This month, PeoplesHub is excited to invite you to a new report launch on Resisting Surveillance & Winning by the Arab American Action Network; a workshop series on Building a Disability Justice Politic & Access-Centered Cultures for people in the Pittsburgh region; our final clinic in our Practicing as an Artist in the Solidarity Economy series; and our ongoing Community Care Clinics for Chronically Ill & Disabled Movement Folks!
We hope you join us in any and all of our July offerings at PeoplesHub–to help us envision, organize, and win the world we need for all of our people. In that spirit, I am sharing an excerpt of my favorite poem by Ericka Huggins:
if there is cosmic beauty
then your face holds it
if there is human understanding
then your soul is capable of it
if a mind ever thought of freedom
yours has flown to where freedom
lives and has drifted back...
i can see it ... you must know that one
day we will all be
FREE.
Sign Up for Offerings:
- 🎨 Don't miss our final clinic TODAY, for our Practicing as an Artist in the Solidarity Economy series! In partnership with Cooperative Journal Media.
How can we create support networks between artists who want to make art about and within the solidarity economy? How can we ensure our needs are met to actualize our creative dreams? As we build ecosystems of relationships where co-creation and cooperation can flourish, the narrative of the individualistic starving artist dies.
This series will create a space for us to practice solidarity economy principles as creatives. There will be opportunities to get inspired by other aligned artists, participate in creative self-reflection, and weave networks of mutual support.
artwork featured by PeoplesHub trainer Shreya Delgado-shah Flores
Image Description: A brown background with a light yellow gradient in the top right. Title in black text with white background says "Practicing as an Artist in the Solidarity Economy". Subtitle says "3-part series", and below "with Ebony Gustave & Robin Crane". Illustration in center of two brown hands cracking an egg and dropping flour in a bowl with words "transform" and "organized" spilling out of the ingredients. Date/time info "Sat June 18 | 1-3pm et / 10am-12pm pt, Mon June 27 | 7-9pm et / 4-6pm pt, Tues July 5 | 7-9pm et / 4-6pm pt". Registration link at the bottom "bit.ly/PH-SEArt" and "English/Spanish Interpreters Provided".
- 📣 Register now for Resisting Surveillance & Winning: NEW Report Launch with Arab American Action Network (AAAN)! How have Arab youth, immigrant, and refugee women resisted, and successfully abolished surveillance programs in Illinois? What important research on federal surveillance programs have they fought for, and won through lawsuits, Freedom of Information Act requests, and direct actions? If you and your community are impacted by surveillance, this event will offer exclusive research and successful organizing lessons to resist it!
Gain analysis by directly impacted communities in Chicago on the impacts of federal “anti-terrorism” surveillance programs at our online launch of the AAAN in Chicago’s NEW report: “Suspicious Activity Reports and the Surveillance State: The Suppression of Dissent and the Criminalization of Arabs and Muslims in Illinois”
Image Description: A light to dark green gradient background, with a black text title that says "Resisting Surveillance & Winning: NEW Report Launch with Arab American Action Network". Below smaller text says featuring "Nadiah Alyafai, AAAN organizer" and "Reema Rustom, AAAN organizer". Date/time info says "Thursday July 21st | 4-6pm pt / 6-8pm ct / 7-9pm et" and below text "Interpreters & captioners available by request". An image of the AAAN report cover is visible in the center right. link to register is visible at the bottom "bit.ly/PH-AAAN".
- 💫 Join our Building a Disability Politic & Access-Centered Cultures: For People in the Pittsburgh Region, hosted by Dustin Gibson and Alyssa Cypher! This workshop is for people in the Pittsburgh region who want to develop an expansive understanding of disability & ableism that’s rooted in historical context — and have opportunities to share, hone, & rethink their approach to access by working through scenarios.
Image Description: An orange gradient background featuring black text title “Building a Disability Politic & Access-Centered Cultures”. Subtitle says “For People in the Pittsburgh Region”. Date and time in the center left says “Tuesdays July 19 & 26 | 6:30-8:30PM ET”. Below text says “Interpreters & captioners available by request”. In the center right is an illustration of a purple colored city outline behind two oversized purple colored hands, holding 3 people in the center. One person on the left is signing “I love you”, and on the right the second person is sitting in a wheelchair smiling, while the third person is also smiling and hugging them from behind. The link to register is visible at the bottom “bit.ly/PH-Pittsburgh”.
