Daily Archives: February 2, 2021

Promise of offshore wind power promoted by Mills, feared by fisherman – NewsCenterMaine.com WCSH-WLBZ

Posted: February 2, 2021 at 7:44 pm

It's a sharp contrast between those who see opportunity and those who feel threatened

BRISTOL, Maine On this brilliant winter day, you could stand on the rocks at Pemaquid Point with a clear view of Monhegan Island in the distance, and feel the wind coming off the water. There is often wind over the ocean, and thats why there is such interest in developing offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine.

Offshore wind power is a signature goal of the Mills administration and is seen as one of the ways to fight climate change by generating electricity without carbon emissions.

Offshore wind is a really significant opportunity for the state of Maine, for our energy future and economy, Dan Burgess, Director of the Governor's Energy Office, said.

But the image of huge, floating wind turbines has many in Maines fishing industry very worried. Among them is lobsterman Gerry Cushman of Port Clyde, a leader in both the Maine Lobstermens Association and the Maine Coast Fishermens Association.

And our message to the Governor is we hope you get behind the fishermen and help us fight this. We have no option but to fight this. We have to fight this not just for now but for our kids.

It is a sharp contrast between those who see opportunity and those who feel threatened, and the Mills dministration is trying to navigate those turbulent waters.

Offshore wind has been talked about in Maine for more than a decade, starting with former Gov. John Baldacci, who embraced a research proposal from the University of Maine to develop floating offshore platforms for huge wind turbines. Europe has deployed many wind turbines along its coast and in shallow waters, but at that time only Norway had developed a floating turbine. In the U.S., Rhode Island now has a few stationary turbines in the ocean, off Block Island, and Massachusetts now has the approval to build the latter Vineyard Wind project off Marthas Vineyard, also with stationary turbines fastened to the seafloor.

Maines vision, started by the University and embraced by Gov. Mills, is the floating platforms holding huge turbines, as tall as 600 feet, which could be anchored 20 to 40 miles out to sea, where the winds are consistently stronger. The University has received multiple federal grants for the design and built a small scale test platform, which was operated successfully in the waters off Castine.

Fishermen, and especially lobstermen have been worried about floating turbines for several years, fearing the size of the platforms, and the need for significant anchor cables running to the bottom and for large, underwater cables taking the electricity to shore will take away some of their fishing ground.

Those concerns were ratcheted up in November when Mills proposed a research array of floating turbines be located in federal waters, 20 to 40 miles offshore from the southern third of the Maine coast. The Mills administration has identified a large, general area it is considering but is asking fishermen to help identify a precise, 16-square mile portion where the proposal will be focused.

Cushman said the fishermen really dont want the turbines anywhere.

The Gulf of Maine looks huge but it's not, and 99 percent is being fished, said Cushman.

"16 miles is not a little area, and maybe just the beginning, we dont know."

He predicts fishermen will lose prime ground for lobstering, which will, in turn, cost them and the economy millions of dollars.

On Monday, Mills sent a letter to fishermen, saying she understands their concerns, but that the need for fighting climate change is too important to not pursue offshore wind. And she warned that sooner or later the development will happen.

Make no mistake about it, offshore wind is coming to the Gulf of Maine, even without my support, the Governor wrote in the letter.

Dan Burgess of the Energy Office says there is significant interest in developing offshore wind, here and elsewhere.

There is such interest in offshore wind, up and down the coast, and this research array really puts Maine in the driver's seat, Burgess said.

The Governor tried to soften the blow in her letter by pledging a 10-year moratorium on wind development in state waters, inside the three-mile limit. She said wind turbines don't belong in those areas, which are heavily fished in the summer and early fall. There have been rumors of a company called Triton planning to build a large wind array in state waters, but no actual proposal has yet been revealed or submitted.

However, there is already one floating turbine project being planned in state waters, and it is not included in the moratorium. The project is known as Aqua Ventus and is planned as a full-size test of the University's floating platform design. It would be located on a test site approved ten years ago by the Maine Legislature, nearly three miles off Monhegan island. The project is now a partnership between the University and subsidiaries of two large, international offshore wind companies. Those businesses are planning to invest as much as $100 million to build and deploy the 600-foot turbine on a 350-foot wide floating platform. The goal is to test and prove the UMaine technology, with the hope it can then be used on other sites, including the proposed research array.

Our goal ultimately is to be in the water summer of 2023, said Chris Wissman of New England Aqua Ventus, the official name of the partnership.

Wissman, too, said there is lots of interest in developing offshore wind power off Maine, calling that growth inevitable.

The Mills administration said it intends to keep pushing the proposal for the research array, seeking needed federal support to begin the needed studies for permits, hoping construction could begin on the water as soon as five years.

The Governors letter to the fishing industry said Mills hopes to continue talking about the concept with the fishing industry to identify the precise area of the ocean, and also identify problems.

A coalition of fishing groups called the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance said they also support clean energy development to fight climate change but have deep concerns about offshore wind. The groups did say it will keep talking with the Governors office about the plan.

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Promise of offshore wind power promoted by Mills, feared by fisherman - NewsCenterMaine.com WCSH-WLBZ

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EIS and Biological Opinion Invalidated for Offshore Alaska Oil Project – JD Supra

Posted: at 7:44 pm

The Ninth Circuit vacated U.S. Department of the Interior approvals for a proposed offshore oil drilling and production facility in Alaska after finding its EIS improperly failed to consider impacts associated with foreign oil consumption and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Biological Opinion relied on overly vague mitigation measures and improperly failed to quantify the projects nonlethal take of polar bears. Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt, 982 F.3d 723 (9th Cir. 2020).

Conservation groups challenged the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managements (BOEM) approval of the Liberty Project, which proposes to produce crude oil from Foggy Island Bay off the northern coast of Alaska, for failure to comply with procedural requirements of NEPA, the ESA, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Project proponents estimated that the Project would produce approximately 120 million barrels of crude oil over a period of fifteen to twenty years. To do so, the Project would require construction of various new facilities including an offshore gravel island, wells, a pipeline to transport the oil, a gravel mine, and additional ice roads and crossings. The Project site is characterized by its ecological diversity and for providing habitat and food sources for threatened and endangered marine mammals, including polar bears.

EIS That Failed to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions Resulting from Foreign Oil Consumption Violated NEPA

The Ninth Circuit was persuaded by one of two arguments raised by the conservation groups concerning BOEMs compliance with NEPA. The court held that BOEM had failed to analyze indirect effects of the Project as required by NEPA by arbitrarily failing to include emissions estimates resulting from foreign oil consumption in its analysis of the Projects no-action alternative. Counterintuitively, the EIS had concluded that maintaining the status quo under the no-action alternative would result in greater air emissions of priority pollutants as compared with the Project because, BOEM said, the production gap would be filled with substitutes produced from countries with comparatively weaker environmental protection standards. However, the EIR did not quantify the purported change in foreign oil consumption. BOEM argued that it could not have summarized or estimated foreign emissions associated with changes in foreign consumption with accurate or credible scientific evidence.

