I'm Ashley C. Ford, and this is Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice, produced with Vox Creative. Let's get into it. Here we go. I'm sitting here

about some of the conversations we've had so far in this show.

We've talked with organizers and defense attorneys and graphic artists and musicians.

There's so many different ways to use the talents you have to make the world a little bit better.

And this work takes time, years, decades, sometimes lifetimes. And it's not always a

straight line with clear wins. But that doesn't make the work any less worth doing. That's

certainly true for our guests today. My name is Philip Agnew. Philip B. Agnew. Currently,

I'm a community organizer. and I co-founded an organization that is celebrating its 10-year

anniversary this year called The Dream Defenders.

The Dream Defenders started in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

We're going to talk about what it looked like to start that movement and organization and

what Phil is up to today.

But first, you know I always like to start at the beginning.

Let's start with the source.

Family.

I'm the oldest of four boys.

I'm born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, to a preacher and a

teacher. As an oldest sibling myself, I have to say, light work. Light work. Light work. Four boys. Four boys.

I'm the oldest. Wild. Yeah. My mom is a teacher. She taught at my school until I was in third grade. And my father, smartest man I've ever met in my life. He was on Jeopardy when I was in the third grade. He bet it all on the double jeopardy and lost it. He lost it. Yeah. And he came home with a salad shooter.

I don't know if you remember the salad shooter.

But I also grew up very, very feeling, very much feeling like an outsider.

We did go to church a lot.

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