RESOURCES
—HOUSINGNY RESOURCE LIST TO DONATE AND GET INVOLVED
—NATIONAL RESOURCES LIST (legal counsel, bail funds, mutual aid)
—ϟ Form IV's updated list of actions for contacting your representatives (NY and national)
—List of Black-Owned Restaurants in New York City
—dweller forever's list of articles, interviews, and documentaries about techno and its history
DONATE:
—HOUSINGNY COVID-19 RELIEF FUND
"HOUSING remains dedicated to stimulating public discourse through the work of artists and creative practitioners whose works show critical commentary and intent. Part of our motivation is to support artistic practices and aesthetic experiences that contour the limits of visibility, and advance the conditional inclusion of artists of color." (from website)
—Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS)
"GEMS' mission is to empower girls and young women, ages 12–24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS is committed to ending commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking by changing individual lives, transforming public perception, and revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact commercially sexually exploited youth." (from website)
"We approach the health and rights crises faced by transgender sex workers holistically using harm reduction, human rights principles, economic and social justice, along with a commitment to empowerment and pride in finding solutions from our own community. [...] We currently work on housing since so many in our G.L.I.T.S.’ community are without stable housing, deepening the cycle of disenfranchisement. G.L.I.T.S. also advocates and educates to ensure health, wellness and inclusion of transgender people in our society and to address the stigmatization and criminalization of trans people because of anti-prostitution/anti-sex work laws." (from website)
"Trans people face dramatically elevated risk of harm or death in pre-trial detention. Because of systemic discrimination and criminalization that pushes them to the margins of society, trans people are less eligible for pre-trial release under existing programs. They are more likely to be assaulted in jail and less likely to get out, a lethal combination. The mission of the Emergency Release Fund is to ensure that no trans person at risk in New York City jails remains in detention before trial. If cash bail is set for a trans person in New York City and no bars to release are in place, bail will be paid by the Emergency Release Fund." (from website)
“Brooklyn Community Bail Fund is committed to challenging the racism, inequality, and injustice of a criminal legal system and immigration and deportation regime that disproportionately target and harm low-income communities of color.” (from website)
“We provide critical advocacy and direct support to currently and formerly incarcerated people serving life sentences and seek to transform the parole release process in New York State.” (from website)
"The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality." (from website)
"The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy." (from website)
—Louisville Community Bail Fund
“To build transformative communities, we must perform transformative acts of liberation. Cash bail is one of the aspects of the criminal justice system that keeps communities wrapped up in systemic slavery and in debt. The need to end cash bail is not new. Thanks to the Ferguson Uprising and the Kalief Browder story, we know that the bail system creates financial barriers for those who find themselves against the criminal justice system. One of the largest barriers is not being able to afford bail.” (from website)
“There is an urgent need for supplies and support out in the field. Please connect to the groups doing the work – Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, and others.” (from website)
ABOLISH POLICE:
“Black Visions Collective (BLVC) believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.” (from website)
ABOLISH PRISONS:
"No New Jails NYC formed in September 2018, shortly after the Mayor launched the formal land-use approval process for the jail expansion plan. A direct continuation of the grassroots efforts to close Rikers immediately, No New Jails NYC also draws on the success of previous of jail construction fights in NYC. [...] At the same time, No New Jails NYC is building power in communities throughout New York City and with its incarcerated members. Overwhelmingly, New Yorkers agree that all efforts should be dedicated now to closing all jails on Rikers Island, that there is no need to build any more jails, and that the billions of dollars budgeted for new jails should be redirected instead to community-based resources that will support permanent decarceration." (from website)
HOUSING:
“Reclaim the Block is calling on our city to invest in violence prevention, housing, resources for youth, emergency mental health response teams, and solutions to the opioid crisis – not more police. We have no option but to start now.” (from website)
HEALTH:
“The North Star Health Collective was created in response to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul September 1-4, 2008. We coordinated and provided health care services, resources, and training to ensure the safety of our community over the weeks before, during, and after the RNC. Thousands of community members and families attended protests against the RNC.” (from website)
IMMIGRATION:
—Black Alliance for Just Immigration
“BAJI educates and engages African American and black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for racial, social and economic justice. Local BAJI Organizing Committees in New York, Georgia, California and Arizona build coalitions and initiate campaigns among communities to push for racial justice. At the local and regional level, BAJI provides training and technical assistance to partner organizations to develop leadership skills, works with faith communities to harness their prophetic voice, and initiates vibrant dialogues with African Americans and black immigrants to discover more about race, our diverse identities, racism, migration and globalization.” (from website)
“Founded in September 2002, Families for Freedom is a New York-based multi-ethnic human rights organization by and for families facing and fighting deportation. We are immigrant prisoners (detainees), former immigrant prisoners, their loved ones, or individuals at risk of deportation. We come from dozens of countries, across continents. FFF seeks to repeal the laws that are tearing apart our homes and neighborhoods; and to build the power of immigrant communities as communities of color, to provide a guiding voice in the growing movement for immigrant rights as human rights.