The court rejected BOEMs failure to either quantify downstream greenhouse gas emissions or to thoroughly explain why such an estimate is impossible. The court specifically faulted the EIR for failing to summarize existing research addressing foreign oil emissions and for ignoring basic economics principles, including changes to equilibrium price and demand effects of the Project. Moreover, the court declined to accord deference to BOEMs economic analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, stating that BOEMs area of expertise is the management of conventional (e.g. oil and gas) and renewable energy-related functions, including activities involving resource evaluation, planning, and leasing. Based on these findings, the court found that the BOEMs failure to address global emissions constituted an impermissible failure to evaluate reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts required to be analyzed under NEPA.

Reliance on Overly Vague Mitigation Measures to Demonstrate No Adverse Modification of Polar Bear Critical Habitat Violated the ESA

The court invalidated BOEMs approval of the Project on additional grounds that it improperly relied upon a legally deficient Biological Opinion prepared by FWS to satisfy consultation and take regulations under the ESA and MMPA. The Biological Opinion recognized that polar bears, which are classified as threatened marine mammals, are present in the Project area and that denning polar bears could be disturbed by aspects of Project construction and operation including construction vibrations and vehicular noise. Nevertheless, FWS concluded that the Project would not jeopardize their continued existence or adversely modify their critical habitat.

However, with respect to FWSs habitat impact finding, the court held that the Biological Opinion impermissibly relied upon mitigation measures that the court found too vague or uncertain to be enforceable. Such impermissibly vague and unenforceable mitigation measures included (i) commitments to comply with requirements of future authorizations under the MMPA, (ii) cross-reference to other possible minimization measures that would reduce effects to polar bears, and (iii) other mitigation measures [as] may be required on a case-by-case basis. In the courts view, FWSs reliance on this mix of yet unapproved and undefined mitigation measures under the MMPA, noncommittal assurances, and examples of possible strategies respectively failed to meet its burden to rely only on mitigation measures that constitute a clear, definite commitment of resources and where performance is under agency control or otherwise reasonably certain to occur.

Failure to Quantify Nonlethal Take of Polar Bears Violated the ESA

Finally, the court held that FWS impermissibly failed to quantify the amount of nonlethal take of polar bears in its incidental take statement in violation of the ESA, which required FWS to impose a numerical cap on incidental take or to explain why no cap has been provided. In the Biological Opinion, FWS supplied numerical caps only for polar bear take in the form of death or injury, but not for nonlethal harassment, including disruption of behavioral patterns [such as] migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering. As the court noted, the Biological Opinion acknowledged the potential for increased polar bear-human interactions and ground disturbing construction activities that could cause polar bears to abandon their dens. Because FWS neither attempted to quantify such harassment nor show why it could not do so, the court held that FWS had violated the ESA, and in turn, that BOEMs reliance on the Biological Opinion in issuing final Project approvals was unlawful.

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How travelers help to protect the Outer Islands of the Seychelles – CNN

Posted: at 7:43 pm

(CNN) There are few places in the world as beautiful, or as vulnerable as the Outer Islands of Seychelles.

While the archipelago in the western Indian Ocean is made up of 115 islands, its 72 Outer Islands are undoubtedly its most remote and preserved locations.

Situated at distances ranging from 60 minutes to two and half hours away from the main island of Mah, the islands and atolls feature an abundance of marine life, pristine coastline and exotic birdlife.

Among them are UNESCO World Heritage site Aldabra, home to the largest giant tortoise population in the world, Alphonse, the first Seychelles island to become reliant on solar power and the uninhabited Cosmoledo, known for its spectacularly pristine coral reefs.

"The most unique thing about the Outer Islands is they've been frozen in time," environmentalist Keith Rose-Innes tells CNN Travel. "These islands are so inaccessible by humans and so far out that they've been left alone.

"The coral's still intact, because the atolls have very sharp drop offs and the cool water circles around them. So there's very little coral bleaching.

"The biomass of fish underneath the sea is incredible. At times if you swim 10 meters apart you can't see each other because there's so many fish. So it is really an amazing place. There's been very little human pressure over the years."

Under threat

Alphonse Atoll is one of the best preserved locations in the Outer Islands of the Seychelles.

Fiona Ayerst

But while the Outer Islands have been spared some of the "human pressure" problems faced by destinations such as Thailand, they, along with the rest of the Seychelles, are under threat nonetheless.

At present, the most significant dangers to the islands are plastic pollution, overfishing and climate change.

The money has been channeled into projects aimed at protecting marine life and tackling the impact of climate change and promised to make 30% of its national waters protected areas by the close of 2020.

After spending many years exploring the Outer Islands as a fly-fisherman, Rose-Innes says he's witnessed the effects first hand.

"Climate change is a big issue," he says. "I can see it [the difference]. For instance, we get bigger storms. The island of Farquhar experienced the most vicious cyclone ever recorded in the Indian Ocean in 2016.

"And an increase of one degree in sea temperature will mean 80% of our coral will die. Now is the time to protect these places, and use them in the right way so they can stay around for longer."

Protecting paradise

Alphonse has recorded more than 130 species of bird.

Anthony Grote

He's turned his attention to conservation in recent years as a way of "giving back" after becoming concerned about the future of the Outer Islands.

"I was known as the 'fly fisherman,'" he says. "That was my passion. But when you're walking around the islands or sitting in the boat, you're noticing all of the amazing things these atolls have to offer.

"I thought 'how do we create enough revenue to protect these places? How do we reduce the amount of fly fishing we do? The only way to do that was through ecotourism."

Blue Safari offers a number of activities and programs, such snorkeling with and photographing manta rays, birdwatching walks, turtle patrols, scuba diving, tree planting, beach cleanups, and a scuba diving excursion to collect debris from the ocean.

The accommodation available includes lodges, eco-camps, as well as eco-pods made from shipping containers.

"Every year we've seen amazing growth and more people coming," he says. "It's important to allow people to experience and see these amazing places," he adds. "This also opens up the possibility of raising funds."

While the Islands Development Company (IDC) manages 13 of the 72 Outer Islands, Blue Safari looks after four of these -- Alphonse, Astove, Cosmoledo and Farquhar.

Travelers who visit any of the islands are required to pay a $25 a day conservation charge, which is donated to its designated foundation and put towards ecological and environmental programs and initiatives.

While those who take part in the activities provided by Blue Safari are offered a unique insight into the Outer Islands through unique experiences, Rose-Innes says he and his team of over 150 also gain a lot from meeting travelers and educating them on the work that's being done.

Plastic problem

The uninhabited Cosmoledo atoll is the furthest from the mainland Mah island.

Blue Safari Seychelles

"It's an incredible opportunity," he says. "There aren't many places around the world where you're able to interact with guests, show them what you're doing and tell them how they can make a positive impact by coming on holiday."

