Audre Lorde Project

The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity-building, we work for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice. Committed to struggling across differences, we seek to responsibly reflect, represent and serve our various communities.

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When trans people are under attack what do we do? RISE UP FIGHT BACK! TransJustice of the Audre Lorde Project invites YOU to join us for the 11th Annual Trans Day of Action! When: Friday, June 26th 4:30-6:15 Where: Pier 45/Christopher Street Pier ACCESSIBILITY: This event is a rally and short march outdoors. (The march is about 45 minutes, under a mile long) This is a bi-lingual event (English/Spanish) The Pier is equipped with ramps and shade. We will have a mobile wellness team. We will have a Community Security team. We will have a Ustream channel for folks who are unable to attend in person. Stay Tuned for our Points of Unity and Volunteer Opportunities! spread the word. email [email protected] with questions.

https://www.facebook.com/events/689138641197390/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Viernes, 26 de junio de 4:00PM a 6:15PM Ver mapa Christopher Street Pier Nueva York, Nueva York 10014 Cuando las personas trans están bajo ataque qué hacemos? NOS LEVANTAMOS EN ARMAS PARA NUESTRA LUCHA! TransJusticia del Audre Lorde Project le invita a unirse con nosotros para el 11º Día Anual de Acción Trans ! Cuándo: Viernes, 26 de junio de 4:00PM a 6:15PM Dónde : Pier 45 / Christopher Street Pier ACCESIBILIDAD : Este evento comienza una reunión y luego una marcha corta al aire libre. Este es un evento bilingüe ( Inglés / Español ) El muelle está equipado con rampas y sombra. Vamos a tener un equipo de salud móvil. Vamos a tener un equipo de seguridad de miembros de nuestra comunidad . Vamos a tener un canal de Ustream para las personas que no pueden asistir en persona. Estén atentos para nuestros puntos de unidad y oportunidades para servir como voluntari@ ! ayúdanos a correr la voz.. envie un correo electronico a [email protected] con sus preguntas.

