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Did you see the movie ‘MILK’ this season? Are you going to? Regardless of our opinions on the film, it is being seen by many audiences and we should be part of the conversation.
Click this link for ‘Living My Life Like Its Golden: SONG Harvey Milk Study Guide’ to get some conversations started! Living My Life Like It’s Golden: SONG Harvey Milk Study Guide

Have other ideas about what the movie brings up? Email them to us at: caitlin@southernersonnewground.org

As we interviewed people for this project, some common themes emerged: people feel isolated, they often work for organizations that are the only ones in their state doing intersectional work, they have trouble moving LGBTQ organizations to be anti-racist and vice versa, they have limited resources, and yet they are hopeful, believe in intersectional organizing, have faith in youth organizers, and have seen people change as a result of their organizations. We have seen that doing this work in the South is often difficult and frustrating, but the people doing it are resilient, and hold onto a vision of a better world.

Check it out!
Southern LGBT Directory

What is Skills Transfer and Why is it Different Than Standard Teaching and Training?

By Caitlin Breedlove, with the thinking of many SONG folks

One of the things that we have learned at SONG over the past few years, is that we have to look really deeply and self-reflectively at what we are doing and how we are doing it. In this time of great change, we commit to our strategies being bold AND thoughtful. One of the conversations we have been having a lot around the SONG house and SONG calls is about Skills Transfer, and what it takes to truly transfer skills from one person to another.
In the age of non-profits in the US, too often we have experienced first-hand how ’skills training’ is a process that only begins to scratch the surface of any given skill, and leaves the trainer with all the power they started with, and the participant with only a beginning understanding of what a skill like facilitation or outreach really is.

If we truly believe in popular education as a process led by the people and for the people, we must always strive to deepen our ability to do skills transfer; and if we recognize that organizing means building leaders AND power, then we must work to see ourselves and other living beings as our most valuable resources.

What the Left has been better at than skills transfer, some would argue, is facilitating political dialogue and education. We have done hard work to help expand thinking, to push hard questions, to build critical thought in our circles. What we have to figure out is how to unite this practice with good skills transfer.

Skills Transfer means that a skill is delivered whole from one person to another. It means that when we help to transfer the skill we recognize that we are not ‘teaching’ in the sense that the knowledge comes from us, but rather that we are a conduit for the skill moving through us to others–thus we concentrate and evaluate ourselves based on how thoroughly the skill has transferred.

Here is a possible check list for what to think about when we are leading a skills transfer process:

-Have we transferred an understanding of what the skill is, where it comes from, and its context? If so, how do we know we have?

-Have we helped others practice and ask questions about each component of the skill?

-Have we shared all the ‘tricks of the trade’ with the skill that we know? (Think deep–some of these we might not even notice we do anymore if we have been practicing a skill a long time)

-Have we helped imbue a sense of confidence in others in their ability to use the skill?

-Have we helped them schedule a first time when they can use this skill? If they don’t feel ready for this, have we asked them what they would need to get there, and planned to follow thru with whatever support we can offer?

-Have we talked with them about follow up and reflection around the skill?

-Have we talked about how they can help to transfer the skill again at some point, and discussed the power dynamics of not transferring the skill?

NOTE: When we are having a skill transferred to us we can also take responsibility for our own learning, by using these same questions re-framed. Asking ourselves and the person transferring skills to us: Have I gotten all I need about the context of this skill? About the ‘tricks of the trade’? Do I feel confidant in how to use this skill? Why or why not? (Much thanks to the Beehive Collective for reminding us that this checklist should go both ways!!)

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At SONG, we would not claim we are perfect at any of this. But, we have recognized the need to think more deeply about the process of skills transfer to build self-determination for groups, and equity among group members.

Do YOU have thoughts about skills transfer? Experiences you want to share? Email us at Caitlin@Southernersonnewground.org

Gaining Clarity and Building Political Unity In Our Collectives

We find it is really hard for groups to work together closely if we do not have some understanding of each other’s stories, political identities and liberation tools of choice. Here is a short tool SONG has used internally with our teams to gain clarity and build political unity as a team or group. Hope it is helpful, let us know what you think…

-SONG Staff

NOTE: This tool developed by SONG and KINDRED (A new! Southern-based Healers Collective)

gaining-clarity-and-building-political-unity-in-your-group.doc

“We need to find the compass to map our own territories and borders of our sex, sexuality, gender, and our erotic”.

Poetic Speech given at SisterSong Conference Spring 2007 ~ By Cara Page

SONG member Cara Page is also the National Director of the Committee on Women Population and the Environment; she is a queer of color artist, organizer, and healing arts practitioner. A recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship (2000 – 2001) and awarded for her leadership and contributions as an artist and activist for human rights by the National Center for Human Rights & Education. She is a founder of Deeper Waters, a company providing reflective and creative practice as tools for organizing and individual and collective transformation. (cara@cwpe.org or deeperwaters@gmail.com)

We were touched and thrilled to have such a great group of Movement People from around the country come together to work on creating the SONG Organizing School!

We are happy to announce the release of our National Report from our combined listening campaign with Gay / Lesbian / Bi / Trans & Queer movement people of the South, and some of our fiercest national allies… enjoy!!

This link opens onto a beautiful zine created by Kriti Sharma, as a younger woman of color who sees the importance of younger activists drawing from lessons on the lesbian feminist movement in the US during the 1970’s.

She has used ideas from the book ‘Lesbian Ethics’ by Sarah Lucia Hoagland, and created an easy to read and use zine that summarizes a lot of the information. (Don’t worry…Sarah Lucia knows about the zine and loves it!)

We have found this to be a really useful tool for some of our community groups to spend an evening with–just sharing and talking and growing. Excellent for helping groups to think more about conflict transformation too!!

from-welfare-queens-to-gay-marriage-the-path-to-compulsory-heterosexual-marriage.pdf

inside-out-dem-participation-and-econ-justice-in-our-own-orgs.pdf

Ever had a hard time talkin’ to folks you know about the relationships between different forms of oppression? We have! So we doctored up this tool that we use in workshops to help us. Check it out, and if you are facilitating for a group, it has possible discussion questions at the end!