North Star Cohort 8 was a beautiful gathering of 23 fellows from 10 cooperative groups working in art, healing, homelessness, education, and more. It was also our first all-Black women and femme cohort. Founded by two Black women, Danielle Mkali and LaDonna Sanders Redmond, the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship is anchored in Black feminisms. It was exciting to cultivate a space continuing this tradition and practice!
“What a joy, what a privilege, and what an honor it is to have witnessed this circle of powerful people,” says Nonkululeko (Nkuli) Shongwe, Director of Community Wealth Building. “The brilliance, clarity, and commitment lit up every space we shared!”
North Star Program Manager Leanna Browne reflects, “It was powerful to see multiple groups consisting of family members—sisters, mothers and daughters—coming together to cooperate. It was also powerful to see newer bonds and people who had worked together for several years moving through this fellowship together.” Take a journey through our 2024-2025 fellowship below!
The Journey Begins
Rooted in Sankofa and guided by purpose, Cohort 8 didn’t just show up to learn. They came to build. Over seven months, we grew into a community of learners, dreamers, and doers. It wasn’t about consuming knowledge. It was about living into the legacy of Black cooperative power, honoring the past to create a freer future.
Nkuli explains, “There is a deep Black cooperative history that flows through your work. From washerwomen unions and mutual aid societies to the Underground Railroad and the Freedom Farm, this fellowship stands on the shoulders of Black women who built what they needed to survive and thrive.”
Session One: Honoring Black Cooperative Memory
We kicked things off with stories, food, music, and connection. Places like Greenwood weren’t treated like distant history; they were real and alive in the room. We grounded ourselves in the truth that Black brilliance and self-determination have always been here. Dreaming together was the first radical step. “We were reminded that Black women have always been at the heart of liberation—not just resisting systems, but creating new ones in their place,” Nkuli says.
Session Two: What is Black Wealth?
We expanded the definition of wealth beyond money to include care, ancestry, connection, and love. Grounded in Black feminist thought, we looked to foremothers like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Harriet Tubman, and Ida B. Wells not just as icons, but as everyday teachers whose lessons still guide us.
Session Three: Naming Harm and Building Alternatives
We named the systems that harm us: capitalism, scarcity, control. We also looked at how even nonprofit spaces can replicate those patterns. But the focus wasn’t just critique. We moved into imagining and building alternatives like mutual aid, land trusts, and worker-owned businesses rooted in care and trust.
Black Study Session: Solidarity Economy and Kwanzaa
North Star’s Black Study Sessions are Black-centered spaces open to all, where we dive deeper into topics related to Black cooperative work. Our December session featured Ebony Gustave with Art.coop and Kenna Cottman and Jayanthi Rajasa with Voice of Culture—two alumni from North Star Cohort 6!
“During the session, Ebony invited us to reflect on how the solidarity economy shows up in our ancestry, shared how Black communities are meeting their needs in the solidarity economy, and encouraged us to consider how we can put Ujamaa, the fourth principle of Kwanzaa representing cooperative economics, into practice,” Leanna explains.
“These were powerful examples that invited us to reflect on our lineages, honor how Black communities practice the solidarity economy, and invite us to practice cooperative economics in our lives and with our communities. Kenna and Jayanthi also reviewed the Nguzo Saba (the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa), and helped us reflect on how we can utilize the principles as a daily practice. It was a necessary reminder to return to and practice these values.”
Sessions Four & Five: From Vision to Structure
These sessions were about grounding our ideas in real infrastructure. We explored governance, consensus, democratic decision-making, and back-end systems—not as boring logistics, but as ways to practice dignity, shared power, and collective care. Structure became a container for imagination.
“We were reminded that structure doesn’t have to be rigid,” Nkuli reflects. “It can be a vessel for our values: a space where dignity, imagination, and collective care thrive.”
Session Six: Learning from the Diaspora
We zoomed out to look at Black cooperatives in Ghana, Tanzania, Jamaica, and the U.S. These weren’t just inspiring stories—they were reminders that across the diaspora, we’ve always known how to build together. It felt like reconnecting with something ancient and still very much alive.
Session Seven: Funding the Future
We explored how to move money in ways that reflect our values of justice, community, and care. From grants and loans to presales and bartering, we talked through creative and grounded ways to fund our work that feel aligned and liberatory.
Session Eight: Legal Tools for Liberation
Legal frameworks weren’t treated as barriers. They were tools we can shape. We explored bylaws rooted in equity and shared power. We also talked about restorative justice and conflict transformation as necessary parts of community. Liberation lives in the details, too.
Black Study Session: Self-care and Community Care
Our second Black Study Session was all about coming back to ourselves, featuring Priscilla Momah with Coco Womb Wellness and Alanna Morris with I A.M. Arts and Roots and Wings Institute for Embodied Wisdoms. Through sound healing, breathwork, and somatic practice, we centered rest, softness, and pleasure not as an afterthought, but as strategy. Boundaries were honored and healing was held as essential.
“It reminded me of the importance of taking care of our bodies, minds, and spirits individually and collectively and how embodied practices can support us in our cooperative work,” Leanna says. “The sound bath and guided meditation Priscilla facilitated was dynamic and restorative. The sounds of the singing bowls and instruments Priscilla played washed over me in unexpected and impactful ways. Alanna rooted us in the values of Black Light Research, a methodology for ritualized living and performance practice, and guided us in embodied practices that connected us to the power of movement. She invited us to reflect on what we are giving and receiving and shared powerful takeaways that we could continue to explore and move through.”
Final Presentations: Seeds Planted in Community
These weren’t just presentations; they were offerings. We shared what we’d been building with love and intention. It felt like a beginning more than an ending—an invitation to keep going together.
The Legacy of Cohort 8
We’re leaving the program with tools, relationships, and deep vision. But more than that, we’re carrying forward a legacy of Black cooperation. Not just to preserve it, but to grow it. What we built here is just the beginning.
Thank you for letting us walk beside you. Thank you for trusting us with your visions. The work you are doing is nothing short of liberation work and we remain excited and energized for all to come!