https://www.facebook.com/events/689138641197390/

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“It is our duty to fight.It is our duty to win.We must love each other and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” —Assata Shakur, former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, classified as a domestic terrorist, and currently in political exile in Cuba with a $2m bounty for her capture from the FBI and NJ State Attorney General IT IS OUR DUTY TO FIGHT On Thursday, December 4, 36 comrades in struggle were arrested for a planned civil disobedience. Of those arrested, 5 of us were Safe OUTside the System (SOS) Collective members of the Audre Lorde Project, and 1 was the SOS Program Coordinator. The Safe OUTside the System Collective works to build transformative community-based solutions to police and state violence, hate violence, inter-community violence, and gentrification in Central Brooklyn. Our objectives were to highlight the racism, violence, and impunity of the NYPD and criminal justice system in this country, to fight against a system that does not value Black lives and lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, trans, and gender non-conforming lives, and to up the ante in NYC. Until recently organizers and activists had not mobilized a civil disobedience to protest police violence since before Michael Brown’s murder. Led by families of victims of police violence, including Eric Garner’s, Ramarley Graham’s, and Mohammed Ahn’s family, we marched five and a half miles carrying eleven black coffins with the names of victims of police violence painted on them. We marched over bridges, through Brooklyn, and then back to Manhattan. At the base of the bridge, we made space for the contingent to safely keep marching, and then 36 of us linked arms, sat, and sang: I still hear my brother crying “I can’t breathe!” So now I’m in this struggle saying “I can’t leave!” We’re calling out the violence of these racist police. We ain’t gonna stop ‘til our people are free! No, we ain’t gonna stop ‘til our people are free! —written by Luke Nephew, Peace Poets Our action was non-violent and harkened memories of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. We did this in solidarity with Eric Garner and Michael Brown’s family, and in solidarity with folks on the ground in Ferguson, and in conjunction with over 60 other #thisstopstoday actions across the country, and internationally. We also did this in solidarity with the families and loved ones of victims who don’t make it to the headlines, unnamed trans and cis Black women and LGBTSTGNC People of Color, who are victims of police brutality, like Jessie Hernandez, Duanna Johnson, and Marsha P. Johnson, and in solidarity with survivors of police brutality, whose experiences are often unreported or ignored. (The #thisstopstoday demands can be found here, http://www.thisstopstoday.org/demands/.) In this action, we shut down every street and bridge we met. We #shutitdown to up the ante. We #shutitdown as public displays of collective rage, solidarity, love, mourning, and power. We #shutitdown to call attention to the organizing power of Black and POC communities. We #shutitdown because we follow in a rich history of Black-led civil disobedience. We #shutitdown to disrupt the routine of folks who find it hard to locate themselves in this movement. IT IS OUR DUTY TO WIN There are many ways to engage in a sustained movement, but we must simultaneously work to ensure that this movement is accessible. There is no hierarchy of participation. We need all hearts, minds, and all kinds of bodies on deck with all the privilege, skill, and resources we can gather. We’re not more down or committed to revolution because of our ability to take to the streets or because we were arrested than our siblings in struggle who are resisting via social media and art, than young folks raising their teachers’ consciousness in classrooms, than elders grounding us in the strategies they used in generations past, than those who pray for and heal our folks on the front lines, or more than strangers who bring water to protesters during a long march. We ask that you consider your privilege, skill, and resources as assets to our movement. There is space for all of us in revolution. We ask that when you take to the streets or engage in anti-police brutality movement work that you consider where you’re marching, rallying, or organizing. Do you know and stand up for your neighbors? Are you building community where you live? Are you questioning police tactics of your local precinct? Do you know the victims and survivors of police violence on your block? Do you know local history and sites of resistance? Do you record the police in your neighborhood? This is about Staten Island and Ferguson, but this is also about policing in your local community. Build with your neighbors, connect with local movements, attend your community board meetings, and join your block association. Our protests, resistance, and resilience should look different depending on location and community. WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER AND PROTECT EACH OTHER As relatively young and able folks, we want to lift up and express gratitude for our elders and ancestors who paved the road so that we may move in struggle. We are proud to move in your path. We sing because you sang first. We march because you marched first. We know how to lay our bodies down for justice