Each year at Life is Living, People’s Kitchen Collective hosts a space for our community to feel nourished. This year, to honor the 55th anniversary of the Black Panther Party (BPP), we asked 10 year old Mila Terry-Koon and BPP alum Ericka Huggins to be in conversation about intergenerational activism and the powerful legacy of the BPP survival programs.
Join us online for this moving conversation and more on Saturday, October 9th 11am-12pm PT. Register here to attend. When you register for Life is Living, you’ll receive the link for PKC’s program.
This event will have ASL interpretation and live automatic captioning.
See you there! In the meantime, check out the brilliant bios of our incredible guest speakers:
Mila Terry-Koon
Mila Terry-Koon is a 10-year-old Black and Chinese artist and activist from Oakland, California. She enjoys creative writing, reading dystopian fiction, cooking with family, and playing lacrosse. Mila has been studying cello since she was three years old, and for the past three years, she has been taking piano lessons and learning beat making/music production.
When Mila was five months old she attended her first protest (“Teach Banks to Share”) which was organized by the Colorful Mamas of the 99 Percent. At age four she attended her next big protest in response to police violence against Black people. At age six Mila concluded the San Francisco Trump inauguration protest by singing “This Little Light of Mine” in front of hundreds of people. Since then, Mila has participated in Asians 4 Black Lives and Reclaim MLK Day activities. She began her first business, Creative Commonalities, with her younger sibling in 2020, designing earrings made from up-cycled materials. Mila is committed to exploring how she can contribute to positively changing the world.
Ericka Huggins
Ericka Huggins is an educator, leading Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate, and poet.
For 50 years, Ericka has used her life experiences in service to community. From 1973-1981, she was director of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School. From 1990-2004 Ericka managed HIV/AIDS Volunteer and Education programs. She also supported innovative mindfulness programs for women and youth in schools, jails and prisons.
Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2008 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. From 2003 to 2011 she was professor of Women and Gender Studies at California State Universities, East Bay and San Francisco.
Ericka is a Racial Equity Learning Lab facilitator for WORLD TRUST Educational Services. She curates conversations focused on the individual and collective work of becoming equitable in all areas of our daily lives. Additionally, she facilitates workshops on the benefit of spiritual practice in sustaining social change.