Mk: And welcome to the Child and Its Enemies. A podcast about queer and neurodivergent kids living out anarchy and youth liberation. Gear up the child and its enemies. We believe that youth autonomy is not only crucial to queer and trans liberation, but to anarchy itself. Governance is inherently based on projecting linear narratives of time and development and gender onto our necessarily asynchronous and atemporal queer lives, and youth and teens are at the center of this form of oppression.
Our goal with the podcast is to create a space by and for youth that challenges all forms of control, and inspires us to create queer and trans liberation. ageless networks of care. I’m your host, MK Zariel. I’m 15 years old and I’m a youth correspondent at the Anarchist Review of the Books, author of the blog Debate Me Bro, and organizer of some all ages queer spaces in my city and online.
With me is Atlanta based activist Temperance Blick, one of the lockdown activists of the StopCopCity tendency. Hello, Temperance!
Temperance: Hi! Yeah, that’s me, Temperance Blick. My pronouns are he, they, and I. They it, or it’s complicated. And yeah, I’m a forest defender working to stop Cop City.
Mk: As many of our listeners know, you recently locked down at a breast feeding gory construction site in protest of police militarization and the destruction of the Welani forest.
Can you talk a bit more about this action and defend the Atlanta forest tendency?
Temperance: If you haven’t heard the city of Atlanta is right now constructing a 90 million plus tax funded facility to train the police. It’s been named by Atlanta City Council, literally an urban warfare training facility. It resides outside of Atlanta city limits, and the locals have not had the opportunity to agree upon it vote upon it anything.
In fact, the mayor offered the petition method to put it on the ballot. But when the forest offenders gathered over a hundred thousand signatures, twice the amount that he asked for, by the way, he decided he’s allowed to change his mind.
Mk: Wow, that state repression is so terrible and also so undemocratic of him to ignore public opinion whenever it doesn’t suit his political goals.
Trans youth face this kind of hatred too, given all the legislation targeting us and the way our voices are ignored in the name of protecting the children. Which, of course, doesn’t include the lived experiences of actual children. Given the similar oppressions we face, would you say that forest defense is a youth issue?
Or a trans issue?
Temperance: Both. On one hand youth are the ones who have to experience the future, and I don’t need to tell you how environmentalism and preserving the few green lungs we have left on the earth massively impact what that future looks like. Also, the militarization of the police doesn’t look good for people who don’t fit the weird American Gothic status quo.
It doesn’t look good for anybody, to be honest.
Mk: So in terms of tactics to create youth liberationist futures or a temporal youth liberation in the here and now, Do you think civil disobedience is relevant in the same way that actions like yours have been in environmental movements? What role would you say disruptive actions like this one play in youth liberation, if any?
Temperance: I don’t want to be the one to advise youth to act disruptively but, yes, civil disobedience is Very relevant, and I would say necessary, I’m reminded of this book I read in middle school, it’s called Frindle by Andrew Clements. To sum up grown ups have a very strict view on what the world is.
Cause what’s taught to us is hard to unlearn. But young people? Young people get to witness for ourselves, like adults know it and it freaks them out. But the truth is y’all are often right. Youth have advantages, more than you realize.
Mk: Thank you so much for giving voice to that.
Yeah it isn’t that there isn’t a knowledge of what youth can bring to liberationist movements. It’s that it threatens power, which is, of course, the point of anarchism. And I love that art and media were so inspiring for you as a younger person. When I was in middle school, I read it. Emma Goldman’s Anarchism and Other Essays for the first time, and it was my first experience of truly having a purpose and a community in life, and of feeling accepted in my queerness.
It’s so beautiful to find something meaningful in our teens, especially in middle school, when we’re faced with some of the worst social hierarchies. So on that topic, were you into community organizing or anarchism, forest events, youth liberation as a kid and teen? If so, what kind of organizing did you like to do?
Temperance: My schooling was unconventional. I went to an alternative school. But my parents taught me to think for myself. So I broke gender roles and spoke out about liberation from a young age. Also I had the internet, so I got schooled on things like gender and race equity when I, wasn’t a lot younger than you.
Censorship is rough, but it’s also impossible. There’s always a lot that slips through the cracks.
Mk: Alternative schools are so liberatory. I’m glad you got to experience that. As a homeschooled person, I can really relate to self educating and finding meaning in ways that are inherently outside compulsory education.
And yeah, censorship is so oppressive and very often targets queer and trans media. If you’ve heard of the initiative Ban Books Back by Firestorm Books, there are absolutely anarchist initiatives to help queer youth circumvent that kind of governance. But it’s still traumatic to live in a society where even queer thought is policed, where queerness is criminalized.
So speaking of abolishing all control, what would have made organizing more accessible for you at the time? I think if
Temperance: decent education had been accessible, and towns being walkable, I think the things I could do if I had been taught valuable and useful skills as a child, which aren’t often taught in schools.
Mk: That is so real. If youth have skills that can transform society, then again, that means that ageist power dynamics are less of a thing and that youth aren’t as dependent on adult supremacy to survive. And yeah, I wish you’d had access to that too. I’m so sorry that was a struggle. So how would you say that the defend the Atlanta forest tendency does with youth inclusion and how could it be more inclusive to organizers of all ages?
Temperance: Oh my friends and I have made an effort to make child friendly spaces. We have activists of all ages and maybe someday you’ll be able to interview my friend, Dr. Ari’s kid remix. He’s four years old, and he leads our chants at pro I think he’s two, but he Oh my god, that’s amazing!
Mk: I love the image of a two year old getting involved in an environmentalist movement. Like, when I was two, I just didn’t know any other humans yeah, that’s awesome.
Temperance: Yeah, it is. It’s incredible. We love to see young people come around. It’s inspiring. It reminds us what we’re doing this for, and it’s a good reminder to be good,
Mk: it really is, yeah. Adults intentionally making anarchist spaces kid friendly is such a powerful show of solidarity, and makes the community better for everyone. I’m sure that all the adults in that space love having a two year old kid involved. What advice would you have for kids and teens and, toddlers, I didn’t know that was a possibility, but cool. Who want to get into environmentalism and anarchy and defend the Atlanta forest.
Temperance: I would say, learn, talk, volunteer, volunteering is fun and you learn things. Make friends wherever you can, create the cycles you want to see in the world.
Whatever you want the future to look like, Start doing it now, in all the small ways however you can.
Mk: The advice to live out anarchy in those small, doable ways is so important. As kids and teens, how we can organize might sometimes be limited, especially if we’re within the education system, nuclear family, facing state repression, whatever it is.
But there are always ways to resist, and for every form of status depression, there’s always something beautiful that needs care and support. For example, the Weelani Forest. On that note, any shameless plugs relating to your organizing or stuff you think is cool?
Temperance: Yeah, nothing personal, I would say go download the app, no thanks just for fun.
I like the podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff. I think everyone should hear it. And follow StopCopCity and at DefendAtlantaForest on Instagram for updates on the movement to StopCopCity and Defend the Atlanta Forest. Free, Palestine.
Mk: Yes, thank you so much for sharing your youth liberation journey.
If anyone wants to learn more or join us on Discord and Signal, our website is thechildanditsenemies. noblogs. org. I’m MK Zariel, this has been Temperance Blyck, and you’re listening to Child and Its Enemies.