- 💜 Save our July dates for: Community Care Clinics for Disabled & Chronically Ill Movement Folks! There is a particular reality around what it means to be disabled and engaged in movement and social justice work — please join us in creating this community care peer support space.
artwork featured by Jonathan Soren Davidson for Disabled And Here
Image Description: Light purple background with white text that reads “Save the Date for Community Care Clinics for Chronically Ill & Disabled Movement Folks”. Dates below are Wednesday June 15, 7-8:30PM ET / Monday June 27, 3-4:30PM ET / Tuesday July 12, 7-8:30PM ET / Monday July 25, 3-4:30PM ET. An illustration in the bottom half features a group of disabled queer Black folks talking and laughing at a sleepover, across two large beds. On the left, two friends sit on one bed and paint each other’s nails. On the right, four people lounge on a bed: one person braids another’s hair while the third friend wearing a C-PAP mask laughs, and the fourth person looks up from their book.
Announcements
- Remembering Elandria: This month, on July 13, people around the world will be Remembering Elandria, our late Executive Director, on what would have been E's 43rd birthday. Throughout the month of July, several long-time friends and colleagues of Elandria are slated to speak at E's local faith community: Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Click this link to see TVUUC's schedule of upcoming services and watch them online. For those of you who knew and loved E, how will you be Remembering Elandria? Email us your thoughts here, and/or or share them on social media with the hashtag #RememberingElandria.
Image description: a watercolor illustration of Elandria smiling, silver and purple tones with E’s quote: “I, you, and we are worthy and deserve a life where we are not always fighting for our existence”. Elandria C. Williams, Executive Director, PeoplesHub & Popular Educator. Below is a hashtag that says “Elandria Taught Us”
- Our Program Director, Hope returned from Cuba: “It was an honor to be part of a youth delegation to Cuba, especially in light of an increase of over 200+ sanctions unleashed by the Trump administration & maintained by the Biden administration against Cuba during the pandemic. It was inspiring to see a workers’ celebration of hundreds of thousands on May Day in defiance of the U.S. blockade, and showed us that as people in the "belly of the beast" of U.S. Empire it is our responsibility to pressure our government to end the blockade. As an online popular education organization, we understand the necessity of educating our communities about the damaging impacts of the blockade, and learning powerful organizing lessons from the Cuban Revolution." Read the delegation's Declaration in solidarity with Cuba and against the U.S. blockade, signed by PeoplesHub!
Image Description: A photo of the youth delegation "Build the Future, Break the Blockade" in Cuba at the historic Fidel Castro Center honoring his role in the Cuban Revolution. A multi-racial and multi-gender group of people are standing and sitting in the center of the photo, while some raise solidarity fists.
- Welcome Kareen: Please join us in welcoming Kareen Coyoca to PeoplesHub as our new Public Offerings Coordinator! Kareen will be managing our public offerings, and developing future programming on dismantling the global far-right. Kareen (they/them) is a queer Filipinx community organizer and facilitator with over a decade in social and economic justice movements. Their work and organizing spans from the U.S. to South Africa to Myanmar to the Philippines in interactive and popular education, human rights and anti-imperialism activism, training of organizers and facilitators, and youth leadership development. Read their full bio here!
Image Description: A photo of Kareen, a non-binary Filipinx person smiling wearing a lavender button-down. Two light green paint strokes with white painted text inside says “Welcome Kareen!”. Yellow hand-drawn sun rays surround the image.
Partner Offering
- Cultural Organizing 101 with Highlander Center | July 18 at 7pm ET
We are excited for our partners at Highlander's next Threads session, "Cultural Organizing 101”! In this workshop, participants will share experiences and learn how to expand the role of art and culture in their organizing and advocacy efforts, activating community members to develop cultural tools that can help bring more interest and energy to issue campaigns. Sign up at bit.ly/ThreadsCO!
In Care, Danya | Director of Communications
