10 Things to Know This Week
One day until #GivingTuesday! On Tuesday November 29th, every donation to Black Women’s Blueprint will be matched up to $5,000! Your donation will empower us as Black women and girls to tell our truths and continue the work of our Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to access the healing that Black survivors of sexual and state violence deserve, to fight for justice by mobilizing as survivors as experts in our own lives to effect policy change multiple levels, and finally, to seek reconciliation through coming together in community. On Tuesday November 29th visit our donation page to contribute to the fight for justice and an end to sexual violence.
16 Days of Activism: From November 25th through December 10th the 16 Days of Activism is a call to end gender-based violence worldwide leading up to world Human Rights Day. We at Black Women’s Blueprint are centering the struggle and experience of Black women worldwide with sexual violence as well as celebrating the legacy of Black women’s activism that we continue. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to read the her-stories of Black women’s human rights struggles. Don’t forget to share with us how you are continuing the legacy of resistance using the hashtag #16DaysofActivism
Visioning Resistance: A Black Feminist Call to Action: December 5th 6:30pm. As we continue to make sense of the consequences and results of this election, Black Women’s Blueprint is opening it’s doors for our monthly member meeting. We invite you to add your wisdom and experience to the national call to action in response to the current crisis surrounding this country's next President-Elect. We are committed to creating a blueprint for resistance that honors all of the expressions of Blackness and the many identities that will be impacted under the new presidential regime. This space is first and foremost a Black women's space, which also prioritizes Queer, Trans, Interxex and GNC Black community-family. As such, we center their lives, voices, struggles, and ideas first, always, as a practice, and an undoing of legacies of erasure, devaluing and minimization. We welcome allies to support the lifting up of these voices and centering of these experiences and will address allyship as part of our discussions of resistance. For more information visit our facebook event.
Words of Fire Call for Papers has been released! Please answer the call to action by clicking on this link. Given the impact of the 2016 Elections on Black Women and All Survivors, Black Women's Blueprint calls for resistance and urgent communal care through this call to action and convening. Words of Fire will carry us with full momentum into the next phase of Black feminist futurity where our thriving and surviving are not only paired with struggle and resistance but rebirth and regenerated sources of power and global justice.
A Thousand Forms of Resistance Resources by Black Women’s Blueprint: BWB believes that Black women warriors are stronger when we move from a place of collective energy. We recognize and want to honor the incredible well of information, knowledge and strength that is inside of our larger community and pool our resources, at all levels, to form a resistance toolkit. This toolkit will be used as a basis of discussion at our December 5th member meeting as well as a source of inspiration as all of us continue in the fight for justice. The Thousand Forms of Resistance Toolkit is a living document and we invite you to add to it and share among community.
Women of Color Barter Network: Black Women’s Blueprint is continuing our long tradition of promoting solidarity economy. The WOC Barter Network is for women who want to build an interconnected socioeconomic community. A community for traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, gifting, and swapping. Solidarity Economy dates back to centuries past where there was no universal form of currency/money. Instead, people worldwide bartered, lent, and traded for everyday goods and services. The only difference today is that we can do it at remarkable speeds, thanks to technology. Through technology we can create a redistribution market that transforms businesses, values collaborative consumerism, and helps us change the way we live. We call everyone to a creative, supportive, and collective action. To join or for more information contact sally@blueprintny.org
BWB on the Map: This week our Executive Director Farah Tanis is in California convening with all Black TA providers to share experiences and vision for the future.
Real ways to support the Standing Rock Tribe, Sacred Stones Camp and Red Warrior Camp in Protecting Sacred Land and Indigenous Human Rights Protests are continuing at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline that, if built would destroy sacred tribal grounds, add to the destruction of our environment and lead to massive displacement. BWB stands in solidarity with our Indigenous sisters as they put their bodies on the line to protect their human rights. Read more here about how to concretely help as an ally in this movement.
Gabrielle Union on the Bullsh*t of Being Black in Hollywood: Months after Nate Parker’s rape accusations surfaced and weeks after the Birth of a Nation opens at the box office actress and survivor Gabrielle Union discusses further about how her assault has affected her, as well as her experiences trying to dismantle racially and sexually oppressive systems in the entertainment industry. Read the interview here
On This Day: On this day the Ku Klux Klan trials began in Federal District Court in Columbia, South Carolina. Of the original 220 Klansmen who were indicted, only five were prosecuted. 53 others pleaded guilty and the cases against the rest were postponed. Between 1886-1957 there were 154 known cases of Black women lynched in the U.S.
Black Feminist Quote of the Week
I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement. ~Angela Davis
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