Baltimore Racial Justice Action

FOR SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS AND FACULTY: Join BRJA and the SHARP Institute for the free full 4-day SHARP Framework Workshop Series. Register at link in bio or at https://buff.ly/YhJh8rO

Announcing our September panel! Join BRJA moderator Ebony Nicholson and our amazing panel Erricka Bridgeford, S. Rasheem, and Ernest Shaw for this discussion. We'll be in person on September 24, 6pm at the central Enoch Pratt Library. This is the first in our fall series on Beyond the Wire and The Wire - don't miss this discussion about Baltimore "reality" -- who shapes it and what significance does it have? Free registration at QR code or link in bio.

The Wire positioned itself as not just realistic but real. What political project is beneath its depiction of corrupt Black politicians and powerless community projects? Meanwhile, the sorts of organizations and individuals highlighted in Beyond the Wire are making change that seems incomprehensible in the world of The Wire.

BRJA moderator Ebony Nicholson and special guest panelists Erricka Bridgeford, S. Rasheem, and Ernest Shaw will discuss voice, authority, and meaning-making in The Wire and Beyond the Wire and set the stage for October and November’s discussions.

Join us in September for Voice and Authority: Who Gets to Define Baltimore? Free registration here: https://buff.ly/9kSBKYy or at link in bio.

The August BRJA Buzz is now out! Click here https://buff.ly/VQHBfmj or at the link in bio to get the details and registration information for our wonderful calendar of events.

VENUE CHANGE
Our June 13th Learning Community event will be held at 801 W. Baltimore Street in the ground floor conference center. (Right across the street from our usual 4MLK venue).

JOIN US for coffee, donuts, community, and time to sharpen our analysis. Why are Orioles and Ravens audiences so different racially? We'll be using the context behind changing racial demographics of baseball audiences and players to explore what it means to think structurally and to practice doing it. No baseball knowledge or expertise required, just interest and willingness to participate in this group discussion.

See you there? Register here: https://buff.ly/cyvMUuG or at link in bio.

From Professor Eddie Glaude's recent newsletter on the gutting of the Voting Rights Act:

The Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Chief Justice Roberts has finally achieved what he has dedicated his career to doing, and the country is now poised to return to what it was: a herrenvolk democracy (a contradiction in terms if there ever was one). . . .
This moment is more than a political
will-to-power characterized by “the gerrymandering wars” with its race to the bottom. The court’s decision is part of a sweeping effort to undermine the country created in the aftermath of the sixties’ revolution – an explicit denial that our diversity constitutes a value worth defending and a rejection that ours is a multiracial democracy.

They want a white Republic.

The June BRJA Buzz is now out! This newsletter is your one-stop-shop for event registrations, what we're reading, and more. Subscribe and stay in the loop as we continue to form our 13th of the month learning community. https://buff.ly/au4bSj9

Systems of white supremacy and capitalism encourage us to seek happiness through individuality and consumerism — keeping those systems well-fed. They divert potential collective action into individual action: focus on your household carbon footprint, check your own privilege, cancel someone online.

But what if we looked upstream instead? What's happening where people holding wealth and whiteness are manufacturing our realities to serve their needs, not ours? What if, alongside the ongoing work of naming and documenting that violence, we spent more time looking at how these systems actually work — and who keeps them running?

Antiracism/antioppression analysis calls us to think in terms of systems and structures. In June's 13th Community Learning Space, we'll work together to ask: who and what is sustaining these oppressive systems, and for what ends? We'll bring in examples to work through these questions together.

Join us for some hands-on time exploring and demystifying systems and structures. We'll meet at 4MLK from 11am–1pm. Coffee, donuts, and healthy snacks will be provided.

Registration at QR code, link in bio, or here: https://buff.ly/3RfpQ7s

Sports and entertainment shape our culture — and in turn, they must be shaped by us.

Fandom is one of the ways we create and hold joyful community. Analyzing your favorites with a critical eye is a show of love and celebration: here's what brings me joy, what makes it messy, and what keeps me coming back. That new show about hockey players? The Orioles? Gaming? Bridgerton? This is why Reddit is a thing.

In May's 13th Community Learning Space, we'll use those everyday passions as "text for learning" — and bring our ARAO lens to bear together in the contact zone.

We grounded in ARAO analysis in March, and in somatic and embodiment practices in April. In May, the fledgling learning community comes together to try it out. Come as you are for tea, cookies, and the contact zone! Register here: https://buff.ly/TLP2SrM

For almost 20 years, BRJA has gathered on the 13th of the month for events featuring antiracism/antioppression analysis. Those sessions have shaped how hundreds of Baltimoreans think about race, power, and what justice actually requires.
This year, we're going deeper.
We're building a sustained community learning space where people don't just receive ARAO analysis, but develop it together over time; where the conversation doesn't end when you leave the room; and where a multiracial group of Baltimoreans can do the real, generative work of thinking together — in a "contact zone," not a safe space.
Starting next week, we're learning in public, through social media: sharing the concepts, thinkers, and questions shaping our work in the 13th Learning Community.
Our May 13th session is coming up.
Follow along — and bring someone who's been meaning to do this work.
📍 4MLK, Baltimore | 🔗 Link in bio or https://buff.ly/rXMdXUx