About SONG

SOUTHERNERS ON NEW GROUND (SONG)
Building, Connecting, and Amplifying Southern LGBTQ Organizing for Liberation

KEY POINTS:
• SONG is a 16 year old organization started in the vision of 3 white lesbians and 3 African American lesbians who wanted to build organizing across lines of race, class, culture, gender and sexuality
• SONG currently works to build, connect, and sustain those of us in the South who believe in liberation across all lines of race, class, culture, gender and sexuality, thru a 700 membership of primarily LGBT people.
• Our core work is around our Traveling Organizing School and campouts, People of Color retreats, and outreach that connect ‘the Kindred’ (those who share the dream of SONG) to each other.
• SONG is in the process of adding/piloting 3 new programs in its work:

    1. Bull City SONG—SONG’s first affiliate in Durham, NC..with working groups on event creation, inter-generational work, political education, and space—Durham is truly moving and shaking on making Durham a sustained and organized LGBTQ community
    2. Amantes Program—a new regional program that will select projects and project-leaders from SONG members to lead new projects and adventures of SONG across the region—from videos to base-building projects!
    3. Organizer Mentorship Circle in Atlanta,GA—a circle of mentorship and support for new LGTBQ organizers to gain support and skills.

ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS OF SONG:
• Whole selves: SONG creates spaces in which all of a person’s identities are honored and affirmed – no one is asked to prioritize one over the other, and no one is left behind. We believe in building, renewing, and supporting Southern activists.

• Self-determination: SONG creates spaces in which people can grow and be challenged, and are expected to strive to be their best whole selves. SONG expects that members will not hinder the self-determination of others through acts of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, hatred, and intolerance.

• Member-driven: SONG’s commitment is to its members. We want to strengthen members’ skills and help them build connections with each other.

• Connection: SONG brings people together so that they can overcome feelings of isolation and organize with others who share the same worldview. SONG connects groups in the South who are doing similar work. SONG sees the interconnections between different systems of oppression. SONG also connects the experience of Southerners to global conditions, and trains people to see the connections between the conditions of their individual lives and larger systems.

• Vision: SONG is visionary, not reactionary. SONG organizes for hope, not in response to fear. We build, connect, and sustain a kind of organizing that is not limited by the boundaries of race, class, culture, gender and sexuality; an organizing that amplifies hopes and dreams of transformation to a better world. We organize to build the world we really want to live in.


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