Oct 13

Oct 13 A Different Reality is Possible

Earlier this week, we sent an invitation and call to Phoenix from B. Loewe at Mijente. This fall, we’re doubling down because Black and Latinx organizers across the country are leading local and national actions to stop the violence facing our (and their) communities. For many of us, it has been a confusing season. We have watched the rhetoric and actions of hate intensify and scale up around the country. Everywhere we turn we have to hear evil spoken of our beloveds: our beloved Black family, Brown family, women-identified family, LGBTQ family. It can be hard to know what strategies and projects to participate in at this key moment because there are no easy answers. But campaigns can move us from words to action, from numbness to clarity. They can remind us who we are, what we are working for, and who is by our side.

As Unitarian Universalists, we say we come when called by the marginalized, by the oppressed, by the justice speakers. So, can you come? It is short notice. It is not convenient. Heck, some of us (I know) cannot even afford it. Yet, if you can please do come. Here in Phoenix there are so many Unitarian Universalists who have left a positive footprint on this long fight against human rights abuses in Maricopa County. Our work alongside this community has mattered before. It matters now.

Oct 12

Oct 12 Fortification Episode 4: Mab Segrest

Side With Love

We just returned from Atlanta on our third stop on the #ReviveLove Tour. Next up the team will be heading to St. Louis for some awesome programming with Black Lives of UU and Rev. Sekou and the Holy Ghost all weekend long! With each stop, we're connecting with organizers lifting up the importance of unflinching steady support and nourishment of our movements, particularly in these times of backlash and repression. We hope our next episode of Fortification brings you some of that love and fortification.

In our fourth episode of Fortification, Caitlin is joined by Mab Segrest. Segrest is an feminist activist, writer, and the Fuller-Matthai Professor Emeritus of Gender & Women's Studies at Connecticut College. In her book, Memoir of a Race Traitor, Segrest explores her experience as a white lesbian organizing against a virulent Far Right movement in North Carolina against a backdrop of nine generations of her family's history.

Oct 11

Oct 11 See You in Phoenix!

Side With Love

Six years ago, Unitarian Universalists showed up in force in Arizona to challenge the state's racial profiling law. Now, we need you again.

On October 21-23, we are calling the nation to Phoenix to be part of ending human rights abuses against immigrant and People of Color communities in Maricopa County.

UU's are no stranger to this fight. You were among the first to respond when Puente and others launched the summer of human rights in 2010. Together we crafted a vision for a different kind of General Assembly and thousands of you showed up to hold vigil outside the Sheriff Department's tent city, the one referred to as a 'concentration camp,' during Justice GA in 2012. And even as cameras moved to other headlines, UUs locally have steadfastly accompanied the movement that has brought Arizona to a tipping point.

Sep 27

Sep 27 Fortification Episode 3: Reina Gossett

Side With Love

Sep 13

Sep 13 Fortification Episode 2: Dove Kent

Side With Love

Last month, we shared the first episode of our new podcast, Fortification, about the spiritual lives of organizers and activists.

In our second episode, we sat down with Dove Kent, Executive Director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. Dove has over a decade of experience in issue-based, identity-based, and neighborhood-based organizing in the fields of affordable housing, police accountability, civil rights, restorative justice, worker rights, immigrant rights, and religious freedom. We talked about creating and re-creating ritual, lessons from her years of movement building work and the power of connection to ancestors within our organizing work.

Sep 12

Sep 12 We're Reviving Love - Join us!

Side With Love

We at Standing on the Side of Love have an opportunity to talk about and embody the love of the UU faith regularly. Our work moves us into deeper conversations about how we can show up rooted in deep love. There are lessons we know from our own journeys about loving ourselves and each other that are relevant to our work for transformation and justice.

In many cases, this kind of love is not easy. I wrote about this in Why Movements Need to Revive Love:

“Loving has been the hardest work of my life because it has asked me to resist the belief that intimacy and proximity are an excuse for my worst behavior. Love has pushed me to not blame the people closest to me for my personal suffering or my suffering under structural oppression. Love has asked me to stay in it with someone or something: to do things that are scary or boring.

Sep 9

Sep 9 We Need You

Side With Love

I was in large part transformed by the political education and grounding I learned within Unitarian Universalism - participating in and facilitating popular education and anti-racism training and organizing for youth and young adults. These spaces created relationships for many of us with local and national movements. The faith also grappled to steadily support this work and in turn hurt me and so many people I love.

When I joined Standing on the Side of Love, I had a deep thirst for this faith to offer that "steady hand", that Caitlin so eloquently wrote about here, that is of use in supporting movements for liberation for the long term. I have wanted our faith to trust and believe that faith & spirit happens everywhere - and for those we seek to center and who are most impacted by systems of oppression - that's often NOT in our church pews. I have wanted those of us who are white to go beyond apologizing and move resources and shift power.

Sep 8

Sep 8 Save the Date: 30 Days of Love 2017 - Fortifying the Movement

Side With Love

So many of us deeply desire to live on the side of love when it comes to social justice movements. Organizer (and Unitarian Universalist) Elandria Williams talks about the role of our faith in social movements as providing ‘spiritual and political fortification’.

But what does that really mean? How can we be a nurturing, humble and steady hand on the side of justice in the face of violence and backlash? We’re excited to bring you a sneak peak into 30 Days of Love 2017. Each week we will share tools and resources to help congregations reflect, learn and act around different sub themes of fortification. Save the dates – January 16, 2017 through February 14, 2017 – for 30 Days of Love 2017. From worship resources and weekly actions to opportunities to honor courageous love within our communities, stay tuned here and on our website for more information and resources.

Week One: Relationships and Movements
Movements are made of people and organizations. Organizations are groups of people. Relationships with ourselves, between people and between organizations are the bonds that create and sustain movements. Groups, campaigns, and movements often fall apart because we don’t know how to be in relationship with each other. From our everyday relationships to that person you make eye contact with at a rally, without relationships there are no social movements. Week one includes tools to help congregations reflect on their evolving relationship to self (including self-awareness tools), relationship to individuals, relationships inside congregations, and relationships in partnership with local, regional and national social justice organizations.

Sep 7

Sep 7 Help us #ReviveLove

Side With Love

You may have heard about our #ReviveLove tour that we are working on in collaboration with the Black Lives of UU and Rev. Sekou & The Holy Ghost to kick-off in just a couple of weeks!

We’re so thrilled to share the good news with you that Borealis foundation has committed to $10,000 to help us get started! We are so grateful for these funds. But we know we will need more!

Pledge $50 now to help Revive Love!

This fall we will be going to Knoxville, Nashville, Atlanta and New Orleans. We hope to go to more cities in the Spring -- getting to all of these places depends on your support!!!

Sep 1

Sep 1 Announcing the #ReviveLove Tour

Side With Love

Last week, we announced the #ReviveLove Tour - providing political and spiritual sustenance for movement. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism and Rev. Sekou & the Holy Ghost to bring support and healing to folks around the country.

In each city, we’ll be connecting with Unitarian Universalists and grassroots movement leaders from across the country including chapter leaders of Black Lives Matter and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). With the organizing and leadership of BLUU, we’ll be able to support and facilitate spaces for connection and healing for Black UUs in a number of the cities where we meet.