Reflections on SAFIRE Summer Celebration

By Yvonne Tran

I invited many friends to come to the SAFIRE End of Summer Celebration and all who came were very touched and moved by the performances and the whole event.

One friend, Kristen, particularly was touched enough to write a blog post about one of the girl's video and her own reflections. I want to share it all of you because it is very poignant and touches upon the issues the SAFIRE girls, the staff in ACRJ, and many of our friends, allies, and family face.

Here are some of her thoughts:

in a recent conversation with a friend who is viet-american, we briefly talked about how the experience of many vietnamese in the united states is one of ptsd, or post-traumatic stress disorder. in another conversation i had with him and, separately, with another friend who is also a viet-american male, both articulated that the trauma of war are internalized not only by their elders who lived through it, but our generation, the american-born children, as well. so engrained and on a wide-scale is the ptsd still thriving and mutating, more than 30 years later and an entire ocean away, that this long-over war still has power and the potential to (re)define the experience of what it means to be vietnamese in america for this generation and generations to come.
....
though the young filmmaker-in-training is not viet, but khmer, and is of a generation twice removed from the end of that incredibly bloody era that not only involved vietnam in the “vietnam war,” but laos and cambodia, as well, i wonder what effect—whether it is as palpable as the ptsd my viet friends observe in their peoples or not—she feels of her family’s literal running, leaving behind, and can’t carrying? though the “dog days” are indeed over and done, the experience as refugees and having to flee one’s home under the threat of torture and death, i can imagine, is still a daily memory for her parents and grandparents. and i wonder…if they were given the training and tools to author their own slideshow and an opportunity to present it to a rapt audience—what would their short film be like? would there be as many smiling faces in theirs as in hers? and, to convey the emotional rhythm and meter of their lives, i wonder most of all: what song would they choose?

Read the whole thing on Kristen's blog SALT/SOUR.

Our issues, our voices

Pauline Latu was held in shackles off and on for the 7 months she was in  Contra Costa County jail. She gave birth three weeks after her release  Pauline is shown here with her partner and two children.  Pauline got in touch with advocates while incarcerated and was an inspiration for AB1900.  Photo credit: Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

 

 

We love seeing ourselves in the news! Making it, analyzing it and telling our stories.

We are so excited about the work that the Center for Young Women’s Development has done through their experience at the Women’s Policy Institute to pass a bill to end the shackling of pregnant women in CA’s prisons and jails. The Center is an EMERJ Strategy Team organization, and as part of our Strong Families Initiative, we partnered with them to do media work around this important bill.

Incarcerated women have a right to safety and dignity…always, including when they are giving birth.

LeaJay Harper runs the Young Women United program at the Center, and every day she works with young women in the criminal justice system, or transitioning out, every day. She wrote this amazing piece in support of AB1900, the bill she is working hard to turn into law. Not only did this piece run on RH Reality Check, it also ran in the Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times. This means a lot to us all, because while we want to speak to policy makers including the Governor to remind them to do the right thing, we also want to make sure that every-day people know this bill is pending and know we are fighting for rights and dignity of people inside. And this way, when the Governor signs, we can celebrate together.

And guess what? It has already passed the State Assembly and the State Senate, and is sitting on the Governor’s desk. He needs to take action by September 30. We are hopeful….but we are not sitting around quietly hoping!

We also helped get several other pieces written and posted. Through relationships that LeaJay and other partner organizations (including Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the ACLU of Northern California) built in support of the bill, we were able to get a wonderful Ob-Gyn named Carolyn Sufrin to write and publish an OpEd that ran in the SF Chronicle and online at RH Reality Check.

LeaJay and her team also met with the folks at the California Commission on the Status of Women, and were able to get a commissioner to write in support of the bill as well. Britta Guerrero is a Commissioner, and is the CEO of the Sacramento Native American Health Center, and wrote this bold piece which ran in the Sacramento Bee.

And then with Facebook, twitter, and good old email, we are feeling confident that our allies, friends and neighbors are hearing about this important work. We promise to let you know when the Governor takes action…and whatever he does, we are prepared to celebrate how far we came, and organize for what comes next.

