Ancestors & Descendants -- Dr. Cory Greene & H.O.L.L.A!

Join me and Nana Dufe in a thoughtful, stimulating, often profound, conversation with Dr. Coy Greene, co-founder and program implementer at H.O.L.L.A. (How Our Lives Link Altogether!), a "transformational grassroots youth program providing healing-centered youth organizing training, youth development services, political/cultural/spiritual education, and non-traditional approaches to healing, education, and community relationship building centered grassroots movements learned lessons." 

Dr. Greene was was born and raised by a single mother in East Elmhurst Queens, NY, during a time when many mothers and urban communities were impacted by the crack epidemic. 

Cory’s experiences as a youth growing up in urban ghettos contributed to his understanding of the systemic inequalities, and led him to engage in a wide range of educational projects, healing, and grassroots movement building that seeks to change existing conditions for youth of color and our communities. 

Cory’s biological and ideological ancestors and elders hail from the struggles of the Mississippi Delta, the historical reality of being Black in “America,” and the Prison Abolition Movement. A formerly incarcerated person himself, Dr. Greene began his liberation-focused educational journey while incarcerated, and ultimately earned his doctorate post-incarceration.

Cory's organizing work, humanity, and analysis have been featured in critical documentaries such as Ava Duvernay’s 13th, From Prison to NYU, and most recently, H.O.L.L.A!’s Healing Justice Movement Documentary “We Came to Heal.” 

Dr. Greene is powerful, inspirational example of a man, an organizer, a father, and a teacher, who continues to find ways to successfully uplift youth of color and to combat the inter-generational trauma of racism while maintaining his independence, optimism, and most of all, his sanity. We hope you will find useful lessons and insights from our conversation, that you can apply to your own path through the End of America.

Thanks for listening!

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