As I’ve been trying to pivot to provide you with some sense of normalcy to bring us all together as we are forced to be apart, there is no sense of normalcy anymore. There is the need to feel this, to act, to show support, to come together to form a new reality and to force this country to change the social fabric that we have been accepting for way too long.

Decide what you feel led to do. Find the best way to memorialize, to speak out and to show your city and country that this is unacceptable. But make sure you do something and feel something. This might be the most historic time we live through- so let’s actively live in it.

Here are the ways you should get involved this weekend and for the foreseeable future, until we create a future we want to live in.

Check your neighborhood for protests.

First, make sure you’re prepared.

With this 8pm curfew, cops are aggressively arresting peaceful protestors who are “violating curfew” forcing hundreds to spend the night in cramped jail cells nightly, confiscating their phones and belongings (forcing many to have their bikes inevitably stolen) and completely dismissing the threat of COVID-19. Know your rights and be prepared by reading this first. And then, let your voice be heard.

Neighborhood Protest Resources

Bushwick – @assemblywomandavila. At Maria Hernandez Park

Greenpoint – @greenpointers for info on vigil’s at McCarren Park and where to head from there.

Williamsburg – @yeswilliamsburg nightly marches leaving from McCarren.

Jamaica, Queens – at Council Member Adrienne Adam’s Office

For everything else, follow @justiceforgeorgenyc

Or use this full map of Protests for George Floyd, worldwide.

Do some research and then donate to help support the cause that speaks to you.

Support and Donate to SATC Campaign for NAACP Foundation

Black Lives Matter Prints by local artist Eva Woolridge, all proceeds go to Bail Out Funds

Make Calls for George – 612.324.4499

Donate to Breonna Taylor‘s family’s GoFundMe here.

And sign Breonna’s petition here.

Support the 15 Percent Pledge – @15percentpledge to help black-owned businesses survive

Look through this very thorough list of Racial Justice Organizations and Resources

Sign Petitions here.

Make the Call – Follow these to make calls for change.

Donate to the cause that speaks to you – blacklivesmatters/donate

Black Women’s Blueprint – Support equality and opportunity for every black woman – @blackwomensblueprint

And see so many more resources HERE and HERE.

Take a Look at your Life

What are the resources we can use to support black-owned businesses?

What are the books we can read to help us understand racism?  

Who are the activists and groups that we can follow to help change our influences and thus our conversations? Follow @mspackyetti @nowhitesaviors @soulsummitmusic @yourrightscamp @btfacollective @changethenypd

What small and big changes can we make in our lives, in our social circles, and in our everyday interactions?

Let’s listen to some of our favorite local partners on how they are speaking up and reacting to help us understand how to help. Our friends at House of Yes, The Infatuation, Nowadays, and Archestratus. Make sure that the resources we rely on are doing more to help us all move forward.

I promise to use my voice to help promote and elevate black-owned businesses and voices, and not to let this conversation end until there is change; actual change. I pledge to be a resource to help promote and protect this movement. Here is a reflective piece I wrote about our understandings of cities during times of distress and necessary unrest in an effort to capture this confusion and compassion, in so many words. And here is a list of my favorite black-owned Brooklyn businesses that (I hope) will help you show support. 

Brooklyn, let’s all try harder, together.