Writing Our Way toward Justice

SUNY Potsdam Writers’ Block Statement on Racism and Peer Tutoring of Writing Draft in progress; please check back. As of August 24, 2020 Actions must match words. In this statement I strive to articulate the values behind our writing center work as well as goals we can and should realistically achieve.  As director of the Writers’ Block, I know that Black Lives Matter and Black literacies matter. I grieve the loss of Black lives to police violence and the stress and fear that racial violence imposes on people of color. I am committed to doing more to challenge racism. I also grieve the loss of Indigenous people’s lives and Latinx people’s lives to police violence, as well as people with mental illness and disabilities, who are also vulnerable to this violence and its ripple effects. We must do better to prevent such violence across our criminal justice system and to learn about the underlying forms and histories of racism that shapes our society and our cross-racial interac...

Black Lives Matter Potsdam: Supporting the North Country and Fighting for Justice Timeline of Events in Summer 2020  by Dr. John Youngblood, BLM Potsdam Organizing Committee Co-chair Draft, August 16, 2020. Italics indicates links to news stories.   Sunday, May 31: First BLM Potsdam protest. 100 people gather at Potsdam Post Office and take a knee. Black community members, led by local Black teens, share their stories of some of their experiences of racism. Sunday, May 31 : SUNY Potsdam University Police Facebook page posts a Blue Lives meme. Students and others immediately begin to demand an explanation. UP removed the post and posted two acknowledgements. SUNY Potsdam President Esterberg sent out “Standing Together for Justice,” an email acknowledging the “painful [and] unequivocably unacceptable” tragedy of George Floyd’s death, as well as the UP Facebook post; she announced a campus virtual town hall to discuss it. On Tuesday, July 21, President Esterberg sent out “Workin...

Writing Our Way Toward Justice: A Black Lives Matter Writing Contest and Blog   for SUNY Potsdam Students    New d eadline : Monday, October 12 at 11 p. m.     Nine cash prizes are available.   SUNY Potsdam Students, how do you respond to the Black Lives Matter movement? How could you best impact our shared future to achieve the goals of racial justice in the U.S.? Please share your short writing on one of the prompts listed below. We will publish a number of your writings in a public blog. We hope to invite responses to your writing from the student community and to share videorecorded readings of some pieces. Eligible writers:  We welcome writing from  SUNY Potsdam students  of all identities and backgrounds, whether racial, national, linguistic, gender, class, and/or abilities. Nine Cash Prizes:  Our panel will choose pieces to publish and will award prizes to some of those. We plan on a minimum of six $50 prizes and three $...