FRIDAY, JULY 25: Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel, 1201 Riverplace Boulevard Registration & Opening Ceremony Logistical details here
SATURDAY, JULY 26: Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel, 1201 Riverplace Boulevard 10 am - 4pm: SisterSong Reproductive Justice 101, Logistical details here 4pm - 6pm: Welcome Awards Program 6pm - 8pm: Mingle Social/Cash Bar Social Media Party
SUNDAY, JULY 27: 10am - 2pm: Beach Action, Jacksonville Beach 4:30pm - 9pm: Waterfront Benefit Concert to Free Marissa Alexander Waterfront Jacksonville Landing, 2 Independent Dr; Concert is 6 pm-9pm, VIP Room opens at 4:30 pm (VIP Tickets at EventBrite)
MONDAY, JULY 28: 7:30 am: March from Crowne Plaza Hotel to Duval County Courthouse, Prudential Side of Blue Bridge, Meet at 1201 Riverplace Boulevard, march to Duval County Courthouse, 501 W Adams St 9 am: Press Conference, Duval County Courthouse Steps 11 am: People's Investigation, University sin Fronteras and a People's Tribunal 7pm - 10pm: Verbal Essence Poetry Night, Ritz Theatre and Museum, 829 N Davis St
TUESDAY, JULY 29: 12pm - 2pm: Book signing, Chamblin Bookmine, 215 N Laura St 3 pm - 6pm: Forum on the Women's Movement and Social Change Keynote speaker: Prof. Beth Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation, Downtown Jacksonville Library,303 N. Laura Street, Convention Center Basement, Multipurpose Room #1, Please use Main St. Entrance
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30: 1pm - 2pm: Edward Waters College, Assessment Center, 1658 Kings Road 2pm - 5pm: Forum on Prison Industrial Complex and Mass Incarceration
THURSDAY, JULY 31: 1pm - 2pm: Edward Waters College Reception, Assessment Center, 1658 Kings Road 2pm - 5pm: Forum on Civil Rights Law & Community Legal Support Teams Milne Auditorium, Edward Waters College, Grunthal St. & W. 5th St. 6pm - 8pm: Jazz at the Ritz Theatre and Museum, 829 N Davis St
FRIDAY, AUGUST 1: 9:00am: People's Investigation/People's Tribunal, Duval County Courthouse Library, Duval County Court House
HOTEL: Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront 1201 Riverplace Boulevard Jacksonville, FL 32207 Room Rate: $89/night. The designated reservation line to call is 888-233-9527. Guests should ask for the Sistersong Annual National Membership Meeting. You must use this phone number to book the discounted rates, or make reservations via the link:https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=11273431
DETAILS ABOUT THE REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE INSTITUTE: Visit this main page at SisterSong's website for the most updated info about the RJ Institute!
REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE INSTITUTE SCHEDULE Friday, July 25th - 9:30am- 4:30pm, Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront, 1201 Riverplace Blvd RJ 101 Training - Open to the community of Jacksonville and for activists who haven't had the chance to experience SisterSong's premier training! 5:30pm-7:00pm - Meet & Greet
Saturday, July 26th - 9:00am- 6:00pm RJ Institute at Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront, 1201 Riverplace Blvd Panel Discussion Topics include:
RJ & the Criminal Justice System
RJ & the Child Welfare System
RJ & Violence Against Women
So You Want to Talk About "Modern Day Slavery"?
Doing Collectively What We Can't Do Individually!
Southern Call to Action!
Sunday, July 27th Take time to explore the city and rich history of Jacksonville Beach Day for Youth; VIP Legal Defense Fund Benefit; Waterfront Benefit Concert to Free Marissa Alexander Waterfront Jacksonville Landing, 2 Independent Dr; Concert is 6 pm-9pm, VIP Room opens at 4:30 pm (VIP Tickets at EventBrite)
Monday, July 28th - Direct Action - 8:00am Meet at Host Hotel to March to Duval County Courthouse
The weekend will begin with a Reproductive Justice 101 training on Friday followed by our RJ Institute on Saturday. This full day institute will have various panel discussions and breakout sessions where SisterSong’s national member organizations as well as activists across social change movements, human rights advocates, academics, and scholars will discuss some of the following topics: (1)The intersections of Reproductive Justice and the criminal justice system (2) How race, gender and sexuality play out in legislation such as the Stand Your Ground Laws (3) The increasing number of children who are left parentless due to the criminal justice system and the impact this reality has on their lived experience.The weekend will culminate with a direct action on Monday, July 28th where we lead a march with the Free Marissa Now Campaign to the Duval County Unified Courthouse, to stand in solidarity with Marissa Alexander and in opposition to the reproductive injustices that this case and legislation has made public. Registration & sponsorship information can be found HERE. If you are interested in organizing a delegation please contact Monica Simpson via email at monica@sistersong.net.