because you showed us how. We do this so that your struggle is not in vain. Elders, please be patient with us as we ask for your counsel. We are grateful for and in need of your stories, wisdom, and strategies. We lift up LGBTSTGNC POC leaders in the movement, specifically queer, trans, and women folk who are holding the legacy with us of historical models of militant Black community security, serving as a buffer between community members and NYPD, maintaining accessibility for marches and mobilizations, and committing to safety in moments of rage. We also want to name that all of us who put our bodies on the line from the Safe OUTside the System (SOS) Collective are Black and Latin@ women and gender nonconforming folks, and that the majority of the 36 arrestees who shut down the Manhattan Bridge were also queer and gender nonconforming people of color. We name this because so often queer and gender nonconforming folks lead movements and then are retroactively erased from the historical narrative. We ask men of color in our communities to think about your queer, trans, cis and gender nonconforming sisters and siblings who put their bodies on the line before the next time you harass us in our streets. We need each other to survive. #BlackLivesMatter is now a global movement, and we must connect our struggle to those of all occupied, gentrified, and colonized people. This is about Staten Island, Ferguson, Palestine, Ayotzinapa (Guerrero, Mexico), Pakistan, Denver, and every place around the world where state-sanctioned violence is erasing, deporting and killing our people. WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS The 6 of us SOS members who were arrested understand our power and put our privilege to use in service of an abolitionist movement. Prior to our arrest, we confirmed that we were “arrestable,” meaning that we did not have open warrants, that we are US citizens. We are mostly young and able-bodied. We speak English fluently. We were supported and strengthened by our loving and skilled communities. We knew the possible charges ahead of time. We knew that we would likely be arrested, incarcerated, arraigned, and released within 24 hours. We chose to be arrested. Most folks in the prison industrial complex do not have the power of that choice. Our brief encounter with the prison industrial complex is unique and privileged. Every day, every second, the state authorizes violence and sanctions invisibility and criminalization of our people and communities with less privilege. We hope that after showing how we used our privilege as allies in service of the movement, other allies are inspired to do similarly. This is an opportunity for our allies to move up and put their bodies and privilege on the line. As folks of color move on the ground, this is not the moment for white allies to distract us from our organizing by asking us what they can do. Be responsible and find ways to plug into movement work. To be in solidarity we need our allies to honor and follow the leadership of Black and POC organizers, to participate in CopWatch, do security for mobilizations, stay to the back and periphery of POC contingents, be conscious of what white and non-Black POC folks are chanting (You are NOT Mike Brown or Eric Garner), ensure that white folks don’t increase risk of arrest and injury to POC folks in struggle, serve as court support, or donate to our organizations and causes on the ground. These are just some ways to engage in this movement. To be clear, we are not here to change the system. We are here to #shutitdown. Audre Lorde reminds us that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” and in this moment we must hold to this truth. This struggle is not about bad cops. This struggle is about a system that targets and polices our gender, our race, our class, our communities and does not fight for our safety and well being. This is about transforming the systems of oppression that created and sustain the prison industrial complex. Let’s not forget that police forces were originally built to eradicate and control Indigenous, Black, and immigrant communities and communities of color in this country. Since our arrest on December 4, police have killed at least 249 people in the United States, 1 person every 8 hours. On December 20, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, shot and injured his ex-girlfriend, Shaneka Thompson, and then shot and killed two police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. After which, he shot and killed himself. Our hearts are with the families of Shaneka Thompson, Rafael Ramos, Wenjian Liu, and Ismaaiyl Brinsley. We know too well the pain of losing those we love to violence. Officers Ramos and Liu, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, Jessie Hernandez, Akai Gurley, Yvette Smith, Eleanor Bumpurs, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Tarika Wilson, Duanna Johnson, and Marsha P. Johnson are all victims of the white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonization that policing was built to enforce. We are committed to undoing the root causes of state-sanctioned oppression that destroys our people. We are resilient. We are committed to naming and transforming violence, centering revolutionary love, and building strong communities. In rage and solidarity, The Safe OUTside the System Collective (To get more involved with SOS email [email protected]. To support our work visit www.alp.org)

