Calendar

Joe Biden’s critique of Mayor Bloomberg in the Nevada debate for not taking care of his City and its people during his tenure as NYC mayor applies with equal force to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Mayor Bottoms has not done enough to address Atlanta’s reputation as the 4th fastest gentrifying city, its ranking as the most unequal city in America for a 2nd year in a row, and as a place from which black people are being rapidly displaced on her watch.

So we’re hittin’ the road to South Carolina to let Joe Biden (and the other candidates) know what his key southern surrogate is doing to black, brown and working-class people and legacy communities in Atlanta.

We want Joe Biden to hold his surrogate Atlanta Mayor Bottoms to the same standard to which he holds his opponent.

More background:
Flooding in Peoplestown, resulting from overdevelopment and decades of neglect, prompted former Mayor Kasim Reed to create a plan to build a park, waterfall, pond and educational gazebo to mitigate the flooding. Mayor Reed exempted then-93 year old Ms. Mattie Jackson from the takings and demolished more than 20 homes on a block in the heart of a historic black neighborhood in Atlanta. Four families who were suspicious of the City’s motives refused to settle and were sued in 2016. Their names were removed from the deeds to their property and they continue to pay their mortgages, even though they face the daily risk of eviction.

In the course of the 3 years of litigation, emails surfaced which were authored by the City engineer, who was the project manager for the proposed park and pond, which clearly documented that there was no engineering data to support the taking of the entire block of homes and that the proposed plan was not necessary to mitigate the flooding (see video of Kimberly Scott and attached 2013 emails). Of the 27 homes that were on the block, only 5 remain, including the home of Ms. Mattie Jackson, who turned 98 on 2/20/20. The City’s attorneys have stated repeatedly in court and at City Hall that as soon as she dies they will take her home.

The current Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, voted to pass the ordinance authorizing the use of eminent domain when she was an Atlanta city council member. She has been made aware of the error made by the City of Atlanta in taking the homes in Peoplestown. The remaining residents on the Peoplestown block have repeatedly asked her to do the right thing and withdraw the lawsuits. As a key surrogate of Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, Mayor Bottoms’ actions, the unlawful taking of homes and the resulting displacement of black families, are not compatible with Biden’s anti-gentrification platform.

https://www.facebook.com/events/199337931144764/

EMERGENCY PROTEST: STOP HINDU FASCIST TERROR IN INDIA

Join Equality Labs, The Alliance for Justice & Accountability, the Indian American Muslim Council and Chicago South Asians for Justice for an emergency protest to support Muslims and caste oppressed communities being terrorized by Hindu mobs and RSS goons.

As Donald and Melania Trump descend upon Delhi, Muslims are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence. Four people have been reported murdered, with hundreds being tortured and attacked by Hindu fascists. There have been several shooters across Delhi, and it is uncertain what the next period will bring. We are gathering at the Indian consulate to demand they stop their support of the RSS, BJP and Hindu fascist violence. We are demanding justice for protestors, and condemning the Citizenship Amendment Act, and the escalation of violence against protestors.

Join us! The time to stop a genocide is before it starts.
Friday, February 28
4:30 – 6:00PM
Consulate General of India
5549 Glenridge Dr, Sandy Springs, GA

https://www.facebook.com/events/140678567145488/

Over 600 people with disabilities including autistic people have been killed by their families and/or caretakers in the past five years alone. Please join ASAA and ASAN in this FREE to the public vigil mourning people with disabilities including autistic people that have been killed by their families and/or caregivers. It will be held at Neighborhood Church in Chandler Park in Atlanta and it is wheelchair accessible. Parking is available in the back lot (lot is one way – entrance is on Mell Ave); drive all the way through lot for ADA parking on the side. Enter through the silver & glass doors at the Connector (behind the Pride flag or by the playground). Additional parking is available on the street in front of the church or on McLendon Ave! If coming from MARTA, take the Blue or Green Lines (E-W Trains) to Edgewood/ Candler Park MARTA station. We’re one block east and one block north, across from the park. We are committed to providing accommodations to make sure people with disabilities can participate in the event. If you need accommodations like ASL and captioning, please let us know, so that we can ensure access.

https://www.facebook.com/events/616385522533691/

Unbound is a support group for Black gender expansive, nonbinary, nongendered, bigender, gender fluid, transgender, and beyond the binary identified folks. This will be our first meet up! There will be snacks and drinks provided.

