Dear INCITE! Network:

We have lots of movement building to celebrate and honor this year! Thank you all for your brilliance, passion, and determination in holding it down in your respective locales and communities, ya’ll are the heart and soul of the INCITE! Network! Together, we have come such a long way over the last decade, and we are looking forward to paving the way for even greater vision building and liberatory actions for as long as it takes to build the world we want to live in.

 National Convening

Your resources and energy are critical in lifting up a National Convening, on November 15-17, 2013 in New Orleans. We want as many people and voices to contribute in building the future vision of our network, sharing strategies and resources, honoring the work that has preceded us in the last decade, and building infrastructure and regional networks. For folks within the network, y’all have already received many call outs to join the organizing committee. If you have the time, link on up with us! Also, if you or allies have the resources to donate, please do so. We are so appreciative of any and all seed money folks can send to help us keep moving this work. Our goal is to raise $30,000, by October 2013, which would go towards offsetting travel, transportation, housing, venue and other basic logistical costs. We are looking forward to planning an event that not only builds relationships across our network, but also supports and strengthens our relationships with the bad ass organizers and local community of New Orleans.

With the rise in law enforcement violence against communities of color and natural disasters that further marginalize our communities, as well as a continuing failing economy, our collective work has become even more timely and critical. This National Convening will be a historic gathering for chapters, affiliates and individual members to lay out crucial infrastructure for regional and local emergency response systems, in these times of heightened state aggression and fear mongering in the media, we need each other more than ever. The issues highlighted in mainstream news outlets revolve around the patriarchal and misogynistic debates surrounding the extension of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013 and public debates of gang rape and apologies for young male violence. And in other news, over twenty individuals including women and children were shot while marching in and enjoying a Mother’s Day second line parade in New Orleans-marking one of the most horrific and saddening incidents this year; drone strikes have increased under Obama’s second administration; Texas, Louisiana, and Florida proposed legislation to drug test welfare recipients; a Florida mother of three, Marissa Alexander is awaiting justice for ‘standing her ground’ against an abusive partner; and black revolutionary Assata Shakur  is the first woman to be placed on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list. These are but a few of the issues of violence that directly impact our network.

And in the face of all of this madness, there is such radical defiance and resilience. Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence and four radical First Nations women (Nine Wilson, Jessica Gordon, Sheelah McLean, and Sylvia McAdam) spurred a global movement for indigenous rights with their Idle No More campaign. A Mobile Homecoming and Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind have organized a Combahee River Pilgrimage to honor the 150^th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s uprising and the writings of the Combahee River Collective.  The intervention of your voices, analysis, and strategies will transform and ensure our collective safety and survival. There is so much work to be done and we need y’alls help and support! This is a call to action.

Members, please join us at the INCITE! National Convening this coming November, so we can celebrate the work that came before and that’s ahead of us still! Join the National Convening Working Group and let’s collectively prioritize and make space for these important dialogues and strategies sessions! And, please, send this call out for financial and resource support to comrades and allies!

In love and solidarity,

The National Collective: Karla, Kiri, Saira, Kellee, Kymberlie, Mayaba, Mandisa, and Ujju

incite.natl@gmail.com

www.incite-national.org

http://inciteblog.wordpress.com

Join the National Convening Working Group:

 Please send an email to incite.natl@gmail.com to be added to the organizing listserv.

Donate to the INCITE! National Convening:

 Check out and subscribe to our fundraising site:

INCITE! @ Nation Builder

http://incitenatl.nationbuilder.com/

 Donations via Paypal

Please donate here:

 Donations via Mail

Please make checks or money orders payable to INCITE! and send them to the address below:

INCITE!/co Karla Mejia

2416 W Victory Blvd

Burbank, CA 91506

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE, YOUR WORK, AND YOUR SUPPORT!!!!