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Wake Up, Rise Up!

To those we have lost to police brutality: Eleanor Bumpurs, Tyisha Miller, LaTanya Haggerty, Tanesha Anderson, Aura Rosser, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin . . .

And those we have lost to the communal violence justified by the policing of our bodies: Sakia Gunn, Tiffany Edwards, Zoraida Reyes, Mia Henderson, Kandy Hall, Yaz’Min, Shancez, Terrell Anderson, Islan Nettles…

To the Falsely Accused, Detained and Abused: Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, Renata Hill and Patreese Johnson (The Jersey Four), Marichuy, CeCe McDonald and for all the names we do not know.

In the telling of our names, what is most apparent is that our lives are seen as disposable and undervalued.

We are clear as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color that our safety is contingent on the preservation of all Black and People of Color bodies. We have been righteous in fighting against anti-Black racism & anti-immigrant oppression, that allows for state controlled white supremacy to exist and justify the murder of our people. The murders of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley and Eric Garner prove that Black lives are seen as dangerous and expendable. For those of us that are Queer, Trans, Black and People of Color, our bodies, our gender expression and who we love puts us further away from the "norms" and has falsely perceived us as the most threatening, less than human, and even more dangerous of all bodies.

In New York City, where our organizations live and organize, we have seen the impact of racist, classist and capitalist policing on our communities for decades. In the early 1990’s, former Mayor Guiliani promoted the now infamous “Quality of life” policing practices based on broken windows policing. There are camps on both sides arguing for and against the effectiveness of such policing practices. As organizations that work with Queer and Trans people of color communities, we know these policies disproportionately impact our communities through racist/gender policing. Our communities are the most targeted by discriminatory practices of policing and Stop & Frisk that lead to Black and Latino men being incarcerated and Black women being the fastest growing prison population. The United States is a country built on white supremacy, colonialism, slavery and genocide, it has attained wealth, power and privilege from the massive removal and displacement of our communities through deportation, criminalization, and policing.

The fact that Eric Garner was killed due to suspicion that he was selling “loosies” (single cigarettes) is an atrocity in itself. Based on broken windows policing theory and practice, Eric became a target due to the irrational fear that communities of color, that Black people will only continue to break the law, to escalate, and be out of control. Whether or not he was selling “loosies” is irrelevant when we compare these quality of life crimes to more heinous crimes that are constantly overlooked or justified. This includes: when banks are allowed to engage in predatory practices that target communities of color and force groups to remain in poverty; when Detroit can declare bankruptcy on a city of mostly black communities and then take away basic rights such as water; when corporations are allowed to abuse other countries and depress US economies; when the US Military continues to back and support Israel's oppression of Palestinian people and land.

While our work is important and has made critical change, it’s not enough. We need to wake up, we need to rise up. In the words of Audre Lorde - “We were never meant to survive.” We need to be prepared for this hyper level of policing; we need to develop safety strategies for ourselves and our communities that uplift’s our survival and existence. We’ve been resilient in our movement strategies & in our organizing traditions. We’ve been at the center of this work for decades. It’s the legacy of our ancestors, the legacy of the civil rights movement, the legacy of the uprising of Stonewall, the legacy of the migrant farmworkers movement and many others. We have been here and we will continue to be here. In this moment, what are we willing to do to be free?

Written by Cara Page, Executive Director of The Audre Lorde Project & Krystal Portalatin, Co-Director of FIERCE

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The Audre Lorde Project in Solidarity With Ferguson

The Audre Lorde Project is in solidarity with Michael Brown’s family and all of the families and communities of people affected by racist state violence. We are in solidarity with the Black and allied organizers who continue to rise up against the countless number of Black people stolen from us by white supremacist state violence. We recognize that a system that refuses to indict Darren Wilson is not a broken system; it is a system that is working precisely as it was designed to. It is a system that manifests as the continuation of colonialism and slavery. We join our communities in the streets not because we believe Darren Wilson should be placed into jail, but because we demaand transformative systems of justice, reparations, and self-determination and self defense for our communities. We join our communities in the streets not only because of a ruling by a court, but because we know that this moment is part of a historical movement for racial and economic justice. We join our communities in the streets because we know that power belongs to the people! We know that the assault on Black dignity is not just about Michael Brown and Ferguson. It’s about Akai Kareem Gurley who was shot in Brooklyn by the police this past weekend. It’s about Eric Garner who was choked to death by NYPD in Staten Island a few months ago. It’s about Islan Nettles a Black trans woman who was attacked and left dying in front of a police station last year. It’s about Marissa Alexander and the many Black women who are criminalized for defending their families and lives. It’s about militarized policing domestically and internationally from Ferguson to Palestine to Mexico. When we say that #BlackLivesMatter we include queer people, trans and gender non-conforming people, women, people with mental and physical disabilities, people engaged in the sex trades, sex workers, undocumented peoples, migrants, indigenous people, incarcerated people, people without stable housing, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other marginalized peoples. As Audre Lorde reminds us, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” We refuse to accept a single issue struggle that positions our struggles as somehow contradictory. We commit ourselves to a truly intersectional vision of social justice that uplifts the collective power, safety and well being of all our communities. We understand the routine surveillance, criminalization, and incarceration of communities of color in this country as not only a crisis of racial profiling, but also gender policing. We affirm the experiences and leadership of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two spirit, and gender non-conforming people of color who are often erased from the telling of our movement histories even as we are often and consistently at the front lines. We demand and work for our collective freedom and dignity. Despite these shameful acts of violence and attempted genocide of our communities, we incite a movement of transformation, love, and liberation.

