ABSTRACT
CDS was founded out of the legacy of anti-colonial, liberationist perspectives that carried a critique of power and the numerous ways rank is unconsciously expressed in engagements between classes, races, and gender. From the beginning, we saw the need to provide mechanisms of community engagement and self-determination for communities that self-identified as having need for support and solidarity. We worked with local Native American, Latino, African-American, LGBTQ, and women’s communities in finding ways to develop programs that would serve those communities. We attempted to honor the wisdom of many, many activists from these communities about how best to approach storywork in a cross-cultural, cross-class, and at times cross-gender/sexual identity, context.
