Story Type: Grantee Partners

New Voices for Reproductive Justice Pittsburgh

New Voices for Reproductive Justice is a multi-state feminist organization dedicated to the health and wellbeing of Black women, femmes and girls, women of color, and LGBTQ+ people of color.

New Voices for Reproductive Justice is a multi-state feminist organization dedicated to the health and wellbeing of Black women, femmes and girls, women of color, and LGBTQ+ people of color. Knowing that poor, low-income and working class women, young women, incarcerated women, and queer women of color are ignored, criminalized, and made unprotected socially and economically grounds their strategies. They work to develop community leaders by providing community organizing trainings and opportunities for mobilization, amplifying their message, and building a sustainable organization to support a growing base of Black women, women of color, and LGBTQ+ people of color leaders. In the past year, they have expanded their SistahSpeak! Youth Project that educates young Black girls, femmes, and women in sexual and reproductive health and provides space for mentoring and developing community organizing skills. Through all of their work, New Voices for Reproductive Justice hopes to amplify the multi-issue, multicultural and multigenerational aspects of Reproductive Justice to shift the current “pro-choice” and “pro-life” language and framework towards Reproductive Justice language, theory, and practice.

Bold Futures (formerly Young Women United)

Founded in 1999, Bold Futures (formerly Young Women United) works to build communities where all people have access to the information, education, and resources needed to make real decisions about their own bodies and lives.

Founded in 1999, Bold Futures (formerly Young Women United) works to build communities where all people have access to the information, education, and resources needed to make real decisions about their own bodies and lives. While Bold Futures understands that the issues facing LGBTQ people in New Mexico are similar to the issues New Mexico faces everyday, whether it is poverty, anti-immigration policies, incarceration and detention, criminalization of substance use and addiction, and inadequate access to health care, they uniquely address these issues through a LGBTQ-centered reproductive justice lens. Additionally, they are one of very few organizations in New Mexico working to address reproductive health in Spanish. Working in a rural state with specific histories of displacement and colonization that deeply affect their base of LGBTQ youth, women, people of color, and indigenous/Native peoples, Bold Futures moves through and within movements for criminal justice reform, birthing justice, and reproductive justice. They uplift the voices of their base through community organizing, cultural work, policy change, leadership development, and culture shift strategies.

Image credit: Nina Freer

Law for Black Lives

Born out of the Black Lives Matter movement uprisings in 2015, Law for Black Lives (L4BL) is a Black femme-led organization of more than 3,400 radical lawyers, law students, and legal workers committed to creating a community of legal advocates that share the values and aspirations of the growing Black Lives Matter movement.

Born out of the Black Lives Matter movement uprisings in 2015, Law for Black Lives (L4BL) is a Black femme-led organization of more than 3,400 radical lawyers, law students, and legal workers committed to creating a community of legal advocates that share the values and aspirations of the growing Black Lives Matter movement. Although law has been an instrumental tool of white supremacy, queerphobia, misogyny, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy, L4BL recognizes that peoples’ lawyers, movement lawyers who take direction from community leaders and base-building organizations, have made vital contributions in progressive social movements of the past and around the world by using law as a valuable tool in struggles for liberation. They believe that a robust, responsive local legal infrastructure grounded in intersectional, feminist, and anti-racist values can support organizers, activists, and communities to develop defensive and offensive tactics to address the issues Black communities face. Collaborating with research and policy groups, activist organizations, and community organizers, L4BL uses a multi-layered approach of strategic advocacy, training and leadership development, and support for base-building organizations to focus on bail reform, decriminalization, and invest/divest reparations.

SisterSong

SisterSong is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-gender collective dedicated to eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights.

