The #NoCopAcademy Toolkit Release at the end of May was a huge success, and the resources dropped—a toolkit, timeline, and chant playlist—can all be accessed at the NCA website. Fittingly for a month full of much mourning, we also had a short poem of ours featured in a mix by DJ Sadie Woods for the virtual event Our Grieving Hands Will Build It, organized by Kelly Hayes on May 27th in commemoration of the more than half a million lives lost to COVID in the U.S.—the transcript of which can be accessed here. Finally, we had a heartwarming visit to the People of Color United after-school club at our old high school while we were briefly back in Amherst, Massachusetts.

We kick off this Pride Month with a virtual Table Talk on June 8th called Ballroom Has Something to Say…About Art, Justice & Healing, hosted by Reimagine. We’ll be discussing health, spirituality, and histories of resistance in the house scene and well beyond with other ballroom members, scholars, and faith leaders. You can RSVP for that event here.

We’ll record a Pride-themed episode for The Real Hoodwives of Chicago podcast with host and badass poet E’mon Lauren. We’ll also drop a virtual workshop/seminar with OTV as part of their #4TheQulture Pride Month series titled On Solidarity: Heartbreak + Invitation, thinking through the building of cross-community alliances, and providing tools for fostering solidarity on your own political turf. The prerecorded talk will be available on the festival’s website between June 26th and 27th. Preregister here.

Later in the month we’ll facilitate our second session for the year-long Portal Project. Finally, we’ll appear at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas on June 21st for a public conversation with Dylan Rodriguez and Derecka Purnell titled Imagine a World Without Prisons, moderated by Kristianna Smith.

See you midsummer!

BH