Meet The Perennials - Kimberly Ellis

THE WHAT SUMMIT SESSIONS COLOR ME PERENNIAL

As with many of the Perennials we feature, Kimberly Ellis is a great friend we met through another great friend when Kimberly was the Executive Director of Emerge California. We invited her to speak at our Summit last year and she moved women to tears (and to action). Two years ago, Ellis emerged on the national stage as she stepped forward to lead the California Democratic Party into the 21st Century, with honesty, integrity and a focus on building quality relationships with delegates. She lost the race by a mere 62 votes to the questionable incumbent who recently stepped down due to sexual misconduct. Kimberly is running again for California Democratic Party Chair this November and though we rarely discuss politics here, our values are aligned with Kimberly’s commitment to creating a culture of inclusivity, transparency, and fairness. Find out more about Kimberly Ellis here then listen to the poem she wrote for us and to honor women and Perennials everywhere.

The What Summit – Spoken Word by Kimberly Ellis 

Lasting for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring. Perpetual, eternal, persisting - at all seasons of the year. Everlasting.

Color me Perennial.

As the 5th largest economy in the world, here in the Golden State, we don’t follow trends, we set the trends.

And if ever there was a time for women to disrupt the status quo and reinvent the future in a more fair, equitable and just way, that time is now.

Because we live in a time where she remembers clearly - them standing over her, hands over her mouth, laughing…

The time of “I can’t breathe, hands up, don’t shoot.”

A time when inequality is a matter of life or death.

But finally, at long last, the world is ready. Ready for feminine leadership.

A new generation of women leaders, we are emboldened, educated and woke AF. Our world is ready for you. Ready (or not) for me.

Cleopatra, Isis, Nefertiti, Athena, Manat, Hatshepsut. Diana. It’s time to dig deep and remember who we are and where we came from.

The givers and protectors of life, birthing everything from ideas to civilizations, we were rulers, warriors, queens, and Goddesses.

Let us not forget that power is never given. It is always taken. And it is time for women to wake up, speak up, rise up, take back our power and lead.

No time to be angry and discouraged, because - well, we’ve been here before.

Wanna know what it looks like, what it feels like, what it tastes like to be knocked down, slapped down, beat down again and again and again and nevertheless to persist? You’re looking at it. Lemme assure you, we gon' be alright.

It’s time to get off the sidelines, flex your activist muscles and report to the battlefield. We all have a role to play - and being here today proves you’re ready.

Ready for what? The What. That’s what.

It’s game time, ladies. Time to rally for truth and love. ❤️