Southerners on New Ground

Durham Chapter Meeting
2020-08-04 18:30 - 20:30, 2020-08-18 18:30 - 20:30, 2020-09-01 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Contact: songdurham@gmail.com

South Carolina Statewide Membership Call
2020-08-05 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
In the spirit of movement work and revolution, we invite you to our August South Carolina SONG membership call!
We are in precarious times as we navigate the pandemic and figure out the best ways to support and be in solidarity with the uprisings. We know this time calls for steady and respectful organizing, community-based service, and forging forward with the strength of liberation. We hold historical memories of the work that has been done and of the ancestors who made it possible. We are never alone in the struggle!
RSVP Here

Small Town & Rural Working Group Call
2020-08-06 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Join the monthly Small Town & Rural Working Group calls!
The Small Town & Rural Working Group comes from a long legacy in SONG to fight isolation and build power with our queer and trans folks across the South. We understand that the South is primarily rural and many of our folks are systematically ignored from the primary narrative of what liberation and freedom for LGBTQ can look like. Rural queers face many of the same predicaments and challenges of our urban counterparts, but they are often magnified by this social economy of small places. For more context on the history of our Small Town & Rural work read our “Small Town Cross Roads” report.
Contact: Alan Ramirez (alan@songsouth.org)

New Orleans, LA Chapter Meeting
2020-08-11 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-08-18 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-08-25 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Contact New Orleans fellows Toni and Ra for information about the meetings!

Black Member Huddle
2020-08-11 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
As uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis continue, we see that this moment of rebellion has fed into the rekindling of the global movement for Black liberation. After centuries of abolitionist organizing, the call to defund the police, invest in communities, and redefine public safety is a topic of household conversations. We are seeing our wildest dreams play out in real-time, and we have radical Black leadership to thank for it.
Join us as we convene our Black SONG membership for a Black LGBTQ+ Liberation movement-building meeting. We will take a needs assessment of the resources and support our people need to keep ourselves safe and continue fighting and build out a strategy for a Black Queer August full of Black queer joy, education, agitation, community-building, and resistance.
RSVP Here

Arts + Culture Working Group Call
2020-08-13 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
The Arts & Culture Working Group is a space for members across the region to support SONG organizationally to use art as an essential political education tool that can create deep connection with our communities. With the help of AgitArte, a community-based grassroots arts organization, members learn how to develop an Arts & Culture crew locally, experiment with guerilla theatre tools, and develop plans for how regional Arts & Culture work in can move campaigns. Contact: Alan Ramirez (alan@songsouth.org)
RSVP Here

Alternative World Building - Atlanta Chapter
2020-08-15 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Join the Atlanta Chapter on August 15th from 2-4 pm ET, for a workshop on building a new world!
As abolitionists, we must consistently imagine new worlds where our people are free.
RSVP Here

Virginia Statewide Membership Call
2020-08-15 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York)
Join SONG members from all around the Commonwealth for a chance to build relationships with Southern freedom fighters, share resources like plant medicine knowledge, and get plugged in with the work of queer and trans liberation! Please register to receive Zoom dial-in information. Contact Rebecca Keel (rebecca@songsouth.org) for more information.

RSVP Here

Squad Up, Skill Up, Slay: Street Fighter Series
2020-08-16 13:00 - 15:00, 2020-08-30 13:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
We are living through and calling for transformation as protests against the system of policing have kindled fires of rage and solidarity globally. Our abolitionist vision is being embraced and grows with each person fed up, activated, fired up, and ready to fight for queer liberation.
In order to win our fights, we must work, move and build in formation! We must lean into our collective power and learn from the wisdom of our movement leaders and ancestors. The mandate calls us to work strategically to strengthen our power and birth the world we’re dreaming. To see our people free of shackles and cages with an abundance of Black joy and queer and trans liberation is the charge!
Join us every other Sunday for our bi-monthly Squad Up, Skill Up, Slay: Street Fighter Series to learn community organizing and direct action planning fundamentals. The series is for brand new organizers and folks wanting to refresh their skills alike. To gain insight on how to squad up through base-building, direct action planning and more join us as we skill-up and prepare to slay in our respective communities! Each module is intended to strengthen our disability justice and language justice politic and practice. Starting August 2nd, join us every other Sunday 1-3 pm ET/12-2 pm CT! We’ll have interpretation between Spanish, English and ASL.
RSVP HERE

Make it Rain Working Group Call
2020-08-17 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Join the monthly Make It Rain Working Group calls!
The Make It Rain Working Group is a space for members across the region to help SONG fundraise and skill up their development skills! Fundraising is so important to help our organization have campaigns, convenings, and have a strong regional reach queer and trans people across the South deserve. Contact: Britney Nesbit (britney@songsouth.org)
RSVP Here

Language Justice Working Group Call
2020-08-19 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
The Language Justice Working Group is a space for members across the region, bilingual or monolingual, to help SONG strategize, build and fortify our values around creating authentic communication across race, culture, and difference. This is imperative for movement building. Language justice as a framework allows us to explicitly name the grief associated with the loss of our ancestral languages, as a result of colonization and imperialism as well as heal and advocate for our inherent right to communicate in our most authentic form.
Contact: Monse Ramirez (monse@songsouth.org)
RSVP Here

DigiCommz Working Group Call
2020-08-20 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Join the monthly DigiCommz Working Group calls!
The DigiCommz Working Group is a space for members across the region to help build capacity for SONG regionally and for our chapters and crews moving active campaign work. DigiCommz aims to identify members who are moving communications or digital work in our membership and support their leadership through cross team skill building, regional projects, and providing training and resources. We know the importance of organizers also being communicators – to not only speak of their work, but create crafted messages and narratives in line with their politics and organizing to translate into tactics to win campaigns. Contact: Micky Jordan (mickyj@songsouth.org)
RSVP Here

