HIGHLIGHTS OF MARCH BOARD MEETING
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On Monday, March 16 at its monthly meeting, the Board took the following actions:
* Decided to
cancel any Challenging Racism activity, event or communication that cannot be done by Zoom, e-mail, or text in order to support the public health needs for physical distancing as a way to help slow this epidemic of COVID-19. We take responsibility for what we can control in our own sphere of influence, for the sake of ourselves and others. It is our hope that we can work to maintain support for each other and solidarity in the midst of the strange experience of not being able to be physically present.
* Thanked the Internal Affairs Committee and its Chair Kathleen McSweeney for their hard work on the search for a new Executive Director. The Board has interviewed many excellent candidates via Zoom, and will begin the second round this week. This is very substantial progress.
* Accepted for a first reading a draft policy on curriculum development and a draft policy on facilitator training. Discussion would be scheduled for the next Board meeting on April 20.
* Agreed to reschedule a Board retreat on the discussion of the Challenging Racism vision, mission and organizational values. The in-person retreat had been scheduled for last Saturday, March 14 with the goal of developing drafts. This discussion is a part of the Board’s continuing work with staff, facilitators and volunteers to strengthen the organization by the process of thinking through the vision, mission and values with all stakeholders.
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ANNOUNCING: CR
Learning to Lead
Summer 2020
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Challenging Racism:
Learning to Lead is an intense 5-day facilitation training program that provides the skills and training to facilitate any group where race or topics related to race are likely to arise. The course provides direct work on how to create safe spaces for difficult conversations in any setting.
Learning to Lead is a prerequisite for those who are interested in applying to advance along Challenging Racism’s training path and become Challenging Racism facilitators.
Dates: July 6-10, 2020
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Total hours of training: 40
Location: TBA in Arlington
Cost: $3,000. A deposit of $300 is required with the application. It will be returned in full if enrollment is insufficient.
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Group size: 8-14 maximum
Facilitators: Master Team Shari Benites / Tim Cotman
Payment plans are available. Please write to us about any financial questions.
For more information on focus of the program, prerequisites, admissions and more please check our website
here.
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2nd Annual Running Against Racism 5K Run / Walk
VIRTUAL!
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We're trying something new due to physical distancing guidelines....we'll be virtual this year!
Join us as we support one another and our vision for an anti-racist society.
You pick your location, and even your date!
Track your mileage (5K = 3.1 miles), and upload a picture of yourself or your family/small group to Challenging Racism's Facebook event and/or Instagram when you complete your run/walk by or on May 16th.
Donate what you can
. For individuals who donate $40 or more, you will receive a Running Against Racism t-shirt that you can wear for your run and your race photo (T-shirt to be picked up in Arlington).
Finally, if you know of an employer/business which would consider sponsoring our event, please be in touch at
5k@challengingracism.org
Thank you for supporting Challenging Racism during this mission-critical time.
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CALLING ALL CHALLENGING RACISM ADVOCATES
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We would like your help lobbying both the Arlington County Board and the Arlington School Board on behalf of funds for training on race and equity and therefore for Challenging Racism
PLEASE WRITE AND CALL NOW!
When you make a contact via letter, email, phone call, etc., please copy or write to Pat Vinkenes
Patvinkenes@yahoo.com
Here is the timeline to keep in mind:
April 2:
The APS School Board approves its Budget.
Comments on the APS budget can be made by calling 703-228-6015.
Letters may be sent to: Syphax Education Center, 2110 Washington Blvd, Arlington, Virginia 22204. Email may be sent to:
school.board@apsva.us
April 18:
The County Board adopts its budget.
Please click
here
to access a document with all the information necessary to support Challenging Racism now.
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Challenging Racism -
Learning How
APS Group at Campbell - Tuckahoe and the Faith based Conversation meeting at Rock Spring Congregational Church
After conversations with the facilitators, the ED and the Board of Directors during the week of March 13, the
Learning How
sessions for the week of March 16 were cancelled in advance. By Monday
March 16, as COVID-19 spread, it was clear that the CDC advice of 8 weeks of social distance was needed right away.
The CR Board cancelled all in person events until the week of May 11. At that time, we will assess, based on the best advice.
Meanwhile, the facilitators for these two groups, Dawn Kyser, Stephanie Hammel, Melissa Stone and Samantha Fletcher, are thinking and discussing what might be alternative means of moving these conversations along. They will be in touch.
In
Learning How
, we do ask participants to talk about the conversation experience with someone outside the group in order to normalize conversations on race, to get different views and to have a chance to practice listening and difficult conversations. However, this circumstance of having no physical group at all is not what we ever had in mind!
Challenging Racism -
Getting Started
On Saturday February 29
th
the Arlington Democrats and the Young Democrats hosted over 30 people for Challenging Racism:
Getting Started
, a two and one half hour session on racism in housing and housing policies. The only hitch was the fire alarm system at Arlington Mill which put them outside for a good bit of time.