Beach clean-ups are perhaps one of the most essential activities that visitors can take part in, if not the most thrilling.

Tons of plastic, mainly from ships, regularly washes up on the beaches of the Outer Islands and the amount is increasing every year according to Rose-Innes.

"We are picking up tons of plastic, especially after better weather on the beaches," he says. "So that's obviously quite a concerning thing."

Interestingly, flip flop sandals are among the most common plastic items that end up in the Outer Islands, along with water bottles.

"One or two of our islands get quite a big build of flip flops," Rose-Innes explains. "Funnily enough, it's mostly left side flip flops. I think it's like 10 to one left versus right."

However, Rose-Innes is hopeful that the global movement towards reducing plastic packaging will eventually reduce the amount of plastic that finds its way over to the islands.

Although the Seychelles is still seen as a far-flung beach destination by many travelers, the popularity of destinations such as Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands and Kenya has proven that there's still a huge market for these types of trips.

"Ecotourism is very important because it raises awareness for the environment," says Rose-Innes.

"If you have a guest that comes out and we take them on a beach clean-up where we pick up plastic, it's very easy for them to take that back to where they come from.

"And maybe next time there'll think twice about buying a plastic bag."

Safeguarding the future

The Blue Safari team lead a number of activities, such as beach cleanups and bird watching walks.

Melissa V.d Walt

Meanwhile, the debt-for-conservation deal has proved successful so far.

Last March, Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan announced the nation had followed through on its pledge to protect 410,000 square kilometers of its waters, an area around the size of Germany.

"By protecting these large areas we are not only safeguarding our marine environment but balancing economic growth through the management of the resources that the sea provides."

While its economy is highly dependent on the ocean and marine resources, tourism also plays a big part and numbers have been down significantly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Officials aim to vaccinate over 70% of its estimated 98,000 population by mid-March, which would make the Seychelles the first nation to vaccinate its entire population and allow restrictions to be relaxed further.

"It is really important to put in place the right protocols as tourists still want to come and spend a holiday in Seychelles."

Rose-Innes shares this sentiment, but is confident that things will improve in the coming months.

"We're hoping that by around April we'll be back to some sort of normality with regards to guests coming to the islands," he says.

"But at the moment it's very quiet. And the less people that come to the islands, the less funding we're able to raise.

"The most important thing travelers can do to support conservation is to come out and see us."

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Air Seychelles would be ahead of schedule on transformation plan if 2020 was a normal year: CEO | CAPA – CAPA – Centre for Aviation

Posted: at 7:43 pm

CAPA publishes more than 400 global News Briefs every weekday, covering all aspects of the aviation and travel industry. Its the most comprehensive source of market intelligence in the world, with around 50 per cent of content translated from non-English sources. The breadth of our coverage means you wont need any other news sources to monitor competitors and stay informed about the latest developments in the wider aviation sector.

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Its easy to keep your News Briefs relevant by customising your email alerts based on topic, region, sector, frequency and more. Once youve saved your settings, you can stay up-to-date wherever you are, by quickly scanning our News Briefs online or via the CAPA mobile app.

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Countries that will accept vaccinated travellers including Cyprus and Iceland – Mirror Online

Posted: at 7:43 pm

The coronavirus vaccine is offering up new hope for travellers, as a number of countries have revealed that they will welcome vaccinated tourists, and even exempt them from quarantine and Covid-19 testing.

Iceland, Cyprus and the Seychelles are just some of the countries whose authorities have unveiled plans to welcome back vaccinated travellers, although there is some criteria to meet.

Currently of course it is illegal for Brits to travel abroad for holidays, and the government is cracking down on rule-breakers including requiring people to provide a valid reason for travel or risk being turned away at the airport, or even being fined.

At the time of writing, a number of destinations haven't included Brits in the list of travellers they will be welcoming back, for a mixture of reasons spanning fears of a mutant coronavirus strain in the UK, to only welcoming back EU members in an initial wave.

Still, the news that vaccinated travellers will be welcome back do offer a glimmer of hope, especially for future travels when restrictions are eventually relaxed.

We take a look at the countries who've said they will welcome back vaccinated travellers - and whether Brits are included in the list.

Iceland has announced that it won't require travellers to quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 .

Current rules mean all arrivals must undergo a PCR test upon arrival followed by a 5-6 day quarantine, and then a second screening. However, the new policy means travellers with a Covid vaccination certificate won't need to undergo screenings or self-isolation .

Are Brits on the list? Not for the initial stage. Iceland is only accepting vaccine certificates that meet certain criteria including being issued in an EEA/EFTA state. As the UK has left the EU, it doesn't qualify. However, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland told the Mirror that "as soon as the UK vaccine certificates are validated by the WHO, we will be looking at whether we can accept them at our borders".

The Seychelles' tourism authorities announced earlier this year that "with immediate effect, Seychelles will be welcoming vaccinated visitors from any part of the world".

Anyone who receives the vaccination will need to wait for two weeks after receiving their second dose before they will be allowed to head to the island.

There will still be entry requirements for vaccinated visitors; you'll need to prove you've had two doses of the official vaccines, and you'll still need to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test result, taken up to 72 hours before departure.

Borders will remain closed to visitors who haven't been vaccinated, or who aren't travelling from the list of approved countries.

Are Brits on the list? At the time of writing, the Seychelles has closed its borders to anyone travelling from the UK.

Estonia has revealed that from February 1, Brits who have received the Covid-19 vaccination will no longer be required to isolate for 10 days or undergo Covid-19 tests.

The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the news in January. There will be some criteria that needs to be met though - for example, no more than six months have passed since receiving the complete vaccine.

Are Brits on the list? Yes - Brits who have received the vaccine won't need to isolate or undergo testing. You can find out more in the Foreign Office's Estonia travel advice.

Cyprus is looking to introduce a new policy where vaccinated travellers will not need to undergo current testing and quarantine rules.

Cyprus Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos revealed the plan to the Cyprus Mail. He said: "The amended action plan is expected to further boost the interest of airline companies to carry out additional flights to Cyprus, improve connectivity and increase passenger traffic."

Travellers who are not vaccinated will still need to meet Cyprus' entry requirements.

Are Brits on the list? Cyprus will continue to determine entry for travellers based on the country they're travelling from - and at the time of writing, the UK is not on this list. You can get full information on these in the Foreign Office's Cyprus travel advice.

Romania has announced that travellers who have been vaccinated against coronavirus will be exempt from measures such as quarantine.

You'll need to have received both doses of the vaccine, and arrived in Romania more than 10 days after the second dose, to qualify for the exemption.

Are Brits on the list? According to the Foreign Office, UK nationals and non-EU/EEA nationals resident in the UK are not permitted to enter Romania for non-essential purposes, due to EU-wide COVID-19 restrictions in place for third country nationals.

