SPARK's Youth and RJ Program presents...  

REVOLUTIONARY REEL!

Tuesday May 19th from 6-8pm

at Youth Pride!www.youthpride.org

1017 Edgewood Ave. ATL 30307

One block from the Inman Park/Reynolds Town Marta Station

Join us for a delicious free dinner and screening of 2 GREAT FILMS about youth in Texas and Savannah, GA organizing for (comprehensive) sexual and sexuality education in their schools!

and after the films...

Let's Talk About Sex!

*Does Your School Have an Abstinence-Only or
Abstinence Until Marriage Policy?

*Are You Lesbian, Bi, Trans, Gay, Queer or Questioning& Can’t Find Sex Ed Info That Makes Sense for You or Your Community?

*What Do We Need To Make Change?
What can we do about it?!

Young people all over are rising up,
leading & fighting for rights,
respect & resources.

(this is an all ages event! Friends and Allies of gay, lesbian, bi, trans, queer and question youth are also welcome)

So we know how much food to get, PLEASE RSVP! by MAY 18TH by emailing or calling gabriel at: gabriel@sparkrj.org or 404.423.4015

SPREAD THE WORD!! 

Question: What are YOU doing with your summer???
Answer: Gettin involved this with the Youth & Reproductive Justice Program's Youth Facilitation Team!

SPARK's Youth & Reproductive Program is HIRING!
Up to 5 PAID positions for lesbian, bi, trans, gay, queer, questioning and same gender lovin folks who are 24 and under.

The application is due by 5pm Tuesday, May 26th.  Please contact Gabriel at: gabriel@sparkrj.org or 404.423.4015 with questions or if you need assistance filing out the application.

Click Here To View The YRJ Job Description and Application

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Hey YRJ Friends & Family!!!

Warmly,

Kate and Gabriel

Youth Reproductive Justice Program Co-Directors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alcMRlvyXd4

Excited to see you Oct. 2nd!!  http://swc2008.eventbrite.com

Dear SPARK Family and Friends,

It is with the greatest of pleasure that as the newest staff members at SPARK Reproductive Justice Now, we say hello and would like to introduce ourselves!

Kate Shapiro is happy to be home.  She is a privileged white anti-zionist jew queer.  Kate is a youth worker and community organizer based out of Atlanta GA who works closely with a number of local and regional movement organizations (including Project South, S.O.N.G, The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond and the GA Citizens Coalition on Hunger).  She is passionate about cultural work and healing work as integral to building sustained movement and was one of the lead local organizers for the USSF. Currently she is the Education Coordinator for the Beehive Design Collective's.  Kate has been doing anti-racism work with white folks for the last five years and is currently building off momentum from the visionary Children's Social Forum by starting an ATL Childcare Collective. The Childcare Collective provides an opportunity to not only continue to build local infrastructure but deepen political dialogue and action around building intergenerational movements led by families, parents and guardians living at the intersections of multiple oppressions …..and the wisdom and genius of young people.  Additionally, Kate is honoured to be building with Kindred: a southern healer's justice collaborative as a member of the Vision and Strategies council.

Gabriel Foster is a queer, black, trans, momma's boy who recently relocated to Atlanta to work for SPARK! Before venturing to Georgia, He worked in Philadelphia at the Leeway Foundation supporting women and trans people creating art and social change.  Prior to crossing the country in his resurrected-from-the-dead Honda (mattress strapped to the hood and all!), he lived in Seattle working as a staff member at the Northwest Network of bisexual, trans, lesbian & gay survivors of abuse helping to create their youth programming. From age fifteen to twenty six he went from a program constituent to program staff in the American Friends Service Committee's GLBTQ Youth Program. Gabriel is a believer in supporting youth leadership, connecting the intersections of oppression and finding new ways to collaborate and communicate in creative, out of the box ways. He is elated and SO ready to be working alongside and for Southern communities!!!

Both Kate and Gabriel are so excited, honoured, humbled to be working here and building a Youth and Reproductive Justice Program with you, the community.  As we settle in here at SPARK we look forward to working in collaboration with and taking leadership primarily from young people, local communities and partner organizations so that we may build a long term program that addresses both the immediate needs of young people while working to shift power in a long-term way. 

SPARK sees young people and their lived experience central to building a movement. With our youth work we envision working with youth leaders and cultivating new youth leadership. Through discussions, art making, skill shares, healing and growing together, we will build politically conscious leadership to create the tools essential to directly confronting all forms of reproductive oppression.

