The 2nd Annual Bay Area Breaking the Silence Town Hall (#BTSBayArea) is a space to Amplify, Educate, and Advocate in support of *girls and women of color in our surrounding communities. The #BTSBayArea provides a multi-faceted opportunity for local decision makers to listen to the challenges and daily experiences of our friends, parents, siblings, and children by elevating their unique experiences and centering their leadership. This year’s event aims to creatively and collectively identify opportunities for intervention and serve as catalyst for the formation of the Commission on Women of Color for the City of Oakland.
Omi Gallery at Impact Hub Oakland and members of the #BTSBayArea Planning Committee in collaboration with Community Partners invite you to join us Saturday, September 23rd, 2017, from 11am - 5pm for a powerful day of action and restoration discussing a range of issues including health/healing, education, violence, and gentrification. Sliding Scale Tickets: Free - $20 (includes lunch and Child Care).
*Girls and women of color is an inclusive term reflecting all those who were assigned and/or identify as female.
For media inquiries contact: Y'anad Burrell
10:00am Doors Open
Featured Artist: DJ Lady Ryan
11:00am Libation/Lunch
Featured Artist: Sistahs Of The Drum
12:00pm Opening Plenary
Ashara Ekundayo + Annie Campbell-Washington Oakland Women of Color Commission
Featured Speaker:
Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not An Apology
12:30pm General Session
Education - Nzingha Dugas, African American Female Excellence (OUSD)
Housing - Jahmese Myres, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy
Violence - Dr. Connie Wun, Founder and Director of Transformative Research: An Institute for Research+Social Transformation
Health/Healing - Daisy Ozim, Director of Resilient Wellness
1:30pm Somatic Exercise
Featured Artist: Treina Alexander, Yoga Teacher + Wellness Coach
1:50pm - 3:05pm Break Out Sessions
Education
Violence
Housing
Health
3:15pm - 3:25pm : Artist Performance
Featured Artist: Valerie Troutt
3:25pm - 4:30pm: Amplifying our Voices
Recommendations for WOC Commission for City of Oakland
4:30pm: Keynote
Featured Speaker: Cat Brooks, Anti Police-Terror Project
Closing/Circle Ceremony
Featured Artist: ChE #DignityInProcess
We will examine systems of housing and gentrification and how they uniquely impact the health and well-being of girls and women of color in the Bay Area. We will examine and hold accountable what conventional data platforms and policy makers fail to understand and account for in policy making and city planning: the ways in which housing insecurity creates disproportionate impacts on the experiences of intergenerational stress, trauma, and decreased life expectancy for girls and women of color.
In the United States, cis and trans girls and women of color, particularly Black girls and women, experience higher rates of interpersonal violence and are more susceptible to police profiling and arrests than their white counterparts. Girls and women of color respond to such circumstances by creating and employing a complex set of survival mechanisms, even as their efforts to survive are often criminalized and punished in turn. In this breakout session, participants will share and examine the experiences with different types of violence (e.g. interpersonal, institutional, and intimate) against cis and trans girls and women of color, including their visions for change.
Women of color often suffer with mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health issues in silence while being culturally and systemically neglected as they fulfill their expected roles as ‘super women’. This breakout session will look at how our systems and relationships can be changed to create health and healing for the women in our communities.
Breaking the Silence Town Hall Oakland creates the space for local decision makers to listen to the challenges and daily experiences of *girls and women of color in our community. By elevating their unique experiences and centering their leadership, we aim to creatively and collectively identify opportunities for intervention.
*Girls and women of color is an inclusive term reflecting all those who were assigned and/or identify as female.