Summer SAFIRE Story Collection Projects

SAFIRE Summer 2010 may be over but the buzz about the girls’ story collection projects certainly isn’t! Below is just a sample of what you missed out on during SAFIRE’s End of Summer Celebration:



“Dreams” by Honnie Diala

This piece was about my parent's dreams for my two sisters, Lovely and Jody, and I to be successful in life and not go through the hardships they faced in order for us to be where we are standing at this very moment. This is for Josephine and Rodolfo Diala. I love you all very much.

This was my first time ever making a contemporary-like piece. And my first time performing a piece I made in front of an audience. Never have I felt so proud of myself just by simply doing one of the many things I love to do, dance. This is definitely one the biggest accomplishments I have made.

Dancers: (from left to right at ending bow) Holly Liu, Lily Dinh, Judy Wu, Sophia Lu, Honnie Diala, Jennifer Lu, Lonna Lu, Ellie Cao. Thank you girls SO much for helping me dance this piece.

Recorded by: Ate Lovely Diala with Kuya Chuck Jose's wonderful camera

Inspired by: Mariel Martin

Kierra will tell her own family's story, thank you very much. . .

Glenn Beck and crew likes to take words and dreams from families and communities and twist them for his own purposes. But Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of Choice USA and member of the EMERJ Strategy Team, refuses to let her and her family’s legacy be co-opted. Here in her own words, Kierra’s legacy which she published on Huffington Post last week.

"The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement is my legacy. The roots of my life begin in Valdosta and Decatur, Georgia. My family went to the Dr. King celebrations every year. I've attended Ebenezer Baptist Church. When I was about 11, I held a nice, tall man's hand as we marched. His name was Dick Gregory. We said it loud, "We're black and we're proud." The strong women activists of the Civil Rights Movement - Angela Davis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisolm - they were my idols. And, now, some people are trying to take their legacy, my legacy, away. Read more.

A SAFIRE Celebration to remember. . .

By Amanda Wake

 

If you are wondering how to get inspired today, then take a look at the SAFIRE Video that was shown last Thursday night at the SAFIRE 2010 Summer Celebration. Joined by 200 friends, family and allies at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, the SAFIRE girls told stories of their Strong Families in a multi-media extravaganza. From spoken word to video to dance to artwork, the struggles and strengths of Asian families living in Oakland were brought to life through the 25 young women who spent their summer building their core power in order to provide leadership in their communities. As I watched their performances, I was moved time and time again by what each moment represented: amazing courage by parents and grandparents that fled war or sought opportunity; deep insight by young women in their expression of their own histories and identities; and, unwavering support from the ACRJ community that came together to celebrate the riches of our of families. Watch out Oakland, the SAFIRE girls are here.

 

Climate change, Pakistan floods and the impact on women and families

Check out this great article on the intersection of climate change, the floods in Pakistan and its impact on women and families. It shines light on how environmental disasters stemming from the acceleration of climate change exacerbate societal and economic instability, violence against women, and how within two generations, tear apart families that have been in Pakistan’s flooded region for many generations.

In Support of Our Friend Luna Yasui, and in Memory of Joannie Chang

Luna recently left the ACRJ board and the Bay Area to move to NYC for a great new job, and new chapter in life with her wonderful partner Joannie.  As they settled in to life in Brooklyn, they got ready to grow their family.  Late in Joannie’s pregnancy, they found out she had stomach cancer.  They induced their twins at 33 weeks, and 8 weeks later, on July 31, Joannie died.

Luna keeps a blog…she is an amazing photographer and a beautiful writer.  It is impossible to imagine what Luna has gone through over these last few months.  We are amazed at her strength and presence to write and post.   There are so much there.  Photos. Heart. Love. Faith. Humor.  Appreciations.  She is living life out loud, even in grief and life with tiny twins, the amazing and beautiful Apple and Bacon, their nicknames for the girls.  

