Soul’d Roots

Sisters of Color United for Education & Annie E. Casey Foundation Presents

Jesus and I will be participating in this Institute next weekend so if you are in the Denver Area and interested sign up! See contact info below.

Here are the specific workshops/panels we will be actively a part of:

Friday, MARCH 13 – THE MESSAGE IS THE MEDIA

215pm – 430pm
Social Justice Stencil Making Workshop
The immediacy and power of stencil art has made it a prominent tool in political, social and artistic movements.  Participants will learn simple and effective ways to create stencils as a way express opinions, spread messages and expand the boundaries of their artistic language.
Instructors: Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes (Taller Tupac Amaru Collective, Oakland, CA)
Saturday, MARCH 14 – LIVING FOR THA’ CITY: FOOD DESERTS & OUR GREEN ECONOMY

700pm – 1000pm
“Protest, Brutality & Ink” – A lively discussion on racial profiling, police brutality and the murder of Oscar Grant, plus the role of arts, culture & propaganda in the social justice movement.
Panelists: Jordan T. Garcia/moderator, Cheyenne Hughes, Lisa Calderon, Favianna Rodriguez, Terrance Roberts, Jesus Berraza, Melanie Cervantes

PARTIAL LIST OF COLLABORATORS:

Pan African Arts Society, KGNU Radio, Tattered Cover Bookstore, Solar Vegetarian Community Space, Pangea Organics, Sunflower Markets, Whole Foods, University of Colorado-Boulder, Tumis Design, Denver Open Media, Strengthening Neighborhoods @ the Denver Foundation, Freespeech TV, Just Media Fund, and TBD
WHAT: Soul’d Roots (March event) is an Invitation-Only for local organizers – 3-day social justice institute focused on health & healing, training, greening, and urban sustainability in Denver’s Xicano & African-American communities through exploration (recipe sharing), preparation and development of local, healthy/organic, and vegetarian food, plus workshopping traditional and new-media creative forms used in the liberation movement through social networking tools and technology. It serves as the “seed” event for a series of community actions which culminate in late summer (August 09) in a full conference open to the public where in addition to there being education and training activities on deck, school supplies and uniforms will be collected from community partners and participants.
WHY: Those of us who are passionate about educating ourselves and our communities about social justices issues often do not make the time to get psychological, physical or spiritual healing for ourselves, nor do we often have time to learn how to be more effective organizers and activists by accessing information or training that might assist us in being more productive such as; eating healthy and empowering our families to live more sustainably, or learning how to utilize social networking to market the movement. Soul’d Roots aims to celebrate resiliency and provide educational and healing space for participants in order to bring about increased skills set, empowerment, and education around a myriad of health, media, and social disparities in communities of color.

SOME INVITED GUESTS/TOPICS:
Soul’d Roots aims to present and address topics and training in connection to: food security/food justice, land use, social networking tools for social justice, cultural mapping and family recipe gathering, videography, back yard gardening, spoken-word/literacy as justice tool, tobacco use health disparities, traditional printmaking and public art murals, local access TV production, vegetarianism and global warming, bio-diesel, spirituality and social change, food as medicine, freespeech radio & podcasting, race/class & new media, green jobs and women in technology.  Some of our invited organizers include; Majora Carter, Van Jones, Favianna Rodriguez,Melanie Cervantes,  Jesus Barraza, Mike 360, Lori Goodman, Joshua Onyseka, Sonia Sanchez, C-Rayz, Faatma Mehrmanesh, Rebel Diaz, Ietef Vita, Celia Herrera, Weyland Southon, Estira Miyashiro, Shireen Mitchell, Bryant Terry, Vera Allen, La Bruja, and TooFly.

PARTICIPANT COST:

$25 (scholarships available) + 20 hours of community service

CONTACT:
Ashara Ekundayo, BluBlak Media – Creative Director/Co-Coordinator/Consultant – 303-260-9209, BluBlakwomyn@gmail.com
Adreanna Corrales, Sisters of Color United for Education – Org Administrator/Co-Coordinator – 720-309-8754, artinmotion303@gmail.com