CALL FOR INPUT: R IS FOR RESISTANCE!
Are you a group or individual struggling for social change? Do you have, or know of, a history that you want young people to know about? Do you want to contribute to documenting our movements in ways that are accessible to kids? We're looking for your suggestions of moments, movements, and people in the struggle for social change for a children's alphabet book entitled "R is for Resistance"!Send your ideas to: risforresistance@yahoo.ca
(see below for more info on the general framework we’re working from), as well as any other thoughts you have about the project--we'd love to hear from you!
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“The opposite of truth is forgetting.”
-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Based in Montreal, this project is made possible with the support of the
2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy. The organizers of "R is for Resistance"
are firm believers in the integral role that children can play in our
movements for social, economic, and environmental justice. We believe that
kids who feel empowered and valued within their communities are among the
most likely and able to affect meaningful change in the world, as
children, adolescents and young adults. As radical communities,
organizations and movements, we continuously struggle to pass on the
legacies and lessons of resistance to generations that come after us.
Through this process we slowly and painfully learn the limitations of our
movements’ lack of intergenerationality.
As an attempt to bridge this vast divide of age and experience, and to
support the development of our movements over the long term, “R is for
Resistance” aims to bring back and make accessible some of the rich and
varied histories of struggle that some of us know something about, but all
of us could know more.
The project is an illustrated alphabet book compilation, with entries from
A-Z, of historical moments, radical people and movements for progressive
social change and human dignity, broken down into concepts and terms that
people of all ages can understand. Concretely, we are looking for
submissions that pertain to, among other things:
transsexual and transgender organizing
migrant justice work
labour struggles
prisoner justice movements
anti-poverty activism
indigenous sovereignty and decolonization struggles
anti-racist/racial justice movements
disability activism
queer organizing
feminist activism
Often these histories are either “mainstreamed”/censored to be made
"palatable" for kids, or are not told at all in any coherent way. This
project is one attempt to increase the intergenerational storytelling and
historical memory in our movements. We believe that this contribution is a
valuable resource for our communities at large, as we grow to become older
organizers, parents, and friends of children.
Through mapping our histories and learning about revolutionary struggles, we
believe that kids can begin to create for themselves an alternative vision
of the world that places them as active participants in struggles for
justice and dignity. In doing so, we remember the wellspring of decent
folks before us who have had the courage to stand up for what they believe
in - something that, in turn, offers us hope and encouragement in our own
work for a more just world.
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risforresistance@yahoo.ca
--
"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To
never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity
of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue
beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or
complicate what is simple. To understand. To never look away. And
never, never to forget."
-Arundhati Roy