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Zedé (Zuh-Dae)

@zuhdae

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writer + strategist 🌲 mpls
building parallel systems of care
founder @seedsworthsowing
📧 [email protected]
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None of us arrived at this work clean. We should not be expecting error-free humans in the alternative systems being built. This piece dives into what causes concentrated power abuse in community spaces, why it happens even with the best of us, and how the Community Welfare System framework addresses it.

This one was quite a vulnerable one to write, but in the hopes that this brings understanding to one person, then my job is fulfilled.

Lengthy read but I promise you a thoughtful one. Substack link in bio! 📖

If you're interested in the Community Welfare System, follow @seedsworthsowing!

#explore by @zuhdae

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5 months ago

Where you live, is everything ok? Is your neighborhood organized? Have you ever spoken to your neighbor?

Your local practice is actually what makes you effective for global solidarity. When you skip the local work, you're a performer with wonderful commentary and zero skin in the game.

New essay on Substack tonight. Please read it entirely to engage with it in good faith. <3 by @zuhdae

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4 months ago

A lot of new faces around here so I figured it was time to properly introduce myself 🫶🏽 by @zuhdae

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4 months ago

Happy 109th birthday to Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer. 🌱

If you've sat in one of my workshops, read my essays, or caught me on a live, you've heard me say her name. She comes up so often in my teaching that some of you finish the sentence for me now.

She fought inside the system to lessen the blow, and she built outside it so her community would need it less. That is the most thoroughly documented blueprint for parallel systems we have (in my opinion), and it shaped everything I teach through the Community Welfare System.

When I sat down to build the Community Welfare System, I needed proof that a community could build its own structures for food, housing, and care while still living under the systems that were hurting it. I needed to see someone do both at once, and I needed it written down. Fannie Lou Hamer is that proof.

Her legacy matters especially now because so many of us are being told to choose between fighting the system and building something of our own. She refused to choose. She showed us how to do both, with far less than most of us have today.

Today's essay is my tribute to her work and life in detail. Link in bio.

Thank you, Mrs. Hamer. We are still building. 🙏🏽💚

#fannielouhamer #parallelsystems #communitywelfaresystem by @zuhdae

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3 days ago

This one is for the person who may say "if I’m not an organizer, then what am I supposed to be?" and for every organizer trying to figure out what to do with all the people who want to participate. None of us are off the hook for building towards a better world. by @zuhdae

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11 days ago

the plan has always been clear. At least to me...

started this caption trying to be lighthearted and then accidentally explained my decade of work and life mission, so 😅 hi I'm Zedé, and everything I've ever built really has been the same generational fight, just this time with a new blueprint model I'd like to share with you. welcome to my parallel systems era 🛠️🧰

as always, beat the brainrot by taking 5 mins to learn something cool n new. read the rest on my substack (handle: @zuhdae) by @zuhdae

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17 days ago

leftist money discourse, as far as I can tell:

1. talk about your salary, it's solidarity 🤝
2. unless it's from so-and-so, then apparently you're compromised, untrustworthy and a sellout now
3. stay broke, make sure everyone can afford you & your skills, it's more radical
4. also pay your rent, feed yourself + kids, survive somehow, good luck 🤞🏽🍀

cool system. very coherent 🤡🎪

(You would do yourself a disservice not reading this entirely on my Substack. It'll be the best 9ish minutes of your life. Overcome the brainrot by sitting and reading a little)

#explore by @zuhdae

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a month ago

We are building at the speed of trust. Not intentionality. Some of y'all aren't really listening though.

Read the rest on my substack (in bio) by @zuhdae

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a month ago

If you believe abolition is about extremism and strong opinions, then you have not only lost the plot but have not done our ancestors justice with what they were trying to convey with this work.

Pulled from my essay titled "Black And White Thinking Is Not An Abolitionist Framing" dated Aug 27, 2026. You can read it on my substack (handle is @Zuhdae and in my bio) by @zuhdae

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a month ago

While I freely share with you my step by step approach to begin your journey of organizing, and I express that your internet confidence will not translate well into real life building spaces, I will tell you upfront that there is actually no magic formula to the work.

You have to put yourself out there, and that’s not something anyone can teach you or something you can learn from a post.

Downloading the free, 8 page CWS worksheet can help you figure out your own comfort level first. And help you identify what you’re actually willing to do. Be sure to pace yourself in a way that doesn’t tip into something debilitating.

You can read the entire essay on my substack (handle is @zuhdae). by @zuhdae

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a month ago

This is my urgent message to you: start incorporating acupuncture in your life and watch what happens to your body and mind by @zuhdae

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a month ago

And this does not mean to live in a grey area. You must be clear about your foundational beliefs and moral values. This just addresses the way internet culture has invited extremism to the point where the bottom line has been disregarded.

You can read the rest on my Substack @zuhdae by @zuhdae

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a month ago