The location is at SNaP Co.’s house at 2855 East Point St. The location is Marta accessible. The location is not wheelchair accessible and has 3 stairs to enter the building. There is parking behind the building and parking in the plaza across the street. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or email Hunter at ashleighthelion@gmail.com.

https://www.facebook.com/events/177906223478451/

Legislators are crafting laws that have a direct impact on our communities, and many are especially dangerous for immigrants and communities of color. We recognize the importance of advocating for ourselves and the power that we can have on legislative processes.

JOIN US FOR AN EVENT SERIES TO DEFEAT DANGEROUS BILLS THAT ATTEMPT TO STRIP OUR COMMUNITIES OF THEIR AGENCY AND UNDERMINE OUR VOICES.

DAY 1: TRAIN THE TRAINERS DAY
Friday, March 6, 2020 | 11AM-2PM | 3913 Church St, Clarkston, GA 30021

In light of International Women’s Day, women activists of color will introduce the importance of connecting Global Struggles to our own, lead training on lobbying practices and talking to our legislators, and facilitate discussion of bills that we need to fight to protect our communities.

There will be interpretation available in Spanish, Arabic and French.

LUNCH WILL BE SERVED!

DAY 2: LOBBY DAY
Monday, March 9, 2020 | 10AM-1PM | 206 Washington St. SW, Atlanta, GA 30334 | Room Cap 125

Join us at the Capitol Building for a live press conference on the state of harmful bills and their impact on our communities. We will do a refresher on lobbying practices and put those practices into action!

https://www.facebook.com/events/671751843596177/

In honor of International Women’s Day Charis presents a resource fair to help you set your feminist agenda for the rest of 2020. Meet and greet with local organizations and non-profits, connect with activists, and share your passion for justice. All individuals are welcome to attend. If you are a leader of an organization or group that you think should be represented at the resource fair please email Dartricia@Chariscircle.org. (No businesses please.) Free

Accessibility:
Charis Books is a fully wheelchair accessible space with on site van accessible parking, two ramps, and additional overflow accessible parking nearby. Most of our shelves are on wheels and can be moved to provide additional access. Our bathrooms are wheelchair accessible and gender neutral with motion activated fixtures. Both bathrooms have wheelchair accessible baby changing tables. Our directional signs are written in braille. Our events are mic’d for sound. We caption videos when we show them in the space. Free ASL interpretation is available for most Charis Circle programs upon request. Please email info@chariscircle.org to request interpretation as early as possible. We have several different kinds of seating for events. If you need a wider or sturdier chair and don’t immediately see one available, please let us know and we will help you find one that fits your body. The space has all LED lighting. The space is not scent or chemical free but we do our best to minimize the use of chemicals and scents throughout the space and use low VOC materials whenever possible. If you have specific questions about the space or how an event can be made more accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@chariscircle.org.

https://www.facebook.com/events/784969292033098/

Southern Fried Queer Pride is proud to present a Cinequeer Movie Night featuring Grrrl Justice on Wednesday, March 11th at The Bakery Atlanta. “An experiemental narrative short by filmmaker Shontina Vernon, Grrrl Justice explores the rising rates of girls and queer youth of color in the juvenile justice system applying the lenses of gender and sexuality.”

Doors for the event open at 6:30PM.
The film will begin at 7PM.
Popcorn and drinks will be served.
A discussion of the film and it’s themes will directly follow the film.

This event is free.
This event is all ages.
Film content to be viewed at viewer’s discretion.

The Bakery Atlanta is located at 825 Warner Street SW Atlanta, GA 30310. It is near both West End and Oakland City MARTA Stations, and close to both I75 & I20. The venue has a ADA accessible ramp entrance, restrooms, and general layout. We aim to be as accessible as possible. If you have any accessibility request, email us at: contact@southernfriedqueerpride.com

Southern Fried Queer Pride is a Atlanta based organization empowering Black & QTPOC-centered communities in the South through the arts! For more info, find us at: southernfriedqueerpride.com. For questions, email us at: contact@southernfriedqueerpride.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/2233636770265203/

Mark Your Calendars for our March Mixer! We are co-hosting with Jewish Voice for Peace-Atlanta Chapter 📆 Friday, March 13th!

This collaborative event will introduce you to a brilliant initiative of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, Palestine: The Freedom Bus uses interactive theatre and cultural activism to bear witness, raise awareness and build alliances throughout occupied Palestine and beyond.