Why is the Marissa Alexander case a Reproductive Justice issue?:
Marissa Alexander's human right to parent her children in a healthy and safe environment was violated due to domestic violence.
Marissa Alexander's human right to live a self determined life and to bodily autonomy was violated due to domestic violence.
Due to an unjust criminal justice system that lacks the ability to analyze and eliminate racial and gender bias within legislation such as the Stand Your Ground Law - which should be able to protect those in danger - Marissa Alexander, a Black mother, was imprisoned.
Because of her imprisonment, Marissa Alexander was alienated from her children, which included her 9-day old breast fed daughter.
Because of her imprisonment, Marissa's Alexander’s daughter has been placed in the custody of her abusive husband while she fights for her freedom.
More on Marissa Alexander and reproductive justice HERE.
MORE DETAILS ABOUT STANDING OUR GROUND WEEK:
Marissa Alexander is a survivor of domestic violence from Jacksonville, FL who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending her life from her abusive partner, and who now faces a possible 60 year sentence. The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign and SisterSong is organizing for her freedom.
This direct action strategy week aims to bring the synergy of the song “We Shall Overcome” and “We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest” affirming the inclusion of the popular educational freedom songs that will lead us in this dignity march to the courthouse on Monday, July 28, 204, for the historic Marissa Alexander trial. The combination of a spiritual Southern foundation courthouse takeover to the week-long reproductive justice institute, youth leadership programs, cultural and spiritual sessions and domestic violence teach-ins planned will, in fact, shake some ground.
Standing Our Ground Week will approach the sterile halls of the gargantuan Duval County Courthouse to juxtapose the force that says how Jericho’s walls can fall down when we gain momentum in a people’s movement. Standing Our Ground together we will show the “Mother’s Cry” that breaks airwave pendulum shifts in combating racism, sexism and criminalization of black women. Standing Our Ground supports the force of grass roots struggles after the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington and after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. We will prove that our foundation is still in the echoing of song octaves still witnessed today, through unity of the people that strategize and educate about the atrocity of oppression. Our songs that week will echo to the memory of Mandiba who said to Winnie in solidarity confinement, “You are the mother of a nation…Never Forget.” Our songs that week will echo the urgent call for the release of Marissa Alexander.
On Friday, July 25, 2014, the Welcome Program will bring the 10 lead states organizations together to meet the family and local team of Free Marissa Now (FMN). Saturday, July 26, 2014 will be the Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective Institute and Project South will host the Youth Organizing Assembly.
We will learn how a women’s body and health is key to sustaining sexual, economic, social and political rights. On Sunday, July 27, 2014, SisterSong will also host the Benefit Concert for Marissa Alexander at the Jacksonville Ritz Theater.
Monday, July 28, 2014 is the Marissa Alexander Hearing and press conference. The masses of activist will walk and sing over the Jacksonville Bridge to the Duval County Courthouse, walking in reverse part of last summer's Walk for Dignity, Enough is Enough which was supported through the Southern Freedom Movement. Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - Thursday, July 31, 2014 will feature community discussions and panels about domestic violence, the prison industrial complex, and legal rights.
The outcomes we propose will include but not be limited to:
Performance through song and protest in uplifted silent voices after months of strategic actions since the arrest of Marissa Alexander and the murders of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis.
Direct action through legislative and grassroots activism to confront the Florida judicial system representing far and wide comrades in a centralized historical presence, the courthouse hearing on stand your ground legislation against racism and oppression. Occupy Courthouse!
Intergenerational process. Connecting youth, elders, homeless, civil and legal rights agencies into workshops, teach-ins, and arts programs before and after the governmental space controlled by the New Jim Crow pipeline that has incarcerated Marissa Alexander. We the People!
Establishing collaborations of groups of the south to introduce new forces, reestablish old forces and dialogue with new categories of leadership.
Creating creative popular educational outdoor space work to be platforms again for the movement. Capturing video interviews and photographs to daily of the historical moment for a documentary project where we will include the new rendition of songs such as “We Shall Overcome.”