KT Beckman-Gotrich: Organizing at the Speed of Trust

Emily If you'd like to introduce yourself, just a little bit of what you've done around DC, that would be great.

KT Welcome to Alethia Tanner Park. My name is KT. I am one of the Ward 5 co-leads for Free DC. We work as a team to work towards the campaign goal of statehood by 2030. Part of that means we have to deal with all the Home Rule and federal interference issues along the way. I’ve been in DC since 2012, always in Ward 5. And yeah, a big part of how I came here is for love. My partner lived in the city and so I moved here to be closer to him. I wanted to be a rooted neighbor and started volunteering and learning about issues going on here and felt a lot of resonance with stuff I experienced growing up.

Emily What were some of the first things you got involved in in DC when you got here that led you to the community engagement work that you do?

KT I think the first real volunteering that felt like generative — I switched jobs from the nonprofit hustle. I got picked up to do pastry work and so I was working in the restaurants, which I had always done since I got out of college. I used to joke, I was supporting my habit of teaching English by slinging hash, by waitressing or bartending things like that.

One of the first volunteer opportunities I had was with the Restaurant Opportunity Center. So you might have heard about Fight for $15, things like that. They've worked across the country to raise the minimum wage. I think the first couple that were really successful were in the Bay Area and New York City. But DC was also trying for a good while as well. And they were trying to organize restaurant workers, and it eventually has led to some of the unionization efforts in the service industry.

But we did. And I was part of those early “how do we do this” conversations. You know, when you're stuck in the midst of your hourly exhaustion, how can you get to those conversations with your co-workers?

So it was interesting for me because at the time I had switched from front of house, like serving the guests, to back of house where I was doing food preparation as a pastry assistant. And I was facing a lot of cultural differences with my coworkers, and I was so sad. I was like in a different setting. I realized the power dynamic would have endeared us in a different way. And it really bothered me that that was how it was. And it was really emotional because I had just been laid off from the nonprofit job. So it was this really interesting lesson in power dynamics for myself.

I would go to my boss to kind of discuss this to be like, “I know that the reason we're having this problem is because I make a dollar more than them, and it’s not really fair. They're faster than me. I mean, I would say they are equally skilled, if not more than I am.”

But the boss isn't oriented to face the issue in the same way as a worker. And so I had to kind of just sit with the nonsolution of having gone to my boss and having miscommunications with my coworkers. And I was gaining weight because I was working pastry, and they'd be pinching my sides and stuff. And just like, oh man, they're agitating my boundaries because their needs aren't being met. It's not really even about me. So I didn't get to get that deep into the the actual organizing that Restaurant Opportunity Center has done, but I can tell you one of the ANCs for Ward 2 is from that work, Trupti Patel, and it's been really interesting to see over time those different relationships I made that were just like windows into different communities and how it's all still connected because we all still live here and care about this city.

Emily It's very interesting, always, to hear how these projects get started and oftentimes it's just kind of a conversation.

KT Absolutely.

Emily And then you eventually did the rising organizers fellowship. Is that right?

KT Yeah. So after I had been in the food industry forever, it felt like, an organization called Center for Applied Linguistics reached out to me for a contract job. And it ended up being full-time work, which met my needs for stability. And I was like, okay, salary job. Now I'm going to have time to really volunteer. So for a couple of years, I was just a worker bee and you know landing my new job and traveling, and with that stability, I really wanted to volunteer again.

So I started with Girls Rock DC. Their ethos is around being really inclusive of queer folks and gender non-conforming and doing that through music. And so I was on their board for a couple years and moved them through this sort of working board model towards having permanent staff. And it was a little bit of a rough ride. So I got a little bit burnt out, but it was a great education in “what does it take to build something when you seemingly have these disparate parts” that you're not sure how they hang together. You know, there was this institutional memory from some of the board members, but it was like, you’ve got to just go for it.