Facilitators Andrea Brown and Melissa Stone directed the work. Participants used materials during the session that also include readings and resources for further inquiry, as well as those included in a follow-up e mail.
Getting Started
sessions have been in the planning pipeline for April and May, but those are all on hold for the foreseeable future.
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How to Be an Antiracist
Challenging Racism: Continued
Book Club
POSTPONED UNTIL
FURTHER NOTICE
The next Challenging Racism: Continued - Book Club will discuss How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. You can find the book at the library or in most bookstores.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Langston-Brown Community Center
2121 N. Culpeper St.
Arlington, VA 22207
6:30 - 7:00 pm Gathering and Sign In
7:00 - 8:50 pm Discussion
Please note, we have to finish at 8:50 pm so we can leave by 9:00 pm.
Discussion Leaders:
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You can find more information about the book and the author
here
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CONTACT
Challenging Racism: Continued
(703) 919-6425
continued@challengingracism.org
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The 2nd Annual National Antiracist Book Festival
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The Antiracist Bookfest is the first and only book festival that brings together, showcases, and celebrates the nation’s leading antiracist writers and helps to prepare the writers of tomorrow.
Each April, the Festival showcases antiracist writers at American University’s Washington College of Law, assembling a day full of author panels and editorial workshops. Our engaging program draws together a vibrant crowd of authors and attendees committed to engaging in antiracist dialogue that will challenge, inspire, and mobilize. Our workshops bring together leading book editors and literary agents to provide insight and guidance for aspiring writers.
April 25th, 2020
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
AU College of Law
4300 Nebraska Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016
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Purchase tickets and find more information about this year's Festival and authors line up
here
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Arlington Public Library Book Clubs
ALL CLUBS POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER, 2020
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Thursday April 2, 2020
7:30 - 9:00 pm
Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 N. Quincy St.
Arlington, VA, 22201
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Other Local Reading Groups
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4251 S. Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA 22206
Meets at the Busboys and Poets in Shirlington on the 1st Saturday of every month from 9:00 - 11:00 am.
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Study Seeks to Document the History of National Park Segregation and its Lasting Effects
By Jahd Khalil, WVTF
Evidence of the legacy of segregation in Virginia’s national park sites is hidden in plain sight. Now, a study of how parks were segregated is looking at how the park service can highlight that history to campers and hikers. It will also try to determine if history has something to do with how different groups are represented in park visitorship.
Read the full article
here
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Not Every Black Experience Needs Your White Opinion
Written by
Lecia Michelle: "
I'm a black woman, a writer, poet and activist. I hope to one day put my stories into a book".
Read the full article
here
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Facing Race in Arlington
Facing Race in Arlington is an email list for community members interested in addressing issues of race. You can join the list by
emailing
Emily Vincent
or you can view the blog at
www.facingraceinarlington.org
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Resources
Area Advocacy
Articles
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Destinations
(ALL CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE)
- Immigrant Food - a new "cause-casual" restaurant at 1701 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20006
- Determined: The 400 year struggle for black equality Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond. The story is told through the lives of 30 people, some famous, some not. It will go on through March 29, 2020.
- The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today - Every three years, artists living and working in the United States are invited by the museum to submit one of their recent portraits to a panel of experts. The selected artworks reflect the compelling and diverse approaches contemporary artists are using to tell the American story through portraiture. National Portrait Gallery, 8th St NW & F St NW, Washington, DC 20001
- Rosa Parks: In her own words Library of Congress
Audio
Books
- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. Based off the best selling workbook, Me and White Supremacy teaches readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
- The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. Following her National Book Award– nominated debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton returns with this equally elegant and historically inspired story of survivors and healers, of black women and their black sons, set in the American South.
- Self-Portrait in Black and White by Thomas Chatterton Williams. A meditation on race and identity from one of our most provocative cultural critics. A reckoning with the way we choose to see and define ourselves, Self-Portrait in Black and White is the searching story of one American family’s multigenerational transformation from what is called black to what is assumed to be white.
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Video
- Harriet Movie - An engrossing, well told and photographed tale of the full sweep of Harriet Tubman’s remarkable life and accomplishments, from her work with abolitionists in Philadelphia right after she fled slavery and her first journey to bring out her family members, to her service in the civil war leading a naval expedition. Her experiences in the south before she fled and during her daring rescues clearly portray the extent to which enslaving Black persons was respectable and normalized in all parts of the Maryland community from which she fled.
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- Just Mercy Movie - A film account of Bryan Stevenson’s work in freeing people of color who are unjustly imprisoned today, at this very moment. The account is drawn from his groundbreaking writing in the book Just Mercy. Mr. Stevenson is the founder of The Equity Initiative, the builder of the museum on lynching in Montgomery Alabama. He is a hero of our time. This film is a “must see.”
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- Waves Movie - Set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, and featuring an astonishing ensemble of award-winning actors and breakouts alike, Waves traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family—led by a well-intentioned but domineering father—as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.
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Share local events, field trips, webinars, books and podcasts with Challenging Racism Operations Coordinator Pilar Afshar at
info@challengingracism.org
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