Beloved Futures

E8 Locating joy in the liberation of resource with Justine Kiva Epstein

Aubrey Morgan Yee / Justine Kiva Epstein Season 1 Episode 8

Justine Kiva Epstein is an organizer, facilitator, writer, naturalist, tracker, rites of passage guide, ad-hoc ritualist, council carrier, and bird enthusiast attending to the cry of the earth and people for ancestral healing, cultural renewal and systemic reimagination. In her own words...

"I am descended from an expansive mix of peoples from the European continent, most prominently the British Isles, Ireland and Germany, as well as Lithuania and Russia of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. My ancestors crossed the Atlantic in many waves and due to many different circumstances over the past ~400 years. I am very much still in the process of uncovering the individual and collective stories of my people, both before their passages and after, and how their lives and legacies shape the world and my place within it. 

I live with an enduring sense of responsibility to uncover and acknowledge the truth of my ancestors’ lives and actions and the larger narratives and ideologies of racialized capitalism and dominance that they lived within, and in some cases built — and to do what I can with my time here on earth to reckon, grieve, heal and transform those legacies into something more humane, whole, and just.

My deep longing for justice and the dream of a world of balance and regeneration have guided me to ask what is mine to do in service to healing, liberation and repair for myself and my people? I have found that the most meaningful and impactful work I can do is to turn towards my ancestors and the money I have inherited in their names, and begin to uncover their stories, and release that unjustly accumulated wealth into the communities most directly harmed by its creation.

Over the past few years organizing with Resource Generation I have begun to redistribute my own inherited wealth and mobilize other people with
wealth and class privilege to join me. I am currently redistributing 50% of what I have access to and am working to increase my giving in the
coming years while organizing my family and extended family towards reparative action and right-relationship with money, land and power." (Bio from https://www.morganhcurtis.com)


Justine’s work and collaborations…

https://resourcegeneration.org/

https://walking-water.org/

https://www.morganhcurtis.com/justine-epstein

https://www.morganhcurtis.com/ancestors-money

https://m4bl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/defining-reparations.pdf

https://www.morganhcurtis.com/decolonial-dames-of-america

https://www.facebook.com/shadetreefoundation/

Follow Aubrey’s work

www.ourbelovedfutures.com

@aubrey.morgan.yee

https://aubreyy.substack.com/