Events Archive
As the annual Pride parade and celebration approaches, Baltimore Racial Justice Action (BRJA) will examine how Black liberation and Same-Gender-Loving, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans/Transitioning, Queer/Questioning (SGL/LGBTQ) movements have intersected in the country and in Baltimore.
- How do sexuality and gender show up in Black experiences? How is the “gender binary” rooted in white supremacy?
- How do we find power in the terminology we use to identify ourselves, and where does that terminology come from?
- Who shapes dialogues about Black SGL/LGBTQ lives?
- Is there space at the table for all of us?
We invite folks into a series of fishbowl conversations facilitated by BRJA and local SGL/LGBTQ leaders about the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender, and what it means to find and attain collective liberation.
Forget Horizontal Hostility*
How About Horizontal Allies?
- Can peoples of color work as allies, or accomplices, for our collective liberation?
- Do our disparate experiences in relationship to and with white supremacy—and the potential distrust that engenders—keep us from trusting alliances?
- Where do these alliances historically break down, and how can we make them work more effectively with longevity?
- What role, if any, do white people have in dismantling horizontal hostility?
Please join members from BRJA, BARS, and No Boundaries Coalition for an interactive discussion on how to build sustainable cross-racial movements.
*Horizontal Hostility: The phenomenon of racially oppressed people directing rage and frustration at other groups who share same category of oppression (i.e. racial identity), taking on the values of the oppressor (i.e. white supremacy, anti-Blackness) toward another oppressed group. This is not peoples of color being racist; it perpetuates white supremacy.
Centering and Celebrating the Cross Section of Black Women's Spirituality
Black women, since the dawn on time, have played a central role in religion and spirituality. Through the violent acts of kidnapping, robbing, and displacing, Black women’s presence in many spiritual practices has either been removed or demonized. Further compounding the problem is the appropriation of spiritual practices indigenous to Black women while simultaneously forcing these same heirs to the margins of religious oblivion tantamount to genocide.
In this panel, we want to center the healing work of Black women in witchcraft, magick, Christianity, and Islam, and offer the audience an Afro-centric frame from which to view the various spiritual expressions of Black women. Reclaiming our spiritual birthright in all of its manifestations. We want to pay homage to healers of the past and lift up the very present practices of contemporary healers in reconnecting us to our spiritual birthright.
Panelists include: Risikat Okedeyi, Black Magick Woman; Adamaah Grayse, GraysenMotion; Muneera Fontaine, Peaceful Earth Graceful Birth; Linnet Williams, Old School Bruja
What the Funding: A Discussion to Revisit the City School Budget
This will be an interactive discussion on Fair Student Funding; patterns around race and poverty; and potential solutions. It is hoped that participants will leave understanding how they can act to make more equitable education funding structure.
Location: Windsor Hills Elementary/Middle School, 4001 Alto Road, Baltimore, MD 21216
What the Funding? Unpacking the City School Budget & Fighting for Equitable Funding!
Funding in Baltimore City is all about racism. History shows us that over time funding has been inequitable and out of the hands of community members.