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BLM influencers: 10 Black Lives Matter activists on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter you should follow – USA TODAY

Posted: at 7:41 pm

BLM influencersProvided

Celebrities and scholars, best-selling authors and everyday people are using their social media presence to lead the conversation on racial justice. Here are just a few of them spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms.

TikTok culture changer

With more than 562,000 followers and nearly 40 million likes, Erynn Chambers has become one of the most popular creators raising awareness of the Black experience and anti-Black racism on TikTok.Provided

In June, Erynn Chamberswatched a TikTok video from drag queen Online Kyne, talking about how statistics are manipulated to make it appear that Black Americans are more violent.

So the 28-year-old elementary school music teacher from North Carolina opened up TikTok and addedher own commentary, in song form.

Black neighborhoods are overpoliced, so of course they have higher rates of crime. And white perpetrators are undercharged, so of course they have lower rates of crime, she sang. And all those stupid stats that you keep using are operating offa small sample size. So shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.

The video, labeled About yalls favorite statistics, blew up overnight. It was reposted again and again and has 2 million views.

It wasnt her only hit. Why is Rosa Parks the only black activist we learn about? also brought her attention as she examined how Parks came to be the face of the 1955-56 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott.

With more than 600,000 followers and 48million likes, Chambers has become one of the most important creators raising awareness of the Black experience and racism on TikTok, which has been criticized for promoting white voices over Black voices.

Chambers says shed been on TikTok for five years but spent more time watching videos than making them until the pandemic. The death of George Floyd got her to do more research into racial equity.

I never really set out for it to be this big thing, Chambers told USA TODAY. I certainly didnt expect to have a half million followers at any point in time.

Anti-racism teacher

Anti-racism activist Rachel CargleRachel Cargle

In 2017 at the Womens March in Washington, Rachel Cargle posed holdingprotest signs with friend and activist Dana Suchow in front of the U.S. Capitol. Cargles read: If You Dont Fight for All Women You Fight for No Women.

The photo went viral and so did Cargle.

An anti-racism activist and author of the upcoming book on feminism through the lens of race, I Dont Want Your Love and Light with The Dial, Cargle works outside academia as a public academic." Shetours the nation to give sold-outlectures. "The Start," for example, is a three-hour workshop on how to be an anti-racist.

"I teach from a platform from a frame of knowledge plus empathy plus action," Cargle told Cleveland 19'sSia Nyorkor."You have to have each of these things to be actively anti-racist."

Cargle also educates her followers, many of them white, on structural racism from a virtual public classroom on Instagram. Coursework includes understanding the intersecting inequalities of race, gender, class and other identities. In heronline learning collective, The Great Unlearn, supported through Patreon, students learn about race and history from historians and academicsof color.

"It's not enough to say, 'Oh, I know it's happening and I hope it gets better,'"Cargle told InStyle. "It's saying, 'I see you and I feel you and I understand, and I'm going to hold myself accountable.' That is what will move someone into action to say, 'I can no longer be complacent. I can no longer be silent. It's not enough to be not racist. I have to be actively anti-racist.'"

In her hometown of Akron, Ohio, Cargle is making a difference in the physical world witha pop-up,Elizabeths Bookshop & Writing Centre, to amplify literature"that has been written away from the pen of the white, cis, hetero man and gives us a new way to understand the world. And she's founderof the Loveland Foundation which offers free therapy to Black women and girls.

A voice ofsocial justice

John Legend plays the piano during a drive-in get out the vote rally in Philadelphia on Nov. 2.MICHAEL PEREZ, AP

Following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others at the hands of law enforcement, singer-songwriter and longtime social activist John Legend lent his soulful voice to the anti-racist struggle, offering a Twitter primer on the defund the police movement and campaigning for Florida voting rights with Camila Cabello.

And Legends Oscar-winning civil rights anthem Glory from the 2014 film Selma became part of the 2020 soundtrack when he performed it with Common in August at the virtual Democratic National Convention. For the inauguration of President Joe Biden, he gave his rendition of the Nina Simone classic"Feeling Good"in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

These killings made clear to the general public what Black folks already knew: Racism is real, it is ugly, and it is woven into the systems that govern our everyday lives, Legend said at the virtual FN Achievement Awards the Shoe Oscars in December.

With his organization #FreeAmerica, Legend is working to reform the criminal justice system and end mass incarceration.

As a teenager growing up in Ohio, I watched my mother deal with depression and drug abuse after my maternal grandmother a person who filled our whole family with lovepassed away, Legend told PEOPLE in 2016. My mothers addiction didnt just tear her life apart. It tore me and the rest of our family apart, too.

By amplifying the voices of those affected by the criminal justice system and those working to change it, #FreeAmerica is working to build thriving, just, and equitable communities, Legend says.

Artists have a rich tradition of activism. We have a unique opportunity to reach people where they are, beyond political divisions, borders, and silos, Legend said in a video recently after being recognized by the United Nations human rights agency for his social justice advocacy work. Its been my privilege to use my voice and my platform to advance the cause of equity and justice.

Actress, singer, trans lives activist

Peppermint emerged in 2020 as one of the most important voices in the Black Trans Lives Matter movement.

Tapping her following on social media, she brought greater awareness to violence against Black trans women and the broader Black trans community and to the relentless toll of racism, homophobia, misogyny and transphobia.

I think were on the precipice of some really great change, Peppermint told Entertainment Tonight. Were able to speak about race and misogyny and sexuality in a mainstream way that weve not been able to do in years past without being shunned or canceled.

Peppermint attending the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards in Newark, New Jersey.JEFF KRAVITZ, FILMMAGIC

The first trans woman to originate a leading role on Broadway in Head Over Heels, Peppermint rose to fame on RuPauls Drag Race, followed by performances on Pose, God Friended Me and Deputy.

She recently joined the national board of directors of advocacy group GLAAD and was nominated as outstanding music artist for"A Girl Like Me: Letters to My Lovers" inthe GLAAD Media Awards, which honors LGBTQ representation in media.

Im so thankful that the Black Lives Matter movement began after the murder of Trayvon Martin and continued with George Floyd, but what were not seeing is the same sort of energy when it comes to the women who have been killed: Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland and many others, Peppermint told the Guardian.

Author, activist, internet yeller

Writer Ijeoma Oluo attends the 2018 The Root 100 gala at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers on November 8, 2018, in New York City.JIM SPELLMAN, GETTY IMAGES

Ijeoma Oluo, who for years has been writing and speaking on race, saw interest in her work soar after Floyds death.Her 2018 book, So You Want to Talk about Race, catapulted her onto must-read lists.

The latest from this Seattle-based author, activist and self-described Internet yeller is a sign ofthe nations growing racial consciousness. "Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America" is about white male supremacy, which Oluocalls one of the most evil and insidious social constructs in Western history, from the violent takeover of indigenous lands and the genocide of native people to generations of trauma and loss from anti-Black racism.

The book title refers to the plea by writer Sarah Hagi in 2015: "Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.