So we put on camp every summer for 50 or more young folks, eight to 18 years old. And I learned how a board operates. I learned how camp goes on. We supported their afterschool programming throughout the school year. And that was volunteering that my husband and I did together for three years. After I rolled off of that was around the time of Trump's election the first time.

I got involved with the Women’s March, and being a local, my task was housing. We connected across the city, started organizing by wards. Again I got burnt out, and it was like a good comeuppance from more of the DC natives about, “Okay so you can get housing for people who don't live here?” And so I was like, “Wow, what do I do with all this great education I'm getting? Because I'm feeling really upset with myself, but I'm not sure what to do.”

That's when I saw a Facebook post for Rising Organizers, and I was like, “All right, I'm going to do this fellowship. Maybe this will teach me how to do it properly.” Which is so funny because there isn't just like one way to organize. And the real thing that it taught me was that you have to organize through relationships, which means we have to connect through our stories. We have to be vulnerable with each other. So, I did that in 2017.

And then I did another march, which was a good lesson in — marches are great entry points, but you need to have the actual infrastructure of community, whether it's an organization or an issue for them to connect to. And both times it was like I was still too new in my understanding of things to help with that continuity. But yeah, March for Racial Justice was also a very powerful experience for me as well. And I did that with folks I met through Women's March and tried to connect them more with DC organizations.

So for the March for Racial Justice, my big task was to organize the local rally that was going to kick off the march for the national rally. So we started in Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill and then marched to the mall where a national rally was held. And so I focused on the programming for the local rally, which really gave me great grounding in like, who has been doing work and thinking about what are the cultural organizing elements that could pull together our community and really show the wide breadth of how beautiful DC history is.

So we had some indigenous drummers from Rising Hearts, a young DJ from Girls Rock DC, the Black Workers Chorus, and then speakers from different organizations that were doing work locally. And it's so interesting because I didn't know what to do with those relationships after that moment, but it's like because I stayed, we're all in the same sphere and we keep remixing in these different projects.

Emily Yeah. It's so cool that like once you get into one thing, people meet you, they pull you into another thing, and you just kind of build that trust over time.

KT Yeah. It's kind of like a friendship bracelet. You don't know where the pieces go, and it's like, you realize this pattern is made up, and you just keep going if you want it to repeat that pattern. Or you can make your own design.

Emily That's such a great metaphor. I love it. We should make KT-themed friendship bracelets. Also kind of on that theme, like because so much of organizing happens behind the scenes, and a lot of it's the same people, but other people don't necessarily see all the work that gets put into it. What would you want people to know, whether it's in DC or more broadly, about what goes into organizing and kind of the effort that you put in?

KT Organizing is showing up for each other and being in solidarity. So that could be putting zip ties on porta potties to make sure that they're ready for your march day, or it could be checking in on your neighbor when you know they had a rough time. Or it could be celebrating the birth of a neighbor's kid that has been doing community defense, and you want to make sure that they've got a meal train because as much as they've poured into the community, community is reciprocal.

Kind of thinking about it from the lens you're talking about where it's like maybe somebody doesn't know what organizing is, but it's continuing to show up for each other together and figuring out the next move. I love an organizing strategy. I love a campaign plan. But the first steps are figuring out the ways you can honor your relationships in ways that aren't transactional, that are meaningful to each other and negotiated amongst the people in that group. So yeah, whatever creates vulnerability and and celebrates the you of each person that comes into the space.

Emily It's pretty beautiful. And it's kind of like, it doesn't even feel like work.

KT And that's the beautiful thing is that those early experiences I had felt like work because I wasn't having that depth of exchange, and I was really task focused. And part of that was, I'm a mixed person so I would call it sort of that white savior mentality of like, “I said I would do this thing. I’ve got to do it.” But in order to have the plasticity to meet the need and the people where they are you have to have those relationships so you know a lot of times people burn out because there's not that trust

Emily Cool. Kind of on the theme of DC organizing specifically, what is something that you would want to change about how it works?

