PRESS RELEASE: BREAKING THE SILENCE – OAKLAND
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BREAKING THE SILENCE COMES TO OAKLAND A NATIONAL TOWN HALL ON GIRLS & WOMEN* OF COLOR
*Girls and women of color from across Oakland meet to share their stories and experiences with local decision-makers.
(February 15, 2016: Oakland, Calif.) On Saturday. February 27, 2016 at Impact HUB Oakland, 2323 Broadway St., Oakland, CA, an inaugural Town Hall convening takes place, Breaking The Silence, a national conversation that is ripe for this city, the epic center of social change. In an effort to continue to call attention to violence against Black women in the U.S., Impact Hub Oakland and the African American Policy Forum are hosting a town hall hearing to simultaneously elevate the stories and experiences of girls and women of color, and advance local agendas for gender inclusive racial justice.
As a part of the national series of convenings, Breaking the Silence Town Hall Oakland (BTSOAK) 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.
During a powerful day of action and restoration on February 27th, *girls and women of color will speak across a range of issues — including displacement, education, interpersonal and inter-communal violence, and criminalization — in an effort to bring the circumstances facing many women of color out of the shadows and squarely into public policy debates.
A partial list of notables that will both be attending and participating in BTSOAK are: Oakland City Council President, Lynette Gibson-McElhaney Superintendent, Oakland Unified School District, Antwan Wilson; Founder, African American Policy Forum, Kimberle Crenshaw; Oakland Housing Organizer, Causa Justa/Just Cause, Alma Blackwell; Director, Board of Education, OUSD, Jumoke Hinton-Hodge;; Chief Strategist, Women’s Foundation of California, Nikole Collins-Puri
“Breaking the Silence offers the community an opportunity to listen to how state and interpersonal violence impacts Black women and girls, and transgender folks in Oakland. We hope from these stories they are inspired to act in concert with organizations, grass roots organizers and their community to improve the conditions faced by Black folks and other communities of color in Oakland,” says by Eb. Brown, MSW, C.A.R.E. Strategies
Breaking the Silence Town Hall Oakland, also represents the conclusion of the “Conjure Circle” Series which produced over six months of artivist (artist + activist) programming highlighting the #SayHerName campaign inside of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The series has taken place in cities across the U.S., including: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago and Atlanta.
*Girls and women of color is an inclusive term reflecting all those who were assigned and/or identify as female.
BTSOAK takes place on Saturday, February 27th at Noon, ImpactHub Oakland, CA, 2323 Broadway St., Oakland, CA at Noon. For more information on BTSOAK visit: http://breakingthesilenceoak.com. Media Relations Contact: Y’Anad Burrell, Glass House Communications, yanad@glasshousepr.com ###