Season 1: Episode 11
It (Still) Takes All of Us
As rural Oregonians, we’re not new to taking care of each other in a crisis. In the midst of the fear and grief, we’re returning this month to the story of thousands of committed people who joined together across county lines and faiths. By bringing their skills and networks together, opening the doors of their religious meeting places for shelter, and pooling resources, they successfully ended a human rights crisis in rural Oregon.
It (Still) Takes All of Us, features a story from Yamhill County about the power of interfaith organizing and the successes that are possible when hundreds of people join together in a moment of crisis. This month, we follow the story of Navneet Kaur, who took action in support of asylum seekers in rural Yamhill County with her Sikh community, Innovation Law Lab, and ICE Out of Sheridan. Navneet speaks about the community mobilization that successfully pressured ICE to release people from detention.
Download this episode’s transcription here.
More on what you hear in this episode:
When she found out that people seeking asylum from across the world had been separated from their children at the US-Mexico border and sent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Sheridan, Navneet drove directly to the prison. While showing up alone didn’t work so well, she quickly began doing interfaith organizing with her temple, Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple and coordinating with lawyers from Innovation Law Lab to support people in winning their right to asylum, and forcing ICE to release everyone within six months.
Their work did not end with the release of those detained in FCI Sheridan though. Navneet helped form the Respite Network with ICE Out of Sheridan and communities of faith across the Willamette Valley and organized over 60 volunteers into the Welcome Team. Together they picked people up when they were released from detention and drove them to temples and churches to stay for the night and supported folks as they continued on their journeys and reunited with family and friends across the United States.
Do you want to form a group in your community? Check out our resources for Fostering Strong and Healthy Groups, or email office@rop.org for support.
Did you like the music in this episode? Listen to more music by The Road Sodas, and the music platform Epidemic Sound!
Rural Roots Rising is a production of the Rural Organizing Project. Thank you for listening!
Produced by the
Rural Organizing Project
www.rop.org
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Spotify
Return to Home Page
This month’s episode, Taking Risks highlights the voices of Suzanne Pharr, a renowned community organizer and movement elder, and Zachary Stocks, whose passion to make museums dynamic spaces accessible to everyone brought him into community organizing.
Find out when your local radio station is playing Fighting for Rural here and download this episode’s transcript here (link coming very soon).
More on what you heard in this episode: We begin this episode with Suzanne Pharr, a community organizer and movement leader whose decades-long career includes co-founding the Arkansas Women’s Project, and writing the books Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism and In the Time of the Right. In this episode, Suzanne shares about how the Women’s Project launched the Women’s Watchcare Network, a network of people across Arkansas who documented hate and bias crimes, Ku Klux Klan activity, and the murders of women. The Women’s Watchcare Network released reports of this collectively documented information to push the envelope and raise consciousness about the crisis of domestic violence in Arkansas and nationally. Suzanne’s work with the Women’s Project brought her to Oregon to work on the No on 9 campaign to defeat Ballot Measure 9, which would have rewritten Oregon’s Constitution to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. While the No on 9 campaign focused on defeating the measure in cities, Suzanne, Marcy Westerling, Scot Nakagawa, and Pat McGuire traveled across rural Oregon to meet people and see what organizing was possible, and the Rural Organizing Project was born.
In this episode, Suzanne shares the importance of the Combahee River Collective, Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Kitchen Table Press in her political coming of are in the 1970s. Follow these links to learn more about these Black theoristsYou can learn more about the Combahee River Collective and In this episode, Suzanne share the importance of the Combahee River Collective, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the Kitchen Table Press in her political coming of age in the 1970s.
This episode also features Zachary Stocks sharing being a part of the first Rural Organizing Fellowship where he created Oregon HORSE, which is short for Heritage Organizations for Rural Social Equity. Zachary traveled the state working with museums and heritage organizations to become spaces for communities to discuss the issues that matter most to the people who live there. Zachary is now the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers whose mission is to research, recognize, and commemorate the culture and heritage of African Americans in the State of Oregon.
If you are interested in connecting with rural Oregonians to start your own group, check out Rural Organizing Project, or reach out to us at office@rop.org for direct support. To learn more about Rural Organizing Project (ROP) and how you can get involved, check out www.rop.org.
Did you like the music in this episode? We featured music from Sweet Honey in the Rock, Trouvaille, and The Road Sodas. Please support these artists!
Rural Roots Rising is a production of the Rural Organizing Project, a network of more than 65 groups across Oregon who organize for human dignity and advance democracy. Additional support for the creation of the episode came from Brenda Flores. Thank you for listening!
This month’s episode, Taking Risks highlights the voices of Suzanne Pharr, a renowned community organizer and movement elder, and Zachary Stocks, whose passion to make museums dynamic spaces accessible to everyone brought him into community organizing.
Find out when your local radio station is playing Fighting for Rural here and download this episode’s transcript here (link coming very soon).