It is humbling and inspiring to read about Joannie’s life, her honors and her accomplishments.  The SF Chronicle wrote a piece about her life and work, and NAPAWF put a lovely and fun tribute on their page.  Sprinkled on Luna’s blog and the program from the memorial are tributes to Joannie’s power and persistence, her vision and her sense of humor.

What strikes us is how their family has been kept afloat, almost literally, on the loving wind of their friends, community, extended family. Their village.

The truth about strong families is that we are only strong on our own for brief moments in time, the times when we are employed, healthy, housed, loved.  For some, those periods may be exceedingly fleeting, for others longer.  We are reminded by Luna of the power of love and hope, and the requirement for living with big love and community.

In her blog, Luna writes:

During this terrible time, all of that love and care Joannie gave in her life came back to support her. She passed knowing that we all love her so much. She also gave me the gift of bringing together our community to help me care for her and to get me through the hard days ahead. She, of course, also gave us Yuuki and Ayumi, our babies who are already showing us the way forward.

There is a Bay Area memorial service for Joannie this Saturday, August 28^th,  3-5pm at the Kaiser Roof top garden. 

If you want to support Bacon, Apple and Luna during this time, attend the Memorial, read Luna’s blog, or donate to a fund set up to help.

This beautiful poem was included in the program at the memorial for Joannie in Brooklyn.

Little Elegy

by Keith Althaus

Even the stars wear out.

Their great engines fail.

The unapproachable roar

and heat subside

as wind blows across

the hole in the sky

with a noise like a boy

playing on an empty bottle.

It is an owl, or a train.

You hear it underground.

Where the worms live

that can be cut in half

and start over

again and again.

Their heart must be

in two places at once, like mine.

What about the rape?

By Yvonne Tran

For those who are not privy to YouTube sensations, the Bedroom Intruder newsclip and subsequent remix music videos made have been making its rounds on Facebook newsfeeds, office emails, and probably procrastination fodder for college students.

You can view it here and the famous remix here.

What peaked my interest was the lack of recognition of the rape and assault that happened to Antoine Dodson’s sister, Kelly. He was clearly upset and angry about the violation and so was she. But in all of the media that I have come across, including this NPR story, the focus has been the fame Dodson has found himself under (many of his fans being White).

The taking of Dodson’s frustration and anger and morphing it into this parody of Blackness moves away from the fact that,

1. They live in the projects and this type of violence is a daily occurrence,
2. Someone (probably from the community if he knew she was sleeping in that exact room) broke in and tried to rape Dodson’s sister,
3. Huntsville, AL (where the event occurred) has, on average, 60% more crime than the national average and with 1 out of every 6 American women has been a victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.

It deserves recognition that families living in the projects are not safe and the continuing de-prioritization of the violence that women suffer under requires much more than a news story and hundreds of other parodies playing on the poverty of Dodson’s family. Instead, let’s take a minute to stop and ask, what about the rape? What about the violence in this community and what can they or we do to support the stopping of it? When an “average” story about violence that occurs in our community becomes an internet meme-viral-sensation-parody, it is easier to laugh at the presentation of poverty and race than it really is to address and SEE the root issues at hand. We all know oppression isn't THAT funny.

So I still ask, what about the rape?

Celebrate to Demonstrate! Reflections on the Prop 8 Ruling

by Dana Ginn Paredes, Organizing Director

Earlier this week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an emergency stay on a California District Court judge’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and should be overturned. As a member of the queer community, I shared the feelings of devastation, sadness and anger as expressed by LGBTQ communities everywhere.

My partner and I have been in a committed relationship for ten years and jumped at the opportunity to marry during the blip of time when it was legal in California in 2008, only to have it thrown back in our faces by voters the following November. We were devastated then too.

Back then, when we shared the news of our marriage – our political action – with family and friends, we were overwhelmed with the response of support and, quite frankly, the big need to be a part of celebrating our union and love. So, we held a big commitment celebration par-TAY the following year, and today are thrilled to be the sleep deprived mamas of baby Emiliano.

