Activists and Agitators
About Activists and Agitators
Activists and Agitators is an annual YWCA Columbus event dedicated to uniting the Columbus community and inspiring attendees to pursue greater social change together than we can achieve alone.
This event fosters dialogue, provides practical resources, and educates the community to promote empowerment and inclusion. We created Activists and Agitators with the belief that anyone and everyone can be an agent for social change. If we all commit to intentional, anti-racist, direct action and harm reduction, our collective impact will be profound.
Activists and Agitators 2025
Wednesday, Oct. 8th
Registration begins at 4:30 p.m.
Program will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Columbus College of Art & Design, Joseph V. Canzani Center
About Activists and Agitators 2025
This year, we turn our focus to one of the most urgent challenges facing our region: the $25 million funding gap threatening Central Ohio’s shelter system. As we spotlight this crisis, we will also honor 20 years of strength, resilience, and courage from families who have passed through the doors of the YWCA Family Center — and the bravery of those who led the charge to make it a reality. Join us for an evening of powerful storytelling, bold ideas, and collective commitment to housing justice.
Featured Speaker
Ijeoma Oluo will join this year’s Activists and Agitators program to share her experiences growing up in low-income housing with a single mother, offering powerful insight into the realities of housing instability. Her work on race, gender, and systemic inequality will help illuminate the broader forces that shape who has access to safe, stable housing.
Ijeoma Oluo (ee-joh-mah oh-loo-oh) is a Seattle-based Writer, Speaker and Internet Yeller.
Her work on social issues such as race and gender has been published in The Guardian, Esquire, Washington Post, ELLE Magazine, New York Times, NBC News and more. She has been featured on The Daily Show, All Things Considered, BBC News, and more. Her #1 NYT bestselling first book, So You Want To Talk About Race, was released January 2018 with Seal Press. Her second book, MEDIOCRE: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, was published December 2020 with Seal Press and her newest book, Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World - and How You Can Too, was released January 2024 with Harper One.
Ijeoma was named one of the Most Influential People in Seattle by Seattle Magazine, one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle by Seattle Met, one of The Root's 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017 & 2018, and is the recipient of the Feminist Humanist Award 2018 by the American Humanist Association, the Harvard Humanist of the year 2020, the Media Justice Award by the Gender Justice League, and the 2018 Aubrey Davis Visionary Leadership Award by the Equal Opportunity Institute.
Panel Discussion
Ijeoma will join an upcoming panel of leaders committed to addressing housing instability and the systems that drive it—locally and nationally. This important conversation will center the real stories and challenges facing our communities today as well as the real action needed to confront the issue head-on.
Panel details coming soon—stay tuned!
Additional Performances/Artists
More programming details coming soon—stay tuned!
Thanks for Engaging with Activists and Agitators 2024!
Testimonials
“The speakers were outstanding and brought unique perspectives to the conversation… I learned lots about organizations that I had not interacted with previously and (felt) encouraged by the knowledge and enthusiasm with those individuals with whom I spoke.” - Activists and Agitators Attendee (2024)
"I enjoyed every minute (of the program) . . . Ibram X. Kendi was amazing, I loved the panel and hearing their different views, and the poet brought tears to my eyes and touched my heart. I loved that the event was closed with the Briggs choir!" - Activists and Agitators Attendee (2023)
"I was so impressed by [Activists & Agitators], which I attended for the first time, and by the caliber and diversity of the people that were featured. The YWCA's activism on housing equity issues in Central Ohio is so critical." - Activists and Agitators Attendee (2022)