Bryan Perlmutter is a North Carolina native and a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he received a B.S. in business administration and nonprofit studies in 2013. He is the founder and director of Ignite NC and is also currently leading the development committee of the Southern Vision Alliance. At N.C. State, Perlmutter worked to build coalitions to oppose budget cuts and tuition hikes. During his senior year, he helped to found the North Carolina Student Power Union.
From 2012 to 2014, Perlmutter served as the communications and development director for the Youth Organizing Institute and was among the first 17 people arrested during the first Moral Monday in 2013. He has become a leader of that movement, serving as the youth speaker at many events. Perlmutter has appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews regarding youth and student voter suppression in North Carolina. He was the 2016 winner of the Mario Savio youth activist award and delivered the commencement speech at the 2014 N.C. State University graduation for the nonprofit studies department.
Daily Kos: Can you tell us a little bit about your organization and how it was formed?
Bryan Perlmutter: Ignite NC was founded in August 2013 by veteran youth organizers and leaders in the NC student movement as a way to fight back against new voter suppression laws and connect and train young people across campuses, geography, and identities. The founders understood that young people historically had played a leading role in fighting for justice. However, in the case of the new voter suppression laws, young people were not active in the immediate resistance. Ignite NC was started out of a need to bring young people into the social justice movement in NC to not only fight back against immediate regressive laws but to build long-term power for the youth and student movements.
DK: What is your personal journey that led to your activism with this group?
Perlmutter: I began student organizing in 2011 at N.C. State University. I was a North Carolina native and had been involved in campaign work in the past, both as a volunteer on Obama’s 2008 campaign and in some community projects in Charlotte before I began college. When the general assembly was in session they had proposed massive budget cuts across the board. One of the largest cuts was to the public university system cutting hundreds of millions of dollars. At the time, I was able to connect with students not only on my campus but across campuses that wanted to build a campaign and fight back against the immediate implications of these cuts, including tuition hikes and some majors being eliminated. The struggle for access and affordable higher education continues today. But when I graduated from college, I was able to reflect on both my organizing experience and the landscape in NC, and I saw a need for an organization that could intentionally train, connect, and run campaigns to build the power of young people in the state. It was at this moment that I became a part of the founding team of Ignite NC.
DK: Given all the politics swirling around in North Carolina, what do you see as Ignite NC's role in it?
Perlmutter: Ignite NC is committed to allowing those most impacted by injustice and the issues affecting them to be leaders in implementing solutions and leading campaigns that advance equity in their lives. The Ignite NC base is mostly people of color and mostly queer. We have seen our role is helping to facilitate and coordinate responses as it relates to the HB2 (anti-worker, anti-LGBTQ) legislation. This has included campus rallies, occupations, and helping to mobilize on a statewide level with other organizations fighting back against this law. We see our role as giving young people tools, resources, and space to facilitate the response they want to have. The political moment we are in—not only in NC but across the country—calls for a deep investment in young people. While folks are demanding justice in the Black Lives Matter movement we must unconditionally support folks on the front lines and not try to stifle or redirect energy. There is something happening in NC, people are taking action at an unprecedented level and we must continue to train organizers, win over the hearts and minds of every resident in the state, and win policies that increase access to participation in democracy and protect the lives of black and queer people.
DK: What will victory look like to your group and how will you measure it?
Perlmutter: "We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes" --Ella Baker
Victory for the people in Ignite NC and the people we serve will look like equity in education, it will look like city and state budgets that reflect community needs of education, transportation, housing and healthcare—not more jails and police. Over the years and especially at this critical moment, we measure success by the number of people that we are bringing into the social justice movement. We know that the forces we are up against are well resourced and have centuries of propaganda and institutions propping them up. We need people across issues, identities, and geographies to be part of an interconnected movement to change the conditions in people’s lives in this country. We build our success on the number of people we are reaching and bringing into organizations fighting back to create the world we want to see. It is not enough for folks to come to one rally, or sign one petition--while those things are great we need more trained organizers and activists on the front lines. Victory this upcoming semester for Ignite NC is reaching 150,000 young people, along with training and stipending 50 youth organizers on 17 campuses. However, we know this is not enough, it is only the beginning.
DK: What can Daily Kos readers do to help?
Perlmutter: We are a grassroots, youth-led organization in the South. This oftentimes makes traditional philanthropy resources hard to obtain. If you are willing and able to make a financial contribution it would go a long way to helping to support our work. If you are unable to contribute and you live in NC, fill out the “people over money” pledge and we will follow up with you about opportunities to join our work and get involved. Lastly, if you are not in NC, we need you to join an organization in your local community or start one that advances a world of equity not criminalization.
This post is part of a series conducted in partnership with Movement 2016, a new campaign to fund some of the best community-based vote groups in the country. To date, Movement 2016 has raised over $2 million for local organizing. To find out more, head over to www.Movement2016.org.