Today we’d like to introduce you to Roc Rochon.
Hi Roc, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
For much of my younger life, I had access to participate in team sports. I was a student-athlete in college and when I left the team, I still played through local town recreation leagues and intramural sports. Beyond the “organized” sport, I am someone who has an appreciation for lifelong physical activity and movement. I believe that everyone should have access to accessible and affordable movement opportunities. Collective-community movement particularly. Rooted Resistance was founded in 2016 in Tampa, Florida.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a journey and with that comes all types of terrain. All and all I am a somatic abolitionist. My roots will always be through grassroots community-based organizing. When I think of Rooted Resistance and its growth– the growth for me involves the reach in which our program is known by the people! It’s about folks knowing that Rooted Resistance exist, that Black transmasculine and queer folks are centering collective healing spaces for us, by us through embodied movement, breathe, and political education, etc. I don’t know if I’m answering the question exactly so let me give you a few concrete examples. In my first 1.5 years, I created a WordPress website. It was simple. I got connected with a web designer through a friend of a friend. I paid a significant amount of money for my website to be revamped. It was a huge mistake and I will tell you why. First off it was exploitative at best. I PAY people for their services so that is not why I made that statement. The reason it was a mistake is that my website was all coded in HTML. Every time I wanted to update my website I would need to consult with someone skilled in HTML.
As I said, we pay our people for their services. A small business like mine does not have the capacity to shell out thousands of dollars monthly or even bimonthly. That’s not how we operate. You see, Rooted Resistance started with my own money. If I had it, we had it. Over the years, I have applied for and received a few grants. Most people would call these small grants but $250-$2500 grants for me and this work are major and they allow for the larger planning/offers for the queer and trans* community, pre-covid particularly. COVID-19 has been an evident challenge. Our weekly RootCamps in Tallahassee have been on hold since Spring 2020. So local community looks a lot different for me. The online platform for connection also looks much different now as I’ve shared before; we are a local grassroots community organization. I am humbled when we are looked at through a national lens and we will always be rooted in the local community whether that we Tallahassee or elsewhere—before COVID-19 and with the help of Rooted Resistance co-creators obviously canceled. This time has allowed for me to let ideas marinate and also think about different directions that I would like to go as far as my own learning/expansion with somatic liberation and healing spaces for Black trans masculine people, specifically.
As you know, we’re big fans of Rooted Resistance, LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Roc is the Founder of Rooted Resistance, LLC a program committed to reimagining healing and liberation through movement for queer and transgender Black, Indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC) in the US rural South. I believe it is important to map out how individual stories and community narratives connect to broader structures, systems, and patterns that affect and daily life. I believe in collective community power and I am committed to reimagining healing spaces for movement for Queer and Transgender communities. Additionally, I am Black, a transmasculine educator who received their Bachelor of Science in Sport & Leisure Management from Eastern Connecticut State University and received an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Florida. Roc is currently a doctorate candidate in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University with a focus on physical cultural studies, critical theory and decoloniality in qualitative inquiry. I believe ‘the body’ is a site of liberation, resistance, and healing. I unsettle sport with intentions of expanding critical sports studies of sport through a cultural studies lens.
I think it’s important that my educational background go last in any story about me. It needs to be understood that academia is apart of the colonial matrix that we operate in. Being a full time Ph.D. candidate feels like a further initiation into a hierarchical system that does not derive value from nor need validation from to have a sense of self worth. It’s layered… it’s a layered process. I value history and narrative and knowledge production is something that Black people have curatored in every facet of life and culture. I want readers to know that this brand is for queer and trans* people, especially QTBIPOC folks. I am selective on the talks, webinars, and panels we are apart of. If you are a QTBIPOC person and are looking for connection through movement, let’s get you connected. I am most proud of our brands beginning to present. If I showed you the logo we started with to the one we use now, you would see the vision has always been clear. It’s just evolved beautifully #StayRooted
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is a construct. Who created the term and the standards by which we believe what we believe is success? Being in a loving community. Reimagining a collective future and tapping into our ancestry and seeking the truth. Demanding justice and actively cultivating and nourishing ourselves and each other. Rest and resting. Compassionate, direct, loving accountability. Narrative. Story-telling. Dreaming. Breathing. Existing. Community gardens, farmsteads, and living. Belonging to ourselves. Knowing you are enough. Knowing you are deserving of tenderness. Understanding our (QTBIPOC) expansiveness will creating new paradigms. I do not know what success is but I can tell you somethings that I can imagine will help us define the new world, the new way of living, being, thinking that perhaps may get us to a point where we abolish ideas of success entirely.
Contact Info:
- Email: rootedresistance@gmail.com
- Website: www.rootedresistance.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedresistance/
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