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TDOR 2014: AFIRMACIONES

Queremos reconocer, apoyar, y unirnos en solidaridad con lxs miembrxs de nuestra comunidad que se encuentran detenidxs y encarceladxs, y carecen acceso a medicamentos necesarios, y enfrentan violencia a manos de guardias y de otras personas en prisión y en demás sistemas psiquiátricos, donde no existe protección a los pronombres e identidades de género. Les honramos y les celebramos a Uds., y también celebramos su capacidad de resistencia a pesar de que Uds. no pueden estar con nosotrxs esta noche. Su comunidad les apoya y ama.

Queremos reconocer, apoyar, y unirnos en solidaridad con lxs miembrxs de nuestra comunidad que son migrantes documentadxs e indocumentadxs, y que enfrentan detención en centros migratorios, deportación, y brutalidad en manos de agentes de migración, de la policía de Nueva York, y de la comunidad en general. Honramos y celebramos la capacidad de resistencia de Uds. Su comunidad les apoya y ama.

Queremos reconocer, llorar y honrar a todas las personas Trans y de género no conforme que han sido asesinadxs en actos brutales de violencia de odio, así como también a las personas que hemos perdimos por las violencias causadas por la falta de vivienda, falta de atención médica, y la falta de recursos. Les mantenemos en nuestros corazones y nuestras mentes mientras que continuamos luchando por la liberación de la comunidad Trans y de género no conforme dee color, y por la liberación de todos los pueblos. Les honramos y celebramos esta noche. Su comunidad les ama y extraña.  Queremos reconocer, llorar y honrar a todas las personas Trans y de género no conforme de color que son asesinadxs, detenidxs, arrestadxs y atacadxs durante guerras, ocupaciones, genocidios y por durante todos los actos de violencia militar e imperialista. Nos comprometemos a combatir la violencia militar, el colonialismo y la ocupación de todos los pueblos. Su comunidad les quiere y apoya.

Queremos reconocer, apoyar, y unirnos en solidaridad con lxs miembrxs de nuestra comunidad trans y género no conforme de color que enfrentan barreras al acceso a la educación, a la vivienda segura, seguro de salud, recursos y agencia para tomar decisiones por ellxs mismxs.  Queremos reconocer, apoyar, y unirnos en solidaridad con lxs miembrxs de nuestra comunidad trans y género  conforme de color "con discapacidad"/ tienen diferentes capacidades, y que se enfrentan la invisibilidad, la falta de acceso y la discriminación exclusiva de un sistema violento de salud. Les honramos y celebramos la capacidad de Uds. de recuperación. Su comunidad les apoya y ama.  Queremos reconocer y crear el espacio para realidad de que la violencia es sistémica y tiene impactos profundos en nuestra comunidad de personas Trans y de género no conforme de color. Nos comprometemos a luchar para desafiar a la violencia en todas sus formas, y de mantener espacio para curar y para la transformación de todxs lxs sobrevivientes de la violencia y de todas las personas que hacen daño.  Queremos elevar y reconocer el poder, la belleza y la fortaleza de las personas trans y de género no conforme de color. Mientras que continuamos curandp de todas las formas de violencia que experimentamos, celebremos también nuestra fabulosa y resistente familia en todo el mundo. Nuestra comunidad les apoya y ama.

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Remember Trans Power! Fight for Trans Lives! Order this poster in honor of Trans Day of Remembrance. Proceeds go to the Audre Lorde Project, a community organizing center for and by queer and trans people of color. Purchase here. 

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Audre Lorde Project: Trans Day of Remembrance Affirmations

  We want to recognize, hold up, and join in solidarity with our imprisoned and detained community members who face lack of access to necessary medicine, violence at the hands of guards and other folks in the prison and psychiatric systems, and lack of protection and agency around pronouns and gender identity. We honor and celebrate you and your resiliency though you cannot be with us tonight. Your community supports you and loves you.