This book illustrates clearly how this country must sustain the exploitation and oppression of Black people in order to protect white male power and white male mediocrity, Oluo told NBC News.

I want everyone who reads this book to see that we aren't just talking about a few bad dudes, we are talking about deliberately constructed identities and systems of power, she said. I want everyone to see what this costs us and to investigate how we each support these harmful norms and systems.

Writer, editor, cultural critic

Roxane Gay speaks onstage during the Hammer Museum's 17th Annual Gala In The Garden on October 12, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.PRESLEY ANN, GETTY IMAGES FOR HAMMER MUSEUM

Im a writer, editor, cultural critic, and sometimes podcaster, Roxane Gaytells USA TODAY.

And then some. Her trenchant insights on feminism, gender, race, sexuality and sexual violence have won her a large and loyal social media audience.

This year she launched a Substack newsletter, The Audacity, as well as The Audacious Book Club. Among the book clubs first picks from underrepresented American writers: Black Futures, edited by Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew; Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters; and The Removed by Brandon Hobson.

What makes her so popular is not just her searing memoir Hunger, or her best-selling nonfiction collection of essays, Bad Feminist, or her podcast, Hear to Slay. Or even that she was the first Black woman to write for Marvel Comicswith the Black Panther spinoff comic series World of Wakanda.

Shes an irresistible social media personality who also thinks and writes about fun things, as she puts it. Lighter fare includes her pop-culture likes and dislikes and adorable photos of her puppy in tiny clothing.

Then theres her inimitably good-natured shredding of critics. When one person tweeted at her Who cares what you think? she replied sweetly, You seem to care, dear heart.

Racial and economic justice activist

In June 2015, Bree Newsome Bass climbed a flagpole to remove the Confederate battle flag at a Confederate monument in front of the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C.BRUCE SMITH, AP

In June 2015, long before today's protests toppled monuments to Confederates, Bree Newsome Bassscaled a30-foot pole on the grounds of theSouth Carolina State House and removed the Confederate flag.

This nonviolent act of protest followed the massacreat Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, North Carolina. Eight Black parishioners and their pastor were killed by a white supremacist who posed with the Confederate flag.

When police ordered her down, she replied: "You come against me with hatred and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God."

In the following weeks, South Carolina removed the flag from the statehouse grounds andsome Southern states began taking down other symbols of racial oppression and terror.

Today Newsome Bass is a major figure in the struggle for racial and economic justice as an activist who organizes for housing rights. And her Twitter account is a one-woman racial injustice megaphone.

Everybody who didn't know is seeing America as it truly is right now. Can't provide resources for the pandemic but has all the resources at the ready to murder civilians in the street and teargas anyone who objects, she tweeted in May.

Anti-police brutality activist, writer, educator

Brittany Packnett Cunningham speaks onstage as Audible presents: "In Love and Struggle" at Audible's Minetta Lane Theater on February 29, 2020 in New York City.CRAIG BARRITT, GETTY IMAGES FOR AUDIBLE

In March 2015, President Barack Obama told Brittany Packnett Cunningham in a handwritten note that her voice would make a difference for years to come.

The elementary school teacher became a Ferguson Uprising activist and a member of Obamas policing task force after a white police officer killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, outside her hometown of St. Louis, in 2014.

Packnett Cunningham went on to co-found the anti-police-brutality platform Campaign Zero and the feminist media platform The Meteor and co-hosted the Pod Save The People podcast.

Whats your biggest flex of 2020? she recently asked her followers.

She had many of her own. Shes a cable news contributor, host of a new podcast, Undistracted, and a 2020 Fellow at Harvards Institute of Politics. Shes also writing a book and was on the cover of Vogue.

We want to build a group of people who are relentlessly undistracted who are focused on matters of intersectional justice, who are focused on leveraging all of their power toward that end, and who are committed to doing the work necessary, even when its difficult, Packnett Cunninghamtold W Magazine about her podcast.

Scholar, racist systems dismantler

Ibram X. Kendi visits Build to discuss the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You at Build Studio on March 10, 2020 in New York City.MICHAEL LOCCISANO, GETTY IMAGES

Less than a week after the 2016 election, Ibram X.Kendi,a 34-year-old assistant professor at the University of Florida, became the youngest author to win the National Book Award in nonfiction for Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.

Fast forward and today hes talked antiracism with Oprah Winfrey on her Apple TV+ show The Oprah Conversation and is considered one of the foremost anti-racism scholars.

The author of three New York Times bestsellers including 2019s How to be an Antiracist is not just writing about racism. As a Boston University humanities professor and founding director of that universitys Center for Antiracist Research, hes developing programs to dismantle it.

Coming out in February is Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, which he co-edited with historian Keisha Blain.

The heartbeat of racism itself has always been denial, and the sound of that heartbeat has always been Im not racist, Kendi, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor, said in a recent TED interview. What I am trying to do with my work is to really get Americans to eliminate the concept of not racist from their vocabulary and realize, were either being racist or antiracist.

Best-selling author andProject Runway judge

Elaine Welteroth speaking at the Ms. Foundation 30th Annual Gloria Awards in 2018.MONICA SCHIPPER

George Floyd died 15 days after Elaine Welteroths wedding. She married musician Jonathan Singletary on their Brooklyn stoop, then threw a virtual block party.

It felt like one week we were dancing in the streets with our neighbors, many of whom are Black families that have been on our block for decades, and the next we were in the streets protesting, the bestselling author, Project Runway producer and judge andhost of "The Talk" on CBSsaid in People magazine.

When the first protest broke out in Brooklyn I remember saying immediately, I have to be out there. There wasn't even a question, said Welteroth, author of More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are No Matter What They Say. I needed to channel my outrage and my anger and my sadness with a community of people who were in mourning and ready to fight.

A former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, the youngest ever appointed at a Cond Nast publication in 2017, Welterothused her fashion industry influence to create "The 15 Percent Pledge." It calls on major retailers to devote a minimum of 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses and to increase representation in their workforces.

"Right now, we are at an inflection point in this country, shewrote on Instagram. What you say and do in this moment will be remembered as a reflection of the value you place on human life. Let the energy and focus of your fight be directed at a system that has enabled terrorism against Black people on our soil for generations. Times Up. This is a war for human life. Which side are you on?"

Published11:37 am UTC Feb. 2, 2021Updated7:23 pm UTC Feb. 2, 2021

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BLM influencers: 10 Black Lives Matter activists on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter you should follow - USA TODAY

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Portland healthcare institutions work to build trust with BLM – Modern Healthcare

Posted: at 7:41 pm

In 2020, Portland reported the most incidents of police brutality across the nation since the start of demonstrations in May, with nearly three times as many reports compared with second-place New York City, according to 2020PoliceBrutality, an open-source project that tracks officer violence in the U.S. Even as loud activists demanded institutional change, wildfires burned across Oregon and the COVID-19 pandemic raged, with both factors disproportionately impacting minority communities.

