S.O.N.G.

Greetings Songsters!
My name is Sarah Steele and I’m a grad-student in Florida. I’m doing research on Southern queer community organizing and particularly on S.O.N.G. I would love to hear from you about your experiences as a member of S.O.N.G. Whether you’re very involved or barely involved, your opinion and thoughts will be greatly appreciated. All you have to do is be willing to have a short phone or email conversation with me. I’ve talked to some SONG folks and look forward to hearing from more (you!). Contact s.steele@ufl.edu for more info on me, the project and/or to participate. Hopefully, this study will contribute to our understanding of how community organizing work that addresses the intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality is done by people who think of themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or allies (LGBTQA). My work will be available on SONG’s website when it is complete. Thanks & I look forward to talking with you!

made by our very own Caitlin Breedlove… check it out (if you want to make one to SHARE with us about why YOU organize & believe in the South, please do!!)

Leading up to the US Social Forum this summer, SONG conducted a 127 person virtual People’s Movement Assembly (for more info on the PMA process as part of the US Social Forum go to ) This report documents the voices of 127 who either live in the South or have lived in the South for a substantial amount of time–folks speak here to their conditions, key issues in their lives, and key ideas for strategies around building community, power and organizing.

Much gratitude to all who participated! (PLEASE help us spread the word!)

“In Your Face and In The Trenches: Southern Trans People Speak Out!”

SONG Trans Report FINAL (WORD version)

SONG-Trans-Report-FINAL PDF 2010 (PDF version)

*if you would like SONG to mail you a paper copy of this report, please contact us and we will be happy to send it your way!

SOooo.. it’s that time again! the SONG Camp-Out is on & popping for this Fall!!
Please pass the word along, get your crew together, register and come!

When: November 12-14, 2010

Who: being put together by our fierce bad-ass members in New Orleans, LA! with
support from the SONG staff.

Where: along the Gulf Coast or in the Bayou in Northern Louisiana (exact
camp-site To Be Announced)

How to Register: Registration starts at $25.00 on a sliding scale (both ways, if
you can’t afford $25 put down what you can if anything, and if you can throw
down more than $25, than help us cover the costs for other people and the site,
and give what you can

Email paulina at paulina@southernersonnewground.org
with the info below and pay for your registration online here

OR mail the check (please make sure you say it’s for the camp-out registration)
to SONG / 250 GEORGIA AVE. SUITE 201, ATLANTA, GA 30312.

CONTACT INFO

FORM OF REGISTRATION PAYMENT (so we look out for it)

Do you have any accessibility needs? Mobility needs?

Anything else we should know?

Are you planning on bringing any children?

Can you bring all the gear you will need? Sometimes folks can bring extras, if they know other folk are short on stuff.

How do you plan to travel to the Camp-Out?? [if you need to fly, please let us know and we'll direct you to the closest airport and help coordinate pick-ups // if you are interested in CARPOOLING, then note that's what you'd like and we'll connect you with other folks coming from your sub-region, etc.]

NOTE:

Your registration fee goes to help off-set the cost of the camp-site itself, so thank u!

Generally there are also Cabins nearby for people to rent in addition to Camp Sites for tents. If you’re interested in renting one, we can also connect you to them, as well as with folks who may be able to go in on shared cabins, so let us know if you would prefer that!

Self-governance on the US Left has been an on-going question for decades. While movement leaders around the world have forged processes, such as the World Social Forum, to instruct and lead the planet towards the idea that ‘Another World is Possible’, here in the belly of the beast, the US of A, we have struggled to move forward collectively. In order to do so, we have to digest the privileges and contradictions that have led to the splintering of our lives from our organizing.

However, at the US Social Forum in Detroit, MI this year, we brought together 18,000 people. Not just any people. Poor people. Indigenous People. LGBTQ people. Workers. Parents. Culture Makers. Tradition Keepers. Bikers. Elders. Youth. Most of who, in a big picture of economics, have a lion’s share less of the pie of US American wealth than the ruling elite. Which means what? It means that many people struggled in buses, without pay, with few resources, across state lines dangerous to gender non-conforming people, to immigrant people, to formerly incarcerated people, in order to be in Detroit. People struggled to get themselves to a space that was entirely self-organized by our movements.