We want to recognize, hold up, and join in solidarity with our documented and undocumented immigrant community members who face incarceration, deportation, and brutality at the hands of Immigrant and Customs Enforcement, the NYPD, and the larger community. We honor and celebrate your resiliency. Your community supports you and loves you.

We want to recognize, grieve and honor all of the trans and gender non-conforming people who were murdered in brutal acts of hate violence, as well as the people we lost to the violences of homelessness, lack of healthcare, and lack of resources. We keep you in our hearts and minds as we continue to fight for Trans and gender non-conforming people of color liberation, and liberation for all peoples. We honor and celebrate you tonight. Your community loves and misses you.

We want to recognize, grieve and honor all of the Trans and gender non-conforming people of color who are murdered, detained, arrested and attacked in wars, occupations, genocide and through all acts of military violence and imperialism. We commit to fighting military violence, colonization and occupation of all peoples. Your community loves you and supports you.

We want to recognize, lift up and join in solidarity with youth who are Trans and gender non-conforming people of color and face barriers to accessing education, safe housing, health care, resources and agency to make decisions for themselves. Your community supports you and loves you.

We want to recognize, hold up and join in solidarity with our elders who are trans and gender-non-conforming people of color; they have seen many histories of violence, made new histories possible, and continue to share stories, share wisdom, create space and be fierce. We honor and celebrate your survival. Your community supports you and loves you.

We want to recognize, hold up and join in solidarity with trans and gender-non-conforming people of color who are “disabled” / have different abilities, who face invisibility, inaccessibility, discrimination and a violently exclusive healthcare system. We honor and celebrate your resiliency. Your community supports you and loves you.

We want to recognize and hold space for the reality that violence is systemic and has deep impacts on Trans and gender non-conforming communities of color. We commit ourselves to struggling to challenge violence in all of its forms, and hold space for healing and transformation for all survivors of violence and all people who cause harm.

We want to lift up and recognize the power, beauty and fierceness of trans and gender non-conforming people of color. As we continue to heal from the violences we experience, let’s also celebrate our fabulous and resilient family across the globe.

Our community supports you and loves you _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  Audre Lorde Project Website Facebook | Twitter

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Community Welcome from new Staff Alok & Tasha!

Dearest Community,

My name is Tasha Amezcua, I use she and her pronouns, and I’m thrilled to join ALP’s staff as the Safe Outside the System Program Coordinator. I hope to meet and build with each of you as soon as possible, but, until then, a little about me…

In 2006, I refused to do outreach for mainstream LGBT organizations whose issues were not my communities’ struggles and walked off the job all the way to the Audre Lorde Project. That walk changed my life.

As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I wanted to just smile and cry because I knew I’d found something special, a safe place where I could find community and safety. That day, I joined the Safe Outside the System Collective, and was an active member until 2009.

From 2009 to 2014, I worked at the New York City Anti-Violence Project as the Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Community Organizer. In that role, I coordinated the Real Talks Community Action Committee, an organizing body of LGBTQ and HIV-affected survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence. Through building community with survivors of violence, I learned more about how violence works, how it’s an eruption of deep systemic oppression, how we all have the power to harm, and how you never have to touch someone to hurt them. I learned about trauma and how it manifests, how it sits in our bodies, and often isolates us from each other.

As a queer, femme, Chicana survivor of violence, a Brooklyn resident (Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy for 7 years) with working class and immigrant roots, as someone who’s never relied on cops for safety, and as a community organizer in LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities,  I feel prepared for this new professional, personal, and political journey with you.

I believe many hands make light work, and together, we can survive, thrive, and build community strategies for safety that are lead by and center those most impacted by violence in our communities.