In September 2020, wildfire smoke created the most hazardous air quality conditions the Portland area had ever experienced, resulting in an 88% surge in visits to hospitals and emergency departments by patients with asthma-like symptoms during this time.

The trifecta of emergencies has magnified the need for culturally sensitive providers conscious of the social determinants of health in the city. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, healthcare providers are rethinking how they connect with the community.

As much of a dumpster fire and awful as 2020 was, it also taught me a lot about the power of mutual aid, Krieger said. Ive never been so excited to be in street medicine and street mental health. It feels like theres possibility here.

The EWOKs represent the only street medic teams in the city integrating physical and mental health services, according to Krieger, who works as a crisis therapist and supervisor at a local not-for-profit. But the city is aiming to implement a similar service.

In June 2020, the Portland City Council voted to direct $4.8 million from the police budget to a program called Portland Street Response, which will send trained mental health providers to certain 911 calls instead of law enforcement officers.

By tending to the full spectrum of a persons health, officials hope to bridge racial health inequities in the city, said Sam Diaz, a senior policy adviser in Portland Mayor Ted Wheelers office.

In 2014, a report by Portland State University and the not-for-profit Coalition of Communities of Color found that Black families lag behind whites in the area in health outcomes and law enforcement engagement, like many areas across the country. In these instances, hospitals and healthcare systems often pay for much of the cost of treatment. A 2020 study by the American College of Surgeons found that gunshot wounds cost the U.S. healthcare system $170 billion a year, with hospitals spending $16 billion on operations alone to care for patients.

In Portland, between 2003 and 2007, Blacks were more than six times as likely to die by homicide and twice as likely to die from diabetes as whites, according to the report. Black residents in Multnomah County, where Portland is located, were more than three times as likely to be represented in the criminal justice system than the population as a whole, according to the analysis. In 2019, the countys Black residents had an average annual income of $46,500, while whites income averaged upwards of $80,000, according to U.S. Census data.

This isnt new, Diaz said. We have report after report after report showing us the data, and it continues to be unacceptable.

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How Black Lives Matter Came to the Academy – The New Yorker

Posted: at 7:41 pm

On a Saturday night in early June, Shard Davis, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut, was sitting on a couch in a rented apartment in San Diego, scrolling through her Twitter feed. She was in California to do research on a project that was funded by a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowshipplans that had been affected somewhat by COVID-19 and the widespread protests for racial justice. Davis herself had gone to a Black Lives Matter protest in La Mesa the previous weekend. The event had started out peacefully but turned ugly when California Highway Patrol officers squared off with thousands of protesters on the I-8 freeway. There were reports of bottles thrown, tear gas unleashed, arson, and looting.

A week later, after attending another protest, Davis still couldnt calm down. As she sat alone on her couch, ruminating about the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and news coverage of the La Mesa protestthe crowd had been mostly white and Latinx, she said, but the media made it seem as though Black folks were the ones destroying propertyshe felt more and more enraged.

She asked herself repeatedly, What can I do? She was already thinking about what it would look like for universities to cut ties with police departments. I think I was just drawing the very obvious connections, she said. Academia is seen as a very liberal and progressive place, but systemic racism is running through all of these different institutions.

Although she was not an avid Twitter user, Davis came up with the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory, thinking it might be a good way for Black people to share their stories about racism in her sphere of influence. Folks tout the liberal ivory tower, she told me. They hide behind it.

She texted a friend, Joy Melody Woods, a doctoral student in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, to see what she thought of the hashtag idea. I love it, Woods replied from her iPhone. Already tweeted it out. Davis followed suit, using the hashtag while retweeting a physician named Shaquita Bell: Black individuals in the United States have endured events in our everyday life without an audience or validation of our experiences.

The next morning, Davis and Woods found their notification in-boxes filled with hundreds of tweets from Black academics and graduate students, sharing their stories of exclusion and pain. By Sunday night, #BlackInTheIvory was one of the top twenty hashtags in the country. #BlackInTheIvory is being asked during your first week of college if youre sure you can handle it, many said, or being asked on campus if youre in the right place or lost. #BlackInTheIvory is having campus security constantly ask for your research-lab badge, residence-hall identification, and/or drivers license. Marc Edwards, now an assistant professor of biology at Amherst College, recalled that, in graduate school, at another institution, a dean suggested he wear a tie to class in response to incessant profiling. #BlackInTheIvory is being thrashed in student evaluations for discussing racial injustice, Danielle Clealand, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote. And my personal favorite: #BlackInTheIvory is being asked to serve on endless diversity committees and write endless diversity reports, without regard for ones labor or time, also known as the Black tax. To drive the point home, Woods and Davis posted Venmo bar codes on their Twitter feeds for anyone who might care to contribute.

The movement took off, with feature stories in Nature, The Chronicle of Higher Education, NBCNews.com, and the Boston Globe. Davis and Woods created a Web site, which sold branded merchandise and launched an effort to match Black graduate students in need with donors. Not the Diversity Hire, read the text on one coffee mug.

Youre finally seeing people opening up and sharing these experiences, Woods said. We had been feeling like we were alone.

When Woods and I spoke in June, she told me the story of her own experience as an incoming graduate student. In the fall of 2016, she was the only Black student on her track in a masters program in public health at the University of Iowa. The college had no Black faculty, and Woods said that professors made it clear that she didnt belong, that she wasnt smart enough. One professor told her directly that she didnt have the skills to be a graduate student.

I was feeling maybe I am dumb, she said. I thought I was going insane. I would just be on the floor crying.

Toward the end of her first semester, Woods tried reporting one faculty member to the universitys Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, but the complaint went nowhere. Its hard to prove microaggressions, she said. Thats why we think were going crazy.

In Woodss second semester of graduate school, a private psychologist tested her for learning disabilities. She discovered that she had three: a reading impairment, a visual-spatial processing disability, and a nonverbal learning disability. The psychologist told Woods that she didnt know how she had managed to finish high school. Yet her professors refused to provide learning accommodations, as is required by law. (In response, a spokesperson from the college said that we have made progress since 2016, but it is not enough. We are determined to do better.)

So she left. Walked right across the bridge, as she put it, transferring to the College of Education, where she found three Black professors, an Asian-American adviser, and far more Black students in her classes. I was never the only anymore, she said. The course readings also featured more diverse authors, and, because they explicitly addressed issues of inequality, it was easier to have open conversations about racism. In her new program, Woods completed a masters degree in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies with an emphasis on the sociology of education.

But, in many ways, Woods is an exception. Both of her parents have bachelors degrees in electrical engineering, and her two older sisters have graduate degrees in medicine and science. Many other Black students leave graduate programs in despair, but Woods felt that her family simply wouldnt accept her defeat.

She persisted, but her education came at a cost. These experiences are traumatic, Woods said. They can be isolating and emotionally battering. The problem of being the first and the only Black person in any institution is that being alone makes it much easier for white majorities to dismiss ones perceptions.

