Southerners on New Ground

Virginia Statewide Membership Call
2020-08-15 16:00 - 18:00, 2020-07-25 16:00 - 18:00, 2020-06-20 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.

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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.
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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)
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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

New Orleans, LA Chapter Meeting
2020-08-11 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-08-04 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Contact New Orleans fellows Toni and Ra for information about the meetings!

Small Town & Rural Working Group Call
2020-08-06 18:00 - 20:00, 2020-07-02 08:00 - 17:00 (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)

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!
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Durham Chapter Meeting
2020-08-04 18:30 - 20:30, 2020-07-21 18:30 - 20:30, 2020-07-07 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Contact: songdurham@gmail.com

Race Traitor Call Summer Series
2020-08-02 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Calling all queer white Southern kin. Our ancestors designed this terror. Our cousins are the white vigilantes chasing and murdering Black people and fighting tooth-and-nail to extend this racist regime. As white Southerners, it has been long past time for all of us to come off the sidelines in this moment and play our role. Join our call to build connection, accountability, and relationship with other SONG members so we can fight together.
RSVP here for SONG’s Race Traitors summer call series for white members. These calls will take place from 6-8PM EST/5-7PM Central on the first Sunday of each month through the summer. Though this call is focused on holding conversations between white SONG members, all SONG members are welcome to join.

Squad Up, Skill Up, Slay: Street Fighter Series
2020-08-02 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

Spokescouncil Call
2020-07-21 08:00 - 17:00, 2020-07-18 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
The SONG Spokescouncil is a longtime dream of the organization. It consists of member leader representatives from each chapter, working group, board, current fellowship cohort, and ForeverSONG family. The Spokescouncil is designed to be a member-led formation for making decisions, sharpening our collective tactics, actions, and work across the region.
To Learn More Contact: Carlin Rushing (carlin@songsouth.org)

Make it Rain Working Group Call
2020-07-20 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)
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Political Education Working Group
2020-07-16 18:30 - 20:30, 2020-06-18 18:30 - 20:30 (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)

DigiCommz Working Group Call
2020-07-16 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

Language Justice Working Group Call
2020-07-15 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

Black Member Huddle
2020-07-14 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
As we enter the seventh week of uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, 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.
RSVP for our call Tuesday, July 14th at 6:30 pm ET/5:30 pm CT, 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. Will you join us?
RSVP Here

New Member Orientation
2020-07-12 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)

Arts + Culture Working Group Call
2020-07-09 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

Race Traitor Summer Series
2020-07-05 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)

DigiCommz Working Group Call
2020-06-25 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. We’ll be going over interviewing skills! It’s a space for members who are moving communications or digital work in our membership to get together for cross-team skill-building, regional projects, and 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

Regional Membership Call
2020-06-21 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” – Gwendolyn Brooks
Join us on Sunday, June 21, 2020, at 6-7:30 pm EST/5-6:30 CST for our June Regional Membership call. On this call we want to reflect on our learnings from Queer South Revival 2020 and share strategy across the region about our current conditions and how to meet this political moment with our full selves. We want to share some of our wins, hold space for the immense amount of heartache we are feeling, and fortify ourselves for the fight ahead.
If you are a new SONG member and want to hear to plug into a local crew or regional working group, this is the call for you! If you are a seasoned SONG member and have been throwing down, this is the call for you! Our work is about transformation and we have some work to do y’all!
RSVP here

Language Justice Working Group Call
2020-06-17 19:30 - 21:00 (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)
