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ABOUT SISTERALL SisterAll renews the work of Black women as powerful and dedicated racial justice workers who brought us through the violent and oppressive days of segregation. Historically, Black women have played critical roles in moving forward the long train of justice. We have possessed extraordinary leadership skills that we developed during and after slavery under tremendously challenging circumstances. The role we traditionally played in nurturing and modeling the most humane spiritual, political, and moral vision of the Black community has been a special key for creating a sense of wholeness and connectedness for African-Americans. During the 20th century, we organized and demanded justice for ourselves and the race. We took on lynching, education, racism, segregation, sexual exploitation, unemployment, disenfranchisement, fair and decent housing, and the welfare of African-American youth. SisterAll returns us to this powerful legacy and tradition of organizing across our differences for the common good and liberation of our communities. Today, we live in a dangerous world of racism where every 36 hours, a Black man, woman, or child in the United States is murdered by a "law enforcement officer" or white person acting under color of law, and Black people of all ages are in jails and prisons as a captive cheap labor force. These and other alarming examples of racism underscore the reality that Black female leadership and collective activism are gravely in need of renewal. SisterAll gatherings celebrate and reaffirm the work of generations of Black female freedom workers. SisterAlls return us to a powerful legacy and tradition of race women organizing across our differences. Click the links below to learn more about past SisterAlls. SisterAll Three: Our Tongues Cut Loose™ (2009) SisterAll Three showcased the talents of several young black women, by way of SpiritHouse's 2009 Young Artists Series. Staceyann Chin inaugurated SisterAll Three on April 22, 2009 with readings from her new and highly-acclaimed memoir, The Other Side of Paradise. Alexis Caputo, a gifted writer and performance artist from Miami, followed her on May 7, 2009. Bettina Judd, Spelman graduate, visual artist and writer, came to Columbus in July for a reading and a week-long residency at SpiritHouse. Shontina Vernon, a talented singer, also appeared in July. Yasmeen ended the series in August, as the elder/mother medium who sang songs spanning black women's history in America. Learn More About These Artists SisterAll Two: Our Name is Our Own™ (2007) The Our Name is Our Own™ SisterAll presented women of color who are turning popular culture on its head by refusing to root our voices and images in the slanderous and long-standing stereotypes created by mainstream society. SisterAll Two: Our Name is Our Own™ was an interlocking event that weaved together a collage of individual and communal voices, which humanize women of color's lives by raising our names out of the muck and mire of mainstream popular stereotypes. Our voices, coming from authentic and diverse corners of our lives, break through the demeaning shackles and popular stereotypes of whores, mammies, immoral and amoral bitches, welfare cheats, passive love slaves, hoochie mamas, ghetto women, and angry females.
SisterAll One: I Have the Light of Freedom™ (2006) Limited to 40 women, the I Have the Light of Freedom™ SisterAll was a community-building project that called together black female scholars, activists, artists, students, workers, practitioners, and lay and ordained spiritual leaders between the ages of 18 and 35 who have worked for justice, or who felt called upon to build up a non-violent movement that advances democracy in our community and in other communities. |
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