This is all to say that I believe this is an opportunity to remind ourselves that the “emergency stay” does not have legal jurisdiction over every action we take as members of the LGBTQ community. The actions we take to change policy so that all people receive the same rights and protections are vital. And, every action we take – big and small, legal and not yet legal – that demonstrates LGBTQ visibility in our communities matters too. These actions can also be what we need to sustain ourselves and keep our families strong during these uncertain political times.

So, keep on celebrating, expressing and building your love and commitment in every way! Celebrate to demonstrate!

TONIGHT: SAFIRE Summer Celebration 2010!!!

Tonight is the night! Come out and support our fierce young women as they tell the stories of their families' histories, struggles and accomplishment at the SAFIRE Summer Celebration!

Thursday, August 19th
6:30-8:30pm
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388- 9th St., Suite 290, Oakland Chinatown, 94607

We will begin our program at 6:30 sharp, so please arrive on time!

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Amanda Wake, Youth Organizer at amanda@reproductivejustice.org or 510.663.8300.

ACRJ blog named Top 50 Blogs

The ACRJ blog is named one of the top 50 blogs on reproductive rights by Health Hawk.  Thanks to all you contributors, readers and commentators for keeping us in the forefront!

Are you coming to the SAFIRE celebration tomorrow?

We certainly hope you are!

Thursday, August 19th
6:30-8:30pm
Oakland Asian Cultural Center 
388- 9th St., Suite 290, Oakland Chinatown, 94607 

We will begin our program at 6:30 sharp, so please arrive on time!

SAFIRE members have been hard at work putting together their multi-media storytelling projects to share with their family, friends, community members and you!

There will be artwork, food, presentations, a time to honor SAFIRE Alumni and much more.

SEE YOU THERE!!!

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Amanda Wake, Youth Organizer at amanda@reproductivejustice.org or 510.663.8300

More Money for All of our Movements

by Maria Nakae

When I think about all the conferences I’ve been to in my day, I can’t even begin to count them. I certainly don’t have enough fingers (or toes, for that matter!), and apparently my memory just isn’t what it used to be either. Like many of us in social justice movements, I’ve gone to so many conferences, given so many presentations, and attended so many workshops that they all become a blur in my mind. Conferences are really fun. You get to travel (sometimes to cool places), stay in a hotel (sometimes fancy ones), meet up with colleagues and friends you don’t regularly get to see and make new ones, and learn all kinds of new issues, analyses, and frameworks.

But I often wonder, at the end of the day, what tangible skills and information do I actually take away that is applicable to my work?

After the two-day Money for Our Movements conference organized by the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT), I have some concrete answers to this question. I learned how to build a robust direct mail fundraising campaign. I learned how to write an effective fundraising pitch for any event. I learned how to cultivate and upgrade existing donors. And these are all things that I will integrate into my every day work. In fact, I’m already doing many of them now!

GIFT believes that fundraising, social justice, and movement building are all connected, and works to support groups in developing strong individual donor programs so that the communities we serve are also taking an active role in supporting the work we do, which increases our accountability to our communities and builds community power from the ground up.

What an amazing concept! For someone like me, who used to be deathly afraid of asking people from money, getting individuals to make donations was never something that I equated with organizing. But once I understood how critical individual donors are to building strong social justice movements, it was like a light bulb went on in my head. And now I’m getting more and more excited about it. Money for Our Movements happened at a really ideal time for me, as a new Development staff at ACRJ who had done programmatic work before, who is trying to make the connections between program and development, between organizing and fundraising, and between sustaining our communities and sustaining our organizations.

Not only do I appreciate the concept of increasing our sustainability through a solid individual donor base and limiting our reliance on institutional funding, I wholly and truly believe that it is essential to the growth and longevity of our movements. After this conference, I am more excited than ever to hit the ground running with our grassroots fundraising work, and to be a cheerleader for ACRJ so that all staff can be a part of this inspiring process.

Now that I've answered my questions, here's one for you: Does your organization do any grassroots fundraising?  If you do, that’s great!  If not, what are you waiting for?!

Permaculture for the People Report Back tonight!