At the Forum, every day I saw thousands of people organizing spaces, handing out supplies, creating safety to our folks, and providing healing work to each other. If we consider this in contrast to massive conferences with massive resources that run only moderately better and safer than the Forum, we must conclude that despite the logistical problems of the Forum, there was real organization and leadership present. I think our hands and bodies get it. I want our minds and spirits to collectively catch up and decolonize us. Too often, in these spaces, we still act as though the Forum is a service that is put on for us. This is evident in the way many of us (often myself included!) have criticized the process. We talk about what was missing, what drama occurred, and what could have been done better. We frame these sentences with a period on the end. How could the Forum be transformed if our criticisms went more like this: “There was not enough political education and accountability around how male-identified folks can intervene respectfully on sexual harassment. I want to make that aspect of the Forum stronger next time. Do you agree? Will you help me help us?”

Of course, the Forum process has problems; however, at some point we have to realize that every process, encounter, and space will have problems. We are at a moment in movement building where self-governance of our leadership, and deeper understanding of representation (who and how we represent our communities) are key steps we have to understand in order to move forward. The PMA (People’s Movement Assembly) process is a move in the right direction. For those who don’t know, a PMA as defined on the PMA website is: A gathering of people to discuss and analyze our conditions, to come up with demands, commitments, and visions for how things could be different. A PMA is a facilitated space to decide and coordinate actions that will bring us closer to those visions. In my humble opinion, the PMA process is what creates the possibility for the US Social Forum to be more than a collection of workshops; it creates the possibility of a true process of representatives speaking for communities, coming to common understandings of conditions and strategies; and setting overall general direction for the Left. It is going to take a massive amount of leadership to make this process what it could be. Even with success, the process creates mandates for areas of struggles; we have to decide how we take that lifeblood into our organizations and work. SONG looks forward to continuing to build leadership and movement within the forum process, and is grateful for all the leadership of SONG membership at the US Social Forum.

Sue is a newer member to SONG, and SONG deeply appreciates her commitment to allyship and her sharing here of reflections on the VA SONG Organizing School

Organizing Based on Longing and Desire

by Sue Frankel-Streit

Maybe it’s a conspiracy. Though Southerners on New Ground (SONG) has been around over 15 years, and I have been in the South all my life, I’d never heard of SONG until I decided to participate in an organizing workshop organized by some friends in Richmond. I’ve been a bit disillusioned with organizing lately, and a bit burnt out on resistance, not to mention a bit traumatized in my personal life. I think that’s why I felt the spirit tugging at me to spend three days learning about an organizing method created and used by some members the long-oppressed and incredibly resilient Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (GLBTQ) community. The goal of the weekend: To provide local activists the tools for intersectional analysis political education, and broad-based organizing based on longing and desire.

Based on longing and desire? I’ve participated in and facilitated a lot of organizing workshops over the last 20 years, and I’ve never heard of basing ourselves in longing and desire though that is, of course, what we do.

Right off, the SONG school set itself up in a way that resonated with my battered, scattered spirit. First of all, the facilitators were three women, black, white and Latina, members of the GLBTQ community. Not who I usually see in the front of the room. They began by setting up an altar carving out a space in the room, they said, to hold our longing, fear and grief. All were invited to place something there; invited, but not mandated (nothing in the whole workshop was forced, and we were repeatedly invited to trust our bodies and our feelings in deciding to participate in any given part).

After introductions (name, why here and gender pronoun you use in reference to yourself), we spent time mapping the current landscape of our personal and communal land, work, body and spirit. Throughout the weekend, we referred to this map, and to these four planes, in analyzing our organizing and relationship building tools.

We worked by telling each other stories – about what our ancestors did in hard times, about power, about organizing, about community. We analyzed power – what is it, who has it in which settings, how to reshape it. We talked about leadership – what it is (and who decides what it is), who has it, how to share it. We worked by acting together and by sitting by ourselves drawing pictures. We made space for full translation between Spanish and English, so each person could speak and understand in their most comfortable language. We took deep breaths together and we held each other’s pain.

We broke open the whole package of conflict and “conflict resolution” for individuals and communities. We went to places I’ve never heard these discussions go: How does conflict feel in your body? How do power dynamics play into conflict and its resolution? What about transforming
conflict instead of “mediating” or “resolving” it?

We acted out personal and communal conflicts and tried to help each other become better listeners, more sensitive speakers, more critical thinkers.