More on what you heard in this episode: We begin this episode with Suzanne Pharr, a community organizer and movement leader whose decades-long career includes co-founding the Arkansas Women’s Project, and writing the books Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism and In the Time of the Right. In this episode, Suzanne shares about how the Women’s Project launched the Women’s Watchcare Network, a network of people across Arkansas who documented hate and bias crimes, Ku Klux Klan activity, and the murders of women. The Women’s Watchcare Network released reports of this collectively documented information to push the envelope and raise consciousness about the crisis of domestic violence in Arkansas and nationally. Suzanne’s work with the Women’s Project brought her to Oregon to work on the No on 9 campaign to defeat Ballot Measure 9, which would have rewritten Oregon’s Constitution to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. While the No on 9 campaign focused on defeating the measure in cities, Suzanne, Marcy Westerling, Scot Nakagawa, and Pat McGuire traveled across rural Oregon to meet people and see what organizing was possible, and the Rural Organizing Project was born.
In this episode, Suzanne shares the importance of the Combahee River Collective, Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Kitchen Table Press in her political coming of are in the 1970s. Follow these links to learn more about these Black theoristsYou can learn more about the Combahee River Collective and In this episode, Suzanne share the importance of the Combahee River Collective, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the Kitchen Table Press in her political coming of age in the 1970s.
This episode also features Zachary Stocks sharing being a part of the first Rural Organizing Fellowship where he created Oregon HORSE, which is short for Heritage Organizations for Rural Social Equity. Zachary traveled the state working with museums and heritage organizations to become spaces for communities to discuss the issues that matter most to the people who live there. Zachary is now the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers whose mission is to research, recognize, and commemorate the culture and heritage of African Americans in the State of Oregon.
If you are interested in connecting with rural Oregonians to start your own group, check out Rural Organizing Project, or reach out to us at office@rop.org for direct support. To learn more about Rural Organizing Project (ROP) and how you can get involved, check out www.rop.org.
Did you like the music in this episode? We featured music from Sweet Honey in the Rock, Trouvaille, and The Road Sodas. Please support these artists!
Rural Roots Rising is a production of the Rural Organizing Project, a network of more than 65 groups across Oregon who organize for human dignity and advance democracy. Additional support for the creation of the episode came from Brenda Flores. Thank you for listening!
This month’s episode, Taking Risks highlights the voices of Suzanne Pharr, a renowned community organizer and movement elder, and Zachary Stocks, whose passion to make museums dynamic spaces accessible to everyone brought him into community organizing.
Find out when your local radio station is playing Fighting for Rural here and download this episode’s transcript here (link coming very soon).
More on what you heard in this episode: We begin this episode with Suzanne Pharr, a community organizer and movement leader whose decades-long career includes co-founding the Arkansas Women’s Project, and writing the books Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism and In the Time of the Right. In this episode, Suzanne shares about how the Women’s Project launched the Women’s Watchcare Network, a network of people across Arkansas who documented hate and bias crimes, Ku Klux Klan activity, and the murders of women. The Women’s Watchcare Network released reports of this collectively documented information to push the envelope and raise consciousness about the crisis of domestic violence in Arkansas and nationally. Suzanne’s work with the Women’s Project brought her to Oregon to work on the No on 9 campaign to defeat Ballot Measure 9, which would have rewritten Oregon’s Constitution to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. While the No on 9 campaign focused on defeating the measure in cities, Suzanne, Marcy Westerling, Scot Nakagawa, and Pat McGuire traveled across rural Oregon to meet people and see what organizing was possible, and the Rural Organizing Project was born.
In this episode, Suzanne shares the importance of the Combahee River Collective, Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Kitchen Table Press in her political coming of are in the 1970s. Follow these links to learn more about these Black theoristsYou can learn more about the Combahee River Collective and In this episode, Suzanne share the importance of the Combahee River Collective, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the Kitchen Table Press in her political coming of age in the 1970s.
This episode also features Zachary Stocks sharing being a part of the first Rural Organizing Fellowship where he created Oregon HORSE, which is short for Heritage Organizations for Rural Social Equity. Zachary traveled the state working with museums and heritage organizations to become spaces for communities to discuss the issues that matter most to the people who live there. Zachary is now the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers whose mission is to research, recognize, and commemorate the culture and heritage of African Americans in the State of Oregon.
If you are interested in connecting with rural Oregonians to start your own group, check out Rural Organizing Project, or reach out to us at office@rop.org for direct support. To learn more about Rural Organizing Project (ROP) and how you can get involved, check out www.rop.org.
Did you like the music in this episode? We featured music from Sweet Honey in the Rock, Trouvaille, and The Road Sodas. Please support these artists!
Rural Roots Rising is a production of the Rural Organizing Project, a network of more than 65 groups across Oregon who organize for human dignity and advance democracy. Additional support for the creation of the episode came from Brenda Flores. Thank you for listening!