Building the leadership, healing, and safety of Black-African transgender, queer, nonbinary, two-spirit & intersex (TQN2SI+) Oregonians. | |
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Black & Beyond the Binary Collective
2022 Recap
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Our Housing Safety Fund is moving toward closing out our third year of programming, supporting over 175 households with rental assistance, and investing over half a million dollars towards eviction prevention.
- In June 2022, we held our first Black Pride events, including our KickBlack, which brought together over 50 Black transgender, queer, nonbinary, two-spirit, and intersex individuals from Portland Metro. We also marched in the 50th Annual Clara Peoples Juneteenth Parade celebrating Black Trans and Queer Pride!
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Hosted two accessible Trails & Trees for Black QT's hikes in Portland Parks with our lovely guide Ashley Bubnick.
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In August, we graduated the fifth cohort of Umoja Kijana Shujaa. Since 2017, we have graduated over 50 youths aged 14-24 who are fighting like hell for a better future for all of us!
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Over 2022, we hosted ten workshops for our We Keep Up Safe community safety web series in collaboration with the Office of Community and Community, connecting with over 100 community members to discuss disability justice, indigenous sovereignty, transformative justice, and many other community safety-focused topics.
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Housing Safety Fund
We are excited to welcome our Zami Graves (She/They) as the Housing Safety Fund Coordinator!
Zami is bringing her expertise around housing justice and skills in farming, Black wellness, and environmental education.
Our Housing Safety Fund will reopen again in July 2023. In the meantime, stay on the lookout for our Housing Safety Fund report dropping on June 1st, 2023! For more information about the Housing Safety Fund, email [email protected]
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Umoja Kijana Shujaa
Umoja Kijanna Shujaa leadership program closed out this summer by graduating six powerful youth organizers for the 2022 cohort! Congratulations, Charlie, Vante, Zave, Olivia, Zepher, and Shiloh!
We deeply thank the guest facilitators, interns, grassroots supporters, and funders! We also want to thank Meals 4 Heels for providing nourishing healthy food to power our conversations!
We will begin recruiting for our seventh year of Umoja in Spring 2023! Lastly, we thank our 2022 parting intern and former 2021 Umoja Alumni, TJ Brown! This year wouldn't have been the same without your wisdom and leadership.
Please join us in welcoming our Summer 2023 Program Coordination Llondyn Elliott (He/They)! Llondyn will lead the Umoja program this year with his brilliant visioning and facilitation skills to prepare the next generation of youth leaders in Portland. Umoja recruitment will start in late April 2023. If you would like more information about Umoja, please email [email protected].
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[ID: Five Black youths pose in front of the Black & Beyond the Binary Collective building wearing mask, kente cloth stoles, and holding certificates of completion from the Umoja Kijana Shujaa leadership development program.] | |
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The Ubuntu Healing Project
The Ubuntu Healing Project is a community wellness education series that bridges indigenous and cultural healing practices with Western mental and physical health.
In these workshops, somatic trauma therapist, embodiment facilitator and traditional healer T. Aisha Edwards, LMHC (xe/she/they) holds sacred space for us to grow and transform personally and collectively.
Aisha is the Vision Director and founder of Radical Rest, a community-based organization that provides trauma-informed healing events and education for Black, brown, and Indigenous folks.
Our next session is in person at our office on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 from 5 - 8 PM. Click here to learn more about Ubuntu Healing Project and upcoming workshops.
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Constructing Civic Dialogues
Join us for the spring session of our We Keep Us Safe: Constructing Civic Dialogues series! We developed this series because we believe that everyone in our community benefits from taking an active role in public safety discourse. We work to connect with and learn from those curious and willing to dismantle institutions that harm us and deny us our right to safety.
We understand that imagining how to address harm outside of the carceral state is a creative skill we are all building and practicing. These virtual events will build upon our collective imagination while beginning to address anti-Black racism, settler-colonialism, and gender violence in our movements for abolition and liberation.
On Tuesday, May 16th, we’ll partner with Utopia PDX to discuss their work providing sacred spaces to strengthen the minds and bodies of queer and trans Pacific Islanders (QTPIs) through community organizing, political engagement, and cultural stewardship.
On Tuesday, May 23rd, activist, writer, educator, sex(ual) healer, filmmaker, performance artist, and mother Ignacio G Hutía Xeiti Rivera, M.A. will guide us through a reflection on sex, spirituality, and healing.
Our sessions will feature LIVE closed captioning and ASL interpretation. Visit our Eventbrite page for more information!
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Spring Yard Clean Up
As we transition into a new season, we’re preparing to host more programs and events – like our Umoja leadership development cohort and Juneteenth kickback! – at our office on Division Street.
Our space has been in hibernation all winter – can you help us wake it up and prepare it for our upcoming gatherings?
Join us Saturday, May 13, 2023 from 11 AM - 3 PM for a volunteer spring yard clean up! We’ll work on various landscaping and groundskeeping tasks to beautify our outdoor space.
Interested in volunteering at the work party? Click here to register.
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- Trans Diaspora of Resistance November 17th, 2023 4pm-9pm
- Night Out for Safety and Liberation August 1st, 2023, 4pm-8pm
- Black Pride Kick-Black June 18th, 2023, 4pm-9pm
- Juneteenth Parade June 17, 2023, 9am-1pm
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Jobs, opportunities, and community events! | |
[ID: A Black woman wearing a cheetah print shirt is smiling and dancing, pointing down at our community listing of jobs, opportunities, and events. | | | | |
