-- URGENT NATIONAL CALL -- Tues, Jan 17 at 12:30pm Black Women March and Build A Common Political Ag
We have always known that our very survival is political. We heed the urgent call for politicized spaces in which we can articulate and use a diversity of tactics to rapidly respond and resist to threats posed by all harmdoers in our communities, and especially those emboldened by, or already a part of, the incoming Presidential Administration.
We encourage you to register for a National Call, hosted by Black Women's Blueprint and our partners this Tuesday, January 17 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm EST to discuss the state of Black women and our common political agenda in the next 100 days and the next 4 years.
Over the last week, Black Women’s Blueprint has heard from many of our sisters that our statement on our intentions to participate in the Women’s March on Washington has encouraged you to look more closely at how to make your own voice heard during this critical week for our nation. Whether your demands are for reproductive justice, ending gender-violence, ending sex trafficking and child abuse, better access to housing, economic security, education or child care, Black women's ability to control our own bodies and our own lives is at stake.
Here is what you can and should do this week in preparation for building the new world we already carry in our hearts.
Register TODAY to participate this Tuesday, January 17 from 12:30-1:30 pm EST in An Urgent National Call: Black Women Building A Common Political Agenda. We will host a conference call to discuss the potential impact of Women’s March on Washington (or to weigh in about the impact of your local March) and how we want to move forward when the day of marching is over. You will receive call details upon registering.
Make a monthly gift to Black Women’s Blueprint and fund Black women’s efforts to be on the frontlines of a unified opposition movement over the next four years. We will also reserve some of these funds for bail and legal support should unanticipated escalation against Black women occur next Saturday, January 21 at marches around the nation.
Plan to march with us on January 21. Email bwbmarchonwashington@gmail.com for more information on our own pre-March meet-up location in DC or locate a sister march in your local area.
Stay tuned for more details on our post-March debrief event, From SNCC and Civil Rights to Black Power and The Women's March on Washington: A Multigenerational Political Meeting on Black Women and Resistance, happening a few short hours after the March on January 21 in Washington DC. The event will feature members of SNCC, Black feminists Beverly Guy Sheftall, Fania Davis, Jamia Wilson and a community of Black women. This convening is open to Black women, girls, transgender people, and their allies.
Now, more than ever, Black women can and must take action to seize the opportunity, in this seemingly stark vacuum of decency and dignity in national political discourse, to chart a blueprint for our own liberation, grounded in compassionate care and mutual aid.
The March is simply one starting point in a sea of possible next steps for our movement. For BWB, it also reflects the one-year anniversary of our unprecedented Justice Ride to Oklahoma City last January to stand with the Black survivors of ex-cop convicted serial rapist Daniel Holtzclaw and symbolically stand with every survivor of sexual assault/rape and other sexual brutalization by State agents across the country.
We assume (although we will never accept its inevitability) the burden of Black women to be the experts in securing physical and metaphorical safe passage for our own loved ones and broader communities. We know what Harriet did with her rage. We know what Ida did with her rage. We know what Ella did with her rage. We know what Fannie did with her rage. We know what Rosa did with her rage. We know what we plan to do with our own rage.
We march as a call to the people of this nation and the world to take proactive steps to organize and resist any form of discrimination or violation of human right on January 21st and in the first 100 days and in the next four years. We march as Black women in solidarity with other women. It isn’t just about our individual wants and needs. We march for and with our elders and young people. We march in our commitment to the human rights and sacred land of Indigenous peoples; we march to protect reproductive health and choice; we march as survivors to stop sexual harassment and assault in all workplaces – our streets, schools, and in public and private spaces.
In fierce solidarity,
Black Women’s Blueprint
P.S. Unable to make it to the March but still want to help out? Copy, paste, and Tweet to your family and friends: Support @blackwomensbp 2nd Justice Ride to March on DC. Help #BlackWomenResist hatred, violence, fear. #WhyWeMarch. http://bit.ly/2irxNnY
Black Women's Blueprint info@blueprintny.org