KT I don't know that I can answer that question as to how it works so much as what would I invite people to do? I think so much of our current moment would have us be afraid and like just sleeping on it. Kind of in that pandemic haze of like, “Well it's too hard.” What I ask folks to do is to just find their part, to find their piece. So this isn't like a change how DC works, this is just a how can you get involved more kind of an answer.

With my role as a Ward 5 co-chair, one of the things I do when I'm at church is I'll announce at the end of mass what's coming up. And I will say it's never my favorite thing to do to be in front of a crowd and tell them what I think they should do. But I'm moved to do it because it feels spiritually aligned to do so. I never take it for granted as like, “Oh, I can do that. No problem.” It's kind of important that it be a touch uncomfortable so that we can stay in touch with, is this something that I feel ego to do or is this something I feel moved to do. And I think that that's a real easy way to discern — not easy — I think that's an important way to discern what the right thing to do is. Like, “Will this challenge me and help us grow, or is this about me?”

Emily That's very cool. Thank you for sharing that. And I think another important thing about organizing is how you take care of yourself and stay inspired. And it kind of goes back to what you were just talking about in terms of pursuing things that you want to do for the impact of it rather than for the ego part. But how do you personally take care of your mental health and just stay motivated to do the work and get through some of the more difficult times.?

KT So that's another reason why it's so important to be vulnerable with people, so that you can share your needs. Because in my personal opinion, it's a great gift to share anything, whether it's a need or a talent or a resource. It's actually helpful to community when you say what you need.

So with the co-chairs, I fought for us to have four because we have a better balance when we have four. When there's only three, it's like, somebody's already got always got this work demand or a family demand. And we just struck a balance. When there's four of us, we can really take care of each other. And we can have the spaciousness to take turns in a way that doesn't feel maxed out.

So I think a good way to figure out your boundaries — I think is what this question gets at — is figuring out who you can trust and taking time to develop those relationships and moving at the speed of trust. It can be so easy to be so overwhelmed by all the terrors around us. If we center those relationships and take time to develop them, a lot of times in organizing, you get thrown together with people you've never met in your life. But take the time to get to know each other because it's going to make space for that self-care if you can be honest about your needs. And it can help you model for others and then you can have that circle of trust and care so that needs are met.

I think so many times in organizing spaces it becomes extractive. Like, “You said you would do this.” That's the beauty of it. When organizing is working well, it's not like a job. It feels like a community. It feels like love. It feels like endless possibility and it feels right.

We've faced a lot of tough stuff this past year, but part of what makes me feel so driven is I feel like I have that trust with my co-chairs, Dylan and Emily and Asmait, where we can laugh. We can cry. We can share good meals. We can check in on each other just as humans. And it's not just about like, “Hey, you said you’d do X, Y, and Z. Where are we on that?” So, as much as possible, I try to bake that into our community groups and whatever the structures might be. It's like, be real.

Emily It really does seem like it's about kind of the whole person and not just what you can bring to something or what skills you have, but who you are. And I remember someone telling me this before is like going into public interest work, they really care about who you are and not just what you can do. And I think that's something that really draws lines and is special about organizing and public interest work.

KT Not every shop does it. But I think for sustainability, for authenticity, for values alignment, it's incredibly important. As you know, I've worked at places where the values don't match the lived experience. So I learned that by the contrast. I was like, I don't want to do it that way. I understand once it's a paid structure and a paid experience, people are like, “Well, we don't have time. We don't have money.” But the reality is if you start from the community, that's not the metrics you're working off of.

You have to go at the speed of trust, or else you will get nothing. You know what I mean? You'll end up with a pile of hurt feelings and broken promises. That’s why people are so frustrated with politicians — it’s like when their values don't align with their actions because they made X, Y, and Z compromise, because they don't know what conversations were had behind closed doors. With organizing, the effort that I try to build around is for that level of transparency where it's not a customer service experience. It's an honest exchange among neighbors.

