The Sister Circle: History, Present, Future

New Site to Go Live in April

We've been busy... our first project, a zine of our stories, called "Undefeated" is out and circulating. Join the Council at the official release party...

Undefeated: Zine Release Party

if you can't make it,
and still want to contribute,
donations can be made here:

Join us on Saturday, April 16th
at the EastSide Cultural Center
...2277 International Blvd.
...Oakland CA
...7-9:30pm

Over a year ago, a group of Oakland women activists, artists, youth workers and daughters got together as sisters with the demand to end patriarchy and misogyny in our community. We were brought together around a series of incidents and harms in our town that affected many of our lives, our sisters, and our political work. As we talked with other women, we realized that this story has been played out before. This zine is our silence broken. Come and support the official release of our zine, "Undefeated," and share your story with us, too!

"A progressive movement cannot, and will not, make the change that we need to see for our communities to thrive – if patriarchy and misogyny still exist in our organizations, our meetings, our coalitions, our friendships and our intimate relationships."

Join us for a powerful night of poetry, readings, music, local food & women of color vendors and more!

Download a copy of "Undefeated" now, or pick up limited edition, printed and bound copies of the zine at the event for $5-20 to cover the costs of printing and support our collaborative work.

Line-Up

* Where We've Come From

We are organizers, cultural workers and youth workers in Oakland. We came together around a series of incidents and harms in our community that were founded in misogyny and patriarchal practices. When we stepped back and started telling our stories, we realized that the challenge is far broader and deeper than any one incident and that we needed to organize ourselves for the long-term.

* What We're Doing

We decided to organize monthly sister circles where women in our community could connect with one another, build stronger sisterhood to prevent isolation and division, strategize to end patriarchy in our lives and in the future of our daughters and grand-daughters, and collaborate on creative action and fun projects to make this happen.

We chose to make a zine as our first project, to document the stories that have emerged from our bodies, hearts and embraces, and to create a tool that would be useful in raising consciousness and organizing in our communities. We each wrote a piece and invited other sisters to contribute their stories and join the circle, sharing our drafts and giving feedback and support through the process.

Come join us at the US Social Forum!

We are holding a national sister circle in Detroit at the 2nd US Social Forum on Friday, June 25th 3:30-5:30pm at Woodward Academy (951 Lafayette Street East) in Room 1475, to have sisters share stories around misogyny and counter-organizing in the movement and then move toward strategy and action to move toward ending patriarchy in relationships & the movement in a national way. We will share our own process of accountability and restorative justice in Oakland. We will also share our zine, hot off the presses!

Our allies, the Challenging Male Supremacy Project from New York City, will be hosting a workshop at the same time at Wayne Community College (801 W. Fort St) in Room 133: "Challenging Men, Changing Communities: Organizing for Transformative Justice and Against Male Supremacy."  

* Dreaming Future Projects

These are some of our ideas for next projects:

Holla at us if you’d like to collaborate!

E-mail us with your ideas!