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Hashtags to Action: Building Authentic Solidarity
In the wake of 2020’s racial reckoning, corporations and institutions rushed to post black squares and issue statements of solidarity. But when the trending topic faded, so did the commitment. The result? Subjugated communities are more disillusioned than ever, able to spot performative allyship from a mile away. True solidarity can’t be about optics. It’s about risk, sacrifice, and showing up when the cameras are off.
As a Black, Jewish, and queer educator with degrees in African American Studies, Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Asian Studies Raven Schwam-Curtis knows firsthand what it means to navigate communities that sometimes fail each other. With over 350,000 followers across platforms, Raven democratizes academic frameworks like intersectionality and coalition building, translating complex theory into actionable practice.
In this keynote, Raven challenges audiences to interrogate their own complicity, charting a path from virtue signaling to genuine accompliceship. Drawing on historical examples and contemporary case studies, they break down what separates brands like Ben & Jerry’s (who called for dismantling white supremacy) from companies that engaged in performative allyship. Be prepared: this talk doesn’t offer comfort. It offers clarity and a framework for organizations ready to move beyond performance into transformative action that centers the needs of subjugated communities.
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Beyond Bagels & BBQ: Rebuilding Black-Jewish Solidarity
Black and Jewish solidarity played a pivotal role in shaping the progression of the Civil Rights Movement. We often think of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with Dr. King, his legs praying. And young Jewish activists like Andrew Goodman who were murdered alongside Black organizers fighting for voting rights. These examples are harrowing and powerful testimonies to the prowess of the Black and Jewish alliance. But do they tell the whole story? By the late 1960s, the coalition fractured. Jewish assimilation into whiteness, diverging views on Israel-Palestine, and the rise of identity politics drove a wedge between communities that once struggled together. Today, as antisemitism and anti-Black racism both surge, the need for renewed coalition is urgent. But is the repair required to revive this epic alliance feasible?
Raven Schwam-Curtis is both Black and Jewish, living the full complexity of this relationship. Through academic study at Cornell and Northwestern combined with content creation reaching hundreds of thousands, Raven has become a leading voice on intersectional liberation at the nexus of anti-Black racism and antisemitism.
This keynote traces the historical arc of Black-Jewish relations from postwar solidarity through the fractious 1960s to today. Raven breaks down how antisemitism and anti-Black racism both serve white supremacy through distinct but connected mechanisms: conspiracy theories about Jewish power and narratives of Black criminality that uphold systems of domination. Audiences leave with practical tools to recognize how liberation movements interconnect, concrete strategies for building authentic coalition, and renewed commitment to collective freedom.
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From Friction to Freedom: Coalition Building That Actually Works
Over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in one year. Black maternal mortality rates at crisis levels. Missing and murdered Indigenous women erased from public consciousness. Multiple ongoing genocides. The urgency is undeniable. Yet movements for justice keep fracturing along lines of identity, ideology, and strategy. Coalition building has become so morally absolutist that any political misalignment means cutting ties. This approach won’t get us free.
Raven Schwam-Curtis lives in the interstitial. As a Black, Jewish, queer educator, Raven knows what it means to confront homophobia in Black spaces, anti-Blackness in queer spaces, and antisemitism across movements that should be united. With academic training from Cornell and Northwestern plus a platform reaching 350,000+ people, Raven translates Black feminist frameworks like the Combahee River Collective’s “interlocking oppressions” into practical tools for building power across difference. Their work draws on Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, and contemporary organizers to chart a path from theory to action.
This keynote provides a concrete roadmap for collective liberation grounded in three principles: care and discipline in communication, holding complexity without losing conviction, and identifying alignment without demanding ideological purity. Raven breaks down how to navigate political friction, when to preserve relationships versus when to walk away, and why our movements must be led by those experiencing the brunt of systemic harm most intimately. Audiences leave with frameworks to build coalitions that can actually win, understanding that their liberation is inextricably bound to everyone else’s.
Raven Reveals
Raven Schwam-Curtis (they/she) makes disappeared histories visible through accessible education.
As a Black, Jewish, and queer educator, Raven’s work emerges from the intersections where communities overlap, clash, and must find common ground. After earning degrees from Cornell University and Northwestern University in African American Studies, Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Asian Studies, Raven left academia to democratize knowledge being gatekept in ivory towers. What began as grad school vlogs evolved into a platform of 350,000+ followers learning about intersectionality, collective liberation, and coalition building.
Her keynotes don’t offer easy answers. In corporate boardrooms and college campuses alike, Raven refuses to flatten complexity for comfort. Raven provides historical context, calls out complicity, and charts actionable pathways forward. In spaces where difficult conversations about race, religion, sexuality, and power must happen, Raven creates conditions for transformation. Our freedoms are linked, and liberation demands we show up for each other.