Emily That's very true. I like the “it's not a customer service experience.” Yeah. Now sort of not rapid fire questions, but these are the questions that I'm asking every interviewee. So in that context, what's one moment that kind of captures what you love about the work that you're doing?

KT There are a lot of them. So the most recent one, you were at. I think a great contrast is there can be really planned moments. You were recently with me at a rally and action we had at DC Bilingual on August 5th, where we were demanding justice for DC students to commemorate the one year of occupation and to try and center the joy and pride we feel as residents who've organized to protect each other. We took the street and the cops fully expected us to march. We didn't plan for the march, but like that was an aha moment for me because it had gone so smoothly for our group, we could have. And I really love the stories and the people we got to center in that rally.

On the flip side, there's the reactive organizing of — in the past week and a half, National Guard and some federal agents have been staging out of a school parking lot, which is supposed to be only under exigent circumstances. So now we're organizing a similar rally and that'll be Wednesday morning to call attention to, “Hey governors of various states, these National Guard are coming from: South Carolina, North Carolina. What are you doing?” They are not arresting people. They're not preventing any crime. They are literally just marching around our neighborhoods and inappropriately using a school facility. And would you want this in your neighborhood? Like it's not encouraging our students to come to class. It's not encouraging our staff to feel safe to be staff. It's not making us feel safe to be outside.

Kind of to your earlier point about what would you change about DC organizing — I wouldn't change, I would just invite people to come outside because I think that's what really creates safety. Like the absence of us is what feels unsafe. The absence of connection is what feels unsafe. So plan a neighborhood picnic. Take up space. As Free DC says, take up space, be joyful, organize. And let's go from there. So I feel great joy in being able to organize those really planned moments and great pride that we have the agility to be able to adapt as well.

Emily To your point about the National Guard, it's crazy that it's been a year. It's been pretty normalized, but it's like millions of dollars a day. People outside of DC don't really understand that this is just happening. They're just walking around, and they don't probably want to be here deployed for no reason.

NPR put out a piece that had some off-the-record conversations with, I believe, three National Guard talking about how they don't feel proud to be here. And it's interesting. I lead Know Your Rights trainings, and I think you've seen them. That Washington Post video clip I show, it hits different every time. I just led it twice last week. It was about how the increase in law enforcement presence is around cultural change moments.

If you think about all the money that's going into artificial intelligence and the upcoming elections, it's like they're trying to normalize this big presence here in our community with DC as an example. But there's troops being deployed in different communities all over the country. So as much as we can connect our stories and show how this is not normal and not okay and force these leaders to call them back, I think it's important.

What people have told me is that these National Guard will take these jobs for the money. They're coming from whatever backgrounds that need the money. So we need to eliminate the siphon for that money to be an option. Not that I want them to be going to terrible places, but this is not it. This is not effective. This is not working for our community. It is not working for them, like think about the psychology of working a job that is useless. You're not going to feel good about yourself, especially if you're extracted from your community and your home and your people. They're being hazed and we're being hazed. It's a crying shame.

Really is. This whole situation deserves to be talked about a lot. Kind of switching topics, who's someone that's been an inspiration to you in your work?

It's hard to pick one. So I'm going to not pick one.

My kid, Alisa, blows my mind because when a small person is in your life, you reflect on “What am I teaching?” And you reflect on their perspective. It really helps ground me. Sometimes especially the fem-identified people in our society can be trained to de-center ourselves. It really helps to have a child because there's what I want for me, but there's what I want for her. And it helps me remember that everyone is somebody's baby, when I see them outside.

I don't want anybody to be having their worst day alone. And that's what I want to teach her, you know? So if we're bike riding, we're running late, going to camp, we're going to stop and give an extra bottle of whatever we've got. I want her to see that. I want her to know that that's important, that we can make space for each other. And it can be something small, but it will be a lot to make sure that that person is hydrated if they're lying on the cement on a summer day, to acknowledge their humanity and take a moment to check in.

