or expand on the complexity of these narratives. It is simply to offer a starting point for further conversation. As such, in part two of this series, The Master's Tools, we will explore just five strategies tried and tested over five hundred plus years of European expansion into the rest of the world that were used to erase, pillage, and oppress whole peoples that characterize the structures and experiences of a non-governmental and non-profit organizational work today. But before we dive in, I want to use this episode to frame this discussion with the radical intervention made by Audre Lorde in her speech at an academic conference organized by the New York Institute for the Humanities in nineteen eighty four. It is a speech turned essay titled The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House. At this point, I really want to ...
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    20 mins
  • Making liberation a shared practice in our organisations: an introduction to The Workshop

    Making liberation a shared practice in our organisations: an introduction to The Workshop
    Jan 6 2026

    Welcome to the very first episode of The Workshop - an ideation hub for activating our collective intelligence around what it means for organisations working for change, healing and liberation to embody those very experiences within themselves as a first location of impact.

    The point at which our activist work meets our contexts is constantly shapeshifting. Each inform the other. If we are to bring our visions for liberation into our everyday lived experiences of our work, it requires creative interventions that resist, hack and confront the patterns of current systems and ways of being that perpetually reinforce oppression.

    In this episode, you will get to hear a short story about my own experience stepping into my very first job at a feminist organisation in South Africa. You will also learn about the kind of content you'll get to tune into when listening to future episodes.

    If you are looking for a toolshed laden with knowledges, frameworks, recipes, spells, kits, gadgets and materials that feminists are making and using to invoke liberation as a shared experience for their organisations and constituencies, you've come to the right place.

    Follow this podcast and watch this space!
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    10 mins
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