Synopsis:
With this year marking 50 years since stonewall NJNP wishes to honor Marsha and Sylvia’s legacies for continued trans and queer resistance against systematic and institutional forces that are killing us; with a two week long action camp at the end of May leading up to June — which for many cities on the east coast is the month we celebrate Pride. This Action Camp will prepare participants for the fight ahead in reclaiming these legacies; with priority focus to trans people of color and former and current sex workers. Our hopes are to be able to do this over a span of around two weeks, from the week of May 19th- June 3rd. The action camp will feature workshops that range from choreography and how to plan a ball to learning critical political histories, how to organize and use direct action tactics, that will all lead up to NJNP’s June Mobilization that will feature a KiKi DMV runway ball, ‘Ball 50’; a Stonewall community kickback event — to serve as an alternative to a white washed and corporation collaborated pride festival — and several direct actions that highlight the City’s neglect for issues around housing, sex work criminalization and healthcare for the trans community.
We’re currently are reaching out to groups we work with to see if yall have any workshops, trainings, clinics, events, celebrations etc that you would like to present at our Actioncamp and or if any groups would like to partner. The Actioncamp will not be exclusive to Trans and Queer Folx but is of course intended to center trans community members, as May is all about Trans! Cis people, we need and would love your help with making this a reality as well.
We are hoping to build an action(s) / prepare participants during this camp that will take place during pride weekend and beyond. The Actioncamp will start on May 19th, and carry on thru the afternoons and evenings of both weeks, we will be limited our scheduling Memorial Day weekend for Black Pride, and will be ending the actioncamp the following weekend featuring a four day long Direct Actions Tactics Micro-action camp where participants will learn climbing and blockade basics. We have various venues booked and can provide space for more workshops/events.
Goals & Objectives:
Plan and Host 2 week action camp with 50 participants and organizers from May to June 2018 plugging participants into local organizing and community work that is already happening.
Build a space to Exchange and expand skills, experiences, knowledge, and build new relationships in the trans and queer community. Transferring knowledge from seasoned trans organizers to younger newly energized organizers.
Prepare participants for direct actions and events taking place the week of pride and build a grassroots movement of activists ready to fight when the Sex Workers Advocates Coalition (SWAC) with supporting City Council Members reintroducing a bill to decriminalize sex work in DC.
Logistics, Housekeeping and what else to expect:
Do you have a workshop, training, skillshare etc to share with the community? We can’t do this without you! It doesn’t have to be a workshop or skillshare, it can be a healing space, a performance, an art build, film screenings, etc, we have some sample criteria below for you to think about before submitting. You can submit a workshop or event here.
What No Justice No Pride and the core planning team are providing:
Overall coordination and promotion of Camp 50 to ensure as much collaboration as possible.
Two weeks of trainings, skill shares, plays, film screenings and other pre-pride festivities.
Coordination & Booking of four Venues with different features. Including places for providing meals.
Two Direct Action 101s, a four day long training on Direct Action Tactics such as climbing and blockades, a series of workshops on community organizing and action planning, workshops on choreography, runway & modeling and cosmetology, and (hopefully) a convergence space.
Coordinating Public and Private large planning meetings during the actioncamp to plan actions around #Stonewall50
Stipends to participants who are sex workers, Trans - BIPoC.
Stipends to facilitator/trainers/organizers who are from TQBIPoC communities by request.
Basic logistics - PA Systems, chairs & tables, snacks up to a limit, etc
What you will need to provide (*For Workshop/event submitters*):
Your programming! What is it you are trying to do? What do you hope the participants wish to get out of your event?
One point of contact — to talk thru the plan with the core team
Facilitators, Trainers, Interpretations, etc — We have limited facilitation capacity, groups/individuals making submissions will have to figure out their own staffing. We can help provide coordination for anyone wishing to volunteer to facilitate
Outreach for your event — We will include it in our schedule and promotions however inviting participants and doing turn out to your event will be on you. We will be using the hashtags #Stonewall50 and #Camp50, and are happy to cohost the event on our facebook page, feel free to reach out to
[email protected] for further social media coordination
Printing Materials — We have a limited print budget, we can print additional resources for you if its needed but we encourage you to try to fundraise it.
A plan for where the participants go from there. Do they plug into your work or another group? Are you hoping for participants to come to future events? Try to think thru and have a plan for how participants can benefit/plug in to your project over the course of the next few months. This is for your purposes, we don’t need to see it. We just want to encourage capacity building wherever we can!
If you are submitting on behalf of an Organization and your org’s 2018 budget was greater than 85k, we ask that you contribute to and share our gofundme page to help us raise funds to provide participant stipends.
We are asking groups with budgets of 85k or larger to make suggested donation starting at $100, groups with budgets greater than 120k to contribute $150, budgets greater than 160k to donate 200, etc.
Additional Info
The Action Camp will span two weeks with participants having the option to select multiple courses/classes/curriculum/trainings/skillshares — gonna refer to this as courses for lack of a better word. Some of these courses will repeat to give the most amount of availability to people with scheduling conflicts, some courses may also be broken up in parts or sections; while others may be geared towards experience with beginners / 101s and more advance courses “Trainings for trainers”.
I.E. (This is a hypothetical):
We may feature a course called “The 5 steps to a organizing conversation”, have that be a course that is broken up over two trainings (Part I & Part II) that are for ex 2 hours long each.
Then for example on the first tuesday we may offer a Part I option in the Morning and Evening, and a third option middle of the day on Saturday, then offer Part II in the middle of the Day Sunday, Tuesday Am or Tuesday PM.
Two whole weeks tho? -
Since we would like to cover courses or workshops ranging from dancing/choreography and modeling to direct action trainings involving tactics, and some of these will be broken up by different days or offer multiple times to attend; we are planning / scheduling for a full two weeks.
If I am helping fill a venue/space need, do I need to have it available for all of that time? -
No, courses/workshops will be held at different venues, with some venues only being used for particular courses on particular dates. Further below you will find a timeline that has dates and anticipated/confirmed venues.
Will there be a way for others to plug into planning?
Yes, we will be posting a call for submissions soon and will be reaching out to folks to help expand the core planning group. People who submit course submissions, ofc will be invited to the core planning group (not some exclusive group btw, just a couple of NJNP folks and others wanting to ensure this happens)
Other things to note:
There will be organizing and mobilizing around NJNP #Stonewall50 / Reclaim Pride related stuff (DC and Beyond) at the same time. Courses from the Action Camp may be used to help offset organizing/training. Ideally would be nice to coordinate a few mass / large meetings for this mobilizing with camp participants. Organize spaces for housing/lodging, hubs for meetings/meals/etc within DC.
*We would like to do the following*
to be able to raise enough money to provide stipends to a group of DC Based participants (we can expand if we get special requests from folks elsewhere who really could benefit but otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend). *We know for a lot of folks who can benefit the most from these events often aren’t able to attend due to travel costs, admission fees and the fact that often many working class, black and brown trans and queer people are more focus on spending that time obtaining resources for theirs and their loved ones day to day needs. We could help offset some costs, by ask folks of privilege to donate a sliding scale fee.
Cover Travel to organizers and participants (who can’t cover it)*This is a given
Provide lodging for traveling organizers and ParticipantsWe have a safehouse that we can use for a short term basis for traveling organizers who need to be here for early may for any T4TsBased on request we can have rooms available at eaton hotel. (But will have to put a deadline up on that)
Pay Trans & Queer Organizers/facilitators/etc of color + Trainers/facilitators who are traveling.
