We Owe You Nothing

Americans collectively owe over $18 trillion dollars in household debts — they’re burdened by student debt, haunted by ballooning interest and some folks are putting groceries on Klarna.

But this unjust debt burden isn’t shared equally.

Black people are disproportionately impacted by every facet of the financialization of our day to day lives. But beyond the numbers is — not just the physical and emotional toll — but a righteous rage that springs from our mouths as we laugh in the face of banks and creditors, proclaiming “Jesus paid it all” and “I’ve already forgiven myself.” This isn’t just refusal, this is a promise. Ashe.

In this poetry workshop, we’ll get vulnerable about what we owe, how these burdens feel — whether or not they weigh us down personally. We’ll use poetry prompts to consider what a “just debt” is. Some “just debts” are quantifiable such as Reparations for Chattel Slavery. Others are more difficult to tally — for example, the unending debt we gladly pay in service of the people and Mother Earth. Whatever the case, this workshop will urge us to move from despair to dreaming and from isolation to connectivity through the written and spoken word.

This workshop is facilitated by, Maddy Clifford. Maddy is an Oakland-rooted arts leader and Creative Media Strategist with Debt Collective, the nation’s first union of debtors. She spent a decade teaching creative writing in youth detention centers, on college campuses and internationally in Uganda and Argentina. Maddy holds an MFA in Poetry and her writing has appeared in Teen Vogue, Hammer & Hope and Shadowbanned Magazine. Maddy has also released a number of hip-hop projects, including a short-form album called, and the forty minute musical score for a Aerial dance piece called,, with Flyaway Productions.