#BGPSS15 Chat w/ @BondfireRadio & @Blackgirlproj (with tweets) · thebgporg
Have you grabbed your tickets for this weekend’s Sisterhood Summit? Learn more about the event via this Storify from yesterday’s Twitter chat with Bondfire Radio.
Donation-based tickets (no minimum or maximum) are available, so grab them while you can!
We’re remixing our org Tumblr to be fresh and new after October’s Sisterhood Summit and posting daily on our summit site, so head over there for the freshest, most up-to-date info. And if you have not already registered, do so soon as spaces are going quickly!
It Did Not Start With Stonewall:
Black Lesbian Elders Tell Their Herstories
( Video uploaded on Jan 12, 2007 )“Our revolution didn’t start with Stonewall. African American lesbian elders tell the tales of gay New York life in Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx before the world-altering Stonewall rebellion. In this clip they recall, raids and suffocating laws and racial discrimination faced within the gay community.” - On January 10, 2012 | ELIXHER
(via quantumfuturism)
2015 CFP
This year’s theme is When We Free: Black Women, Girls & Emotional Emancipation. The submission queue closes tonight at 12AM EST
We had something scheduled to post this morning, but deleted it to bring you what may be a convoluted message. This is not planned, but off the cuff, so please hand with us for a minute.
Black people, across the globe, are living in the most surreal and absurd space imaginable. Some of us recognize it, and some of us don’t. We are constantly goaded to assimilate into whiteness which for all intents and purposes, is pathological at best. “Speak this way, wear these clothes, study this…,” they say but where has it really gotten us? Across the globe Black lives are devalued regardless of how well our clothes are tailored or how many degrees we have. And to be a Black woman renders you less than invaluable, you are invisible…unless and until you are a white woman who cherry picks traumatic aspects of Black identity to frame yourself as tragic mulatto savior, but we will not mention her name.
And then we have Black folks worshipping in a sanctuary of their own making slaughtered. Cut down in one of the few places where Blackness (all aspects of it) can be free to roam while most of the public commentary is about guns and mental illness and not about racism. Call a spade a spade. Racism, institutional and individual white supremacy fueled by entitlement and insecurity is killing Black folks globally. It is killing us physically, spiritually, and intellectually.
Black folks are so wounded that many of us are clinging to beliefs and actions that are anti-us! We are following charlatans and opportunists who look like us in order to grasp on to some flicker of hope. We are expected to perform like champions while being shrouded in trauma and please let’s not forget the double-handed beat down of race and gender that Black women and girls suffer with daily.
It takes more than platitudes to heal. We cannot keep singing “We shall overcome someday…”. When is someday? Never!
What is to be done? What can we do individually and collectively? We see anti-blackness being meted out globally from Texas, to France, to South Africa, to the Dominican Republic to Chicago and all points in between without signs of mitigation or abatement.
These issues has been given superficial bandages for too long. It is time to go deeper—opening up wounds, digging out the infection, and allowing real transformation and healing to occur. What that looks like will be different for many, but the brilliance within the Black communities can make this happen.
Many of you know that we sent an email out a couple of weeks ago saying that we “quit” and are no longer doing this work. That email was born out of frustration and despair. We are going to remain and go harder than we ever thought possible, though not clear yet on the specific actions we will take, we love Black people, Black women and girls, too much to not provide a space for individual and collective healing and transformation.
Thank you for sticking around and reading this and know that we love you all.
CFP: Sisterhood Summit V
The Black Girl Project (BGP) is holding its fifth annual Sisterhood Summit, a symposium designed to provide a platform for young women and girls to develop the tools to advocate, express, create and inspire, while also building active and sustainable networks on local, national and global levels, in Brooklyn, NY on October 24, 2015. The symposium this year is themed: When We Free: Black Women, Girls, & Emotional Emancipation.
“Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.” Zora Neale Hurston
“Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.” Nikki Giovanni
This year’s summit, is inspired by the important and much needed work begun by the Association of Black Psychologists and the Community Healing Network, Inc. and their Seven Keys to Emotional Healing, Wellness, and Empowerment for Black People healing circles. Our fifth Sisterhood Summit will center the emotional healing and process of freedom and liberation for Black women and girls*. It is an opportunity for participants to engage in dialogue and interactive workshops that will allow them to ask questions, engage viewpoints, and deepen their insight in their own emotional well-being and self-care.
From the movements Black women and girls have led over the past year, to the successes we may each share when one of us shines, to the harsh and enraging realities of what is happening to our Black youth: Black women and girls must have a space to interrogate and heal from emotional and historical trauma. This year, The Black Girl Project has decided to dedicate our Sisterhood Summit to providing just that: intergenerational Black healing spaces. As all other years, we welcome parents and caregivers of the young women and girls present to join us for a specific track uniquely created for them. There will be a parent track of workshops and tools to support and help facilitate additional conversations and healing circles led by those people who have dedicated their lives to the health, wellness, and liberation of Black women and girls.
We believe at BGP that it is always important to provide a space for a variety of perspectives to engage, grow, and that through the collective sharing of knowledge, telling of our stories, and standing in solidarity with one another that we are able to enrich, broaden, and transform ourselves and our communities.
We are seeking submissions until July 13th for When We Free: Black Women, Girls, & Emotional Emancipation around the following core pathways**:
History of Black resistance
Centering pleasure in sex/uality
Power and gender roles and identity
Representation of healing and Blackness in media, film, literature, and/or history
Intimacy, communication and consent
Sexual agency, rights, power and education
Sexual health
Coping strategies when interacting with law enforcement
Healing from trauma, heartbreak, etc.
Historical trauma and Black women’s bodies
Reproductive justice, health, and rights
Building networks of solidarity with Black trans women
Online and virtual representations of healing and survival
Survival of QTPOC (queer, trans, people of color)
Challenging heteroseixm
Building networks of solidarity with Black disabled women
Centering the lives of Black trans women
Finding community resources
Food as nourishment, affirmation, and freedom
Friendships among Black women and girls
Deconstructing/Destroying misogynoir
Strengthening your relationship with yourself
Additionally, this year, we will have a section of the summit dedicated solely to parents and other adult caretakers.
Questions to consider when preparing your submission:
What are forms of healing from trauma?
How do we build solidarity with communities that are oppressed?
What are essential things to know about our bodies as they heal?
What does intimacy look and feel like?
How is sexual pleasure experienced after trauma?
Why may sexual pleasure be a healing experience?
What are ways we can build virtual and 3D spaces of support?
How do Black women and girls find safety and security online?
Living a full and healthy life on a budget/set-allowance/fixed income?
These submissions can be in the form of presentations, performances, screenings, workshops, panel discussions, and/or interactive installations.
Submissions should include a 500 word abstract, a resume, accompanying portfolio (if applicable), and a letter of support from a mentor if you are 18 or younger. Application materials should be submitted to this form. We encourage applicants abroad to apply as at this year’s conference, we would like to provide an intercultural videoconferencing exchange.
*The Sisterhood Summit is open to all people who identify as Black and women and/or girls and is inclusive of transgender women and girls as well as people who identify with any femininity/femmeness/etc. spectrum.
**A core pathway is accessible for all those who identify as Black and as a girl/woman. We expect each proposal submitted to understand the summit is inclusive and thus, will be relevant to cis-, intersex, and trans identified Black women and girls.
Interns Wanted!
The Black Girl Project is seeking committed interns to help engage and grow our existing community. We are a community organization that utilizes the arts and culture to develop leadership, critical, and analytical thinking skills in order to assist Black women and girls to lead liberatory and revolutionary lives. Outlined below are 3 internship descriptions, details on how to apply and an…