Love,

Tasha [email protected] Safe Outside the System Coordinator *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Hello ALP Family! My name is Alok and I am so excited to transition onto staff as ALP’s new Grassroots Fundraising and Communications Coordinator! As a trans person of color growing up in a small town in the South my first exposure to queer politics was online. From an early age I learned the power of media, not only to communicate information, but also to create the very possibility of queer and racial justice organizing. For the past few years I have worked closely in solidarity with queer of color movements across the world to amplify our collective resilience and generate a political analysis that holds the complexity of our varied experiences. With this new position I look forward to working with the ALP community to plug our grassroots organizing more effectively into the netroots – to develop a media, design and communications strategy that allows us to propel our work headfirst into the digital age. In our current political landscape where the type of work that we do here at ALP is becoming increasingly rare, I am also excited to develop and implement new strategies to ensure our financial wellness and create a new culture of giving at ALP. I believe that collectively we can challenge the racial wealth divide and build movements that reflect our shared value of interdependence. Yours, Alok [email protected] Communications & Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator

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Had a great time at the Interpreters Training this weekend! At ALP we believe in the importance of language justice and building inclusive movements for people of all backgrounds!

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Members of ALP mobilized yesterday in solidarity with the #PeoplesClimateMarch!

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A Solidarity Letter to the Climate Justice Movement

“The earth is telling us something about our conduct of living, as well as about our abuse of this covenant we live upon. Not one of us can believe himself or herself untouched by these messages, no matter where she or he lives, no matter under what illusion of safety or uninvolvement we may pretend to hide. Each one of us has some power that can be used, somewhere, somehow, to help save our Earth.” – Audre Lorde – Of Generators & Survival – Hugo Letter, December 17, 1989 As an organizing center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans, and Gender Non-Conforming (LGBTSTGNC) people of color in New York City, the Audre Lorde Project stands in solidarity with communities working and taking actions towards climate justice. We also want to acknowledge and honor the many movements; especially the People of Color led Environmental Justice Movement that has laid the groundwork for the Climate Justice Movement. We recognize that our current climate crisis and the violence experienced by our communities share the same roots: a system that values money over our life—all species and the earth. Colonialism created a legacy of oppression that targeted and silenced our communities and violated our relationship with the earth. In this system, the planet’s worth and our communities’ worth are defined by production and labor, which ultimately lead to the exploitation and devaluing of us all. Existing social and economic inequalities that are based on class, race and gender oppression will be magnified by climate change. Our LGBTSTGNC people of color communities, in particular two spirit, trans, and gender non-conforming people of color, live on the front lines. We have and will continue to bear the burdens of climate change.  * Climate change increases the frequency and severity of storms. In anticipation of the coming storms, we think back to hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. During Hurricane Katrina, black lesbians and Trans women of color were disparately affected. In Katrina’s aftermath, the suffering of these same communities was invisibilized as New Orleans prioritized reviving its gay tourism industry. We remember Hurricane Sandy, which displaced and worsened the NYC housing crisis for thousands of homeless people including many LGBTSGNC People of Color. Currently in NYC, 54,000 homeless people sleep in shelters, and countless others remain unsheltered. Nationally, it is estimated that 40% of all homeless people identify as LGBT. We are fully aware that future storms can deeply impact our communities. * Climate change will negatively impact our community’s health and wellbeing. In NYC, it will result in extreme heat and intensified urban air pollution. These changes will severely impact many low-income LGBTSTGNC people of color who suffer from asthma, and both trans and gender non-conforming people of color, who already face several barriers to health care. * Climate change will also negatively impact food systems, making food even more costly and difficult to access for our community. This has already been demonstrated with extreme inflation and rising food prices. * The global impact of water shortages and the privatization of water has demonstrated an extreme circumstance of valuing the cost of water over the lives of those who need it. The global water war (currently, over 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water; over the next 10-50 years, climate change will increase water scarcity, leaving governments to control and manage groundwater sources) and then locally, Detroit’s Water War, have shown us the impact of the complete removal of safety and access to water for low income communities, especially Black and communities of color. These incidents are a reminder that our current system considers us expendable for capital gain, and warn us of the potential threats water scarcity will inflict on our communities. Globally, climate change will most greatly impact those communities that are least responsible for causing it. Whole countries, who have negligible emissions, will be displaced. We know that these communities, like ours, will bear the burden of climate change. Decades of colonialism, globalization, and capitalism have targeted and policed our communities, and exploited the lands we call home. Once again, we will have to prove our resilience and legacies of survival traditions. And once again, we know that those in power will try to control us and the sustenance we receive from the earth, which ensures our survival and wellbeing. We call out these injustices and stand in solidarity with communities on the front line of climate change around the earth, and those who seek to center and resource the survival and livelihood of indigenous and people of color communities.  As a political organizing center in the so-called “United States,” we recognize the historical responsibility of the U.S. in perpetuating climate change. The United States, which holds only 4% of the world’s population, emits 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases that cause climate change. We hold those with systemic power accountable, for like many oppressions, we never gave our consent to this deathly and unsustainable system, but are silenced to support it.  We call for communities who will be impacted by climate change at home and globally to be recognized as decision makers around any proposal affecting climate change (i.e. any decision that may further climate change, as well as the various proposals for solutions). We recognize the inherent ageism, ableism, racism, sexism, colonialism, and xenophobia of climate change, and call our communities to voice our lived experiences. We stand against false systemic solutions that do not address the root causes of climate change. This includes climate adaptation proposals that recommend increased police presence in our communities and increased militarization globally. These proposals target us as taking resources and both blame and shame our communities for resource inequities, when a history of colonization and imperialism shows war as one of the largest destructions of natural resources. We reject these false solutions and remember through our community experiences that heightened policing only leads to our further oppression. Given the deep roots of climate change, we acknowledge that facing climate change is deeper than adapting to survive severe storms. It is necessary to fundamentally challenge the systems of oppression that continue to exploit the earth and our communities. We call for an end of capitalism and imperialism's systematic desecration, including the exploitative fossil fuel era. We will build our collective resistance and resilience in solidarity with indigenous and people of color communities locally, nationally, and globally. We call for a return to communities and the earth; for valuing one another, fellow species, and the earth, so we can all live and thrive. In Solidarity, The Audre Lorde Project www.alp.org