FFF has evolved into an organizing center against deportation. We are source of support, education, and campaigns for directly affected families and communities — locally and nationally.” (from website)
“African Communities Together is an organization of African immigrants fighting for civil rights, opportunity, and a better life for our families here in the U.S. and worldwide. ACT empowers African immigrants to integrate socially, get ahead economically, and engage civically. We connect African immigrants to critical services, help Africans develop as leaders, and organize our communities on the issues that matter.” (from website)
—Haitian Immigrant Bail Assistance Project
“Right now, countless detained Haitian immigrants have no friends, family members, or a community to call upon. Quite often, no one knows that they are placed in these detention facilities. They are just lost in a system that abused and deprived them of [human] rights. They need you to be their voices...
Be the voice of those who can’t by contributing to this bail/bond payment for Haitian Immigrants.” (from website)
—The New York Immigrant Freedom Fund
“The New York Immigrant Freedom Fund – a program of the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund – pays immigration bonds for community members who are unable to afford it. By paying bond, we are reuniting New Yorkers with their families and radically improving their chances of winning their immigration cases. Working in close partnership with community-based organizations, we are committed to building power in immigrant communities as we fight to end immigration detention.” (from website)
—Queer Detainee Empowerment Project
“The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) assists folks coming out of immigration detention in securing structural, health/wellness, educational, legal, and emotional support and services. We work to organize around the structural barriers and state violence that LGBTQIA TS & GNC detainee/undocumented folks face related to their immigration status, race, sexuality, and gender expression/ identity.” (from website)
DONATE: https://www.givegab.com/campaigns/help-qdep/
Hotline: 347-645-9339
WRITE LETTERS AND SEND BOOKS TO PRISONS:
Notes on Sending Books/Letter to Prisons:
Name of Recipient,
“Inmate Number”,
Prison Facility Name,
Prison Facility Address (City, State, Zip)
–you may not send nudes
–5 photos max
–can be of yourself but not of the person currently incarcerated
–must include full return address
* You can look up “Inmate Number” with the first and last name of a person on the Facility Website “Inmate Lookup”
If sending books:
–they must be new
–SOFTCOVER
–3 books maximum per package
–no nudity
*** Some prisons only accept books from publishers – reach out to the publisher and ask them to mail max of 3 softcover books to “xyz” address.
“Black and Pink is a volunteer organization that lists LGBTQ on a pen-pal website, distributes a monthly newsletter of primarily queer/trans prisoner writing, and advocates for specific prisoner needs when possible while also working to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex as a whole.” (from website)
DONATE or VOLUNTEER AT ONE OF THEIR CHAPTERS
PENPAL + NEWSLETTER: https://www.blackandpink.org/penpal-newsletter/
“Books Through Bars volunteers meet at our space in Brooklyn to match requests people in prison have sent us in the mail to the books on our shelves... We mail book packages to individuals rather than prison libraries. Our book collection is donated by members of the community. Because we manage to get by in donated space, with donated books, donated packing materials, and volunteer labor, our only expense is postage. To meet this much needed expense, we hold fundraisers and look for other opportunities for receiving funds.” (from website)
Volunteer: https://booksthroughbarsnyc.org/volunteer/
Donate Books: https://booksthroughbarsnyc.org/donate/
Donate Money: https://booksthroughbarsnyc.org/donate/
“Since 1994, the Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) has provided women and transgender persons in prison with free reading materials covering a wide range of topics from law and education (dictionaries, GED, etc.) to fiction, politics, history, and women’s health. We are an all-volunteer, grassroots organization. We seek to build connections with those behind the walls, and to educate those of us on the outside about the realities of prison and the justice system.” (from website)
Volunteer: https://wpbp.org/volunteer/
Donate: https://wpbp.org/donate/
Book Donations: https://wpbp.org/book-donations/
“Tranzmission Prison Project is a queer- and trans-powered prison abolition organization that provides free literature and resources for incarcerated members of the LGBTQ community. We are based in Asheville, North Carolina.” (from website)
Donate: http://www.tranzmissionprisonproject.org/donate/
“We are a donation-funded, volunteer-run organization based in Madison, WI that sends books and other educational materials, free of charge, to incarcerated LGBTQ people across the United States. We have been doing this for over 10 years and have sent books to over 9,000 people in that time.” (from website)
VOLUNTEER: https://lgbtbookstoprisoners.org/calendar/
FINANCIAL & BOOK DONATIONS: https://lgbtbookstoprisoners.org/donate/
NYC COMMUNITY BASED ORGS TO GET INVOLVED WITH:
Food Not Bombs NYC is now working out of a kitchen provided by the Catholic Worker: 36 East First Street, between First and Second Avenues.
