Washington Peace Center, Feb 1, Activist Alert

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ACTIVIST ALERT
 

02.01.2017
Dear Thomas,
Non-stop resistance is the anthem of the current movement as we head into Black History Month. And we must invest in local resistance!
Across the city, thousands have turned out and turned up every day and every hour to resist Trump and his chaotic unveiling through the slew of executive orders. Among the most powerful actions against the most devastating and instantaneous impact of Trump's crackdown on immigrants is the #MuslimBan protests.
In DC, the resistance movement needs more support in the fight against Islamophobia. We must invest in local organizations. Within days of the #MuslimBan, ACLU National received a donation surge of almost $20 million. We need to also look at the grassroots movement that have been and continues to mobilize and organize against Islamophobia, xenophobia and racist policies.  
Ahead of the Executive Order banning immigrants and refugees from majority Muslim countries, the Muslim American Women's Policy Forum (MAWPF) organized a rally last Thursday in front of the DC City Council to demand stronger protections for Muslim, immigrant and refugee communities. Community partners from Black Lives Matter DC (BLM DC) and Gabriela Washington, DC spoke about this critical moment to fight and the importance of intersectional movement building. 
Here are some highlights from the rally: 
[Phototographs by Dia Bui, on behalf of WPC]
Noor Mir, MAWPF representative and WPC Board Member, speaking to a large crowd gathered to amplify demands to DC City Council in Freedom Plaza
April Goggans, BLM DC core organizer and #KeepDC4ME founder, speaking on solidarity and challenging us to dig deep in this fight
Left to Right: Darakshan Raja, WPC Co-Director & MAWPF Co-Founder and Jo Quiambao, Gabriela DC leader, leading a chant of solidarity
The organizers of MAWPF and their leadership have more than helped turn the tide against Islamophobia in DC while building cross community collaborations. Among the most impactful is joining Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and Many Languages, One Voice (MLOV) last year to call on the DC library to address Islamophobia after the harassment and intimidation of a Muslim woman to remove her hijab by a library officer
It can't be said enough. Please continue to support local resistance as your donations and resources will make an immediate impact. Keep resisting, keep mobilzing and keep showing up for one another. When we fight, we win. In the words of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz:
"If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything" - Malcolm X
In solidarity,
Dia, Darakshan, and Jessie 

Demonstration to Protect McMillan Park

Thursday, February 2nd, 2017 6:30pm-7:30pm200 Douglas St. SE, Washington, DC 20002

The Mayor's staffers are gearing up to destroy McMillan Park. This Thursday, the Mayor is hosting a Construction Update meeting. Be there to demonstrate! Bring your noisemakers, signs, friends, and family! Mayor's office of Economic Development (DMPED) is trying to IGNORE a DC court order that REQUIRES them to go back to the drawing table and get decision making input from the community who WON the court case. #SaveMcMillan

Black History Kickoff

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 6:00pm-7:30pm1925 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001
Join the African American Civil War Museum, DC Black History Celebration Committee, and NMAAHC Host Committee for a city wide black history kick off. Keynote speaker will be Denise Rolark-Barnes. For more information, email mrblackhistory@yahoo.com.


General Assembly Meeting:
DC Movement for Black Lives Steering Committee

Thursday, February 2nd, 2017 6:00pm-9:00pm
Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ
3845 S. Capitol St. SW, Washington, DC 20032

The Movement for Black Lives Steering Committee is going to be hosting the first General Assembly of the year. It will focus around the organizing and advocacy around the NEAR Act and building a sustained joint campaign for transformative criminal justice reform. This general assembly will feature a popular education piece on the NEAR Act and updates from core groups on how to get involved.

Werk in Solidarity:
Celebrating Intersectionality & Resistance

Friday, February 3rd, 2017 6:00pm-9:00pm
Trump International Hotel Washington, DC
1100 Pennsylvannia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004

In response to Trump's egregious executive orders over the past week and a half, WERK for Peace and a number of organizations are teaming up to celebrate our diversity, intersectionality, and resistance and send a clear message to Donald Trump: discrimination, bigotry, and hate are not tolerated in this country.


No New MPD: Rally to Defeat Bill to Hire More Police

Monday, February 6th, 2017 6:30pm
John A. Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvannia Ave NW Washington, DC 20004

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017 the DC Council will vote on the “Force of 4,200 - Police Officer Recruitment and Retention Emergency Act of 2017”.  Join BLM DC and Stop Police Terror Project DC to demand the council vote NO on the 7th and to ensure the NEAR Act is fully funded in the next budget. Because this is emergency legislation, there will be no public hearing. D.C. residents MUST speak out to collectively #Resist in response to intracommunity violence.  

No Child Behind Bars:
Living Resistance from US to Palestine

Monday, February 7th, 2017 6:30pm-8:30pm
St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church
1525 Newton St. NW Washington, DC 20010

This is the DC stop of a national tour organized by Friends of Sabeel- North America. Combining grassroots community engagement with municipal boycotts, community actions, testimony, and education campaigns, the tour--No Child Behind Bars: Living Resistance From the US to Palestine--explores state violence, particularly the criminalization and detention of youth in Palestine and the US. The tour focuses on the interests and powers that reinforce these systems, with the goal of destabilizing them and breaking them down.

Community Control of Police:
Lessons in Black History

Thursday, February 9th, 2017 6:30pm-8:30pm
Anacostia Neighborhood Library 1800 Good Hope St. SE Washington, DC 20020

Join Pan-African Community Action for a community popular education forum to discuss the historical lessons of this ongoing movement, and how this generation will continue in that tradition.

Politics & Prose and Sixth & I present
Trayvon Martin's Parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

Thursday, February 9th, 2017 7:00pm-9:30pm
600 I St. NW Washington, DC 

Until five years ago, few outside his central Florida hometown had heard of Trayvon Martin. Now, no one can forget him. In REST IN POWER, their powerful testament to love, resilience, and hope, Trayvon's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin relive the terrible night their son was killed and recall their grief and anger at the dismissive response of police and courts. But they also share cherished memories of Trayvon and trace the rise of the national movement against racial violence that has grown in his name. Co-founders of The Trayvon Martin Foundation, Fulton and Martin work with the organization to create community programming and raise awareness of the impact of gun violence and racial profiling on families.


A Night of Revolutionary Mothering

Friday, February 10th, 2017 7:00pm-9:00pm
The Potter's House 1658 Columbia Rd. Washington, DC 20009

A NIGHT OF REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERING: LOVE ON THE FRONT LINES WITH COEDITORS AND CONTRIBUTERS & SPILL: SCENES OF BLACK FEMINIST FUGIVITY BY ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS


Inspired by the legacy of radical and queer black feminists of the 1970s and ’80s, Revolutionary Mothering places marginalized mothers of color at the center of a world of necessary transformation. The challenges we face as movements working for racial, economic, reproductive, gender, and food justice, as well as anti-violence, anti-imperialist, and queer liberation are the same challenges that many mothers face every day. Oppressed mothers create a generous space for life in the face of life-threatening limits, activate a powerful vision of the future while navigating tangible concerns in the present, move beyond individual narratives of choice toward collective solutions, live for more than ourselves, and remain accountable to a future that we cannot always see. Revolutionary Mothering is a movement-shifting anthology committed to birthing new worlds, full of faith and hope for what we can raise up together.

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