Meet dr. monique liston | Founder, Chief Strategist, Joyful Militant

We had the good fortune of connecting with dr. monique liston and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi dr. monique, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
One of the riskiest things to be in America is Black and poor. So often entrepreneurship is seen as the product of affluent risk, people with money, time, and other resources to fall back on if the new business venture doesn’t work out. However, I understood the true risk was passing up the opportunity to bet on myself. I am a first-generation college student with parents that had jobs that we now refer to as essential, work that could not be done from home by sitting at a computer. My risk was thinking that just because I was born into a situation, the situation would define how I showed up in the world. So the risk was me believing the lies I was told by society that I could never live abundantly, that entrepreneurship was beyond me and that I was going to have to be broke for the rest of my life.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I founded a Milwaukee-based, Black-operated research and evaluation firm. Our business is meant to disrupt the capitalist structure by speaking truth to power through research and data with nonprofits, foundations, school systems, and local government structures. We provide education, facilitation, research, and evaluation services to improve design, implementation, and decision-making at all levels. This business was started to protect my intellectual work and became an opportunity to grow and develop with like-minded individuals — providing safety and security while nurturing their intellectual, material, and emotional growth. This was not easy. It still isn’t easy. I am frustrated daily by how I am forced to navigate an oppressive system to increase access to equitable living for myself and my employees. UBUNTU is not just a business, it’s a culture, it’s a community, and it is what we see as necessary to build to survive the world we live in.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Milwaukee is our home!

We would do morning yoga at Embody Yoga with Joanna Brooks.
We would take many walks by the lake front.
Each day we would have lunch at a different place at the Sherman Phoenix — Funky Fresh Spring Rolls are mandatory.
We would do a self-care splurge shopping at the Kujichaguilia Cooperative.
We would buy gifts for our loved ones from The Bronzeville Collective.
We would have a burger and shake from Kopps Frozen Custard.
It must be summer so we would be going to a street festival, either Juneteenth, Center Street Days, Locust Street Days or Brady Street Festival.
We would spend some time with Venice Williams at Alice’s Garden.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to Howard University and my forever professor, Dr. Gregory Carr. Shoutout to every Black woman who has invested in me as a friend, sister, colleague, confidant, or partner!
Shoutout to adrienne maree brown and Alexis Pauline Gumbs because the two books in the Emergent Strategy series keep me going!

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