Every Sunday they start cooking around 1:00pm and are in Tompkins Square Park to serve around 3:30pm.
“Food Not Bombs chapters around the world collect fresh food every week that would otherwise go to waste, because it's no longer pretty enough to be sold… Food Not Bombs operates on the anarchist belief that we must work to build alternative institutions now, at the grassroots level, to help create the just society we would like to live in. This is why Food Not Bombs is collectively run, non-hierarchical, and anti-authoritarian.” (from website)
—Sixth Street Community Center
“Located in a lovingly restored former synagogue in the heart of the Lower East Side, also known as Loisaida. the Sixth Street Community Center has been working to empower the community through grassroots organizing since 1978. We offer a variety of programs and events including free arts, writing and gardening after school and summer programs for local youth”
DONATE or VOLUNTEER: Come sign up for CSA Site Management volunteer spots! Meet your neighbors, learn about CSAs and how they bring local, fresh, organic, healthy fruits and veggies to your neighbors at affordable prices! Composting Project: Turn kitchen scraps into gold! Learn about how to reduce waste, improve your ecosystem, meet your neighbors, and get your hands dirty while learning a new skill!
“Born in the midst of the AIDS crisis, the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center is a culturally diverse, community based, non-profit organization. Its mission: reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, HCV and other drug-related harm among injection drug users. Its professionals and volunteers deliver substance use-management services with anonymity and compassion, while also training others in the practice compassionate intervention.” (from website)
DONATE: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/the-alliance-for-positive-change
To become a volunteer, contact:
Melissa Sandel – (212) 645-0875 x103 – melissa4@alliance.nyc
For Overdose Prevention Training, contact:
Reilly Glasgow – (212) 645-0875 x146 – reilly@alliance.nyc
“ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. We are known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture. ABC No Rio was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement and we retain these values to the present... We seek to facilitate cross-pollination between artists and activists. ABC No Rio is a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community. We believe that art and activism should be for everyone, not just the professionals, experts, and cognoscenti. Our dream is a cadres of actively aware artists and artfully aware activists.” (from website)
DONATE: http://www.abcnorio.org/support/20\\\_ways.html
—Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space
“As a living history of urban activism, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) chronicles the East Village community’s history of grassroots action. It celebrates the local activists who transformed abandoned spaces and vacant lots into vibrant community spaces and gardens. Many of these innovative, sustainable concepts and designs have since spread out to the rest of the city and beyond.” (from website)
DONATE: https://www.morusnyc.org/support-us/donate/
VOLUNTEER: https://www.morusnyc.org/support-us/volunteer/
—The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center
“While The Clemente’s mission is focused on the cultivation, presentation, and preservation of Puerto Rican and Latino culture, it is equally determined to operate in a multi-cultural and inclusive manner, housing and promoting artists and performance events that fully reflect the cultural diversity of the Lower East Side and the city as a whole.” (from website)
DONATE: http://www.theclementecenter.org/support-the-clemente/
GET INVOLVED: http://www.theclementecenter.org/get-involved/
“The mission of Interference Archive is to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs including exhibitions, workshops, talks, and screenings, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements.” (from website)
DONATE: https://interferencearchive.org/become-a-member/
GET INVOLVED: VOLUNTEER – it is entirely volunteer run and led
SURVELLIENCE:
—Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
“S.T.O.P. fights to end discriminatory surveillance. Our team challenges both individual misconduct and broader systemic failures. We craft policies that balance new technologies and age-old rights. And we educate impacted communities on how they can protect their rights.” (from website)
![Kneeling Figure (Eshu-Elegba). Height: 11 in. (28 cm). Yoruba. Late 19th, early 20th century.
Photographic reproduction. Brooklyn Museum. Arts of Africa Collection. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Joel Hoffman. Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
[Image description: A photographic reproduction of a carved sculpture of a kneeling figure, Legba, the god of the crossroads, as well as the god of chaos; depicted here as a figure who serves as a connecting tissue between Africans on the continent and the Diaspora.]](https://participantinc.org/content/2-seasons/6-season-18/6-shrine/brooklyn_museum_81.102-kneeling-figure-eshu-elegba-3.jpg)
