Hey John,
We’re one year away from our next in-person climate justice convergence, Power Shift 2023! So why are we reaching out so early? The heart of organizing work is relationships and relationships take time to build (and maintain) them intentionally. Relationships are the central part of what will make Power Shift 2023 a space of community care and learning. So let me ask you a question: who are the folks we should make sure are plugged in to our movement?.
For the climate justice movement to build power, we need kinship. Capitalism has disconnected so many of us from ourselves, from the land, and from one another. This disconnection hinders our ability to imagine a more just future, one in which we can all thrive as our full selves in right relation with our human and ecological communities. PS23 is taking place where I live in Bvlbancha (so-called New Orleans), and in Bvlbancha the root of our strength is community.
Bvlbancha Collective, an Indigenous mutual aid and medicine collective and PSN member org working in the Gulf South, is an example of the power of kinship in action: the collective is small (only five in number) but is fundamentally based in deep and broad connections of ancestral communities and queer, trans, and Indigenous liberatory ways of being. That community focus has enabled Bvlbancha Collective to have a much larger impact than if they tried to go it alone. If there’s one thing a lifetime of living in the Gulf South has taught me, it’s this: the strength of our networks and the lessons and creative adaptations our movement forebears crafted in community while doing the work is what will ultimately help us all survive and thrive during the climate crisis.
Even though last year’s convergence was virtual there were a lot of beautiful connections that sprouted between both people individually and movement spaces more broadly. Here are just a few examples folks connected with:
“I found a new program that I want to join!”
“Other artists working in movement spaces”
“The intersectionality of environmental justice and my issues”
“I admire your [PSN] attention to accessibility, and I learned some things that I intend to incorporate into trainings moving forward.”
“Was interesting to see the range of panelists and strategies to respond to climate action/environmental justice.”
What other connections should we make sure are seeded this time around?
A big part of this upcoming convergence is putting radical dream work into practice, and fostering even stronger connections. PS23 being physically rooted in the Gulf South is an opportunity to nurture our most daring aspirations alongside communities that have shown time and again the power of collective action and community care in the face of staggering odds. We want you to be part of that work to dream up what’s possible and how we can work together to get there.
We want to build spaces for all of us to thrive. Let us know who we need to bring in and how best we can help you create the cultures of care we need in this movement.
Toksa ake
Sasha Irby, Convergence Coordinator at PSN