I hardly knew any of the participants in the Richmond SONG School, and I was so wiped out by the end that I didn’t even get anyone’s e-mail address. But I know that I have shared deeply and learned profoundly from an incredible group of often marginalized organizers and courageous human beings. I’m humbled and inspired by people who can bring their whole selves to a circle of strangers and be honest and vulnerable. As far as I’m concerned, that’s leadership and that’s power. And SONG’s facilitators were adamant that every aspect of our time together was geared towards communal organizing for liberational social change.

As the school ended, I thought back on a story one of the facilitators shared when we first gathered. After Katrina struck, she said, “If you didn’t have someone’s cell number in your personal phone, or know where their mama lived, you couldn’t find them”. Offices were underwater. Rolodexes were underwater. If you didn’t have a personal connection to another organizer, you couldn’t find them. What they learned from Katrina, and from listening to the hearts of 100 organizers in the wake of Katrina, was that Southern organizers longed for a movement replenished with healers, for lasting relationships in the work, for critical thinking, and for collective structures. SONG’s school is a response to those longings.

My response to SONG is to accept the challenges they put out: that taking care of yourself and your relationships is taking care of the movement; that I am needed and opting out is not an option. And that real, effective, long-lasting organizing means making yourself vulnerable to your companeras and staying in touch – breathing together. Breathing together is, after all, what conspiracy is all about.

Over eating shrimp and looking at garden beds tonight, Ms. Nina, who has cooked the meals and taken care of Southern people’s humor and hearts for 30 years says: “I don’t think I made change, I was just always a thorn in their sides about gay issues–always bringing it up.” Ms. Nina raised a gay child at the Highlander Center (the sassy and wonderful Robbie) and was a tireless advocate for rural LGBTQ people. Many of us feel that her ally work made our time at Highlander possible, and made the opportunities for a Queer Feminist (Suzanne Pharr) to be the first woman director of the Highlander Center. Ms. Nina and her son Robbie were key in starting the Smoky Mountain Gay and Lesbian Center, one of the first LGBTQ rural Appalachian community centers, started in the late 1980’s. She retires this month after 31 YEARS. It makes leaders in SONG reflect on how and why we always see ourselves as a majority but not only LGBTQ identified organization. We are about 90% LGBTQ people and 10% tireless straight folks who are mamas, trouble makers, and just honest to goodness Southern organizers who are so movement to the bone they have always supported our self-determination as LGBTQ people. They have made the very fabric with which all our threads rest so possible. As she asks about SONG tonite, and teases about how “much us kids have done with SONG while under age 30″ (meaning Co-Director Paulina Hernandez and myself), I remind her that she is part of what makes SONG possible at all. Thank you so much, Ms. Nina for all you have done. For all the wit, the political reflections, the brutally honest relationship advice , the green beans and fried chicken and peach cobbler, and the relentless commitment to making space the best it can be to do the work of building Southern movement.

(SONG is a sponsoring organization) 5 Dancefloors: Soul, Hip-Hop, House, World, Salsa, Afrobeat, Live Music + Performances! // Eastern Market District @ Russell St + Division St Shuttles from Major Hotels and Cobo Hall Departing Every 10 minutes. Less than 5 minutes driving from Cobo Hall. CLICK HERE FOR MAP OF LOCATION!

SATURDAY 6/26

* 12PM: ALL PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT ASSEMBLIES / COBO HALL

* 5PM: CLOSING CEREMONY / COBO HALL

Follow SONG at the Social Forum and share your shout-outs / pictures / videos & reflections at:

Hey Comrade! Are you going to the US Social Forum this year?

You’re getting this email because we think you are definitely someone who should be there! It’s happening in Detroit from Tuesday, June 22 through Saturday, June 26. If you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s their website ). The registration fee is a sliding scale, and you should definitely think about going if you’re not already planning to-

For those sexy lefties who are making the trip, I only have one question for you: How could a gathering of thousands of progressive organizers working on the revolutionary love and justice possibly get any better? Answer: 1. Not having to shell out $275 for a plane ticket. 2. Not having to stay awake or drive the 1500 miles there and back. 3. Not having to battle the traffic of the 15,000 other people trying to get to the USSF events. and 4. Spending the 22-hour round trip up to Detroit & back hanging out with your favorite Southern queers!