As a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I experienced the same isolation and resentment that Black women are now once again shouting about from their Twitter-feed rooftops. I know all too well what #BlackInTheIvory is about. I was already writing about my time in graduate school when I came across the hashtag. It took a moment for its meaning to sink in. For so long, I had recalled my experiences in isolation, pushing them to the corners of my memory and doing my best to make them small. #BlackInTheIvory reminded me that, like Woods, I wasnt alone.

In 1988, I was the first Black woman to enroll in my Ph.D. program in ten years. I was there, really, only because my undergraduate mentor, Elliott Butler-Evans, a Black professor in English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, had insisted on it. He had attended the program and received his own Ph.D. there, some years earlier. He told me about the dearth of Black women with tenure in the U.C. system. In his eyes, getting a doctorate was my civic duty. So I went to graduate school.

There were seven incoming students at the history-of-consciousness program at U.C. Santa Cruz that year: five white men and women, me, and a Chicano from Los Angeles named Raul. One afternoon, the conversation in our first-year seminar turned to race.

Our professors for the seminar, Donna Haraway and Jim Clifford, were two of the most formidable minds I had ever met. The conversation was stimulating, as I recall. Something about how racial meaning is socially constructed, perhaps, rather than strictly biological. I was only just beginning to wrap my head around post-structuralism and theory, and the concepts were still fresh and new. But it soon became apparent that a young woman in our cohort was becoming agitated. Ill call her Mary. She shifted in her seat as though biting her tongue.

Its just that Im Italian-American and... I get really tan in the summer, Mary said. She paused, searching the room. It seemed that no one had a clue what she was getting at. Raul and I exchanged confused looks, waiting for her to complete her thought.

I mean, I get even darker than her, she said, crooking her chin in my direction. And thats when she hit me with it. So... I dont understand, why does she get to be Black?

I wish I could say that anyone had a good response to what Mary had said. If they did, I dont recall. I remember only the silence.

I was isolated in a program in which not a single student or faculty member looked like me, or my mother, or my grandmother, or anyone in my family. All around me were hippie-like surfer students, white kids who found it perfectly acceptable to walk the woodsy paths barefoot on a warm day, or to wear their straight hair in clumped mats. For so many of them, college was an inevitable part of growing up. They treated the privilege with a certain casualness that I, as a first-generation student, did not share.

And, although I didnt think of it that way at the time, I crossed a bridge that year in search of bolstering, just like Joy Woods. I made my way across campus, over to Kresge College, where I found the writer Gloria Anzalda working on a doctorate in literature. Gloria called herself a Chicana-Mexicana-mestiza. She had edited a seminal book for Black and brown feminists, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, that was mandatory reading in womens-studies courses across the country. I also found Ekua Omosupe, an African-American single mom from Mississippi. We three became friends. I was no longer alone.

Im putting together another anthology, Gloria told me one day, and I was wondering if you have any essays or poems youd like to contribute? She did that thing which is so often missing from our lives as Black scholars and academics. Nurturing.

It doesnt have to be polished. Just send me what you have. My essay, which I called Light-Skinnedded Naps, appeared in Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras the next year. It was my first published piece of writing. I was twenty-three years old.

Not long afterward, the literature department brought the novelists Toni Cade Bambara and Buchi Emecheta to campus, as distinguished visiting professors, and my life changed again. I became their teaching assistant, crossing campus regularly to commune with my newfound Black community.

One day, after class, I walked with Toni back to her office. The day was bright and impossibly bluewhich made her next words seem incongruous. She pulled a small AM radio from her pocket. Always carry a short-wave radio, she told me. For when the revolution comes. I loved her commitment to revolutionary ideas, and to Black people, and to me.

I plopped myself down in a chair in her office, continuing our conversation. Mostly, I was hungry for her affirmation, which she gave freely. Years later, I found an old cassette tape of an interview she gave for my dissertation, on nationalist desire in Black television, film, and literature. Playing it back, I was mortified to discover that I had done most of the talking. Toni listened patiently, offering mm-hmms in all the right places.

With Buchi, a Nigerian novelist, one day in particular stands out in my memory. She stood before a class of white students, pausing to survey a Douglas fir outside the window.

For you, the trees and the forest are very beautiful, she said. Beau-ti-ful, she repeated, enunciating each syllable with her thick, British accent. But for me I see something more in the forests.

Uh-oh. I surveyed the room, sensing what was coming.

I see fear and danger. She pronounced this last word dan-jah, allowing it to linger in the coffee-scented air for a beat or two. You just dont know who might be behind those trees. The class considered her words in silence. She was right, and they knew it, although I doubt that a Black person had ever said this to them before in quite that way.

And, if something happens, well, then... Im just another Black woman gone. I wouldnt even get two sentences in the newspaper. Buchi paused, allowing students to sit with their discomfort awhile. One rustled papers. Another crossed and uncrossed her legs.

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Nonprofit barred for supporting Black Lives Matter may be allowed back in Maine jail – Press Herald

Posted: at 7:41 pm

ELLSWORTH A nonprofit that helps inmates recover from substance abuse could be allowed back in the Hancock County Jail starting Friday, seven months after the agency lost access over its support for Black Lives Matter.

County Commissioner Bill Clark, Healthy Acadia Executive Director Elsie Flemings and Sheriff Scott Kane met Monday morning.

Clark said Monday afternoon that as a result of Monday mornings meeting, a memorandum agreement is being drafted and should be finalized by Friday.

Sheriff Kane canceled the contract after Healthy Acadia issued a June 10, 2020, statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Kane disagreed with allowing an organization in the jail that supports a movement that he says wants to harm law enforcement.

The Hancock County Commissioners met Saturday evening via Zoom, an online meeting platform.

Fleming reached out to me and weve set a date 9 oclock on Monday morning, that if we can get an agreement, she can start recovery coaching immediately, Clark said Saturday. Im confident we will have recovery coaching by the end of the day [Monday].

Commissioner Paul Paradis said he had talked to the sheriff earlier Saturday. He was a perfect gentleman, Paradis said.

Kane will be making a public statement at beginning of the commissioners meeting, on Tuesday [Feb. 2], said Paradis.Iview this as very positive and I want to thank the sheriff, Elsie Flemings and Chairman Clark for the work in re-establishing recovery coaching.

Recovery coaches, according to Flemings, provide an opportunity for inmates to develop an action plan for their release as well as work on their recovery.

The organization posted statements last summer supporting Black Lives Matter and the racial justice movement and criticizing racism and police brutality. Kane characterized the movement as seeking to harm police.

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How the Radical Graphic Design of the Black Panthers Influences the Movement for Black Lives – HarpersBAZAAR.com

Posted: at 7:41 pm

Vanessa Newman can remember exactly where they were when they first saw Emory Douglass work. They remember the sound of '60s jazz vinyls playing before heading to the grocery store with their dadan embodiment of their love for Black people as a Black queer kid navigating the world. Douglas's work was integral to the music and, really, every day of their childhood.

