In Search of Black Power challenges conventional narratives around Black policy, Black movements, and Black Life. We focus on creating a new language to discuss the issues presenting Black America, with a focus on independent institutional building and seeing Black folks as the solutions to our own problems.
Lawrence Grandpre is Director of Research for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. His focuses include drug policy, criminal justice, police accountability, and community-based economic/educational development. He is the co-author of “The Black Book” and his work has been featured in The Guardian, The Baltimore Sun, Time Magazine and Black Agenda Report. He is also the co-host of the In Search of Black Power Podcast.
Dayvon Love is the Director of Public Policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a grassroots think-tank that advances the public policy interests of Black people. In 2010, Love co-founded Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), one of many organizations that successfully pressured the state of Maryland to disband its plans to build a juvenile jail downtown. LBS has also led legislative efforts and advocacy efforts regarding criminal justice reform, youth and community empowerment. Dayvon is also the author of “Worse than Trump: The American Plantation”, a book that offers an important critique of the American political left and a political alternative to the exploitative relationship that Black people have to white institutions. Dayvon is also the author of “When Baltimore Awakes” which is a comprehensive critique of the way the white supremacy is embedded in the Human/Social Service Sector in Baltimore.
Rasheem is an Independent Scholar and Social Scientist whose scholarship encourages a critical examination of society and culture through the lens of race, gender, and class. Her educational background is interdisciplinary, and includes a Bachelors degree in Social Science, a minor in Sociology, a Masters’ in Nonprofit Management and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Social Work. She has been a Principal Investigator on at least five different qualitative research initiatives and has spoken on the topic of equity at over 30 academic and professional conferences.