11 Mar Empowering Antioch: Teki Flow Is Committed to Amplifying Voices and Holding Officials Accountable

Teki Flow is an organizer with Reimagine Antioch.

Interview, Malcolm Marshall

Reimagine Antioch organizer Teki Flow’s work is centered on uplifting voices of residents while holding city officials accountable.

According to its Facebook page, the advocacy group believes “public safety means access to fair housing, quality food, safe and clean community spaces, healthcare services including mental health care, and economic opportunity.”

Flow’s commitment to justice is rooted in her upbringing in Detroit, where she was involved in the Rosa Parks Pathway to Freedom program. Describing herself as a disruptor, she is not afraid to challenge the status quo and fight for a community that values equity and fairness.

In this interview, Flow shared her thoughts on the ongoing struggles in Antioch and her work to bring about real change for residents. This conversation has been lightly edited.

CC Pulse: Tell us about Reimagine Antioch and the work that your organization is doing in the community, particularly for Black residents? What inspired you to get involved? 

Teki Flow: Reimagine Antioch brings voice to the community. We have been able to help advocate for things like body cameras, advocate with ACCE [Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment] and [Rising] Juntos for rent control. We also brought attention to the police officers text message scandal when it came out.

I started building relationships in the community by holding Thanksgiving and Christmas events and things like that. We did backpack events just to get word out and talk to the community and see what the community wanted from us.

From that point on, we were advocating and making sure that the people’s voices were heard. It was like I told you so, because the community had already been telling us. The community had already been marching and everything. I just came in, and I wasn’t scared to be that disruptor. I wasn’t scared to help the community get their word out about the police officers.

We had a few demands and one of them that was met was the Antioch Police [Oversight] Commission. We fought to get that open.

When Trump got elected the first time, that’s when I decided to actually jump in and do something. My sister ran into Tamisha [Torres-Walker] and she introduced her to the Collective Impact class, which she told us about because my husband was formerly incarcerated and I was impacted. My husband and I decided to take the class. That’s when I learned the basics of organizing. And at that point, what I was hearing here in Antioch from Black folks that the police officers were doing them wrong — actually not only Black folks, you had Native Americans and Mexicans.

Also, I was trying to figure out how can I not be homeless anymore because of my husband’s former incarceration. They wouldn’t allow us into the apartment. We had the money and everything, but because his background was six years and not seven, we couldn’t get into that space. So Tamisha was like, “You need to go and see what they’re talking about at the City Council.”

At City Council, Kathryn Wade’s story is what activated me. When Ms. Wade got up there, I was like, there’s something I could do, but I don’t know what it is. Tamisha told me, “You got to learn how to organize. You got to keep doing what you’re doing so you can help the community get their voice out.” And that’s what I did. I continued to join different cohorts like SpadeWork and learned. Then, I got involved with the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice as a corps member at the beginning. We had community forums about why folks wanted the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice.

CC Pulse: What specific challenges are you hearing that Black residents in Antioch are facing?

TF: When I’m talking to Black people in Antioch, I’m hearing people focused on their children and their education. Also, the lack of anything to do here in Antioch for their kids. If they don’t have anything to do, then they’re going to be in trouble, because I have to work, because rent is sky high. They not working one job; they are working two jobs. So that’s one of their main concerns. People are struggling financially, and they are thinking about their kids and the future.

Because I am from Detroit and now living I’m here, I can compare and say that I have never struggled so hard in my life like I have here in California. I had never been homeless before.

CC Pulse: As a Black leader in the community, what has been your journey in advocating for change, and how has your understanding of Black history influenced your activism?

TF: I’m always thinking about, would I have been marching with Malcolm X, or would I have marched with Martin Luther King? I think I would have marched with both, but if I was marching with King, I couldn’t let them attack me, so I would have went to jail, or I wouldn’t have made it too many marches. I probably would have been with Malcolm X because I want to scream and shout in this time that we’re in.

So I’m taking strength from the ancestors, knowing that they did this in much more dire circumstances than we’re in. I’m excited just to be able to walk in their shoes. I’m excited to get ready and try to boycott and do it as a community, and I’m pulling energy from my ancestors.

CC Pulse: They were both disruptors, in their own ways. That’s why both of them were killed. If they weren’t disrupting, they’d probably be alive now.

TF: I’m taking an ethnic studies class, and I think a lot of our Black leaders — we have a lot of strong people in our community, but some of them might be fearful, because of the white people beating us up and tearing us down and burning our whole communities down or whatever — they are probably like, let me get my stuff, do what I do, and take care of mine.

I’m really hoping, not just Black people here in Antioch but everywhere, that we can just come together and be on one accord like our ancestors. Freedom was in mind and they meant that, and I [want] all of us … to really open our eyes and see that people are after us. 

CC Pulse: As you reflect on your work with Reimagine Antioch and the progress that’s been made, what changes or achievements are you most proud of, and what’s on the horizon for the group?

TF: What activated me was Ms. Wade and her story. She had been trying to get them to listen to her, but they wouldn’t listen to her. They were saying she was crazy. We had three or four healing events, and Ms. Wade was really a big part of it. If she wanted to cry for her son, she was able to do that in that space. So that’s my most proud moment. She [got a settlement from the city], and now people have to believe her, because her son’s name and what they did to him is in the text messages.

There’s a lot coming up for Reimagine Antioch, because we have this political landscape that we’re in, and I don’t think any of us can sit still. So we’re revamping, but we’re still concentrating on making sure that we have equity in our police department and making sure they are being held accountable. We’re going to continue to create safe spaces and have our healing events. And it’s not just healing from the police officers — people just need to heal period. I’m looking forward to Reimagine Antioch, working really closely with our City Council and watching the budget, because we have three new council members, and we have two council seats that will be up the next two years.