By Amanda Wake, ACRJ Youth Organizer

Earlier this summer I had the privilege of attending a permaculture design course organized by Movement Generation and the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. It was a life enriching experience where I learned skills that I will keep with me for the rest of my life and have since applied to my organizing work at ACRJ.

TONIGHT we will have our community report-back at No Worries Filipino Restaurant, 1442 Franklin St. in downtown Oakland, at 6:30pm (wheelchair & BART accessible). Come through!

After returning from this 2 week course myself, three other participants (Jidahn Koon, Angela Angel and Ellen Choy), and one youth from Serve the People spoke on KPFA’s APEX Express Radio Show. We focused specifically on how permaculture is relevant to Asian & Pacific Islander communities. You can listen to the full interview here.

SEE YOU TONIGHT!

SAFIRE Newsletter: Honoring SAFIRE and Alumni at Summer Celebration 2010

Every summer there’s a celebration…SAFIRE’s Summer Celebration, that is!

This year’s celebration will be the biggest one yet!

This summer, SAFIRE participants are collecting stories from our families on what makes our families strong. We will be presenting our multi-media story projects at our SAFIRE End of Summer Celebration on Thursday, August 19th from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Chinatown. Come join us!

SAFIRE is working hard to make this a really great event! There will be presentations of the story collection project, artwork, food, raffle prizes, a time to honor SAFIRE alumni, and much more!

And YOU can help make it all happen!

There’s plenty to do and any help would be great. You can help sell raffle tickets, sign up to perform, tell a story about your strong family, bring food to share with others, or just come and hang out.

If you would like to learn more or volunteer, please contact Amanda Wake at amanda@reproductivejustice.org or 510-663-8300.

SAFIRE Newsletter: Meet the Interns of ACRJ

Xuanzi Jia:

What School am I from?

Smith College '12

My Favorite Dish is:
Nutella Crepes



Catherine Saephan:

What is my favorite hobby?
Reading



What is a life goal for you?
I want to travel the world and get as far as I can with school, hopefully Doctorate



Lovely Diala:

What is my favorite color?
My favorite color is like an aqua-turquoise kind of shade because it's bright but also calming at the same time (picture the color of the water in the Caribbean or some tropical place like that).


What is my dream job?
My dream job(s) would be something where I can work with youth and do something in the medical field - particularly pharmacy.

SAFIRE Newsletter: The Aftermath of Chaos - Oscar Grant Tragic End

By Catherine Saephan

It was at four o’clock on July 8th when the verdict in the trial of Johannes Mehserle was announced for the killing of Oscar Grant and it was at 6 o’clock when the streets in front of our office building were filled with hundreds of people.

Since that tragic night of January 1st, 2009, when Oscar Grant was shot to death by the former BART police officer, citizens of Oakland have rallied with mixed feelings of anger, confusion, and disunity over his death. The most common questions raised by community members are: Was it murder? Did Johannes Mehserle mean to use his taser or did he really intend to kill? Will he be prosecuted like any other citizen or will he get away with it like most cops do? Was it an act of racism?

As a member of this community, I feel a large amount of confusion regarding this case. At the same time, it’s hard to not begin having an opinion when accusations are being thrown from left to right. Issues of Oscar’s now fatherless child, money for the family, and most of all, justice to Oscar’s family and community are some of the major factors in this complex case.

Oscar’s death was not a common occurrence, and what happened that New Year’s night was something the people of Oakland need to pay attention to. The possibility that the shooting was motivated by racism is an issue we must all consider before letting our own bias judge this death. I see that among the majority of the Asian community, we look at this incident only as bystanders with no questions asked. However, this case is not just about civil rights for African Americans but also for all people of color who struggle with racism and discrimination every day. We cannot always wait for a Gandhi or Martin Luther King to rise and rescue us from this persecution when we can become our own heroes and fight against injustice.

After the verdict was announced, hundreds of people gathered in downtown Oakland with the intention of holding a peaceful protest. However, the protest got violent later on in the night with arson, looting, destruction of property, and over 50 arrests. Most shocking was the intense tension between protesters and the hundreds of police that came from not only Oakland but also from surrounding cities and counties.

