August 2020 Cultural Work Roundup

The meaning of success can vary across time, space, and bodies; however, success is the common goal and enemy for our innermost and collective selves. How can we draw success in a shape that allows us to heal and grow? Is strategizing pear-shaped? An endless wave? An octagon with two circles in it? Below is a list of BIPOC makers, radical thinkers, and doers who can guide and ground us, featuring recommendations by Cultural Work Intern Lillyanne Pham at lillyanne@apano.org and APANO's Arts & Media Project (AMP) members.

Watch

What Does It Mean to Be An Abolitionist in 2020? – Hosted by Allied Media Conference, featuring Marcus (CR Portland & Care Not Cops), Rehana (CR National), Kamau (CR National), Cory (CR Portland & Care Not Cops), Jamani (CR National) Moderator: Mason (CR Portland & Care Not Cops) on July 25, 2020. Here, Critical Resistance (CR) discusses the complexities, histories, theories and practices of Prison Industrial Complex abolition.



Transformative Justice in South Asian Spaces – Hosted by Equality Labs, featuring Mimi Kim, Soniya Munshi, Yalini Dream, Rokana Mun, and Api Chaya on July 30, 2020. This webinar explores the possibilities of transformative justice and its resistance to the criminal legal system through the perspective of South Asian and Asian American feminists. Recommended by Roshani Thakore.



Feminist Abolition & Transformative Justice: A Conversation – Hosted by Allied Media Conference and Asian American Feminist Collective, featuring Leila Raven (queer mama, prison abolitionist, community organizer, and New York City native) and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (queer disabled femme writer, organizer, performance artist and educator of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent) on July 21, 2020. Transcript. Drawing from their personal experiences, Leila and Leah describe their entrance into and relationship with transformative justice. They also connect their journey with transformative to their work in feminism and abolition.

Practice

QUIET STORMS – A group exhibition curated by Ruby Joy White, on view July 18–August 9, 2020, with Brittain Jarrett Jackson live streaming on July 31, 2020 (6 p.m.) and an Artist Talk live streaming with Christine Miller & Ruby Joy White August 9, 2020 (TBA). Other artists include Claire Weitz, Latoya Lovely, and Jamila Aurora Dozier. Please email info@nationale.us to set up your private viewing or stop by during their limited hours. “We invite you to experience the fluidity of Black dreaming and illumination with the philosophies of non-disturbance, non-interference, and celebration of this space of Black Radical Imagination.”



Stop Killing Us: A Black Lives Still Matter Exhibition – Curated by Don't Shoot PDX; Located at Holding Contemporary, 916 NW Flanders St, Noon to 5:00 PM, Thu–Sat, August 6–29. For Don’t Shoot’s second exhibition, they will emphasize the purpose and power of direct action. This multimedia exhibition “will include photographs, acrylics, protest memorabilia from Portland’s spirited history, and looped documentaries, including a piece called State of Oregon that details the sentencing of two white supremacists who murdered Larnell Bruce in Gresham in 2016." Recommended by Roshani Thakore.



Holding Space for Black and Brown Youth – Hosted by Brown Girl Rise, “Our mission is to cultivate a sisterhood between girls and femmes of color who reclaim their connection to land, health, body and community.” This event will be “a safe space for BIPOC girls, young trans and non-binary femmes (ages 7-17) to engage in collective healing and radical self-care.” It will occur every Wednesday from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM on Zoom, registration required, hyperlinked in title!



Foundations Yoga – Hosted Tara Sonali Miller of Bhakti Yoga Movement Center on Thursdays at 7:15 AM (8/6, 8/20, 9/3, 9/17). By donations, proceeds go to Black Prosperity Fund. “Join me to move energy, be in connection with your body, your breath, to grieve, create, imagine, rage, and sustain for our collective, ourselves, and our movements. Let’s make space for all of it, together.”



Resilience Series: #maskouthate – Hosted by APANO, featuring Wendi YuLing (Artist Facilitator) and Kulsoom Shah (Somatic Facilitator) on Zoom, Aug 12, 2020 6:00 PM. “#MaskOutHate is a series of virtual workshops for communities of color from the Portland area, led by local BIPoC artists. In partnership with the APANO Resilience Series, we will come together to brainstorm mask designs that can be leveraged as anti-racist messaging tools for folks most impacted by profiling and racist violence. We will also be partnering with local businesses after the workshops to provide a revenue opportunity in the fabrication and distribution of these masks.”



Write Them All Project Sign Up – Hosted by Critical Resistance PDX. Sign up to write letters using the hyperlink. “Everyone held inside prisons deserves support, solidarity, resources, and care! To begin to address these needs, it is our plan to begin an on-going project in which we will write a letter to all 14,500 people caged in Oregon's state prisons. We need as much community support and solidarity as possible to accomplish this goal! Sign up below and share with your networks!” Donate to the campaign.

Listen

Reparations for Aunt Jemima! – Hosted by Still Processing (Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham, two culture writers for The New York Times). This episode confronts the exploitation and capitalization of the Black identity specifically in the case of the women who were hired to portray the pro-slavery image Aunt Jemima. Wortham states, “[Y]ou and I are both kind of circling around this idea of transformative justice, which is how do you repair harm that’s been done without creating more violence? That’s just a very basic way to talk about it. But what we’re looking for is a framework to move forward. And just hitting the delete button won’t get us there.” Recommended by Roshani Thakore.



When Distractions = I'm Not Good Enough – Hosted by Bre, aka The Self-Care Pusher from Southern California. Support the show here. This episode explores the space in our innermost selves when we (WoC) struggle with our productivity and self-worth. Bre states, “To me, distractions can really be an opportunity to reflect, kind of evaluate, assess what’s really going on internally.”



What's In A 'Karen'? – Hosted by NPR Code Switch (Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji), featuring Karen Grigsby Bates (Senior Correspondent for Code Switch), Kiley Reid (Novelist), and more. This episode examines white womanhood, manifestations of racial violence, and the cultural organizing impact of ‘Karen.’ Reid states, “[I]t's impossible to record some of the more impactful forms of racism, like a doctor not believing a Black woman when she says she's in pain or rejecting a housing application because of someone's last name. You can't record that.”

Read

‘Defunding the police in the United States is Palestine work’: a discussion on solidarity with Sandra Tamari and Khury Petersen-Smith – Hosted by Mondoweiss, featuring Sandra Tamari (Executive Director of the Adalah Justice Project) and Khury Petersen-Smith (co-founder of Black for Palestine). This interview discusses the differences and similarities between the Palestinian and Black struggles as a means to practice radical solidaity. Petersen-Smith states, “The challenge for us is: how do we build solidarity that is expansive enough to hold all of these things? We need to hold the ongoing Palestinian freedom struggle in our hands and our minds as we do everything we can to ensure that this uprising goes as far as it possibly can.”



An Artists’ Guide to Not Being Complicit with Gentrification – Written by Betty Marín, Heather M. O’Brien, and Christina Sanchez Juarez. This article challenges artists’ perspective of themselves and their positionality within their communities by offering their six learned-lessons on local organizing. They state, “We are in a moment where the connection between art, real estate, and the displacement of longtime residents is undeniable. How might artists take responsibility for how we alter people’s lives, in terms of the impacts of real estate speculation and gentrification?”

Donate

The Chúush Fund: Water for Warm Springs



The Black Prosperity Fund



Liberation Literacy Formerly Imprisoned Folks Cashapps & Venmos



Help SNACK BLOC Get a Food Truck



Support Don’t Shoot PDX Programs and Services