US Social Forum

The 3rd United States Social Forum (http://www.ussf2010.org/) took place in Detroit, Michigan from June 22nd through 26th. Baltimore KIDz CITY was there is full force -- Sarah SK, China, Sine and I were all there!

Childcare collectives from all over the country worked in the months beforehand to plan a workshop called: Building an Intergenerational Movement for Collective Liberation: the Work of Childcare Collectives Across the States and the Galaxy!
This was a historic moment (okay maybe not in the grand scheme of things, but pretty historic to us). Radical/feminist/anarchist/anti-racist/social-justice childcare collectives have never gathered in the US on that scale before (as far as we know). It was goose-bump inducing fun and fantastically facilitated. We had a brain-storm, with vision clouds, barrier lighting-bolts, tool tear drops and a river of dreams for the future. I’m getting tingly just thinking about it again.
The room was packed with people who want community and activism to be intergenerational and are doing something to make that happen. It was like hanging out with a bunch of feel-good kindergarten teachers! Below is a picture of the organizers of the workshop. The day after the workshop we gathered and made plans for staying in touch, and continuing to work together, forming the IFCC (it sounds super official and stands for Intergalactic Federation of Childcare Collectives!)



(do you notice that we attempted to be in a rainbow? Cute, right?)

Epic Meeting!

Today we (Harriet, Sine, and me: China) met at Harriet’s Blurple house. On our Agenda was:

1. Harriet report back from going to the last IDKE* Meeting

2. Sine shares about prospective childcare volunteer people she met

3. How to communicate w/ prospective members & others about events we are up to - making one email update list

4. Planning a brainstorming community gathering to talk about gender, justice, and the children’s programming.

5. That YES - our theme for the youth stage is going to be “What is a Hero?” For the two days before it we are going to be having workshops for children building up to this, with discussion, working on costumes, voice, dance, etc. to do an elementary Glee style mash-up for the Youth Stage - that everyone is invited to, and will be a good time to get all ages together and share what we have been doing with the larger conference

6. Idea for a coalition that could get together to do a workshop on racial justice for children as well as a personal discussion on race and privilege

7. Different names and ideas of creative people, artists, and organizers who we can put a call out to send something for our coloring book.

We wrote down notes, with little action points; and things were starting to come together more. AND Oh yes - we talked about the US Social Forum**, how there will be two radical childcare workshops there, and the discussions we want to have, and how we hope this is going to help us in growing our group and where we are right now, the questions we have.

Both my collective members were really excited/inspired when sharing their news. Thats good because I feel worn down (its hot and muggy in Baltimore; and I lost my job, have no money) and need some of that energy. Once again I remembered why I love this collective, I love talking about the things we do, and trying to do something about it. We haven’t been able to get together, not all three of us, much lately and had been calling this the day of the “epic” meeting. It was! We hope to move forward in different ways and keep putting things together. I’m going to try to start blogging more about our process. Sharing stories about things as they go along.

*The International Drag King Community Extravaganza (IDKE XII) asked Kidz City, at the very start of their own planning (which is the ideal way we encourage all to follow their example - reach out for childcare at the very start and don’t leave it to the end!), to join with them in creating children’s programming and coordinate childcare. This is a huge event taking place in October. We are in the brainstorming stage to create a stellar program, much the way we did with The City From Below Conference, to support youth and caretakers access to radical events as well as work on places where different issues intersect. For more info on IDKE -http://www.idkexii.com/about/main.html

**coming up soon in Detroit - http://www.ussf2010.org/

Media from City From Below

Here are some photos and videos from City From Below and a link to an article that we wrote for the Indyreader about Kidz City. Enjoy!


Whose City? Kid(z) City! Indyreader article

Some short videos of Kidz City at City From Below

"Children in the City" Presentation at City From Below by Kidz City Collective member China Martens and Regeneracion member Elliot Liu


Harriet and China are in the screenprinting workshop at Kid(z) City!


Jenny Sage leads a workshop on making rad stuff out of reused materials - backpack straps from seatbelts? Yes!

We are Kidz City Collective!

Herein lies the new blog of the Kidz City Collective! Currently formed by three members, parents and non, we are dedicated to advocating for parents and children in the radical community. Too often, we find that parents and children are driven out of radical spaces, because they're "loud," because they're "annoying," and because people "just hate kids." We say, "SCREW THAT!" In a world based on anarchist principles of mutual aid, sharing, caring and support, no one should be pushed out because they have children, especially because it is parents (and often mothers) who are in need of support by the community.

We started by organizing Kid(z) City, a radical childcare space at the City From Below conference in March 2009. Check out www.cityfrombelow.org for video of Kid(z) City. Actually, that's where the amazing picture on our header comes from! And check out http://indyreader.org for a reportback from the three of us about how we thought Kid(z) City went in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of the Baltimore Indyreader.

<3
Yours for a better, more fun, kid and parent friendly world!
Sine, Harriet and China