A group of Bull City SONG members are getting a carpool together and we want YOU to join us! The most cost effective, environmentally friendly, and funnest way to travel is in a comfy motor coach with 44 of your closest Southern comrades. We’ll have a driver & a bathroom & lots of room for luggage (yes, I’m talking to my fellow femmes & others with outrageous fashion sensibilities;) & plenty of shenanigans.

So here are the details:

Cost: $150 round trip per seat *transportation only* (fyi- gas for an average car to Detroit & back is approximately $195, not to mention the wear & tear on your car)
Leaving from: Durham @ 12:01 am on Tuesday, June 22 (we’ll drive through the night)
Arriving in: Detroit some time around noon on Tuesday (USSF activities get started Tuesday afternoon)
Daily transportation: to Cobo Hall in Detroit each morning from one central hotel & back each night (HOTEL fyi-If you want to take the bus in each day, you should stay in or close to the designated hotel. We’ll go with the closest inexpensive hotel. The best rooms we’ve found so far cost about $215 for the 4 nights. Divided between 4 people (2 double beds), that’s only $54 TOTAL for lodging per person!)
Leaving from: Detroit in the evening, after the festivities on Saturday, June 26 (we’ll drive through the night)
Arrive home: Sunday morning

How to get on board: ***DEADLINE is JUNE 4, 2010***
1. call, text, or email Alba Onofrio telling us that you want to come (or for questions) so we can get some sense of how many folks are interested: 919.308.9919 or alba.de.onofrio@gmail.com

2. click on the secure paypal link below and pay your $150 with your bank or credit card to reserve your spot on the bus or you can connect with Alba in person if you want to pay in cash (we’ll send you info on the hotel once you’ve reserved your spot).

3. show up by 12:01 am on June 22nd and get ready for an amazing week of fun and organizing!

Come on y’all, the South needs to be present in this national dialogue & strategy creation for the revolution! Going together on a bus is not only more fun, it helps the environment too! For those of you who can’t make it, don’t worry. We’ll bring back all the knowledge & skills that we gather in Detroit to make our local work in the South even better!

**IMPORTANT NOTE** The USSF is only 4 weeks away! Because this is a totally grassroots effort, we have to have the payment for the bus in advance. So, YOU ONLY HAVE A SHORT TIME TO SIGN UP! ***DEADLINE is JUNE 4, 2010***
If, by some strange reason, we don’t have 45 people signed up and paid by June 4th, we will refund your payment so that you have enough time to organize other transportation. (A 15-passenger van, for example, is also another possibility for a back-up plan.)

in fierce love & solidarity,
Bull City SONG

Hey SONGsters! it’s that time again! As you all know, the first-ever United States Social Forum took place in Atlanta, GA with the great help of SONG members like you! This summer will bring us the 2nd US Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan.

To Register: http://www.ussf2010.org/

To find out more about logistics like housing / transportation / etc., visit: http://www.ussf2010.org/logistics

If you would like to caravan coming from Georgia and surrounding areas, contact the lovely Taliba with Project South at taliba@projectsouth.org

[once you register, if you would like to caravan / carpool with other Southern LGBTQ folks, please contact paulina at: paulina@southernersonnewground.org AFTER you register so we can keep track of folks and link you up to each other so folks can make their arrangements and save on gas and hopefully engage in trans & queer adventures along the way to Detroit!]

The US Social Forum will provide a space to build relationships, learn from each other’s experiences, and share analysis of the problems our communities face. It will help develop leadership, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.

Look out over the next few weeks to learn more about what SONG staff & other members as well as what other sister organizations are planning for the US Social Forum, sessions, other gathering / meeting / convergence spaces for LGBTQ movement people once you’re AT the social forum, as well as how to get involved!! Your leadership is critical!

SONG is also working to do a People’s Movement Assembly which gathers the feedback of Southern trans folks (either living in the south and / or who grew up as trans in the South) to help amplify our voices / experiences and organizing priorities to the larger People’s Movement Assembly.

If you are interested in being involved in that contact Paulina at: paulina@southernersonnewground.org and / or link up directly to give your feedback and thoughts, as well as share with other folks who want to be involved at: Southern Trans People’s Movement online Assembly or call us at 404.549.8628 to do it over the phone and / or if you are interested in facilitating one in your community!! it’s easy, simple and important towards raising the visibility of our lives and resiliency.

Also, this is a place for you to post if you are ALREADY involved in other work organizing towards the USSF, so please share info / links / other opportunities for folks to know about becoming involved!