October 30th 2008—Jaunese of Prince Georges County Maryland—Everywoman, USA and Efia King of Philadelphia, PA, Youth Activist Extraordinaire
This morning I scrambled to do laundry, pay bills, answer voicemails, and pack for the next leg of this journey!
Then I met Jaunese Harris of Prince Georges County for a lunch interview. Jaunese is a soror (sorority sister) of a WOCU member, Tricia Bent Goodley. Tricia recommended Jaunese as a good person to be interviewed because of her community activism.
Lunch with Jaunese was both a culinary treat (we ate at my favorite Thai spot) and a though provoking experience. I learned about Jaunese’s background as an IT professional who specializes in system security and works for the patents office in Alexandria, VA. Jaunese came to the Washington DC area from Petersburg VA to go to school and decided to stay.
Though she has no aspirations/ambitions for political office or a career in activism, she does believe that everyone has a role to play in making the political system work for them. She is a rare case of speaking from a position of comfort and commitment in terms of how the system has served her. However, Jaunese is committed to remaining involved to ensure that the system and its power wielders and decision maker are accountable to her and the needs of her community.
After lunch I had to go into downtown DC to pick up on of the 41 Million Strong roving video cameras so that I could upload Traci Griffith’s interview. Thus, I ended up leaving the city so late that it took me 4 hours to make the 2 hour journey to Philadelphia. I was due to meet Efia King, my next interviewee at 5pm but ended up meeting her at 8pm instead! Thank you to Efia for hanging in there to meet with me.
I had a great chat with Efia who is a 16 year old high school student who has become so inspired by the elections that she has gotten involved in doing voter outreach. She shared about issues that impact her and her community, as well as the importance of youth engagement. Please find her interview at www.youtube.com/womenofcolorunited
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