Sun-Seeker MKE Leads Community Organizing

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Sun-Seeker MKE is a Black Trans-led abolitionist collective who do community organizing through multi-issue praxis. Their six-point model with which they frame their activism encompasses anarcho-abolition, Black and Trans liberation and defense, youth liberation and advocacy, continuous education, interdependence and transformative justice. The collective shares local resources, harm reduction materials and mutual aid efforts to support those struggling, plus they host workshops and socials in order to build solidarity and safety between marginalized circles.

We spoke to Sun-Seeker MKE organizers Yante Turner, Darlene Johns and Lucifer Adams to learn more about their work.

The conversation about Sun-Seeker MKE started in 2020 following the historic uprisings demanding justice for victims of racial violence. Milwaukeeans had been taking to the streets in mass numbers making their voices heard, and several folks wanted to keep that momentum for social change alive in a way that was practical, responsible and liberatory. “It was a cultural shift for many people,” Turner recalls. “We kept asking ourselves how we’re going to build real solutions that don’t rely on a nonprofit to get funding for it. It became a quick understanding that either we need to do the work for our communities or no one else will.”

Johns adds, “What we see a lot even within queer organizer spaces is a lack of intentionality, a lack of Trans folks given space and a lack of education around how to be supportive of the Trans community…and it’s really frustrating. We can’t have conversations about all of us without all of us there.”

“That’s not to say that people haven’t been doing this work before us,” Turner maintains. “We’re just trying to do it in a collective fashion.”

Turner coined the collective’s name after seeing a sign at the zoo depicting a bird as a “sun-seeker” which to him felt representative of someone going after radical change and flying above all others.

Cultivating Trust

Sun-Seeker MKE is not membership-based; they work in pods in order to cultivate trust and fellowship between organizers while learning together as cohorts through studying theory and reading revolutionary literature. “We have to really know each other in order to show up for each other,” Johns notes.

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They use their skill sets and expertise to hold workshops and trainings for others as well. One of their current cohorts, Transforming Trans Violence, teaches Trans organizers how to do crisis-based work and prevent gender-based violence. “We bring everything we learn back to our own communities outside Sun-Seeker,” Adams said. “It helps us all strengthen where we come from as well as who we’re communicating with.”

Currently there are eight folks involved in Sun-Seeker MKE and they are in the process of adopting James Baldwin’s political framework on issues such as intersectional feminism and Black queer politics. Since coming together, the collective has collaborated with different social justice organizations and community spaces who align with their values and goals. They make a point to always include their comrades’ information and materials whenever they table as a gesture of solidarity through sharing resources.

One of Sun-Seeker MKE’s most prominent partnerships has been with a farm southwest of Milwaukee in Elkhorn called Loveland Acres, owned by Scarlett Salomone. Johns and Turner have been working with Sullivan since 2020, as Johns explains. 

“Scarlett’s truly a beautiful person. A big part of working with her on the farm has been us building out programs that will help bring people to the farm while also bringing the farm to people. We’ve been talking about how we’re going to get rid of food deserts and how we’re going to feed our communities. One of the first public things we did as Sun-Seeker was a small food drive in Reservoir Park where we were making lambs’ quarters and salads for people, and that was such a beautiful experience to see everyone feel connected to both the farm and the land.”

Sun-Seeker MKE’s Trans Survival Fund is their mutual aid initiative of distributing money to marginalized folks. After several months of fundraising for their first iteration, the collective was able to help 15 people with this effort. “We move at the speed of trust,” Turner said. “If you need $400 then you’re going to ask for $400, and we aren’t going to ask you what it’s for.” 

Intersectional Lens

While they aim to help as many people as possible, Sun-Seeker MKE prioritizes the Trans Survival Fund for those most affected by systemic oppression from an intersectional lens. “Everyone is economically struggling right now, particularly Trans folks, and particularly Black Trans folks and disabled Trans folks,” Adams points out.

The collective also recently held a DIY-style event introducing their art piece “Holistic Safety” where they held a critical reflection with folks about what safety and community care means to them. This topic will be an ongoing conversation of theirs.

In terms of future work, Sun-Seeker MKE plans to continue cultivating relationships with like-minded organizations and community members for the remainder of 2023. “We want to bridge the gaps between organizations that already exist,” Johns said. “One of the things that we talk about a lot in movement spaces is how the work becomes so siloed, and there’s many reasons for why that happens - sometimes it’s egos, sometimes people don’t get along, or sometimes people don’t see how the work is all interconnected. We’re moving beyond that by saying that our goal is to take care of our people, and that means putting our differences aside so that we can do that in the most effective manner, strengthening what’s already here instead of recreating the wheel.”

Sun-Seeker MKE is co-hosting the Freedom Art Auction with Black and Pink Milwaukee this Saturday, August 26th at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.

“The ultimate goal is always going to be bigger than ourselves,” Turner said. “Our work is a drop in the bucket. We’re part of a larger movement of people fighting for Black sovereignty and Trans sovereignty, and we have to put our worlds together if we’re working towards abolition because our people are under attack in real time.”

Visit Sun-Seeker MKE’s Linktree at linktr.ee/sunseekermke and follow them on Instagram @sun_seekermke for updates.