SisterSong is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-gender collective dedicated to eradicating reproductive oppression and securing human rights. Formed in 1997 by 16 women of color led organizations, SisterSong’s founders recognized that the women’s rights movement largely represented wealthy white middle-class women singularly focused on abortion rights, rather than access or other reproductive oppressions experienced by women and trans people of color. Thus, they articulated the reproductive justice framework that uniquely affirms the rights to bodily autonomy, abortion and contraception, and parenting in safe and sustainable environments with adequate resources. Focusing their work on severely marginalized communities, such as sex workers, youth, young parents, people with disabilities or HIV/AIDS, and people with incarceration or addiction experience, SisterSong is attuned to the interlocking oppressions that inflict multiple forms of violence, e.g. criminalization, violent attacks and intimidation, police brutality, poor healthcare access, exploitative migrant and religious laws, and in-accessibility to quality education. SisterSong maintains a strategic focus on the U.S. South where they see the region as ground zero for the War on Women. Their goals are to expand reproductive justice in other social justice movements, train the next generation of reproductive justice activists and leaders on the evolution of reproductive justice, and provide a platform for groups to collaborate on shared policy and advocacy goals.

Rebeca Lane/Somos Guerreras

Lane has participated in many notable festivals and seminars in Central and South America on human rights, feminism and culture of hip-hop.

Eunice Rebeca Vargas (Rebecca Lane) was born in Guatemala City in 1984 amid civil war. Early on, she began researching methods to recover the historical memory of those war years, subsequently becoming an activist for families whose loved ones had been kidnapped or killed by the military government. Through this organization work, she realized that women had less power in leadership and thus she birthed a feminist vision. The theater has always been part of her life; she is currently part of a theater and hip-hop group that created the Eskina (2014) to address violence against youth in marginalized areas of the city, with the use of graffiti, rap, breakdancing, DJing, and parkour. Since 2012, as part of the hip-hop group Last Dose, she began recording songs rap poetry as an exercise. In 2013, she released her EP “Canto” and she began a tour of Central America and Mexico. Lane has participated in many notable festivals and seminars in Central and South America on human rights, feminism and culture of hip-hop. In 2014, she won the Proyecto L contest, which recognizes music that reinforces the right of expression. In addition, she works as a sociologist with several publications and lectures on urban youth cultures and identities and, more recently, on education and its role in the social reproduction of inequality.

She is the founder of Somos Guerreras project that seeks to create opportunities for empowerment and visibility of women in hip-hop culture in Central America. With support from Astraea is, she performed We are Guerreras with Nakury, and Audry Native Funk in 8 cities, from Panamá to Ciudad Juárez to record a documentary about the work of female hip-hop in the region.

*** En Español***

Rebeca Eunice Vargas (Rebeca Lane) nació en la Ciudad de Guatemala en 1984, en medio de una guerra civil. Desde temprano comenzó a investigar métodos para recuperar la memoria histórica de esos años de guerra, subsecuentemente convirtiéndose en activista por las familias cuyos seres queridos habían sido secuestrados o asesinados por el gobierno militar. A través de este trabajo de organización ella se dio cuenta de que las mujeres tenían menos poder en el liderazgo y así nació su visión feminista. El teatro siempre ha sido parte de su vida; ella actualmente forma parte de un grupo de teatro y Hip Hop que creó La Eskina (2014) para abordar la violencia contra la juventud en regiones marginalizadas de la ciudad, con el uso del grafiti, el rap, el breakdance, pinchar discos (deejaying) y el parkour. Desde 2012, como parte del colectivo de Hip Hop, Última Dosis, comenzó a grabar canciones de rap como un ejercicio de poesía. En 2013, salió su EP “Canto” y ella comenzó una gira por Centroamérica y México. Lane ha participado en muchos festivales y seminarios notables en Centroamérica y Suramérica sobre derechos humanos, el feminismo y la cultura del Hip Hop. En 2014, ganó el concurso Proyecto L, el cual reconoce música que refuerza el derecho de expresión. Además, ella trabaja como socióloga con varias publicaciones y da conferencias sobre culturas urbanas e identidades juveniles y, más recientemente, sobre la educación y su rol en la reproducción social de la inequidad.

Es fundadora del proyecto Somos Guerreras que busca generar espacios de empoderamiento y visibilidad de las mujeres en la cultura Hip Hop en Centroamérica. En 2016 con apoyo de Astraea se realizó de Somos Guerreras junto a Nakury, Nativa y Audry Funk por 8 ciudades desde Panamá hasta Ciudad Juárez para grabar un documental sobre el trabajo de las mujeres Hip Hop en la región.

Global Feminist LBQ Women’s* Conference

The first Global Feminist LBQ Women*s Conference is organized by a collective working group of 22 LBQ women* activists from across all regions of the world.