The chance for the people of Oakland to demonstrate a peaceful protest for Oscar Grant’s death was once again filled with the same stereotypical belief of a murderous and “ghetto” Oakland. I hope that all people who followed this case do not attribute these acts of violence to all Oakland residents. The people who were gathered peacefully in support of Oscar Grant, his family, and for justice is the REAL Oakland.

Where are we? EMERJ in the Media--Week of Aug 13, 2010

By Lisa Russ

Through ACRJ’s work with EMERJ, we have the great fortune of working with an inspirational crew of organizations working on a wide range of issues. That means in any one week, we might be talking about access to birth control for Latinas, the importance of great sex ed, or the campaign that Rebecca Project for Human Rights is leading to get Craigslist to remove their adult services ads. And this was a fabulous week for us and our partners, because all of these issues had great news coverage.

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, both EMERJ Strategy Team members, along with our close ally COLOR (Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights) organized Latina Week for Reproductive Justice. RH Reality Check, Huffington Post, and many other sites ran amazing pieces—see Latina Institute's FB Page for a great wrap up! ColorLines wrote a really nice piece about the week. Huge congratulations to all involved.

The Rebecca Project for Human Rights has done high profile work on sex trafficking, with favorable coverage in the New York Times, CNN, ABC, CBS and more. This CNN piece was powerful. Following the media pressure, Craigslist finally offered a response. The campaign continues. 

Lastly, the piece first posted here about Guns and Genitals got lots of play in the blogosphere—the comments on Alternet were really educational. Seems our allies REALLY liked the metaphor, and the main question we asked: if the Right supports explicit education about guns, and believes that knowledge keeps kids safer, why are they so worried about good sex ed? Not surprisingly, some people on the Right were really irked by the metaphor, and used the comments section to jump up and down and insist on all the important differences between them.

I spent last weekend watching the comments come in, and thinking, why is the Right so afraid of sex?

And here’s what’s coming: the Center for Young Women’s Development, another EMERJ Strategy Team member, is part of the Women’s Policy Institute and is working with a wonderful group of organizations to pass a bill—AB1900—that would prevent incarcerated women from being held in shackles at any time in their pregnancy.

Yup, seems like a no-brainer that you wouldn’t lock a pregnant woman’s feet together, or attach a shackle to her stomach, but this happens every day here in California. The bill has bi-partisan support, and is poised to pass out of the senate within the next two weeks. In an effort to ensure the Governor’s signature, we are working with CYWD and their partners to write a series of op-eds and blog posts in support of the bill. Keep your eyes open for more!

Story Collection Project: Voices of YP4 Students

By Yvonne Tran

Last weekend I was asked to do a workshop on reproductive justice for Young People For, an organization that works with college-aged and recent college graduates in developing their social and political consciousness and set them up to do community-centered projects in their communities or have them intern in non-profits around the nation.

They were definitely a diverse and energetic group of 18-21 year old students. The workshop went great but the real gems were the stories I collected before and after the workshop.

Stories like Sophia from San Diego, whose mom survived a violent assault and was told she could not have children and had 3 instead. Now, Sophia and the rest of her sisters are not able to have children and have had serious surgery around their reproductive system since they were young. But yet, through it all, these experiences have made their family stronger, more feminist-minded, and a lifelong passion for reproductive justice.

That is just one of the stories I’ve collected. There are a dozen others, detailing with poverty, displacement, immigration, dreams, hopes, love, and faith.

It is renewing every time I go and collect stories to be able to be in the presence of such strength of every story teller.

Hear Joseph’s story below:

Silvia Henriquez, EMERJ Strategy Team member, tells is like it is. . .

Check out Latinas and the High Cost of Birth Control by Silvia Henriquez, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. She says, "the Latina experience is stigmatized while the Latina voice is silenced."  But she and Latinas across the country are changing the game through the Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice.   Let's back up our Latina sisters.