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BYP fam,
Thank you for rocking with us during these especially challenging times. Our team remains grounded and clear about the ways our folks have resisted, imagined and actualized freer worlds. We believe that now is the time to pause, reset and get firmer in our commitments to Black liberation, nuanced conversation and joy.
We remain hopeful and hold deep gratitude for the mutual aid work happening in our communities. From grocery, medicine and plants drop offs to check-ins with elders. So many of us are participating in virtual dance parties, cooking lessons, smoke sessions, watch parties, twerking sessions, support asks and transparent vulnerability.
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April''s Theme -
Black Women & Femmes
Editor''s Note: April is Black Women''s History Month. Throughout the month, Black Youth Project will be celebrating Black women. This month is also National Minority Health Month, Autism Awareness Month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Poetry Month. For the first time, we are accepting poems for our site during this time as well.
We want to hear from you! Send us your pitches at info@blackyouthproject.com
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Breakthrough and Black Youth Project are proud to announce By & For: Black Youth - a year-long written series documenting the issues affecting Black girls and gender non-conforming youth!
Since 1999, Breakthrough has been at the vanguard of harnessing the power of media, arts and tech to spark radical culture change. Working in the U.S. and India, we have used pop culture vehicles like music videos, video games, and stand up comedy to promote human rights at the intersection of gender equity, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, and child and adolescent rights around the globe.
With the launch of their By & For: project-a multimedia initiative to uplift the lived experiences and liberation dreams* of girls and gender non-conforming youth of color from across the United States and Puerto Rico-we are joining forces with partner content creators to expand on that mission on a new scale.
Each month, Breakthrough columnist Gloria Oladipo will publish a piece in the series alongside with our Managing Editor, Amber Butts. Both essays will be hosted on each platform, inviting a wide and diverse audience into the conversation.
Help us answer these questions and more by joining the movement By & For: Black Youth.
- Read Gloria''s article about womxn writers who inspire her.
- Read Amber''s article focusing on Black grief, community, and state-sanctioned violence.
*Follow Breakthrough on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and by subscribing to their newsletter.
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COVID-19 Shows How Little We Learned from the AIDS Epidemic
By Marq Montgomery
"Angela Y. Davis once said, ''the [prison industrial complex] serves as an institution that consolidates the state''s inability and refusal to address the most pressing social problems...'' And similarly to the HIV/AIDS criminalization laws passed, dependence on punitive measures to enforce shelter-in-place is a reflection of this system''s inability, if not refusal, to push many of the policy changes that can help provide actual relief and safety.
"...But like HIV/AIDS, the bigotry emboldened by COVID-19 is not only wrong, but counterproductive. Regardless of where it originated, anyone is susceptible to contracting and passing it...and, again, the more dire consequences of this pandemic are primarily due to the inability of our systems to maintain it. Whether it''s the AIDS epidemic of the 80''s or the COVID-19 pandemic today, it''s unfortunate that many people still haven''t learned how useless punching horizontally and down is in times like these."
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Reminders and affirmations to help you through quarantine
By Sherronda J. Brown
"I wish I could give you definitive, surefire advice and methods to best cope with this situation and its effects, but I can''t. What I can offer you, however, are necessary reminders and affirmations that might make getting through this difficult time marginally easier. I hope these can be of some help to you.
I hope these can be of some help to you."
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COVID-19 or not, Black folks are building virtual spaces of joy, intimacy and tenderness
By Amber Butts
"I get to practice how I emerge while getting real clear about what kind of relationships I want to have with myself and others. Participating in virtual spaces has given me the opportunity to witness the ways we practice and approach tenderness, conflict, nuance, hope, isolation and excitement.
I think this extension of intimacy that we are building together will survive far beyond this epidemic, reminding us that we have the capacity to model and actualize sustainable systems of care. But these systems will not last if we don''t always honor the ways that our folks have built them even before these technologies were introduced."
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Interested in writing for BYP? Know someone who might be a good fit?
Email pitches to
info@blackyouthproject.com
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*Connect with us on Twitter
to keep up to date on community mutual aid offers*
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Social Distancing vol. 1
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*Connect with us on Facebook*
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As part of our
#BYPSpotlight series
Dame and Kiss send love during social distancing and self-isolation.
Listen to Episode 227
Here.
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*Connect with us on Instagram @BlackYouthProject *
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Until next time, stay woke and stay blessed!
In solidarity,
The BYP Team
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