The first Global Feminist LBQ Women*s Conference is organized by a collective working group of 22 LBQ women* activists from across all regions of the world. It aims to create a space for activists and advocates to come together, share knowledge, exchange strategies, strengthen connections, mobilize resources, and take the lead in building a global LBQ women*s movement with the capacity to influence the world agenda on human rights, health, and development.

AFRITUDE Laboratorio Creativo Político

AFRITUDE Laboratorio Creativo Político is conceived as a space where the arts and activism are harmonized.

AFRITUDE Laboratorio Creativo Político (Creative Political Lab) is conceived as
a space where arts and activism are harmonized; a co-working safer
space/arts studio for interdisciplinary creation and community based
learning. We dream to become a space for art-led political discussion and
production rooted in struggle that informs and curates Afro-LBTQ messages
for social justice with a black feminist antiracist intersectional emphasis and
approach. AFRITUDE intends to use multiple art disciplines as tools to
produce social commentary through our testimonies and experiences as
black women, lesbians, bisexual, transgender and queer people of African
descent to challenge official-traditional narratives that invisibilize, silence and
oppress these identities in the Dominican Republic. Our artivism production
aimed to provoke conversation to fight and resist racism and colonialism
includes T-shirts, murals, photography, street art, graffiti, ad reclaiming-
intervention, canvas painting, poetry, street theater and audiovisual
installations.

API Equality-LA

API Equality-LA is an LBGTQ rights and social justice organization building grassroots community power and organizing for change in Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) communities. Since 2005, API Equality-LA has organized in the greater Los Angeles area around issues affecting  queer and trans APIs, including marriage equality, social and family acceptance, immigration, and access to health care. API Equality-LA brings a politicized lens to the work, channeling the political power of an active base of volunteers and leaders to address connected progressive issues. They create change through intergenerational community organizing with a focus on youth; leadership develop; public education; outreach and one-on-one conversations; and advocacy. API Equality-LA works toward a vision of an inclusive, equitable, and just society where all API LGBTQ people can thrive.

This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Black Transmen Inc

Black Transmen, Inc. (BTMI) takes great pride in its role as the first national nonprofit organization with a direct focus on an often voiceless, underserved, and extremely marginalized population segment: black transgender men and women.

Black Transmen, Inc. (BTMI) takes great pride in its role as the first national nonprofit organization with a direct focus on an often voiceless, underserved, and extremely marginalized population segment: black transgender men and women. Since its founding in March 2011, BTMI has focused on the empowerment of transgender communities around the country via local chapters and through the provisions of specialized peer-based programs and services rooted in a platform of social justice, advocacy, and self-reliance. BTMI offers resources for connecting people who both need and provide reliable opportunities for support. BTMI is proud of its most recent affiliation with the Anti-Violence Project (AVP), a New York based organization that works to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy.

This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.

Montana Two Spirit Society

The mission of the Montana Two Spirit Society is to advocate, educate and build community among Native and Indigenous peoples by sharing their two spirit histories.

The Montana Two Spirit Society has been working since 2007 and coordinating the Montana Two Spirit Gatherings for the past twenty years. The mission of the Montana Two Spirit Society is to advocate, educate and build community among Native and Indigenous peoples, including LGBTI and allied communities, by sharing their two spirit histories and cultural traditions. Their vision is to reclaim their two spirit traditions and heal past wounds as a way to create healthy Native and Indigenous two spirit communities. They are a volunteer grassroots organization working to build community and organize Native two spirits in Montana and the surrounding region (WA, ID, WY, ND, SD as well as parts of Canada, including Alberta, Manitoba and Saskachewan). Their accomplishments include: hosting International Two Spirit Gathering in 2004 and 2012; organizing a successful Montana Two Spirit Gathering for over 20 years and making it one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest; producing a short video about two-spirit culture and gatherings; conducting various presentations and workshops at national conferences and other Gatherings; attending and supporting similar Gatherings across the country and Canada; marching in Montana LGBT Pride events; and, raising awareness on Montana reservations and the Pacific Northwest Region about two-spirit issues. This organization is supported through the Funding Queerly Giving Circle, which is housed at Astraea.