I think that's part of why so many of us are hurting is because we've denied our needs, and other people have denied our needs. And if we just see each other a little more, we'll feel stronger to reach out for help and to be in solidarity.

The other person I would like to highlight is my Uncle Will. He was like a first father figure. He lived that value of like, he would have given anybody the shirt off his back. He was a polio survivor, and if you can imagine this tall man with huge shoulders — he had huge shoulders because to compensate for his legs, he had really a powerful upper body — but walking like a bird on his toes.

The way he loved me was like the true definition of unconditional love, where he would have dropped anything to spend time with me. But I knew that that kind of love was openheartedness, and that's how he treated practically anybody he met. He passed away when I was 10. And at the funeral, everybody knew who I was. It was overwhelming to be a 10-year-old and be like, “I don't know who any of these people are and it feels like an ocean.” But to see that like that's how his love worked, that he was proud of who he loved and it was well known. And so I want DC to know that I love DC and I want to show up for DC.

The third person I'd like to uplift is Maurice Cook. He is the executive director for Serve Your City. He and I did stuff with Women's March together. And then he pulled me into March for Racial Justice. He just really centered me in thinking about what it means to people who built this city to be pushed to the side and to really center the idea of like, “What did they want? How can we be in deep community where it's not a strange conversation?”

I've been on a journey where I would like to be a full-time organizer. I'm sitting with whether this is an ego thing or not. I don't think it is. I just really want to align my time with that in mind. So that's on a very personal level of what I want for me. To me that means building capacity for others, so really connecting people the way I do in Ward 5 and across the city. I want to bring that to my professional occupation.

I'm not sure if it's the right thing or not because it hasn't exactly happened. I worked in adult ed for a long time around my food service experiences, and it was a pivot to start at ACLU five years ago, and it was not what I thought it would be and a great learning experience. But I still feel like I want to give it a try. I still feel like I give full-time energy to what I do, but it just feels like I would like to align my time in that way where that is my job. So that's a personal goal.

But a movement goal, I think we would really like to build up our non-cooperation efforts to be block-by-block, to make sure that we've got people who can tap into the city, to the ward. And we can have really good communication and fluidity for any needs so that we can have the skill to do the things we need to do, to take care of each other and the relationships.

KT So, go to an orientation. Free DC has orientations online, in person, in every ward. You'll have one out in Virginia, you said this weekend. Tomorrow. We try to meet people where they are, including interpretation, including child care, sometimes with food. So go to an orientation for Free DC. Decide if it's for you. Bring a friend. Talk about it.

If you'd like to support the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, we're trying to make it safer to be a pedestrian or a bicyclist or any person on wheels. We have two signature rides coming up this season. September 26th we'll have the 50 States Ride, and November 6th we'll have the Cider Ride. They offer three different bike rides that are 10, 30, and 60 miles long. So, go with what's your comfort level. Reclining bikes, whatever kind of wheels work for you. You can register for the length that works for you. They're fundraisers for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

We’ve been hard at work advocating for safer streets and safer infrastructure for over 50 years. And we would love your support just by enjoying one of our beautiful rides. It also includes a membership, so you'd be a year-long member of Washington Area Bicyclist Association and be invited to our other community rides and community events, learn more from our advocates, things like that.

Emily That sounds really fun. And it goes really well with what you were talking about with organizing being more than just kind of a job. It's like you have fun. You go on bike rides. You make friends.

KT Yes. It just went out in the newsletter, but for WABA, but my favorite bike ride is to go around the monuments at night. Alisa and I just had a date and did that a week or so ago. I find it to be such a beautiful experience, minus the new ugly attractions that are on the mall right now.

Emily So many of them.

KT Well, thank you for talking with me, Emily.

Emily Thank you so much for sharing so much. I'm excited that people are going to get to hear all of it.