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We are having a New Member Orientation next week! Come learn and how you can plug into our work on the ground in NYC! Learn more here

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Are you a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans, or Gender Non-Conforming Immigrant who's fluent in English and another language?  Are you  an LGBTSTGNC Person of Color who's fluent in English and another language and wants to support immigrant rights work?  Interested in gaining interpretation skills AND learning about interpreting for social justice?    Apply here!

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This September, activists from around the globe will be descending upon New York City to demand for real solutions to the worsening global climate crisis. Most will come from the Global South, where plunder and large-scale, multinational extractive industries have not only ruined the environment, but people’s livelihood and security as well. At the same time, in North, there is a growing cry from communities across the US for justice in response to more and more Black lives being taken by state-sponsored violence, in particular with of the events unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri. But the ecological crisis and human rights crisis are not disparate phenomenons, even though the US and other state governments would like us to believe so. Both have their roots in the destructive nature of the global economy based on super-profits, war, militarization, and plunder. Why should climate justice activists unite with human rights activists, particularly anti-police brutality and anti-racism activists? What links our struggles? And how can we work together in a movement that will hold the crises-makers accountable and allow us to take justice? Come to this important talk at our office on Friday! Spread the word! Learn more here !

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Had a powerful meeting discussing leadership at last week's TransJustice meeting. See you next Wednesday at 6:30PM for our next TJ meeting. Open to all trans and gender non-conforming people of color and our allies!

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Had an amazing time coordinating Bed Stuy Pride this weekend! Very grateful all of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, trans, and gender non-conforming people of color organizers who made this happen! We are building alternative models of justice to keep our communities safe!

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#TBT this amazing video the Youth Channel made during our annual Trans Day of Action (#TDOA)