A revolutionary artist and the former minister of culture for the Black Panther Party, Emory Douglas was a formerly incarcerated youth who fell in love with graphic design in trade school and after attending San Francisco City College connected with the likes of party cofounder Bobby Seale. Together, they created The Black Panther in 1967, the newspaper reaching its peak with a 200,000+ weekly circulation. Also a living vessel of Black radical history and visioning, Douglas used printmaking and graphic design to best articulate the Black liberatory politics of the Black Panther Party via comics, illustrations, and visual propaganda.

Its fitting that Newman was so drawn to Douglas's work. This current iteration of young Black queer people building a new visual statement through the Movement for Black Lives looks to the Black Panther Party as a starting point. Designers like Newman and Fresco Steez, the former minister of culture at BYP100, uses the poetics of adornment, a clarity of political values, and a hunger for a new world that many deem impossible. These designers are melding together past, future, and current realities to make revolution irresistible. Douglas and his work have provided the blueprint for that liberatory design.

Joe AmonGetty Images

Anyone dedicated to a future that requires Black liberation must use all the tools available to make the fight visually, linguistically, and spiritually appealing to those invested in their own freedom. As Douglas stated in 1967 of his mission in helping to create the Panthers' newspaper, also with Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, "We were creating a culture, a culture of resistance, a culture of defiance and self-determination."

Like Newman, Steez is a designer dedicated to creating the visual language of this social moment. Born in Chicago, the community organizer is deeply involved with BYP100, a chapter-based organization founded in 2013 in response to George Zimmermans acquittal. Dedicated to advancing the Black communitys economic, social, political, and educational freedoms, BYP100 sees the future through a Black queer feminist lens. Throughout her time there, she designed all the merchandise for the organization, from hockey jerseys donning Lucille Clifton quotes to "Unapologetically Black" T-shirts inspired by Kanye Wests GOOD Friday music drops.

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Steez is also the former lead digital strategist at the Movement for Black Lives (or M4BL), where she recently designed bomber jackets, sweatsuits, and full regalia for fellows that speak to the continued defunding of the police campaign work. Further, she is currently working with Levis for its Black History Month capsule due out this month.

Steez began her design work at BYP100 as a reflection of two vital aspects of her life: community organizing and hip-hop. She thinks critically about what hip-hop culture means for organizing internally and externally. As a teenager doing organizing work, I was required to study the five elements of hip-hop (tagging, beatboxing, break dancing, emceeing, deejaying) and streetwear culture. And while we know that streetwear culture is Black culture, it has been commodified by all different identities of folks in order to build profit. This exploitation is compounded by luxury brands at the expense of Black and third-world people.

Steezs mother, Sheila Rollins, was a teacher by trade and matriarch of design by craft in Chicago. Steez follows a legacy of Black feminist ingenuity that keeps her rooted in the liberatory needs of Black people. My early understanding of how Black folks use visuals, fashion, aesthetics as a culture to resist poverty; to say, 'Despite the conditions we live in in this country, were gonna adorn ourselves in ways that glorify our experiences,'" Steez says. "We know that our clothes can be a vision for what our lives can be around beauty and around the full and expansive life that we deserve.

She continues, The thing that has inspired me in all the work that I do are the political histories and movements. What were the visuals? What was the culture behind them that was intentional? What gave them a visual identity to the community that they were working within?

The type of intentionality and care that Steez puts into her work is a deep nod to Douglas's work in developing a visual culture for the Black Panthers. As the party grew in notoriety and political acclaim in the late '60s, so did the surveillance of its leadership, namely the creation of COINTELPRO, a counterintelligence program focused on monitoring and dismantling the radical organizing work of the Black Panther Party by the federal government. These acts of intentional upheaval through COINTELPRO included everything from disrupting newspaper distribution to destroying the childrens breakfast program. These tactics of destruction are still ever present in the FBI's more recent creation of the Black Identity Extremists designation and the policing of Black activists across the country amid protests against police violence. The legacy of the suppression of Black liberatory struggle continues to this day.

We know that our clothes can be a vision for what our lives can be around beauty and around the full and expansive life that we deserve.

There is a cold eye of intimidation being used now to quell the fight for Black liberationa similar intimidation that killed and nearly wiped out the Black Panther Partybecause of the radicalization power that can happen with visual art. At the height of the uprisings this summer, there was a need for personal protective equipment, or PPE, which many didnt know how to fill. Steez and the digital team at M4BL knew that they could show up and keep people safe with masks, while also getting their bold statement across. These are new conditions to be organizing under, so we really thought about what piece actually supports their organizing work and clearly articulates their values, and the most relevant canvas in this moment was the face mask.

M4BL began sending out needed PPE to activists on the ground in seven major cities during the peak of the George Floyd uprisings, in early June. Masks with the phrases, Stop Killing Black People and Defund Police, were sent out nationwide. However, after shipping the masks, Steez was told that they allegedly had been seized by the federal government and were delayed until further notice. It wasnt until Steez and M4BL took to social media to spread awareness of the supposed PPE steal that the masks were returned to them.

If you have the grounds to seize these masks, then what grounds do you have to seize me? Right, in all seriousness.

The bold black-and-yellow masks were everywhere during the protests. Representative Ilhan Omar was seen wearing one, and former president Barack Obama even reposted an image of the masks on social media. But Steez is remaining focused on her core values of creating political timepieces that have clear principles.

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Like Steez, Newman is dedicated to tracing the connection between the history and principles of design to organized movements. As head of product at Somewhere Good, a digital platform from the same team behind Ethels Club, they are dedicated to creating a social media app that prioritizes a new way of being online.

Newman credits their precision in graphic design and the ability to gain access to resources to the strength of community organizing. I began to see that space making and community organizing are all design systems. Most of the Internet is not meant to build community; it was built to monetize people, they say. "The past two years of building brands, dreaming of flyers, and getting into the nerdiest details of typography always come back to finding what's been lost. I feel like Im always trying to reclaim a history that already exists.

The biggest lesson in a year of isolation has been that the vision for liberation is a collective work. In the midst of the months-long protests over the summer, Newman along with other Black designers began Design to Divest, "a Black-led collective of designers, artists, technologists, and strategists designing equitable futures by divesting from inequitable institutions," as stated on its website.

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However, Newman has no illusions about the visceral labor of dreaming. When youre Black and queer, you have to always be imagining. Explaining further, Newman says, I protect my brain at all costs. How do you do that in this world where you are supposed to stay disconnected from yourself, from your body, and from this world. All of these things are designed to distract us from our imagination.

Radical graphic design, whether it be through merchandise or visual aesthetics, has always been about writing a love letter to marginalized peopleto say without words or dialogue who you are, what you stand for, and how you are showing up for the next fight. It is a call to action after a year of grief and surface-level platitudes. Because of this struggle, Black queer designers like Steez and Newman are dreaming of what our movements must look like for a better world that many refuse to see.

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