Over the next several months we will begin engaging in an in depth process to build the foundation for a reproductive youth movement here at SPARK. We hope that you will join us in our excitement for all that is to come. 

Please visit our website (www.sparkrj.org) for Youth Reproductive Justice Program updates, additional information about SPARK or to find out how you can support our work by giving or become involved.

We look forward to working with you!

Warmly,

The Youth Reproductive Justice Staff

Sex, Wine, and Chocolate:

Telling Our Truths, Taking Off Our Masks

A Fundraiser for SPARK Reproductive Justice Now and Project South

http://swc2008.eventbrite.com

Join us on October 2nd for a sensual night free of sexual oppression.  Celebrate your authentic self at our anti-masquerade ball with live performances, delectable desserts, fabulous prizes, and more!

Doors open at 7pm.  Show begins at 8pm.

Advanced Tickets (before Oct. 2): $20

Tickets at the Door: $25

No one will be turned away for lack of funds, sliding scale tickets only accepted at the door.

BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY: http://swc2008.eventbrite.com

Can't make it? Donate a ticket! You do not have to be present to win prizes!

Contact mia@sparkrj.org or call 404-532-0022 for more information and check http://swc2008.eventbrite.com  for the latest updates!

 

Visit  www.sparkrj.org and www.projectsouth.org

PRESS CONFERENCE: SisterSong, SisterLove and SPARK defend Women of Color's Right to Abortion

Atlanta, GA – Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, SisterLove and SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW will stand with leaders from the Atlanta community to denounce Operation Rescue/Operation Save America at Sistersong's national headquarters, MONDAY, July 14, 2008 at 9:00am. Sistersong, SisterLove and SPARK will stand with women of the civil rights community, religious leaders, and medical professionals to affirm women of color's right to abortion and the need for reproductive justice for everyone.

Operation Save America (OSA), a radical right to life (anti-choice) organization, is hosting a National event from July 12-19 in Atlanta to protest abortion clinics and target Black women and their families as perpetrators of black genocide". Their racially charged outreach, including a mailer reaching 8,000 people in the metro Atlanta area, strategically invokes and misuses words and ideas from the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to affirm the rights of individuals, not deprive individuals of rights.

Janis Mathis of Rainbow PUSH, Helen Butler of Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and Dr. C.T. Vivian, longtime Civil Rights leader are scheduled to speak.

WHAT: Press Conference denouncing Operation Save America

WHEN: MONDAY, July 14, 2008, 9:00 a.m.

WHERE: Sistersong National Headquarters, 1237 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., SW, Atlanta, GA 30312 (404-756-2680)

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WEEK'S CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Women of Color Demand Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America

By SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective

The week of July 12-19 2008, Operation Save America, a violent anti-choice and racist organization, will fill the city of Atlanta with their message of hate and terror.
During this time we call on women of color, our allies and reproductive justice and social justice activists to Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America.

As leaders, mothers, partners, students, and beyond women of color are faced with intricate realities that shape our lives. For all of us that reality includes making decisions about our bodies, our lives, and our communities. For some of us that means we choose abortion. We unapologetically support women of color as creators of their own futures and, in creating our paths of autonomy support women's access to safe and legal abortion. Our struggle for abortion access is anchored in our belief in reproductive justice or the complete economic, physical, social, and political well-being and power to make the best decision for our bodies, our families, and our communities.

Abortion has always been a part of our lives. As healers, midwives, enslaved, free, colonized, and imprisoned people, women of color have and continue to create a story of resilience and resistance in which abortion, parenting, adoption, foster care and beyond have all played a part. We will not allow Operation Save America to reduce our lives into a simplistic sound bite that points the finger solely at abortion and not at the impact of war, poor education and healthcare to name a few. We resist our stories and our legacies being co-opted by this group. We denounce images of our children used as tokens by a mostly White group to justify their cause.

Operation Save America continues to play on a history of shaming and blaming women of color. As reproductive justice advocates and activists, we recognize our choices are dictated by our circumstances; and the discussion regarding abortion requires that we talk honestly about racism, health care, education, sexuality, and poverty. OSA's presence is just another overt reign of terror felt by women of color and our communities by an organization whose membership and message aim only to point the finger without addressing the real issues that impact the lives of women of color and our families.

For this week and beyond, women of color and our allies unite to say NO to OSA. Calling on the prophetic traditions of the Black church, civil rights movement, and our women of color's historical commitment to freedom and liberation, we have a firm understanding that fight for our bodily autonomy, the safety of our communities, and the demise of oppression and exploitation requires that everyone Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America.

For more info and a calendar of events for the week, please visit www.sparkrj.org.