Political Education Working Group
2020-08-20 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
The Political Education Working Group is a space for SONG staff, SONG members and Forever SONG family to identify the current political education needs for our membership. We know that grassroots organizing work requires intense study in rigor, and this space will help us continually provide tools and curricula for our membership.
Contact: Angela Henderson (angela@songsouth.org)

Black Queer August Political Education Series
2020-08-21 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-08-31 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Join SONG for a three-part Black Queer August Political Education series from 6-8pm EST on August 14th (closed session), August 21st, and August 31st. Together we will study the histories, traditions, and themes of Black August from a Black Queer and Trans abolitionist lens.
We will cover topics including George Jackson and the origins of Black August , Trans and Queer abolitionism, unpacking the meanings of ‘political prisoner,’ letter writing, and the connections between maroonage, abolition, and Black land stewardship today. Join us for a space of creativity, reflection, study, and connection!
RSVP Here

Virginia Race Traitors Call
2020-08-22 16:30 - 18:00 (America/New_York)
RSVP today for our first Virginia based Race Traitor call, happening this Saturday, August 22nd, 4:30-6 PM on Zoom. Virginia Race Traitors is a series of calls focused on SONGs white membership in Virginia and open to all members across race. We will focus on white SONG members’ role in antiracist and abolitionist freedom struggles.
We hope to offer a space for vulnerability, connection, and political education while building the skills and capacity necessary for white members to identify and combat whiteness as an institutional, cultural, and personal matter. This process builds strength in the critical critique of ourselves and our collective world.
RSVP Here

New Member Orientation
2020-08-23 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
If you are a new member of SONG, join our New Member Orientation call! This call is a chance to be in community with other new members as we visit the history of our founders, the methods in which we organize in the South, and an orientation to the infrastructure of this organization. This is the space to bring questions, curiosity, time, talents and vision for how we can organize together! No worries if you can’t make it – this space is going to be held on a monthly basis and will be recorded!
Contact: Alan Ramirez (alan@songsouth.org)

Virginia Statewide Membership Call
2020-08-29 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York)
Join SONG Virginia members from all around the Commonwealth for a chance to build relationships with Southern freedom fighters, learn about the practice of abolition, share resources like plant medicine knowledge, and get plugged in with the work for queer and trans liberation! This virtual meet up will happen every other Saturday 4-6PM EST via Zoom. Please register to receive Zoom dial-in information.
RSVP Here

Lynchburg, VA Chapter Meeting
2020-08-30 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Join SONG Lynchburg, VA on Sunday, August 30th at 6:00 PM ET to discuss local issues, statewide actions we can support, and spend time bringing our knowledge to the table on the topics of police and prison abolition. This meeting will happen every other Sunday on Zoom.

Register here

Staff Mid-Year Break - August 31st-September 6th
2020-08-31 - 2020-09-06
SONG full-time and part-time staff will be off work from August 31st-September 6th.

Nashville, TN Chapter Meeting
2020-08-31 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago)
Join the Nashville chapter of Southerners on New Ground for an open membership meeting Monday, August 31st at 7PM CT. This virtual zoom meet-up will be a chance to build relationships with Southern freedom fighters, learn about the practice of abolition, share resources, and get plugged in with the work for Queer and Trans liberation! Please register to receive Zoom link & dial-in information.

Register here

Free From Fear Campaign Call
2020-09-03 18:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
These every other month calls are a vehicle for member-leaders organizing SONG campaigns across the South to talk to one another, share strategies and tactics, assess the conditions we are facing regionally, share out core organizing training and tools, troubleshoot challenges that are arising, build trust, and strengthen relationships. The Free From Fear regional calls happen are normally on the 1st Tuesday.

Contact: SONG Statewide Organizers: Rebecca Keel (rebecca@songsouth.org), Angela Henderson (angela@songsouth.org) and Jill Cartwright (jill@songsouth.org)

Language Justice 101 + Creating Multilingual Spaces Call
2020-09-09 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York)
Join Cenzontle Language Justice cooperative on September 9th 5-6pm ET/ 4-5 pm CT for a language justice training. Cenzontle is a worker-owned Language justice cooperative based in Asheville NC. The revolution will be multilingual! We must connect and build with each other across language. We invite SONG chapters and SONG members who want to learn more about how to create multilingual spaces virtually through Zoom!
This training will cover the basics of Language Justice as well as a step by step training on how to set up and host a zoom meeting with interpretation successfully.
Register Here

Regional Membership Call (co-hosted by SONG Power)
2020-09-09 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
As we enter the fall season amidst this ongoing pandemic, we know that our survival is deeply rooted in our people holding each other up and building networks of care. We’ve seen, through the uprisings, the beauty and strength of our collective organizing! Let’s continue in the footsteps our ancestors and sow a New South that is pro-Black, pro-queer, pro-trans, pro-woman, pro-immigrant, and pro-worker!
Join us on Wednesday, September 9th, 2020 from 7-9pm ET/6-8pm CT for our Regional Membership call, co-hosted with our sister organization, SONG Power. On this call, we want to hear from you all, share updates from the field and celebrate new crew and chapter formations. We’ll also introduce the work of SONG Power, share about the electoral and power building strategies we are employing in South Carolina, and offer insights from our Melt ICE and voter education campaigns in Georgia.
RSVP here

Black Nashville Assembly
2020-09-12 15:30 - 17:30 (America/Chicago)
In the spirit of Black power, SONG members, and coalition members come together to build an agenda that will serve the needs of Black people in Nashville. Join the Black Delegation of the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition on September 12th at 3:30 pm CT to build community consensus and plan collective action.
RSVP Here
