Friday, July 31, 2009

Leaving with a Charge

Well, of all the reading materials we were sent, I read the “Making the Most of The Anne Braden Program” booklet first. It was reflections and advice from last year's participants on how we could really get the most out of our participation. I really took to heart a lot of the advice, especially the urgings to maintain a real and ongoing connection with communities back home (or outside the program). So, reaching out to some networks established over years of living in the same small city, I announced two speaking/fundraising events about my participation in the Anne Braden program – one at a raw café/yoga studio, the other at the local Quaker meetinghouse.

The announcement (posted below) was simple, just saying I wanted to speak about the program I was going to do and how people there could be involved. But even just saying I was embarking upon an anti-racist training sparked a lot of defensive chatter around town. The owner of the café, who was young and progressive, was confused and worried about hosting an event about anti-racism training for whites, asking if that wasn’t replicating racist segregation. Addressing his questions and concerns was a good challenge for me. Other people made all sorts of assumptions, and said some really stupid stuff, like that us anti-racist activists were forcing them out of town and calling them racists because they didn’t speak Spanish or "accept illegal aliens wholeheartedly." At least one local anti-immigrant blogger wrote ignorant commentary about me and Anne Braden and her husband, based again, ONLY on the event announcement. Even some neighbors I worked extensively with on development and city election issues, responded curtly to me, refusing to come or even speak to me about their reservations.

During the actual events, I used a basic PowerPoint presentation I had put together, mostly from Catalyst’s website, but also including thoughts and details relevant to our local community. Many issues had been very hot in our town over the last couple years, especially around undocumented immigration, so there was a lot to talk about. At the second event, I served a simple but colorful dinner (thank goodness it was mango season!) to encourage donations.


I won’t say the crowds included too many new faces, but one of the goals was to spark interest in a local reading/discussion group concurrent with my participation at Catalyst. Many people were indeed interested in a reading group and someone took on the task of organizing it, specifically agreeing to reach out to those not there that night - those who really needed to begin addressing their ignorance about white supremacy and racism. I agreed to mail home a copy of our readings each week - plus some other people offered resources.


Some local press had been on my email list, and one reporter, from a small weekly paper seemed very excited about the program -she came to one event, sent her photographer to the other, and called up Catalyst's office. She was interested in why people in my town specifically need to be active about confronting racism. An article came out during the next week, but I had already left town, so I haven’t seen it yet, though Catalyst has. Later on I got several calls from people wanting to be part of the reading group, and/or send me donations. As I announced at the events, I set up a blog specifically to journal my time through the program, both to make sure I’m doing responsible reflection, and to provide a public forum to discuss these issues, again inspired by the "Making the Most..." booklet.


Overall, it felt really great to set things in motion before I left. The $385 I raised was an uplifting factor too, as I was already mentally dedicated to contributing more than the $400 minimum program fee, but was worried about the costs of essentially moving to San Francisco while maintaining my financial commitment to my collective home in Florida. I also encouraged people to support Catalyst directly.


Most importantly, I left with a charge from the people who came to my event, who said, both nonverbally and verbally: Lynne, we are counting on you to come back with some real skills and start whipping this town into shape. They are supporting me in this venture - they are placing their hopes in me - and I can’t possibly come back and let everything fade away.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Anne Braden program


This fall, local activist Lynne Purvis will be leaving Florida to participate in a 4 month anti-racist political education and leadership development program in San Francisco. The Anne Braden Program is designed to support the vision, strategy, and organizing skills of white activists in becoming accountable, principled anti-racist organizers building multiracial movements for justice.

The Anne Braden Program is put on by the Catalyst Project, a center for political education and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They organize in majority white sectors of social justice movements with the goal of deepening anti-racist commitment in white communities and helping to build multiracial movements for collective liberation. They do this by creating spaces for activists to collectively develop deeper political analysis, vision, strategy and organizing skills. Their work is based in the belief that all people have a right to dignity, housing, food, healthcare, meaningful work and healthy communities. Catalyst organizes with the understanding that anti-racism can be a catalyst for challenging all forms of oppression and creating fundamental change.