During Freedom Bus events, Palestinian actors and musicians invite true stories from communities across Palestine and subsequently transform each account into a piece of improvised theatre. The Freedom Bus also organizes multi-day stays and building and accompaniment work in communities subjected to home demolitions, settler violence and military aggression.

Endorsers of the Freedom Bus include Alice Walker, Angela Davis, John Berger, Judith Butler, Luisa Morgantini, Maya Angelou, Noam Chomsky, Omar Barghouti and many more.

We will be screening pieces from past Freedom Rides and exploring the capacity of interactive theatre (specifically Playback Theatre) to reclaim space, agitate and liberate. This is going to be an exciting one!

Our partners at Jewish Voice for Peace-Atlanta Chapter will be co-hosting this event in our mutual effort to stand in solidarity with Palestinian civil society. Meet organizers and learn how to get involved in JVP’s local movement work.

Doors at 7.30PM
Event 8PM

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ATL Radical Art Monthly Mixers are a place to:
*Meet our community of protest artists
*Introduce yourselves
*Share your passion projects
*Pitch ideas for future collaborative works
*Get involved in our ongoing programming

Join us & Invite your creative comrades ✊🏾

Please send us a message on Facebook or email atlradicalart@protonmail.com

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ABOUT OUR COMMUNITY:

ATL Radical Art is a collective of local Atlanta artists committed to the creation of a radical and artistic counterculture in response to the social and political climate of our time. Our Artists engage in performances/experiments that shed light on topics of intersectional struggle, liberation and protest from around the globe. Our vision is to create create spaces and works that thrive independent of institutional funding, finding its strength in community support. This community is primarily for people of color, non-men, queer & trans artists across multiple disciplines as well as accomplices who are working jointly with us towards similar goals and prioritize the visibility of said communities in Atlanta’s art scene.

Please send us a message on Facebook or email atlradicalart@protonmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/events/508725273123954/

The Auburn Avenue Research Library, in collaboration with On Our Own Authority Publishing, will host revolutionary organizer Modibo Kadalie for a conversation around his publication Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations, & Essays.

In this collection of interviews and public talks, he reflects on the sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, urban rebellions, and anticolonial movements that have animated the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries. Kadalie demonstrates how the forms of direct democracy that have evolved through these freedom struggles present the promise of a future defined by social liberation as well as ecological healing.

Modibo Kadalie is a social ecologist and lifelong revolutionary organizer. In the 1970s, he was a member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the African Liberation Support Committee and a delegate to the Sixth Pan-African Congress. He is the founding convener of the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology and the author of Internationalism, Pan-Africanism, and the Struggle of Social Classes.

https://www.facebook.com/events/491645854809004/

TalkingQRAP is a monthly dialogue space where Queers of Asian-descent get to build community and develop new narratives through diving into our experiences, sharing stories with each other, eating food, and having fun!

== QRAP? ==
Coined by a dear comrade from Southerners On New Ground, QRAP stands for Queer Rad Asian Perspectives.

It’s Queer as in ‘fuck you’, Rad as in politics that go to the root of things, Asian cause our heritage deeply influences our experiences, and Perspectives because we are not a monolith, aaaaand QRAP cause shit’s funny sometimes. Also poop emojis. 💩 💩 💩

== More Info ==
Meetings are held the last Sunday of each month from 4-7pm, always over a delicious dinner and always welcoming new faces. No prior experience with any topic is required, but a willingness to listen deeply is a must!

Each month is at a different location so be sure to check back on the FB page and through our mailing list!

https://www.facebook.com/events/461982927807716/

Join OUTLaw for a discussion exploring the historical and contemporary struggles of queer people within the American empire. This conference will focus on HIV criminalization, especially as it pertains to the American South.

“At least 29 states, mostly in the Midwest and Deep South, have laws that make H.I.V. nondisclosure, exposure or transmission a crime.

These laws constitute one more layer of marginalization for those whom the criminal justice system already disproportionately prosecutes, convicts and harshly sentences: black people, trans women, migrants, people who sell sex, people who inject drugs and L.G.B.T.Q. youths. Such laws have not been shown to reduce H.I.V. transmission, but they do discourage those at risk from getting tested, which undermines public health rather than protects it.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/opinion/criminalization-of-hiv.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap)

Lunch provided at noon; light reception after the conference.

For information, please contact Stephanie Sorquira, OUTLaw Conference Chair, at stephanie.sorquira@emory.edu.

All are invited and encouraged to attend this conference. This event is not limited to Emory Law Students. We hope to see you there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/629990661152930/